shenandoah75
Active Member
As a software developer with a support background, it sure is nice to get quality support for a product. Elk delivers and after a long conversation with Leviton last night, i must say they do as well... I wanted to provide a few updates:
1) one of the buggest missunderstandings of there implementation seems to be that you were limited to the number of controllers that could control a given node/dimmer. This was mentioned my myself/herdfan in the following post as well as in some others. Frankly the doc isn't too clear either and their tech guy ackowledged this... Anyway, he explained that the limitation only applies to routing of two-way communications back to controllers. I hope i get this right, but my paraphrasing of this is that a dimmer can be controlled by an unlimited number of controllers (within the confines of the 128 device per network install), but if the dimmer must route two-way feedback back through other nodes to get to a controller which requires that info (i.e. a scene/zone), it can only do so through that limited count. The limitation doesn't apply when the controller has direct ("line of site" - not really correct term) communication with the controlled device.
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=7087
2) they are still working on software, but this will only aid in naming and such. The physical node registration must still be done via the primary controller (so apparently the first tier guy i talked to the other day was sortof correct on that). You will not be able to reorder nodes, etc through this. Interface will be via a usb stick, not the serial interface. This is actually what prompted this prior discussion. Because he quickly understood and corrected my belief that i would lose 3 controllers for all my devices right off the bat (the stick, the serial, the primary remote control). Current target appears to be Q1 next year. This stickshould also b able to update firmware, etc of the remote (provided you have a remote versioned high enough to accept it).. Mine is 1.1 and i would need a new remote and i believe reinstall my entire network if i want the functionality.
3) they are also working on a hardwire interface that will address outbuilding type scenarios better, etc. Basically two devices linked over cat5 would retransmit zwave communications between the two distant sections of the network. Right now, the recommendation is to use two seperate networks, though they were quick to ackowledge that falls short of the goal. They were also up front with me that it wouldn't be worth my time to even try to install devices in my outbuilding located 60+' from my house (both buildings of block construction).
4) i solved both of my dimming command transmission problems by excluding the zone controllers, including and reassociating them. Basically i had one virtua three way setup and a plug in lamp dimmer that would respond to on/off but not dim. Trying to dim on the controller just flashed the red LED on the locator. This resolved though i had tried to do this on one of the setups before and the exclude failed. I tried several times and was finally able to get it to go through.
5) some other general tips. If you struggle with communication in your setup, the default of -3db is usually good enough, but you can try changing to -2/-1 to see if it helps followed by network rediscovery. Luckily i didn't have to do either.
Anyway very impressed with the guy i spoke with and he was very patient with me jumping ahead of him several times in my excitement.
enjoy...
-brad
Oh and when i mentioned elk - he actually acknowledged he knew of them and the integration efforts. I don't think front line support knew of any of thise and the integration section of the website doesn't yet mention it.
1) one of the buggest missunderstandings of there implementation seems to be that you were limited to the number of controllers that could control a given node/dimmer. This was mentioned my myself/herdfan in the following post as well as in some others. Frankly the doc isn't too clear either and their tech guy ackowledged this... Anyway, he explained that the limitation only applies to routing of two-way communications back to controllers. I hope i get this right, but my paraphrasing of this is that a dimmer can be controlled by an unlimited number of controllers (within the confines of the 128 device per network install), but if the dimmer must route two-way feedback back through other nodes to get to a controller which requires that info (i.e. a scene/zone), it can only do so through that limited count. The limitation doesn't apply when the controller has direct ("line of site" - not really correct term) communication with the controlled device.
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=7087
2) they are still working on software, but this will only aid in naming and such. The physical node registration must still be done via the primary controller (so apparently the first tier guy i talked to the other day was sortof correct on that). You will not be able to reorder nodes, etc through this. Interface will be via a usb stick, not the serial interface. This is actually what prompted this prior discussion. Because he quickly understood and corrected my belief that i would lose 3 controllers for all my devices right off the bat (the stick, the serial, the primary remote control). Current target appears to be Q1 next year. This stickshould also b able to update firmware, etc of the remote (provided you have a remote versioned high enough to accept it).. Mine is 1.1 and i would need a new remote and i believe reinstall my entire network if i want the functionality.
3) they are also working on a hardwire interface that will address outbuilding type scenarios better, etc. Basically two devices linked over cat5 would retransmit zwave communications between the two distant sections of the network. Right now, the recommendation is to use two seperate networks, though they were quick to ackowledge that falls short of the goal. They were also up front with me that it wouldn't be worth my time to even try to install devices in my outbuilding located 60+' from my house (both buildings of block construction).
4) i solved both of my dimming command transmission problems by excluding the zone controllers, including and reassociating them. Basically i had one virtua three way setup and a plug in lamp dimmer that would respond to on/off but not dim. Trying to dim on the controller just flashed the red LED on the locator. This resolved though i had tried to do this on one of the setups before and the exclude failed. I tried several times and was finally able to get it to go through.
5) some other general tips. If you struggle with communication in your setup, the default of -3db is usually good enough, but you can try changing to -2/-1 to see if it helps followed by network rediscovery. Luckily i didn't have to do either.
Anyway very impressed with the guy i spoke with and he was very patient with me jumping ahead of him several times in my excitement.
enjoy...
-brad
Oh and when i mentioned elk - he actually acknowledged he knew of them and the integration efforts. I don't think front line support knew of any of thise and the integration section of the website doesn't yet mention it.
