Triple Click GE-Switch

[CABWarEagle]

I am new to HS3 (received my Hometroller Zee S2 this weekend) and have created a few events, but am stumped on this one so far.

I was wondering if there is a way to use a GE switch to turn off all the lights in the house by either triple clicking it off within a certain amount of time, say 3 seconds. I found a post about the Z-wave action to turn off all the lights so I don't have to do 20+ then statements in an event, but cannot find anything about multiple clicking a switch. For example, I would like to triple click the switch just outside my bedroom door as I go to bed or the switch next to the garage door as I leave the house and all the lights in the house would go off.

I set up a special counter and then tried setting up two events:

1. The first event was a counter that when a selected switch was pushed "off" it would increment the counter. It was then set up to wait 3 seconds and then reset the counter to 0.
2. The second event would trigger when the switch was pushed "off" and would check to see if the counter was 3 or greater, and if so, would trigger the Z-wave action to turn off all the lights.

My thinking was, the first event would run as many times as I pressed the button off and would increment the counter until the first time the event was triggered reached the 3 second mark, which would then reset the counter.
I had the first event reset the counter after 3 seconds (and not the second) because I did not want the switch to turn off all the lights after the third time the switch was pressed off regardless of how long it took.

[randy]

You may have a problem with timing. The Jasco (GE) switches do not support instant status, so you may not get reports fast enough to increment the counter within 3 seconds. It is also possible that they do not report "set" commands whenthe value does not change. You can make sure the device is logging commands, then monitor your log and see what it is doing. I'll take a look at one of my Jasco switches.

I recall that that they didn't report a "set" when the top or bottom paddle was repeatedly pressed, so I ended up having to use an On-Off-On action for my secondary control events.

[randy]

I checked a Jasco switch and they do not report repeated "set" actions.

Because the Jasco switches do not support instant status, HomeSeer and other companies have to use a workaround to get the switch's status. While I am not sure of the exact mechanism, the Jasco switches use a pseudo instant status. In essence the switch puts out an announcement that something was done at the switch, then HomeSeer instantly polls the device for status. The switch may only send out this command when it changes status. This workaround only works when the switch communicates directly with the Z-Wave controller and does not work on the slave of a three-way setup.

You will have to use something like I did, with a timer and a counter and on-off-on actions. I outlined mine in this thread.

[CABWarEagle]

Thanks. I was afraid they did not send a notification if you the switch's status didn't change. I will play around with your suggestion and see what I can come up with.

[denisl]

I tried this with my GE switch a while back and although it provided quick status, it's not instant and therefore cannot reliably be used for double/triple taps. I have a Cooper switch that does instant status and when I moved my timer event to the cooper switch it works like a charm reliably.

Here are my events that will turn on or off my driveway wing wall lights if I toggle my kitchen hall switch on or off 3 times.

[S-F]

In essence the switch puts out an announcement that something was done at the switch, then HomeSeer instantly polls the device for status.

One thing; HS3 doesn't poll the switch instantly. It waits a few seconds to poll because many switches ramp down to off and the instant polling was catching the state of the switches before they had hit 0%.

[randy]

One thing; HS3 doesn't poll the switch instantly. It waits a few seconds to poll because many switches ramp down to off and the instant polling was catching the state of the switches before they had hit 0%.

I remember the discussions about that last year. I cannot find the discussion, but I think Rich changed that so that the delay only applied to dimmer devices. I don't remember if the change broke my events and he changed it, or if the delay was only on dimmer devices. My binary Jasco devices and my on-off-on events still work. Below is my disabling motion control on some lights with on-off-on. There is about a half to one second lag between paddle press and relay operation in the Jasco devices themselve, but you can see I performed the on-off-on within two seconds after the first on, which is the timing of the event.

Mar-18 7:27:36 AM Z-Wave Device: Lighting Exercise Overhead Lights Set to ON
Mar-18 7:27:36 AM Event Event Trigger "Lighting Controls - Motion/Occupancy Exercise Lights ON Toggle"
Mar-18 7:27:36 AM Z-Wave Device: Lighting Exercise Overhead Lights Set to OFF
Mar-18 7:27:36 AM Event Event Trigger "Lighting Controls - Motion/Occupancy Exercise Lights OFF Toggle"
Mar-18 7:27:37 AM Z-Wave Device: Lighting Exercise Overhead Lights Set to ON
Mar-18 7:27:37 AM Event Event Trigger "Lighting Controls - Motion/Occupancy Exercise Lights ON Toggle"
Mar-18 7:27:38 AM Event Event Trigger "Lighting Controls - Motion/Occupancy Exercise Lights Suspend Motion Control"

To denisl, the Cooper devices only have a single paddle, so in essence the event is still on-off-on. Here is the log from a triple touch on a Cooper dimmer.

Mar-18 8:15:01 AM Z-Wave Device: Lighting Randys Office Fan Lights Set to Dim 78%
Mar-18 8:15:02 AM Z-Wave Device: Lighting Randys Office Fan Lights Set to OFF
Mar-18 8:15:03 AM Z-Wave Device: Lighting Randys Office Fan Lights Set to Dim 78%

The two Cooper binary wall switches I have would not work - they would not report rapid presses, but an older Cooper duplex outlet did.

Mar-18 8:42:48 AM Z-Wave Device: Power Control Garage West Wall Outlet Set to ON
Mar-18 8:42:48 AM Z-Wave Device: Power Control Garage West Wall Outlet Set to OFF
Mar-18 8:42:49 AM Z-Wave Device: Power Control Garage West Wall Outlet Set to ON

The Jasco dimmer will not work with an on-off-on, even if I deliberately wait two seconds between changes of status all I get is:

Mar-18 8:18:28 AM Z-Wave Device: Lighting Randys Office Table Lights Set to Dim 78%

The Jasco binary and the Jasco dimmer both have direct paths to the Z-Net.

[sparkman]

As an FYI, supposedly HS is coming out with their own branded z-wave plus switch in the next month or so. Double and triple clicks are supported with it: http://www.homeseer.com/compare-z-wa...-switches.html.

Cheers
Al

[randy]

As an FYI, supposedly HS is coming out with their own branded z-wave plus switch in the next month or so. Double an triple clicks are supported with it: http://www.homeseer.com/compare-z-wa...-switches.html.

Cheers
Al

Thanks. I missed that one. Looks like they are also going to have a dimmer
http://www.homeseer.com/compare-z-wa...-switches.html

I'll have to keep an eye out for those, I could use the double tap and triple tap features. It looks like press and hold is only on the binary, but those would be useful for bathroom exhaust fans.

[S-F]

Oh Snap! If those things operate like the GE switches I'll be all over them. I've been patiently waiting for some new instant status switches to come out. HST is going to make a killing on these switches.

[jhearty]

I bought the new Homeseer switches and the double and triple clicks work as advertised. I got 5 dimmers, 5 slaves and two relay switches; setup includes one 2-way relay, one 3-way relay, 2-way dimmers, one 3-way dimmer & one 4-way dimmer. There are other posts on other threads of folks putting them in service and everyone seems pretty happy with them.

I just posted a note on the motion control lighting thread on this clinic board about how I used the double click on and double click off functions of the new switch to manually leave the lights on or off, overriding timers & motion. Works great.

John