Z-Wave Associations

[skavan]

Despite searching 266,262 posts, I still can't wrap my head around the right way to enable z-wave associations in HS3.

Let's take a simple case:

1. A Master Dimmer Device [in my case a Cooper/Eaton 9540, but that shouldn't matter].
2. A Slave Dimmer Device [in my case a Cooper/Eaton 9542]

The master is connected to the lights. The slave isn't and communicates to the master using z-wave [I think].

One would think, all one needs to do, is go to HS3>Device>Z-Wave and create and association for each device with the other Device's ID.

When I do that, the master always works - but the slave only works every other press and Homeseer does not show the updated status of BOTH devices.

If I also link the two devices in each Device>Configuration page, then it works as expected. But, this would seem to create a dependency on HS3, that shouldn't be needed with z-wave associations.

Can anyone explain what the right way of doing this is? Ideally, without having a dependency on HS3? And what does one do in a more complex case, like a 4 way Master-Slave-Slave setup?

Confused!

[BlairG]

We have the same setup here. A dimmer on one side of the room and a slave on the other side. The slave is a companion dimmer. If you go into the zwave tab for the slave, select associations. One association should exist to homeseer, select your master dimmer, and click add.
That's all it takes with my Linear units.

[skavan]

We have the same setup here. A dimmer on one side of the room and a slave on the other side. The slave is a companion dimmer. If you go into the zwave tab for the slave, select associations. One association should exist to homeseer, select your master dimmer, and click add.
That's all it takes with my Linear units.

Does that mean you *don't* set a corresponding association on the Master (for the slave), nor do you create a HS3 Device Link on the Config page?

When I don't set an association on the Master, if I turn off/dim the lights from the master, the slave doesn't show the changes on its LED's. Presumably because the Master doesn't know to tell it. Is this not the case for you? Or perhaps your slave doesn't have LED's shoing the status of the light being controlled?

[BlairG]

Does that mean you *don't* set a corresponding association on the Master (for the slave), nor do you create a HS3 Device Link on the Config page?

When I don't set an association on the Master, if I turn off/dim the lights from the master, the slave doesn't show the changes on its LED's. Presumably because the Master doesn't know to tell it. Is this not the case for you? Or perhaps your slave doesn't have LED's shoing the status of the light being controlled?

The association is only on the slave, to the master. And the slave is only a paddle. Tap the top tells thel master to turn on to last level. Tap bottom for off. Hold top for dim up and hold bottom tells the master to dim down. The LED on the slave is ON sometimes even when the master is off. Master doesn't tell slave anything. Slave controls master. Multiple slaves could control the same master.
The link feature in configuration isn't used here. It only works with similar devices.

[skavan]

The association is only on the slave, to the master. And the slave is only a paddle. Tap the top tells thel master to turn on to last level. Tap bottom for off. Hold top for dim up and hold bottom tells the master to dim down. The LED on the slave is ON sometimes even when the master is off. Master doesn't tell slave anything. Slave controls master. Multiple slaves could control the same master.
The link feature in configuration isn't used here. It only works with similar devices.

Thanks for the fast feedback - I guess my hunt for the "right approach" continues. In my case the slave is visually indistinguishable from the master - will an led for on/off and dimmer level led's. So - having 2-way is important. One would think that all I need to do is put each others z-wave association in the system. I don't understand why I need to activate the Link Feature to get things working. Ugh. Thanks again.

s.

[fschwing]

Same Issue with Master/Remote Switch Synchronization

I've struggled with the same problem. I have the Cooper switches. When using associations, the status of the Master does not update in HomeSeer if you control the device with the remote and vice versa. The device (light) is controlled properly, but only the status of the switch that was used updates in HomeSeer. So when programming events or looking at status/controlling with HStouch, you have no way to know whether the device is really on or off. Only the last switch (master or remote) that was used to control the device has the correct status. Also, controlling dim level with the remote does not seem to update status in HomeSeer for the remote switch to show the correct dim level.

I originally set up two events for each switch pair that sets the master switch status to on/off when the remote changes to on/off. So the master is always showing the correct on/off status. Unfortunately this won't set the master switch's status dim level to the remote's dim level. Haven't figured out how to do that.

I've also tried linking which seems to keep the status somewhat in sync. The dim level still doesn't update in HomeSeer if it's adjusted with the remote switch, but at least the master will always show correctly whether the light is on or off. It just won't show the correct dim level if it's been changed from the remote switch. Only changing the dim level from the master switch updates it in HomeSeer.

I will probably leave the associations in place so that they switches will operate properly independent of HomeSeer but use linking to keep the switch status in sync in HomeSeer recognizing that the dim level may not represent the current level. Since the events don't keep the dim level of the master updated either if it is changed from the remote switch, this doesn't seem any worse.

[Bilbrey]

I know this is an old post, but I thought I would offer my success with associating Cooper Z-wave switches in HS4.

I finally got a 4 way association working with Cooper switches.
I have fought this issue for 6 years.

Recently I replaced my HomeTroller S5 running HS3 with a Zee S2 running HS4. And I was reading posts about Associations because I've never got them to work... 'reliably'.

Above, something fschwing said gave me the clue to making a multi way association in HomeSeer work (reasonably) reliably.

In my example I have four Cooper Aspire RF9501 Z-Wave switches.
- Clock (because it is under the clock)
- Brett's side (of the bed)
- Ann's side (of the bed)
- Backdoor

The first thing I did was associate for each switch, with the other three switches in the group.
This makes sure that the 'status' is shared between all switches. So if the status of one switch turns on, all of the switches' status turn on.
This addressed making sure that the Cooper switches were in sync.

But from what fschwing said, I decided to 'force' HomeSeer to have knowledge of the status of all switches.
So in HS4, when I see if ANY of the switches change to 'on', I set the lights on, then I set ALL of the switches to 'on'.
Of course, for the off condition, I do the same, but set things to off...

This seems to be working reliably for me.
Now there is a catch, with my Zee S2 and HS4 it takes up to 2 seconds for HS4 to set the other switch status on or off. So, as long as you don't try and change things too fast, this works fine. But if you change the condition of another switch before it settles, you can create an unstable race condition where the lights just get stuck turning on and off by themselves. So I set "Event Cannot Re-Run for: 3 seconds" to prevent a race condition from happening.


I hope this helps others... Good luck.

[gregoryx]

I guess I was subscribed to this from way back... but since there's a new post under the heading, here I am. LOL

The association thing /seems/ to work correctly if Homeseer is also updated in the associations. I have a mix of different switch brands (Homeseer, Aeon, Innovelli, GE/Jasco, etc) and while it takes a while to figure out which associations are appropriate for each one, I have succeeded in getting them to all match up AND have HS be aware as well.

The one thing that isn't accurate is dimmer levels. A light with a single-press ON level of 30% leaves the associated light as "ON"; but they're pretty close - and single-second accurate and consistent.

Here's two HS switches associated and working as if they were a 3-way switch setup. With this config, the switches change instantly and HS updates immediately. In this case, they're top/bottom of stairway; but others are lights aimed at a piece of art on the wall that are linked similarly to the over-head lighting in that room and work great as well.

(Mostly posting in case someone comes looking at this post and mixes up "associations" with "events" and/or the necessity of each.)

[TC1]

I guess I was subscribed to this from way back... but since there's a new post under the heading, here I am. LOL

The association thing /seems/ to work correctly if Homeseer is also updated in the associations. I have a mix of different switch brands (Homeseer, Aeon, Innovelli, GE/Jasco, etc) and while it takes a while to figure out which associations are appropriate for each one, I have succeeded in getting them to all match up AND have HS be aware as well.

The one thing that isn't accurate is dimmer levels. A light with a single-press ON level of 30% leaves the associated light as "ON"; but they're pretty close - and single-second accurate and consistent.

Here's two HS switches associated and working as if they were a 3-way switch setup. With this config, the switches change instantly and HS updates immediately. In this case, they're top/bottom of stairway; but others are lights aimed at a piece of art on the wall that are linked similarly to the over-head lighting in that room and work great as well.

(Mostly posting in case someone comes looking at this post and mixes up "associations" with "events" and/or the necessity of each.)

This solution does work for a lot of devices, it only works for devices that support Group 2 associations. Older Z-wave (not Plus) dimmers do not support this.

[gregoryx]

This solution does work for a lot of devices, it only works for devices that support Group 2 associations. Older Z-wave (not Plus) dimmers do not support this.

Good reminder. I got rid of most of those and forgot it was even an issue!