Naming Devices Help Needed

[GatorEye]

So I've just started up again with HS after a many year hiatus. I'm starting completely from scratch building my ZWave network and I'd like input on how to name the devices before this gets out of hand. I added two Aeotec Smart Dimmer outlets (one for each table lamp in the living room) and 11 devices were added for each. So I'm trying to figure out how to:

• Utilize Floor/Room/Name to identify these
• Keep all 11 devices associated with one physical device
• Denote the one device I really only want to see (the on/off/dim value) - Switch Multilevel

Do I go with: Floor - First, Room - Living Room, Name - Table Lamp 1 (followed by what is currently in the name field)? What do I call the main device I am changing (Switch Multilevel) Table Lamp 1 Main?

Do you refer to it as what it actually is (outlet) vs. how it's used or what it's used for (lamp)?

And what is the general naming "rule" you use to follow for physical devices that have many child devices associated with them?

I can't imagine what this looks like and how to organize it with hundreds of physical devices. Help is greatly appreciated to get this right from the start.

[letchcj]

I'm just starting with SEL/Pro and I have the same question.

[jmaddox]

short answer is do what makes sense to you. There is no right or wrong way! One important bit of advice. Check how your devices show in your events list. I was quite verbose when I first started so I made device names like 'living room overhead light' In events this turns into 'first living room living room overhead light' removing 'living room' from my device name reduced some redundancy

What I like to do is use floor (first or outside) and room. Keep in mind you can rename floor and location within homeseer. I include 'ceiling fan' or 'light' where appropriate since I use scripts which scan for those names. When I have a root and child devices I name them "device name parent", "device name central scene", "device name"

[andrewhart2002]

I would not bother with 'floor' unless you have a high rise block of flats. I renamed the floor as 'device' so that is either 'light' or 'motion' or 'temperature' etc and the use the room with the room name. It is then easy to select view the status of 'lights' in the house, and it's easy when selecting devices in events.

[GatorEye]

I do wonder how much I would use "floor" although I do have three floors. Is there any way to have a third identifier and then sort and group on that? Basically a field called custom where it could be anything you want, like very generic type (ex. lamp)?

[GatorEye]

I would not bother with 'floor' unless you have a high rise block of flats. I renamed the floor as 'device' so that is either 'light' or 'motion' or 'temperature' etc and the use the room with the room name. It is then easy to select view the status of 'lights' in the house, and it's easy when selecting devices in events.

Andrew... in your case, if you have lots of sensors in your drawing room for example. How would you know what battery you were looking at from that convention in your screenshot? You have ZWave (I'm guessing as the Floor/Device), Drawing Room as the Room, and Sensor Battery as the Name. That's where I'm still a little confused.

[cowinger]

I use Location and Platform:

Location - could be any room (ex. Living Room), place (ex. front porch) and is not confined to just a room
Platform - If it is a z-wave device I put what it is in, which is basically a category. Ex. Motion Sensors, Water Sensors, D/W Sensors, etc. If it is not z-wave (ex. WIFI) I put the brand in such as Philips Hue, Tuya, LIFX in the Platform.

In the name of the controlling child device if it is z-wave I put the actual physical location. Ex. Sliding Door Sensor. So in the case of putting it in an event it would read this "Living Room D/W Sensors Sliding Door Sensor"

For Z-wave it would read Location - Living Room, Platform - D/W Sensors, Name - Sliding Door Sensor

In the case of WIFI it would read Location - Living Room, Platform - LIFX, Name - LR South

It keeps everything separated but easy to find. It is also easy to filter them by Location, Platform and Location and Platform

[randy]

Take a look at this thread. I explained how I did it and there is some other discussion about alternatives.

[GatorEye]

Take a look at this thread. I explained how I did it and there is some other discussion about alternatives.

Thanks! That was definitely informative. I will say...that is a LOT of devices!