HS4 Feature Poll (Pick 5 features)

[shill]

Also, but somewhat unrelated to this poll: PLEASE fix the firmware so that if I have an HS wall switch in "Normal" mode, it ignores "Set ALL LED 1 to Red" actions. It's ridiculous that my 4-LED Fan Controller has random colored lights all the time, and if I have 2 switches in the same gang, I don't need them both to show me a status, so I leave the others to "Normal".

The result of this is a laundry list of event actions and a lot more zwave noise, and with the latest zwave plugin, it bogs HS down to the point it's unusable for several minutes when one of the LEDs needs to change colors. And I assume what you want is for your customers to buy a lot of your switches, which I've done, and now I'm punished for that by a maintenance and performance nightmare

[rjh]

I am not clear on this, when you say "All", are you using the command to set all your dimmers to red? Any you really want all of them but 1 to be set? I don't understand the issue?

Also, but somewhat unrelated to this poll: PLEASE fix the firmware so that if I have an HS wall switch in "Normal" mode, it ignores "Set ALL LED 1 to Red" actions. It's ridiculous that my 4-LED Fan Controller has random colored lights all the time, and if I have 2 switches in the same gang, I don't need them both to show me a status, so I leave the others to "Normal".

The result of this is a laundry list of event actions and a lot more zwave noise, and with the latest zwave plugin, it bogs HS down to the point it's unusable for several minutes when one of the LEDs needs to change colors. And I assume what you want is for your customers to buy a lot of your switches, which I've done, and now I'm punished for that by a maintenance and performance nightmare

[shill]

I am not clear on this, when you say "All", are you using the command to set all your dimmers to red? Any you really want all of them but 1 to be set? I don't understand the issue?

I have a bunch of WS/D/X 200/300 switches. Each of the 7 LEDs has a specific meaning:

7 = Alarm System Status
6 = Garage Door Status
5 = Tesla Battery Level
4 = Family Member 1 Presence
3 = Family Member 2 Presence
2 = Family Member 3 Presence
1 = Family Member 4 Presence

In some rooms, I have a fan controller next to a WS/D/X 200/300, for example.

If I use a simple action, like "Z Wave Action: Set LED Status Color" > "All Devices" > "LED 1" > "Red" > "Don't Blink" because my daughter leaves the house, I only want that command to be acted upon by devices that are ALREADY in "Status Mode".

Instead, that command is interpreted as "Z Wave Action: Change to Status Mode and Set LED Status Color". This makes the LED lights on my fan controllers ALSO change colors, even though I have set them to "Normal Mode". Same for any WS/D/X 200/300 devices that I do NOT want to use the LED status colors.

The only alternative is to create a ton of individual actions for each switch, as well as a bunch of individual ZWave commands instead of what I assume would be a more general broadcast. And I have enough trouble with the volume of ZWave commands in my system right now as it is.

[cd36]

Our current 700 series boards should work with it, and I don't believe the firmware needs to be updated, but if so, it can be updated.

We are looking into it. It is doable with our existing code base, but the node ID is now 16 bits vs 8 bits. This is a big code change so it will take some time. I cannot give a timeframe right now but will post something after we scope it out.

Very excited to hear this. Being rural, I have alot of potential uses for z-wave long range!

[cd36]

A few more from me:

1) System-level events (to go with Startup and Shutdown) for "Error Logged", "Plugin Error", "HS Update Available", "Plugin Update Available", etc.

2) Right-hand side improvements for trigger criteria: "value between", "value is one of" (like a SQL IN statement), "date is before X or after Y", "time is before X or after Y", "less than X or greater than Y". All of these would reduce the number of repetitive "OR IF" clauses. Alternatively, more complex relationships with parenthetical grouping:

• If (Trigger 1 OR Trigger 2 OR Trigger 3) AND IF (Condition 1 OR Condition 2) AND Condition 3

3) Anything to make event creation quicker and easier. So. Many. Clicks. The ability to import individual events or a syntax that lets us write them and just paste in properly formatted text, etc.

4) Error Handling in Events. This means you need to keep track of every action and whether it succeeds or not, which is probably a pretty fundamental change, but I need to KNOW that when I asked HS to lock the door, close the garage door, arm my alarm system, shut off the water, etc. that it really did so.

• If Trigger 1 AND IF Condition 1 THEN Action 1, Action 2, Action 3 ON ERROR Action 4

These are all amazing suggestions! I would find all of these very useful.

[avpman]

On the plugins page, instead of the little cloud (or in addition to) indicating an update is available, please change the border around the plugin to something outstanding. I.E.:
This should be an easy fix?

[Ltek]

On the plugins page, instead of the little cloud (or in addition to) indicating an update is available, please change the border around the plugin to something outstanding. I.E.:

Also IMO the Plugins Page should be a single page, not separated into Add & Manage needing to go back up to the drop-down. There should be a single 'Manage' page with buttons at the top that are simply filters, which are not mutually exclusive. Each button shows or hides.. "Add New", "Update Available", "Legacy", "HS4", "All", "Installed" "Free", "Paid", "Beta"

[macromark]

Thanks to everyone for participating in this poll. We have enough poll responses, so shutting that down. However, keeping the thread open for more feedback. 👍

[John245]

macromark
Maybe you should do this poll quarterly and continuous add new features to the poll.

I know companies that prioritize every monthly together with their major customers.

---
John

[rjh]

Ok, I see. It is working as designed. We wanted it to be as automatic as possible. So, if you want to blink an LED you just set it to blink and you don't need to deal with status mode. If no leds are set, it automatically goes out of status mode. I will talk about this internally and see if there is a good solution. We cannot just change it to work on devices that are already in status mode, that would break many people. But we could add a checkbox like "Only set devices that are in Status Mode", or something like that.

I have a bunch of WS/D/X 200/300 switches. Each of the 7 LEDs has a specific meaning:

7 = Alarm System Status
6 = Garage Door Status
5 = Tesla Battery Level
4 = Family Member 1 Presence
3 = Family Member 2 Presence
2 = Family Member 3 Presence
1 = Family Member 4 Presence

In some rooms, I have a fan controller next to a WS/D/X 200/300, for example.

If I use a simple action, like "Z Wave Action: Set LED Status Color" > "All Devices" > "LED 1" > "Red" > "Don't Blink" because my daughter leaves the house, I only want that command to be acted upon by devices that are ALREADY in "Status Mode".

Instead, that command is interpreted as "Z Wave Action: Change to Status Mode and Set LED Status Color". This makes the LED lights on my fan controllers ALSO change colors, even though I have set them to "Normal Mode". Same for any WS/D/X 200/300 devices that I do NOT want to use the LED status colors.

The only alternative is to create a ton of individual actions for each switch, as well as a bunch of individual ZWave commands instead of what I assume would be a more general broadcast. And I have enough trouble with the volume of ZWave commands in my system right now as it is.

[shill]

Ok, I see. It is working as designed. We wanted it to be as automatic as possible. So, if you want to blink an LED you just set it to blink and you don't need to deal with status mode. If no leds are set, it automatically goes out of status mode. I will talk about this internally and see if there is a good solution. We cannot just change it to work on devices that are already in status mode, that would break many people. But we could add a checkbox like "Only set devices that are in Status Mode", or something like that.

Thanks - this one shortcoming (my opinion) drives me from a handful of simple events with one action each to literally hundreds of events/actions to account for the fact that devices I said should be in "Normal Mode" refuse to stay there.

[alphatech]

Sorry I have missed this post, can you please include showing the note field in the events and when the mouse is pointed on it, to show what the note say? I asked for it in another post and it looks like there are several people that would love this feature to be implemented as well. Thanks.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[Sgt. Shultz]

I've been waiting to push for this again once HS4 was more mature and you all hopefully had time for something like this.

Please improve Google Home/Assistant integration. I see two potential improvement areas.

1) Remember your first integration with Google Assistant and HomeSeer where you had to say "Hey Google, ask HomeSeer" followed by a command? That should be brought back. The ability to send the spoken text to HomeSeer is powerful. This would allow Google users to be able to make use of Jon00's excellent Echo Skill Helper, or simply let HomeSeer's native speech parsing engine do the work. I believe HST communicated that they needed to ditch the "ask HomeSeer" method in order to make room for the Google Home smart device integration. I was in a long back and forth with Google developer support about this and they told me there is no reason HST couldn't use both of these integrations at the same time. Frustrated by my inability to do with Google what others were able to do with Alexa (direct device control + "ask Homeseer"), I rolled my own solution, but I'd love to see this available for everyone.

2) I understand Google now has a Local Home SDK for local fulfillment. I'm not 100% sure what this is or if HomeSeer can leverage it, but if so this is perfectly inline with HomeSeer's strength's of not needing the clound to function. Additionally, this would allow for much speedier response times. I often experience varying amounts of latency when giving commands to my smart speakers and displays. This Local Home SDK may also allow for something like "ask HomeSeer" functionality so it could kill two birds with one stone.

I hope these can be considered. If not now, I'll revive my old threads in the Google Home sub-forum another day for another attempt.

I haven't been clamoring for anything in that list above, but I will pick my 5 favorite anyway. The two items I wrote about above would be in that 5 if available.

Thank you for reaching out to us to help guide prioritization!

I'm currently looking at the Local HomeSDk to see if we can do something with that.

That said, Google has decided to sunset what are called "Conversational Actions" in their development console, which basically means no text passthrough with a standard skill. (It will officially sunset June 2023, but there's no sense building something that'll be obsolete in 6 months)

[mrceolla]

That said, Google has decided to sunset what are called "Conversational Actions" in their development console, which basically means no text passthrough with a standard skill. (It will officially sunset June 2023, but there's no sense building something that'll be obsolete in 6 months)

Are you sure about that? Conversational actions is different than direct actions. And from what I understand almost nobody was using conversational actions anyways. I believe what we had before was a direct action.

[Sgt. Shultz]

Are you sure about that? Conversational actions is different than direct actions. And from what I understand almost nobody was using conversational actions anyways. I believe what we had before was a direct action.

Direct Action is what we have now, where a conversational action is what we had originally.