Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

VRCS4-1LX causing communication problems

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    VRCS4-1LX causing communication problems

    I have a VRCS4-1LX which is the definitive cause of communication problems with a switch in the same box with it.

    My house is full of z-wave switches from Leviton as well as a few of their scene controllers including one VRCS4-1LX (the four button controller that doesn't control a lighting load). The scene controller is in a two gang box with a dimmer switch (VRI06-1LX). That dimmer has always had problems. It only shows six neighbors where other switches nearby show 20. It responds to commands slowly and sometimes not at all. When I do a response test in z-seer the best it ever does is still a 10% failure rate and incredibly slow responses. I had tried everything short of replacing the switch to try and get it to work.

    So I finally replaced the switch thinking it must be a lemon. Unfortunately the new switch did just as poorly. With the switch itself eliminated as the problem I started to look at the installation as the cause. The switch isn't in a metal box (meanwhile, a nearby switch that is in a metal box performs fine). It's on an exterior wall, but it never gets cold where I live so that's not a problem. I could find nothing about the location of the switch or how it was installed that could cause the problem.

    Finally I tried one random thing. Leaving the switch and the scene controller in place next to each other, I pulled the hot lead from the scene controller so only the switch would have power. After turning the breaker back on I went to z-seer to test, and much to my amazement the problem was gone. I ran a 50 response test and it was done in seconds. No failures. No delays. I re-tested both conditions twice to confirm. When the VRCS4-1LX is not connected it's neighbor works perfectly, when it is connected it is slow and failure prone again. It's like the scene controller is jamming communications.

    What on earth could be causing this, and more importantly, how can I fix it? If these things weren't so expensive I'd just replace it with a cooper wiring devices controller since from all reports they don't have all the issues the Leviton controllers have.

    I do have the scene controller set up a little oddly. Since I use this controller for events not scenes all the buttons are set to run a scene which does nothing but turn off an Intermatic lamp module that I have plugged in but not really connected to anything. Then in homeseer I use the button status change to trigger events.

    One strange thing I notice is that the VRCS4-1LX is listed as a 9600 baud device in the z-wave who am I screen. I thought all the Leviton stuff was 40k? The lamp module is 9.6k, but that shouldn't make the scene controller report at 9.6k, right? I did try associating the controller with a 40k switch but that didn't change anything.

    #2
    I finally got around to removing the Leviton VRCS4-1LX and replacing it with a Cooper five button controller. My communications issues went away, confirming the scene controller was the problem.

    The switch next to it that was having so many problems now works reliably and shows 16 neighbors.
    Last edited by Thrag; October 30, 2011, 03:13 PM.

    Comment

    Working...
    X