Scenes vs Events

[racerfern]

I see the ease of creating virtual devices and using them in events to control other devices. This all makes sense using virtual devices to trigger a series of events (scenes) which are HS3 creations.

However, the word "scene" in zwave world to me is different than scenes (events) in the HS world. It is a series of taps to trigger certain actions on devices. This is very confusing to me as I can create a scene in PLUG-INS > Z-Wave > Scene Management but then what? I don't see how an event can trigger a z-wave scene. And, I don't even see how I can "attach" a deployed scene to a set of button taps on a controller. In theory I can create a z-wave scene and deploy it without any HS3 intervention. Yes? No?

To make matters worse, there's the new "link" devices which works very well, but that's an HS3 thing not a zwave thing.

[Rupp]

You are correct in that "scenes" are a Z-Wave thing and "events" are a HomeSeer thing. We recommend using HomeSeer "events" over Z-Wave "scenes" as for the most part Z-Wave scenes haven't been implemented consistently across manufactures and they are hard to manage and easy to loose. Plus only a subset of Z-Wave devices support "scenes". So my recommendation would be to forget about "scenes" and use "events". They are easier to setup and maintain and aren't device dependent.

[Pete]

Historically an automation "scene" in general has been one virtual switch or flag automating more than one light switch.

Mostly automation from the 1970's in to the 2000's revolved around X10 automation of lighting or switches.

IE today have one automated scene for all of the exterior lighting. IE: enables and dims all exterior coach lamps to 30%.

Long math way this is an event....automated lighting way this is a scene.

In the Insteon days I would have one switch virtually toggle multiple switches to create a scene. It is the same today with today using UPB or ZWave or Zigbee

In UPB language the switches communicate via direct commands...IE: on off dim and via linked commands which do interconnects between switches.

I use both here. Homeseer send a la carte multiple commands to switches or one command to a scene. UPB switches also do this on their own.

IE: one press or two press toggles do a 100% bright scene of linked switches or a two press creates a 30% dim scene for linked switches. Family room has cans over fireplace and three table lamps which are all automated. One toggle on the wall switch turns all lights on and dims them to 30% via one link.

Today a scene can be related to one rooms automation.

IE: a media room scene can be controlling lighting and AVR / TV stuff via a switch toggle, touchscreen Homeseer press or Amazon Echo.

Media room event can turn all lights on at 30%, turn on TV and AVR and remotely tell Roku to switch to OTA or Satellite or Netflix or music. (well and turn on the fireplaces if you want).

Here used the integration of switch toggle scenes for wife (WAF). I was leery at first and today she knows the switches multiple toggle stuff better than I.

So as Rupp mentions above it is easier to create an event using multiple commands in Homeseer the long math way than to manage both events and scenes created between switches. (less baggage) and not all ZWave switches have the same features.

One glitch in a nested reference that fails or an accidental circular reference can or will cause an upheaval.

I do this today with a combination of X10, UPB, ZWave and Zigbee switches (a la carte events) connected to Homeseer 3.

That said the more I do it the harder it is to keep track of.

Baby steps as you can do a lot with ZWave switches today...

[brientim]

http://www.vesternet.com/resources/t...s-associations