View single post by MDKKEN

Posted: Thursday Nov 24th, 2016 03:52 pm

MDKKEN

Joined:	Monday Aug 17th, 2009
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Posts:	38
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Slychiu, may I ask to you consider as matter of urgency to make changes (which as a Software Engineer I think are low risk and on the small side but yield more than the simpleness of the change itself - so from the users point of view makes life easier and better. When I consider other Zwave Primary controllers that must have a complex web front end to represent the device to do stuff, your implementation can stand ahead the competition in terms of reliability and speed. It does what it says without hassle. Hardware ZWave devices work and conform to the Zwave standard, and as Comfort sticks to core Zwave Messages rather than complex Web device representation it is not tangled up to the point device is not fully working as happens so frequently in primary controllers.

May I ask others who read this to lend their support if necessary to make changes described below.

Just a recap for others users benefit and has important information if not familiar

Step 1 add the ZWave device to the primary controller.
See topic ZWave Hints and Tips Installation, Commissioning

Step 2 - ZWAve Tips - Install and Management - ZWave Sensors
Note that just because the sensor reading is not displayed or works correctly in the Primary Controller, it does not mean it can not be used by Comfort to get the sensor reading. In other words Comfort can still use the device and sensor readings like temperature. The issue is that the device works but Vera or other primary controller does not fully support it yet properly. Because the device is fully functional and fulfill the ZWave standard, Comfort only needs the device registered in the Primary Controller.

Now to the point - - the node type must change from Basic to Multilevel Sensor.
In Comfort the node type changes during the Learn phase. However this is a two step process.

Learn step 1 get ID of the device from Primary Controller (actually the Alt ID) that Primary Controller only can create.

Learn Step 2 after all the devices are found and with their IDs Comfort goes into a second loop and speaks to the device directly (not via the primary controller) to get its device type so that the node can change to Mutlilevel Sensor.

ProblemIf you have many devices loaded and identified as Multilevel Sensor - and you want to add a new device, a new Learn process will reset the device as Basic. You can loose all the nodes that are Multilevel Senor and are set back to Basic. If you have many as I have, I have spend days and weeks, months on different Learns to get the node back to Multilevel Sensor.

Due to uncertainties in when and how the device respond with the device type, Comfort may not be able get the right information from the device on any and every Learn.
This means the Learn is a Hit and Miss affair for setting the node type. As Vera only gives a 1 minutes - there are also timing issues. You can do a Comfort Learn without putting the Primary Controller in Learn Mode when Comfort in Vera has already been Learned and this can make it easier but because Comfort resets the node type back to Basic if the device does does not give the right information - this can happen for various reasons - then you can still loose all your existing Multivlevel Senors being reset to Basic.
I have still got devices loaded as Multilevel Sensor, but I can not go further the more loaded - the more difficult it is. I plead with you to change this.

What is needed - change request - for Comfort Learn
Option 1
Split out from Learn - getting and Setting Device type and add a new button for this to Just make sure the device is NOT reset to Basic on subsequent requests. Only go out to devices that are Basic node and not Node like Multilevel Senors or the Other Types. Once set this way do not change it. Only allow the user to change back to Basic.
When second/new button is pressed, then for each Basic node found in Comfort only and not Multilevel Senors or the Other Types go to the node to query the device to set the node type.
This will make Learniong from the primrary controller quicker and more robust. The Second Learn to Set the node type will be easier to manage.

Option 2
Split out from Learn - getting and Setting Device type.
Make the node type a drop down box.
Allow the user to set the Node Type to Multilevel Sensor or the other Node Types. If necessary only - Comfort goes to Node to confirm the Node type but because there issues beyond Comfort control - this may or should be avoided perhaps, but if there are details the device responds with that is needed by Comfort to make things work - then you may have no choice - but if you do not need it to make it work - why bother just let the user set the Node type via Drop down.

Please may I ask you to make this change

Last edited on Thursday Nov 24th, 2016 03:57 pm by MDKKEN

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