Comfort Automation/ Security System Forums

Hi All.

Quite new to Zwave, - just installed & configured UCM-ZWAVE3, setup a small Zwave network with an Aeotec keyfob remote gen 5, and some TKBhome plugin modules.

All mostly has gone well, the first module I setup was a simple relay, which works just dandy, but the 2nd module I\'m trying is a dimmer module, and it is a bit mental...

I should note that I am using CBUS as my control interface, the control path is CBUS-COMFORT-ZWAVE, which I obviously achieve by mapping the same comfort register to both CBUS and Zwave endpoints. As I say, this works fine for a relay module, CBUS wall switch turns the zwave module on/off reliably and quickly. (This is mapped via a Comfort flag)

I Wish I could say the same with the dimmer! - I have setup the same mechanism... using a Comfort counter this time of course rather than a flag. the mapping does \"work\" - kind of... I\'m using the CBUS WISER to give me a GUI on an iPad for control... when I first pressed the widget for this new dimmer, it switched on at full brightness, so I thought it was going well... - however, when I press & hold the widget on the iPad, instead of dimming smoothly, the widget - which shows the dim level as a percentage does not - even onscreen - travel up or down through the 0-100 range progressively.. instead the % indicator jumps randomly all over the place... it may go from 17% straight to 38% then to 89% with no transition in between... whilst this is going on, the connected lamp (incandescent) does not dim in sync with the widget at all, instead, it may also jump around between wildly different dim levels (not related to what\'s onscreen) or often it seems to do nothing until I remove my finger from the icon at which point the dim level shown in the UI will usually then jump back to some other random level (after I\'ve stopped pressing it!) and the lamp may or may not follow suit...

It\'s completely mental, and totally unusable...

Anyone got any thoughts as to what might be going on here?

I haven\'t\' tried dimming with the zwave remote yet, - I don\'t plan on using that as part of the control strategy, everything needs to be controlled via CBUS wall switches, or directly from Comfort responses.

TIA

Paul G.

 

If I remember correctly the changes from Cbus back to Comfort happens in \'steps\'. What I mean by this is that as Cbus dims it changes the comfort counter value while dimming. This change is then propagated through the whole chain. In practice what you see is the result, only certain values are \'visible\' as there is no smooth operation for this. I don\'t think there is a fix as the counter changes are the thing that is causing it. Cbus on the otherhand does it differently, it uses a command that the dimmer understands, it sends \'dim in x seconds\' and the dimmer does the rest. For external components it relies on a counter value which, in a 4s dim-down cycle might, only receive two or three values.

Ingo

Oh, just thinking of something. You might be able to use logic to intercept the Cbus \'Final Value\' (when you let go of the cbus button) and then instruct the Zwave side to dim to that level. It defeats the object of near-realtime but at least it will be smooth as you don\'t use a counter value but use the native Zwave dimming method. Also, it\'s NOT scaleable as each one needs to be setup programatically one by one.

That said, I\'ve never tried it so I don\'t know if it\'s possible but would be a good challenge.

Ingo

Hmm. Sounds likely...

I wonder how best to arrive at the Cbus \'final level\' to transmit to zwave....

Any point mapping the Cbus group to a counter and using a counter response?... Would the counter response be triggered only once at the end of the dim cycle? Or would the counter change multiple times just as is happening now?...

I think it would have to be the latter surely, as if I press & hold any Cbus input configured as a dimmer, the load ramps up & down continuously for as long as I hold the button down... Thus surely multiple Cbus dim commands must be going over the Cbus network.... Would not each dim level that I observe while holding the button down therefore result in a counter change event in comfort & thus trigger the response?...

I need to figure out how in cbus world to deduce the end of a dim cycle, and transmit a counter change only once to comfort....

Or, if it really is this way (I.e. Pretty much unusable, without jumping through a bunch of hoops), perhaps I\'ll have to give up on the idea of manual dim control... These particular loads are table lamps used for mood lighting, they\'re currently not dimmable and they aren\'t especially bright to start with... So it\'s kinda lucky in this case that it\'s not really crucial to be able to dim these particular lights, but I could certainly imagine there are others that I would be more fussed about... Guess I\'ll have to be certain to make such lights be on Cbus.. That\'s the default lighting system anyway, zwave is just a fallback for where I can\'t easily get Cbus installed...

Paul,

Play around with Logic on the Cbus side and look for a command called \"GetCbusTargetLevel\". Here is an example I use for my Kitchen downlighters:

SavedLevel := GetCBusTargetLevel (\"Local Network\", \"Lighting\", \"Group 117 - Kitchen Downlighters\");

Once you have \'SavedLevel\' in Logic you could do something with it like set a Group/Counter mapping with that SavedLevel value.

On the Comfort side use a Counter response to do a proper Zwave Dim command and voila, it should work - theoretically anyway :-)

Ingo

Please upgrade Comfort and Cbus to the latest version 
One of the upgrades improves the counter update so that when the counter originates from Cbus and Comfort broadcasts the new counter value to all,  the originating cbus will not accept the broadcast value which is generated. This caused the cbus or zwave dimmer values to jump all over the place

Relative dimming by counters is quite tricky

Thanks Chiu. I\'ll double check shortly,but I think I am on the latest firmware for all modules.... After the brief issue that I reported the other day was fixed, I did check for updates on all modules....

Yup, I\'m currently running 7.072 on Zwave and 7.054 on cbus...

and 7.093 on the mainboard...

 

The dimming may be smoother with this new firmware
When you press the Cbus dimming  button, it sends a 100% on/off command with a ramp time. This sets the counter to 255 and also sets the zwave light level to 100%
When the Cbus button is released, it will send a level command at the level at which the dimming stopped. This sets the counter to the absolute level, and it also sets the zwave light to the same level. in the new zwave firmware 0 to 255 has been scaled to 0 to 99 to correspond with zwave levels
Hence the dimming control from Cbus should work

I am having a similar problem with just Comfort and Z-Wave (no Cbus). Non dimming switches with a flag status feedback work fine but when using a dimmer with a counter the device \"goes mental\" as Pgordon says. I am using Z-Wave firmware 7.072 and Comfort 7.078