New Zwave products from Fibaro

[Sooty]

Does anyone here have the Fibaro relays FGS-211 or FGS-221 installed with a Vera controller?
If so, perhaps they could confirm if the instant status reporting and device import works properly in Vera.

I see 2 possible causes.

1. Fibaro have implemented some non standard Z-Wave protocol in these modules in which case it is not the fault of Homeseer or other controller manufacturers that the devices don't work properly.

2. If the Fibaro device uses standard Z-Wave protocol, then Homeseer does not process the device properly, so it is a Homeseer problem.

If the devices do indeed work OK with Vera, then does the Vera have non-standard code to make it work?

Rick Tinker from Homeseer seems to suggest that some device manufacturers are implementing non-standard Z-Wave code in their devices which makes it very difficult for them to implement support for these devices.

I assume the devices work as intended with the Fibaro Home Center controller, which I suppose is to be expected.

I will send an email to Fibaro in Poland and ask them if the devices do use some non-standard Z-Wave coding.

Paul..

[Sooty]

Rick Tinker from Homeseer has taken the time to explain via the HS forum what the likely issue is with Homeseer and the Fibaro relays if anyone is interested the post is here.

http://board.homeseer.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=88

Paul..

[xanhoera]

Thanks a lot Sooty to clear this up

Btw, in your post on the HS forum, you mention (I quote)

An additional device is created on import which shouldn’t be there

Are you referring to the Fibaro concept they like to call "virtual switch" aka "virtual channel", present in the fgs211 switch?

By default, FGS211 device has a second hidden icon. It represents the second, virtual channel of the device triggered by the second key. The user may add the association to this channel or trigger a scene.

[jrkalf]

Thanks a lot Sooty to clear this up

Btw, in your post on the HS forum, you mention (I quote)

An additional device is created on import which shouldn’t be there

Are you referring to the Fibaro concept they like to call "virtual switch" aka "virtual channel", present in the fgs211 switch?

By default, FGS211 device has a second hidden icon. It represents the second, virtual channel of the device triggered by the second key. The user may add the association to this channel or trigger a scene.

Xanhoera, As far as I know the FGS221 has them as well.

The problem is I can't get the _only guy_ that seems to have working code on this (airox on this forums) to respond right now. I have to make the safe assumption he's swamped with his daytime job so he's not reading up on his mails. or perhaps even on a holiday. It's nice skiing weather right now. Once he's back he'll be able to exactly tell you how the device is made-up. He's written his own domotics software and he has the entire device with open-zwave working. He's confirmed it here "domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.php?f=38&amp ... 071#p53260" and in a some private messages on the forums.

[Sooty]

Rick Tinker has posted again on the HS forum, basically saying that the problem with the Fibaro modules is probably that Homeseer does not support the MULTI_INSTANCE_ASSOCIATION class at the present time. He did say that they will have to address the issue in HS3 though which is a positive comment I supose.

Are you referring to the Fibaro concept they like to call "virtual switch" aka "virtual channel", present in the fgs211 switch?

No. Only the FGS-211 has "virtual switch" as far as I'm aware, therefore it should import as 3 devices. Root, Switch 1 and Virtual switch. The FGS-221 does not have "virtual switch" so it should also import as 3 devices Root, Swithc 1 and Switch 2. Both units import into Homeseer with an additional ghost device which replicates channel 1.

Paul..

[jrkalf]

Thanks for the information paul.

[Sooty]

The problem is I can't get the _only guy_ that seems to have working code on this (airox on this forums) to respond right now. I have to make the safe assumption he's swamped with his daytime job so he's not reading up on his mails. or perhaps even on a holiday. It's nice skiing weather right now. Once he's back he'll be able to exactly tell you how the device is made-up. He's written his own domotics software and he has the entire device with open-zwave working. He's confirmed it here "domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.php?f=38& ... 071#p53260" and in a some private messages on the forums.

When you create your own software, you can make just about anything work. This is why I have created much of my own software in the shape of Homeseer plug-ins etc, I just don't have the time to learn the Z-Wave protocol and create my own full HA solution right now

The annoying thing for me is that I think Z-Wave was supposed to be a generic thing so that all manufacturers of hardware and software could adhere to the same standard. In reality this does not seem to have been the case hence the various incompatibilities we are seeing with some devices.

Paul..

[airox]

Hi guys!

Sorry, but my driver is written in PHP completely. No Open-Zwave wrapper or code. So, can't help you guys with the code. Still I can tell how my driver works so other people maybe can find a solution.

Simple Z-wave switches contain the support for a command class called "BASIC" (reported as 0x20). And often also the command class SWITCH_BINARY (0x25). BASIC and SWITCH_BINARY have three items as far as I know. Send a poll request for the status (GET), send a SET request to change the status, and a REPORT which the node will send back on a poll request containing the current status. Nothing more fancy.

The Fibaro is a bit different. It reports itself as a node (just like any other Z-wave device) but has multiple switches. So there has to be a way to send a command to the node asking it to SET the first switch. This is done using MULTI INSTANCE support (HSM100 also has this command class, because it has multiple sensor values to GET). So if you want to switch the Fibaro you need to check if the node supports MULTI INSTANCE and then pack a SWITCH_BINARY SET command into a encapsulated MULTI INSTANCE request. The MULTI INSTANCE request also has an instanceID beside the real command. The Fibaro has 2 ID's, 1 for the first switch, 2 for the second switch.

Open-Zwave does have MULTI INSTANCE support (look at code.google.com/p/open-zwave/source/bro ... stance.cpp).

One odd thing about the Fibaro is (but I bet it's implemented for backwards compatibility and for switching on by association) that it supports BASIC, SWITCH_BINARY and both of those command classes inside a MULTI INSTANCE request. So sending a simple BASIC > SET request will be received by the Fibaro and will turn on a single light (or maybe by configuration both). So it looks like it works. But you are still can't control both of the switches independently. You need to check for MULTI INSTANCE and use MULTI INSTANCE commands.

The following code I am using inside my PHP code:

Code: Select all

/**
	 * Get a message to turn on an instance of a
	 *  
	 * @param int $nodeId
	 * @param int $instanceId
	 */
	public static function getSwitchBinaryOnMessage($nodeId,$instanceId) {
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass::MULTI_INSTANCE;
		$arr[] = self::CMD_ENCAP;
		$arr[] = $instanceId;
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass::SWITCH_BINARY;
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass_Switchbinary::SET;
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass_Switchbinary::ON;
		
		return Zwave_Commandclass::getMessage($nodeId,$arr,true,false);
	}
	
	/**
	 * Get a message to turn on an instance of a
	 *  
	 * @param int $nodeId
	 * @param int $instanceId
	 */
	public static function getSwitchBinaryOffMessage($nodeId,$instanceId) {
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass::MULTI_INSTANCE;
		$arr[] = self::CMD_ENCAP;
		$arr[] = $instanceId;
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass::SWITCH_BINARY;
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass_Switchbinary::SET;
		$arr[] = Zwave_Commandclass_Switchbinary::OFF;
		
		return Zwave_Commandclass::getMessage($nodeId,$arr,true,false);
	}

This shows the structure of a MULTI INSTANCE > SET command. If there are any more questions, I will be following this thread more closely.

[jrkalf]

Airox,

thanks for having some time to put this message out here.
I think you've made a lot of people very happy right now

[xanhoera]

Does anyone here have the Fibaro relays FGS-211 or FGS-221 installed with a Vera controller?
If so, perhaps they could confirm if the instant status reporting and device import works properly in Vera.

If someone still is interested: having tried a FGS-211 (1x3kW relay insert) in combination of my Vera 3, Vera reports status immediately when manually switching lights on/off.
Devices imported: one root device and two child devices.

[SteveMSJ]

Does anyone have any influence with the people at Homeseer? These Fibaro devices would be great if Homeseer supported MULTI_INSTANCE_ASSOCIATION. An update to HS2 would be welcome as it may be some wait for HS3.
I did post a message on the Homeseer forum pointing out that these worked with Vera but not Homeseer but the message mysteriously dissapeared:(
Steve

[xanhoera]

I did post a message on the Homeseer forum pointing out that these worked with Vera but not Homeseer but the message mysteriously dissapeared:(

Slightly off topic, but still, I have some posts which disappeared as well from the HS board. It looks like they have some overzealous moderators !