Multiple HC2's in a Master/Slave configuration

[smartronix 0]

Today i've tested the new Master/Slave setup at my clients house.

He has 3 HC2's and i've coupled them today with the new function (beta 3.559).

I was really surprised about this function, its stable and flexible.

In the Master HC2 you can add the slaves, after that you can import the devices from the slaves.

They all are visible under unassigned, and with different colors you can see from what slave they come. Now your free to make new rooms to put them in.

I've also tested the remote modules in scenes etc. It works perfect!

Good job Fibaro team, this is a huge step forward to make it a system to be used in multiple environments like real estate, schools, offices, churches etc.

[Shad 4]

Yes it work very nice. It is a good point to sell that solutions.

[Guest raimund]

where

[Shad 4]

What where???

[zwaveindia 1]

I really appreciate Fibaro for this update which eliminates the limitation of multiple HC2's on same network. How ever, I wish there will be a small, compact and less priced slave device available in future developement to work as slave device alone in place of slave HC2's.

[menno26 0]

Does anybody know's if it also is working better with other controllers?

I'm running 3.558 and have included a E-Centre 2 as slave. It's working, but not very nicely. Still need to do reconfigurations to get new device in the E-centre.

All existing devices are then renamed, so you can start over giving them names and putting them in rooms. Scene's are not copied to the ecentre-2 I have to build sepperate scene's...

[Starbug 0]

I am still fairly new to Fibaro and the HC2 but I have quite a few devices already 88 in total with about 60 installed so far. Im starting to see delays from the controller to the z-wave devices where I select to turn a light on and sometimes up to a minute later it then turns on. I am not sure if its load on the HC2 or something else (I have disabled all scenes still the same).

What does having multiple HC2 or a HC Lite give me in terms of load distribution? Do the HC2 in a master/slave configuration communicate via IP or the z-wave network? If my issue is z-wave traffic then two controllers wont help right? but if its the controller that can't cope then would master/slave fix this?

Thanks in advance for any help

[Dalle1985 16]

With the hardware in the hc2, there should be very limited latency, even with 100+ devices. If 100 odd devices introduce any mentionable latency issues, the firmware or protocol must be properly poor! I work with industrial systems handling more input signals than a space shuttle (literally) and update intervals in the millisecond range. They run on PLCs with 20 year old RISC processors. So a 1,5 ghz atom processor should handle the maximum 255 devices in a z-wave network. If the constraint is the wireless part, the protocol should really have a revisit...

Anyway, i don't understand the idea of having master/slave units either... Could someone explain me the benefits? I only see a risk of running conflicting scenes on multiple controllers.

[mclass 0]

Now here's a thought!

Please login or register to see this image.

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Has anyone attempted connecting a slave HC2 via VPN from another site?

This would allow integration in one panel of (for example) home and office or home and holiday house. This would avoid selecting different HC2 controllers on phone apps - something trivial for some, but not so trivial for some of less technically inclined clients!!

Mclass

[menno26 0]

Can you also include new device from the slave unit? Or do you have to dot his from the master HC2?

[deanrparry 19]

Still not sure why a fast switching capability is not built into the apps yet... login to both stations automatically and just switch! cannot be to hard to do?

[akatar 208]

Can you also include new device from the slave unit? Or do you have to dot his from the master HC2?

you have to add the device to that hc2 that is actually going to control it

[menno26 0]

Adding a slave to a Master can only be done via the HC2 gateway connections right?

Adding must be done in the Master where you enter the ip address of the slave etc.

I'm asking because I also have a eminent Ecentre 2 zwave controller touch screen and in this device you can add this controller to an other E-centre. This adding is done via the zwave chip, same as including of devices. Zwave is allowing to add slave controllers, like remotes etc. to the system. Adding the E-centre to the HC2 works as well (the E-centre has a button to include it to another master controller). In my case the E-centre is part of the same zwave network as my HC2.

With gateway connections it looks like the HC2 works with http commands or something similar.

If you have multiple HC2 in master slave configuration you'll have more than one zwave network.

Perhaps that's why it also is supporting more devices. Can somebody confirm this?

[akatar 208]

i think:

if a device is added to a slave hc2 (also added on the slave hc2!) it can not be controlled by master hc2

the thing what happens is when you want to turn on a light that is controlled by slave hc2 is:

master hc2 yells at slave hc2: hey turn light x on, and slave does that

but as a say, i think, i'm not sure

[j.nowacki 5]

akatar, menno26 you are both right, slave HC operates independent Z-wave network and its actions are triggered by mater.