Adding a secondary controller

[Guest rvcmyhome]

Hey all,

 

I have issues with the POPP thermostat range. These Z-wave devices unfortunately do not comply with the (full) Z-wave specification and only support a direct link to the HC2. I have (indirectly) contacted the manufacturer and they confirm that the firmware of the thermostat does not support the Z-wave mesh network . Very strange that they have succeeded to pass the compliance program for Z-wave that is mandatory, but that does not help me now. I have a large house with 4 thermostats in the basement and also 3 on the attic. Also many dimmers are located in the basement and attic and they work perfectly. My HC2 is located on the ground floor. These far thermostat devices respond very slowly, sometimes after several hours, days or not at all. The thermostats on the ground floor and 1st floor respond fine. I have already tried a larger antenna on the HC2 (that helps a little) and Z-wave range extenders. But the latter obviously acts as a mesh node and does not help.

 

The alternatives I am considering.

 

a) Change everything to Fibaro thermostats, which are available now (these where not available 3 years ago when I purchased 20+ thermostats). I tried one now for a couple of weeks, but I am not very fond of it for several reasons, but indeed they have no problem with the connection as they obviously support the mesh network. Additionally it will cost me a lot to buy 7 new thermostats and trow away the POPP thermostats.

 

b) I was hoping that this could be solved by a secondary HCL. But I cannot find any documentation on this except 

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Can someone point me to information:

1) An elaborated description on how to setup a secondary controller and what are the consequences?

2) Does a secondary controller solve my problem; does it act as a master for the remotely located thermostats.

3) LUA is not supported on a HCL, but does that matter as it is only the secondary controller?

 

Hope you can help me out and point me in the right direction.

 

Cheers!

[jayrock 10]

Hi

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, 

 

to extend range I achieved good results with Fibaro's gateway functionality. Just google for "fibaro gateway howto" and it will bring up a number of videos and tutorials. I think this is one of the features where they did a great job.

 

HCL as remote gateway doesn't act as secondary controller in the z-wave sense but is controlled by the master HC2 using the IP network. All devices attached to the remote HCL show up on the master HC2 as if they were attached here; ie. all the scripting power of the HC2 can be used on the devices attached to HCL. There is no need to have scenes on the remote gateway

 

The only limitation I found so far is related to the Alarm Panel; if you want to use arming/disarming of remote devices, it seems like it cannot be done via Alarm Panel but you need to have scenes to take care of that. Those scenes can reside on the master gateway still. All in all not a big deal.

 

Cheers,

jayrock

[ggoetz56 9]

On 8/9/2018 at 4:02 PM, rvcmyhome said:

a) Change everything to Fibaro thermostats, which are available now (these where not available 3 years ago when I purchased 20+ thermostats). I tried one now for a couple of weeks, but I am not very fond of it for several reasons, but indeed they have no problem with the connection as they obviously support the mesh network. Additionally it will cost me a lot to buy 7 new thermostats and trow away the POPP thermostats.

 

And you absolutely should wait for the new firmware  to come for thermostats. At the moment you won't be very happy using them. And we wait since March.................................................................................................................................and wait .............................................................................................and wait.

Maybe its to hot to work on thermostats issues, but not only Jon Snow knows "Winter is coming"

Edited August 10, 2018 by ggoetz56