Zwave control speed

[nickgosling]

So after some frustrating days I have found a fundamental flaw with using zwave with domoticz and OZW.

When I send a value to a dimmer, for example, set 50% why does it take so long to change to 50%. Sometime up to 5 seconds. I've tried every setting I could find to change this and just assumed that it was because of the amount of network hops for the device to respond or the setting on the individual devices. That was until I tried Homeseer. Then I found a setting in the HA software. Not the device software that set this value. I set it to 0s and boom whenever I sent a command to the device it responded instantly. No waiting even though this device is not close to the controller just instant responses. The dimmer was rapid to set the brightness.

This made me think. For all this time I have blamed ZWAVE but it's nothing to do with ZWAVE at all, it's domoticz.

Unless of course there is a setting for this and I've not found it. If there is can someone point me in the right direction. If not. Then I'm off to change all my automation to Homeseer as it seems pretty good and amazingly reliable for zwave.

I wish I found this out sooner.

[ropske]

hi mate, i have a lot of fibaro devices in my house, even dimmers.
I don't have problems with dimmers, they are acting directly.

it is not that there is a device 'spamming' your zwave network?
I had this before with a powerplug i used for my dishwasher, and it was sending the KwH consumption every +-100ms
so this device was spamming my zwave network.
I excluded it from my aeon stick and then everything for the dimmers worked smoothly.

You can check the domoticz log for this ...

[Egregius]

Indeed, check the logfile to see where the delay is.
You should see the first 3 lines of this:

Code: Select all

2019-11-22 05:01:23.665  Status: User: Admin initiated a switch command (5/zithoek/Set Level)
2019-11-22 05:01:23.665  OpenZWave: Domoticz has send a Switch command!, Level: 3, NodeID: 3 (0x03)
2019-11-22 05:01:23.667  (ZWAVE) Light/Switch (zithoek)
2019-11-22 05:01:23.680  (STORE)                => zithoek      => 3    ()

First 2 lines = domoticz sending the command/
3th line = Zwave device that sends it new status
4th line is from pass2php where domoticz sends the new status to. As you can see the whole roundtrip took only 15 msecs.

[nickgosling]

It's mainly. Well always with the qubino dimmers. It's hard to explain but basically imagine setting the dim level as 10% increments with a 0.5s delay in between. Also the mode response time in the zwave control panel is sometimes at about 900.

[nickgosling]

And I've turned off all the power reports

[Egregius]

I have quite some dimmers in the house, all of Qubino and I don't have that.
You should really look and copy/paste the relevant part of your logfile.

Screenshot at nov. 22 11-00-51.png (46.45 KiB) Viewed 460 times

Also, what did you set for parameter 65. Dimming time (soft on/off)?
Default is 100 x 10 ms. That's 1 second to go from 0 to the desired level. I set them all to 1 because I don't like the slow fade.

[nickgosling]

Hi egrigius,

I think that would solve the issue as I have done that in the past. I'll check when I get home.

However by changing the 'time of dimming on button pressed" I am no longer able to manually set the dim level using the momentary switch which is what I am after. I think what I have realised is that if Homeseer has the ability to adapt this behaviour by changing a setting on the device ( whatever that may be ) then domoticz should also be able to do that.

This is what I want:
Instant light when set by the server/app etc.
Dimmed light over about 5 seconds with a button push so I can manually set it if it press the physical switch.

It's not a big ask in my opinion. I have just realised that that is easily possibly with Homeseer so why isn't it available in domoticz.

[Egregius]

Parameter 65 is for commands sent from domoticz.
Parameter 66 is when using the button.

[nickgosling]

You have got to be kidding me. That doesn't read like that to me. That reads as:
65: Initial start. As in single press of i1. Not with a controller.
66: when using the button

Can't check until later but if that is the case I'll be v happy. 1 year and I never changed that setting. Good god

[Egregius]

It’s stated literally:

65. Dimming time (soft on/off): (actual: 1)

Set value means time of moving the Dimmer between min. and max. dimming values by short press of push button I1 or controlled through. 1- 255 = 10mseconds - 2550mseconds (2,55s), step is 10mseconds. Default value 100 (Dimming time between min. and max. dimming values is 1s).

66. Dimming time when key pressed: (actual: 3)

Time of moving the Dimmer between min. and max dimming values by continues hold of push button I1. 1- 255 = 1 second - 255 seconds. Default value 3 (Dimming time between min. and max. dimming values is 3s).

Short press = on/off, ‘or controlled...’.

[nickgosling]

Was having a think moment. Yes that is how it's worded and my understanding of it. I have changed all the settings and this is the result.

I changed parameter 66 to 1s the the dimmer responds immediately however when it's set to anything else it takes ages to respond. However I can't then use the switch connected to S1 to dim the device.

Interestingly this only happens on the dimmers that are not in direct communication with the master controller. The ones that connect directly don't have an issue.