Device/ID Relationship

[jrich523]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if someone could explain to me how to work my way up and down the ID stack to identify items. What i mean is, how can i go from a light switch down to the open Zwave ID, and how to go from the Open Zwave ID to a device/switch.

For example, if I look at the OZW CP I can see that I have a switch with idx of 2, which is also represented in the Z-Stick hardware setup (just before the OCZ CP)

from there it gets dicey. I can locate the device (because the ZWave name comes through) and see that here, the IDX is 1, ID is 00000201 and unit is also 1.

Also because a switch doesnt seem to have any info, i cant really tell what switch this is used with, all i can tell from the Device screen is if its in use or not, but not as to where its used.

Can anyone help me understand how all these ID/IDX/Unit etc etc relate to each other?

Thanks

[Egregius]

Have you searched the forum? Tigs of topics about this.

[jrich523]

what exactly do i search for? terms like ID IDX and unit? all of which are considered to short to search on (weird) or zwave and get a ton of crap back. even tried "relationship" and wasnt able to find much.

I have no doubt this has been asked many times, but i cant think of a good way to search for it.

dont you think something like that should be pinned some place? perhaps a wiki entry? or better yet, part of the application so we dont need a decoder ring to figure out these relationships.

[trixwood]

Yes! You need one. My advice. Add one node at a time and rename them immediately. Do you research which devices you except. Because it's get confusing when they do not popup right away but after some time.

Already complaining about that:

It would be nice if in the hardware page of openzwave then when you click on a node it opens the device page already filtered with the right node devices. That would help also alot with renaming, configuring and anti-confusion.

To your questions:
Some devices will only be added when they send data and that can take a while. And it depends on the device when it sends data. For example a smokedetector which did not send any temperature reading until I put it outside, resulting in the temperature reading drop below the threshold configured on the device. And whalla! Resulting that the device sends a new temperature and it is added to domoticz. That is why sometimes devices are missing. (some devices you can force to send a reading usually by pressing a button on the device, look at the manual of your device)

Some z-wave devices give back more info then you need, you have to cherry pick which devices are usefull of a node. Like my smokedetector, it gives 10! new devices when added, I only use 3 of them. And I still do not know what the general and system sensor does.

My Powernode for gives back 2 devices with watt result in the first hour, then only 1 watt and 1 kwh. The second watt is never updated and used ever again after the first hour... so there are sometimes devices that are "old" and not used anymore.

reference earlier this week: http://domoticz.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... 636#p90631

I have seem numerous people complain about it, and I remember it has taken a couple of hours of my life as an beginner domoticz user eventually starting over again and adding them one by one.

Even if they use numbers it's inconsistence, I have devices with 4, 7 and 8 numbers in length as id. So you can not sort shit. Making it more difficult.
Numbers should be for the expert... names are for humans we're not computers.

Anway. Good luck.

[jrich523]

Thanks, the quote doesnt help much with the relationship but it certainly explains some oddities i've had with adding new hardware!

I've generally done one at a time but i recently installed 3 new switches, I was able to sort it out in the end, and had decided to do one at a time next time, but yeah, the waters are a little muddy

[trixwood]

I know. It was to illustrate that they should change that. Because of the difficulties and confusing behaviour. My I suggestion for that is:

It would be nice if in the hardware page of openzwave then when you click on a node it opens the device page already filtered with the right node devices. That would help also alot with renaming, configuring and anti-confusion.

One by one, only advice I have and a consistent naming scheme so you will not get confused which is which. I use the room name (or location name) of the device e.g. (also a feature I miss, why not show a column in the device list which room it's assigned to, helps with navigating 250+ devices)

something like:

Device Multisensor 6:
Bureau Motion
Bureau Temperature
Bureau Lux
.
Device Powernode:
Kitchen Power
Kitchen Power Usage

Device HUE Lamp:
Couch Links RGBW
Couch RGBW
Couch Rechts RGBW

or any other naming unique scheme you find handy.