Solved! -- How to Keep your Cooper RF Master/Accessory Switch always in Sync

[tchen001]

I?ve read with great interest the 2 threads on how to keep Cooper Aspire Master and Accessory switches in sync (?Cooper Aspire RF Master/Accessory Association?, which links to ?Solved! -- How to Keep your Cooper RF Master/Accessory Switch always in Sync?).  The good news is that my 2 devices stay in sync 95% of the time.  The bad news is that the Accessory switch loses sync about 5% of the time, mostly not syncing when the Master is turned off, and on rare occasion when the Master is turned on.

My setup:
--VeraPlus controller, up to do date with firmware revision, UI7
--I have about 20 Z-wave devices in my network
--Cooper Aspire 9501 Master switch ? located about 10 feet from my Vera controller
--Cooper Aspire 9517 Accessory switch ? located about 10 feet from the 9501 switch, and 15 feet from the Vera controller
--Both Cooper switches purchased within the last year

Cooper Aspire RF 9501 switch ? working properly (local push on/off control of the light) and included in my Vera network (on/off control of switch via UI7 and in a scene, and via Vera mobile app)
   Device name: FL3Switch_Basement
   Device #37
   Settings tab - Automatically configure: Yes
   Device options tab
            Associations - Group ID: 1; Set to: FL_Family_Switch (checkbox) --> apply
            Configuration settings ? Variable: 10; Data Size: 1 byte hex; Desired value: 1 --> save
         
Cooper Aspire RF 9517 accessory (slave) switch ? installed and initialized in Vera
   Device name: FL_Family_Switch
   Device #48
   Settings tab ? Automatically configure: Yes
   Device options tab
      Associations ? Group ID: 1; Set to: FL3Switch_Basement (checkbox) --> apply

Then, just for good measure:
Dashboard, Settings, Z-Wave Settings, Advanced, Reload Engine
Dashboard, Settings, Z-Wave Settings, Advanced, Update Neighbor Nodes

Confirmed the following settings
9501 switch (device #37)
   Advanced tab, Variables tab ? AssociationSet: 1,48; AssociationGet: 1,48,; 
9517 accessory switch (device #48)
   Advanced tab, Variables tab ? AssociationSet: 1,37; AssociationGet: 1,37,;

Seems like the next step for me is to create a scene using the Advanced Scene editor ? but that?s where I?m stuck (instructions from ?shallowearth? of Feb 28, April 12, and April 15, 2015).  Specifically, there is 1) no Action that I can add to ?Set the Target to True (1) to match the Master switch? (Feb 28 message), 2) I?m not familiar with LUUP ? and thus don?t know what to do with the suggested LUUP code (April 12), and / or 3) I don't understand how to ?toggle commands? after setting the Category ID from 14 to 3 temporarily on the Accessory switch (April 15) to ?trick Vera into offering the Get/SetTarget Commands for the device?.

Suggestions or instructions? Is there an ?Introduction to LUUP? that I can review to learn what to do with the code? Thanks in advance.

[shallowearth]

Make sure you are scrolling down in the advanced editor list to get to SetTarget, it is listed at the end (or should be, see attached).
If you are sure it is not listed, try selecting ToggleState instead (this will not do what you want and will likely make your syncing problem worse, but try triggering the scene a bunch of times, then go back and delete that command and see if the SetTarget is now available instead).

If your switches are taking a long time to notify Vera of a state change (you mentioned like 2 second+delay),
Add group 255 to your associations and set association for group 255 to "1" which is also called "Vera" in your device list (see attached).  This can assist in the signal getting back faster to the Vera.

[tchen001]

ShallowEarth - thank you for the helpful reply (and your many contributions to this thread).

First the good news.  Curiously, by adding the service ToggleState via the Advanced Editor to the master switch (Cooper 9501, named FL3Switch_Basement) targeting the 9517 accessory switch, named FL_Family_Switch), the 9517 accessory switch has stayed completely in sync for the past week, regardless of how the switch was activated. If it stays this way, I am inclined to just call it mission accomplished.

Now for a few additional queries.

Background: I have 3 sets of floodlights around my house on 3 separate circuits.  My goal is to have the lights act as one set of lights controlled from 4 different locations. Three of the locations each have a 9501 master switch, the fourth location has a 9517 accessory switch linked to one of he 9501 master switches, FL3Switch_Basement.

1. So I am a purist at heart.  In the Advanced Editor there still is no SetTarget option, even after a week of regular use of the switches.  See attached screenshot. Ideas (especially if ToggleState does not do the job long-term)?
2. I have tried to follow your instructions to add group 255 to my associations. But there is no device called "Vera" in my device list. I did add group 255 successfully to the 9501 switches (controlling the floodlights), however this has not fixed the delay problem (where the other switches can take 2+ seconds to respond).

On a related note - I have two 9501 switches in the same junction box (one controlling one of the floodlights, the second to a different circuit).  When I depress the right switch (which is wired to an outlet), the left switch (which goes to one of the floodlights) gets confused and does not seem to send (and will not respond) to z-wave commands for 5-10 seconds.  Thoughts?

Thanks again.  James

[shallowearth]

For Group Associate 255 look at the bottom of the list for "Unassigned devices" and select "ZWave" if it exists -- sorry I mistaken called that "Vera".  In the instructions.

For your AUX switches can you show the screen shot of the Advance->Variables tab in particular the Manufacturerinfo, Capabilities, and VersioninfoMake
On Settings tab Make sure you have Automatically configure to "Use default behavior" set.  Sometimes manually updating the Capabilities string to have switch behavior will get it expose the settings.

If All else fails and you really want the behavior, I believe you can change the device_file to a Light Switch instead and that will force the SetTarget actions to appear (the risk there is that you then end up with it looking like a light switch on the dashboard and turning it On/Off on the dash board does nothing but turn the LED on the switch on and off! it doesn't trigger the association.. fun!).  You may then be-able to turn it back to a Scene controller, if you want, the switch functions properly with either device type (it isn't a true scene controller either).

For your second switch, make sure you don't have something wrong with the neutral wiring, they should all be bundled together for both switches and all lines in the box.  If you have been setting associations on the switch Vera doesn't always keep track of that correctly and you may have a ton of association rules in there that are confusing the switch and making it super slow to do thing.  Unpairing it is the only way to force the association list to be be wiped for sure (Vera makes best effort to track the associations you have setup but doesn't actually have access to what is in the device association table on the device).

[tchen001]

After another week of normal use, the Cooper 9517 Accessory switch blue LED indicator light has remained in perfect sync with the Cooper 9501 Master switch. To summarize, what I have done:
1. Added Group ID 1 to both switch associations (via Add Group), and set the associations to each other
2. Set parameter 10 on the Master switch
3. Created 2 scenes, when the Master switch turns on (or off), ToggleState (target - Accessory switch) is invoked

I also added Group ID 255 to the Cooper 9501 Master switch Associations, and set the association to ZWave. 
BTW, can Group ID 255 be added to more than 1 device in a network?  I tried to add this to a second device but received the message "device configuration failed".

A screenshot of the Accessory switch variables accompanies this message.

Thanks again for your assistance.

[shallowearth]

Hmm what Vera device (Plus, Secure, etc) and firmware are you using?
Your Variable page doesn't look like mine, maybe Vera changed or broke something with detection of this device.
Also can you past the full capability string from the Variable page?  It is cut off in the picture you posted.


Association group 255 only supports one device and suppose to be your controller.  Group 1 supports 5 (unless you are using 255 also then it only supports 4 in Group 1).

[tchen001]

ShallowEarth ? in response to your query:

Controller:  VeraPlus
Firmware: 1.7.3831 (latest available)
Accessory Switch Capabilities: 211,156,0,4,18,1,L,R,B,RS,|39,43,44,112,114,115,117,119,133,134,135,

Update:  everything was fine for about 3 weeks of normal usage until I decided to stress test my system (all I did was depress the Accessory switch 4-5 times in rapid succession). As you predicted, the ToggleState action is not the solution ? after the stress test, when I depressed the Accessory switch, the indicator light on the Accessory switch toggled to the state opposite the status of the circuit the Master switch was controlling. (I could still toggle the Accessory switch indicator light by depressing the switch again to get it back in sync with the Master switch). So I deleted the ToggleState action from the Master switch.

Good news: SetTarget has miraculously appeared on the list of available services for the Accessory Switch!  (It only took 3 weeks - see image.)  I added SetTarget = True to two scenes, using the Master switch (on or off) as the trigger for each scene. What I discovered was that SetTarget = True results in the indicator light being turned on. So I edited the Master switch off scene to SetTarget = False. After a day of use, so far so good. In summary, what I have done to get the indicator LED on a Cooper 9517 Accessory switch to remain in sync with a 9501 Master switch:

1. Added Group ID 1 to both Accessory switch and Master switch associations (via Device Options - Add Group), and set the associations to each other
2. Set Parameter 10 using 1 byte hex, and set to 1 (Master switch only)
3. Waited 3 weeks for SetTarget action to become available for the Accessory switch (perhaps depressing it rapidly multiple times is what made the SetTarget action available?)
4. Created a scene triggered when the Master switch is turned on ? and via Advanced Editor Add Action, set the Accessory switch SetTarget to True.
5. Created a scene triggered when the Master switch is turned off ? and via Advanced Editor Add Action, set the Accessory switch SetTarget to False.

Remaining problem: how to instantly sync two Cooper Master 9501 switches.  I have scenes that keep them in sync, but there are frequently 2+ second delays (up to 8-10 seconds) in response time. Ideas?

[shallowearth]

Use direct association between the two masters.  Group 1.  Just like you did for the aux.  Will be much faster.  Just set them to also point to each other.  (You can also use parameter ten as needed)

Or try adding group 255 and associates to Zwave (Vera).  For some reason the signal is slow /lost getting back to the Vera so it is waiting for a poll to trigger the scene.