HowTo: Aeon Labs MiniMote fully functional Scene Controller in UI5!

[phyla1]

Got it working in 10 minutes on vera3 EU version
using the steps from chixxi works like a charm

[intveltr]

My MiniMotes work like a charm under UI5, finally I can use them to control scenes.

One small issue though: it seems that it is no longer possible to associate Minimote buttons to devices instead of using the to trigger scenes.  For one of my Minimotes I'd like the ability to dim lights up/down, and for that I need to associate a button directly with the dimmer.

It seems that the individual buttons can be switched between scene buttons and regular buttons through configuration parameters 241 - 244.  I've tried setting these in the Vera interface, but sending the configuration to the Minimote always fails at: "purging associations".  Vera will keep trying this purge for up to several minutes without success, and fails when I finally let the Minimote go to sleep again.  Any workaround for this?

[chixxi]

I never associated a minim mote directly to a device, I never tried.

You could basically just create a scene which dims you lights down by 1%, and another scene which would dim your lights up by 1%. Then you could use two buttons to  run these scenes. But this doesn't seem like a very smart approach, because you'd have to push you buttons 100 times to dim from 0-100% percent.

A colleague has written some luup code to do this with one button. I'll ask him to post that here...

[tazziefez]

Hi

I cant seem to get mine to work. From the instructions it should appear as _MiniMote however every time i add it it appears as _SceneController. I have upgraded the firmware v1.17 Au for australia, running UI5 1.5.246.

It seemed to pair to the dongle fine, still works with all lights on/off by holding 1&2/3&4.

Any ideas?

[chixxi]

Basically it should work. But you are not running on the newest version of the vera's firmware, maybe try updating your vera...

[tazziefez]

But you are not running on the newest version of the vera's firmware, maybe try updating your vera...

Apologies that was a typo, i am running the latest ver 1.5.346

It should appear as _MiniMote not as _Scene Controller though?

[chixxi]

Yes, it should appear as _MiniMote.

I guess you did all the steps described, including the reset of your minimote?

You could try to add it as a normal zwave device instead of a secondary controller. Make sure that you delete the device on the vera an reset your minimote before readding it.

[Flagstaff]

Just a quick update to this in case someone comes across the same problem I faced in the future. After adding the minimote sucessfully it would only let me use the two top buttons. The click and longclick could be used for both top buttons giving me 4 scenes but the bottom buttons didn't work except when pressing both of them to turn off all lights. Anyway, resetting the device using the associate and learn buttons, removing the device from Vera and then adding it again using the process described in this pose seems to have sorted out the issue so that all 4 buttons can be assigned to scenes correctly including long and short click.

[huib]

with help of the instruction in the beginning of this post i was able to get the minimote running satisfactory

only observation that if you are using the healing / repair function the system stops at the remote. at that moment when you press LEARN on the device the repair / healing continous succesfully

the second groups of buttons (long press) are also working properly

[futzle]

Just a quick update to this in case someone comes across the same problem I faced in the future. After adding the minimote sucessfully it would only let me use the two top buttons. The click and longclick could be used for both top buttons giving me 4 scenes but the bottom buttons didn't work except when pressing both of them to turn off all lights.

Interesting, the same has happened to me.

Luup log from an unsuccessful bottom-left button press ("Electric blanket on"):

Code: [Select]

06 06/19/12 22:11:01.714 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 170 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: sl_SceneActivated was: 6 now: 5 #hooks: 3 upnp: 0 v:0x7dd228/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2bf59680>
07 06/19/12 22:11:01.715 Event::Evaluate 5 AUTO_GENERATED scene Coffee start time is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2bf59680>
07 06/19/12 22:11:01.715 Event::Evaluate 6 AUTO_GENERATED scene Bedside lamp to 40% or 60% is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2bf59680>
07 06/19/12 22:11:01.715 Event::Evaluate 7 AUTO_GENERATED scene Electric blanket on is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2bf59680>
06 06/19/12 22:11:01.715 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 170 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: LastSceneID was: 6 now: 5 #hooks: 0 upnp: 0 v:(nil)/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2bf59680>
06 06/19/12 22:11:01.716 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 170 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: LastSceneTime was: 1340107703 now: 1340107861 #hooks: 0 upnp: 0 v:(nil)/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2bf59680>

Luup log from a successful top-left button press ("Bedside lamp to 40% or 60%"):

Code: [Select]

06 06/19/12 22:14:54.430 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 170 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: sl_SceneActivated was: 5 now: 1 #hooks: 3 upnp: 0 v:0x7dd228/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2bf59680>
07 06/19/12 22:14:54.431 Event::Evaluate 5 AUTO_GENERATED scene Coffee start time is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2bf59680>
07 06/19/12 22:14:54.431 Event::Evaluate 6 AUTO_GENERATED scene Bedside lamp to 40% or 60% is true users:(null) allow:1 <0x2bf59680>
08 06/19/12 22:14:54.431 Scene::RunScene running 6 Bedside lamp to 40% or 60% <0x2bf59680>
08 06/19/12 22:14:54.432 JobHandler_LuaUPnP::HandleActionRequest device: 60 service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1 action: SetLoadLevelTarget <0x2bf59680>
08 06/19/12 22:14:54.432 JobHandler_LuaUPnP::HandleActionRequest argument newLoadlevelTarget=40 <0x2bf59680>
06 06/19/12 22:14:54.432 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 60 service: urn:upnp-org:serviceId:Dimming1 variable: LoadLevelTarget was: 40 now: 40 #hooks: 0 upnp: 0 v:0x8e5308/NONE duplicate:1 <0x2bf59680>
02 06/19/12 22:14:54.433 ZWJob_SendData  UPDATE MANUAL ROUTE 3=(nil) <0x2bf59680>
07 06/19/12 22:14:54.434 Event::Evaluate 7 AUTO_GENERATED scene Electric blanket on is false repeat 0/-1 <0x2bf59680>
06 06/19/12 22:14:54.435 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 170 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: LastSceneID was: 5 now: 1 #hooks: 0 upnp: 0 v:(nil)/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2bf59680>
06 06/19/12 22:14:54.435 Device_Variable::m_szValue_set device: 170 service: urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SceneController1 variable: LastSceneTime was: 1340107861 now: 1340108094 #hooks: 0 upnp: 0 v:(nil)/NONE duplicate:0 <0x2bf59680>

Oh, I see what's happened. The buttons have shifted.  What used to be on button 3 is now on button 2.  I wonder if it's because I'd left button 2 unassigned and the other scenes have bunched up to fill the gaps?

Edit: Looks like the Minimote is sending 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 as top-left-short, top-left-long, top-right-short, top-right-long, bottom-left-short, bottom-left-long, bottom-right-short, bottom-right-long, and that Vera is no longer mapping this to 1, 3, 5, 7 for short presses and 2, 4, 6, 8 for long presses. No idea why.

Edit: Since the continued operation of the Minimote is essential for the WAF, I gave up and excluded/reset/included the Minimote. Unlike Flagstaff, that wasn't sufficient, and the Minimote is still misbehaving, thinking the on buttons are 1, 3, 5, 7 and the off buttons 2, 4, 6, 8.  So I dug into the Advanced tab and fooled Vera into thinking I had 8 buttons, and assigned events only to the odd+on buttons and even+off buttons. That seems to have done the trick.

Edit edit: Turns out it was a regression in the private beta I was testing. Not the same issue as Flagstaff.

[cw-kid]

Hi

I cant seem to get mine to work. From the instructions it should appear as _MiniMote however every time i add it it appears as _SceneController. I have upgraded the firmware v1.17 Au for australia, running UI5 1.5.246.

It seemed to pair to the dongle fine, still works with all lights on/off by holding 1&2/3&4.

Any ideas?

I've just tried adding my minimote and mine also has not been detected properly and appears as _SceneController, see screen shots, also the Scenes tab looks all wrong.

EDIT: I removed the _SceneController and followed the steps again and this time it seems to have added it correctly!

[cw-kid]

One small issue though: it seems that it is no longer possible to associate Minimote buttons to devices instead of using the to trigger scenes.  For one of my Minimotes I'd like the ability to dim lights up/down, and for that I need to associate a button directly with the dimmer.

It seems that the individual buttons can be switched between scene buttons and regular buttons through configuration parameters 241 - 244.  I've tried setting these in the Vera interface, but sending the configuration to the Minimote always fails at: "purging associations".  Vera will keep trying this purge for up to several minutes without success, and fails when I finally let the Minimote go to sleep again.  Any workaround for this?

This is also a problem for me, previously when using my other Z-wave software before using VeraLite I just directly added the Z-wave lamp modules to the minimote. I could turn the lamps on and off and also dim or brighten them with the minimote, I now cannot dim or brighten with the minimote after adding the minimote as a secondary controller to VeraLite. I have just added my lounge on and lounge off scenes I setup in VeraLite to the button 1 on/off on the minimote this works and the lamps turn on and off but I have lost the ability to dim or brighten them, any ideas ?

Thanks

[chixxi]

One small issue though: it seems that it is no longer possible to associate Minimote buttons to devices instead of using the to trigger scenes.  For one of my Minimotes I'd like the ability to dim lights up/down, and for that I need to associate a button directly with the dimmer.

It seems that the individual buttons can be switched between scene buttons and regular buttons through configuration parameters 241 - 244.  I've tried setting these in the Vera interface, but sending the configuration to the Minimote always fails at: "purging associations".  Vera will keep trying this purge for up to several minutes without success, and fails when I finally let the Minimote go to sleep again.  Any workaround for this?

This is also a problem for me, previously when using my other Z-wave software before using VeraLite I just directly added the Z-wave lamp modules to the minimote. I could turn the lamps on and off and also dim or brighten them with the minimote, I now cannot dim or brighten with the minimote after adding the minimote as a secondary controller to VeraLite. I have just added my lounge on and lounge off scenes I setup in VeraLite to the button 1 on/off on the minimote this works and the lamps turn on and off but I have lost the ability to dim or brighten them, any ideas ?

Thanks

You could use luup code to do the following:

Create a scene and the write a code which "gets the current dim-level, adds 5% and then sets the lights again".

Create a second scene which "gets the current dim-level, subtracts 5% and then sets the lights again".

Then you can use two buttons on the minimote (or one with short and long hold) to dim your lights up and down.

[cw-kid]

Hello

Thank you for the reply, I am a newbie and know nothing about writing Luup code, do you have any examples of some code that might do this?

cheers

[cw-kid]

Do you also lose on the Minimote All Lights On / All Lights Off function? Pressing top two buttons together = All Lights On Pressing bottom two buttons together = All Lights Off.

This isn't working any more since adding the minimote to VeraLite. What is the advantage of adding the minimote to VeraLite over just directly adding the Z-wave modules to the minimote ?

If I add a dimmable lamp module directly to a button on the minimote I can then turn on/off and also dim that lamp all from the one button, by adding the minimote as a secondary controller to VeraLite and assigning the scenes to a button on the minimote from VeraLite, I am losing functionality of the minimote.

Thanks