My experience with Z-Wave through elk OR how do i make groups or change the names?

[SamVimes2]

This may be more of an elk question, but I hope an expert here can chime in.

I have the levitan zwave switches and master controller all communicating successfully. I have set up several "areas" on the controller.

On the whole, the I like the levitan stuff a lot more than the intermatic stuff. The dimmers feel nicer and the controller is 1000x better, functionally and aesthetically. The only two intermatic plug-in lamp modules I am still using do not play nice - they randomly turn "on" at ~20% and have to "undimmed." This happens using the controller or through CQC.

I have the levitan serial adapter with the levitan firmware installed on the elk m1. I believe I successfully replicated my master controller to the serial module after including it in the network. I can turn lights on and off with the elk keypad and get feedback on manual changes, though I had to type each dimmer in ElkRP. I don't see how to set up groups in ElkRP.

Through the CQC Elk driver, I can also on/off/dim all the individual loads. Feedback of manual changes (on my templates and in triggered actions) is not blazing fast, but does feel more consistent than polling with the intermatic driver. Turn a light on...tick...tick...ti - interface changes/trigger reacts.

I have two (pretty big) holes still in my setup. I cannot see how to:
1) Change the names of the lights in the CQC elk driver. They all show up as PLC-AXX which is not very helpful.
2) Make and refer to groups in the CQC elk driver (or ElkRP).

I would think 2) must be possible and I'm just missing something. I hope 1) is possible but it's less important.

Thanks for any advice!

[dogman]

I found using Luminlink (Free) from Johnnynines website works pretty well to create groups and modify all the names of the nodes. Then you can export the XML file from Luminlink. Then simply import the XML file into ELK RP lighting following the directions here: http://johnnynine.com/wiki/LumenLink.ashx. Note: Currently if the ELK issues a group command to turn lights on it will not update the status of the nodes without some rules to poll the vizia dimmers. This is a quirk and supposedly future releases of the RZCOP serial firmware will embed this command . If you want an example of this let me know.

[SamVimes2]

Thanks a lot for the reply.

Do you interface your elk with CQC and have changed names in the driver? How do the groups show up [in CQC]?

[dogman]

I have not yet interfaced the ELK with CQC so I can't speak for that yet. It is in my plan in the next few weeks.

[SamVimes2]

Thanks very much. I will try out LumenLink for making groups in RP, and see if I can get them to show up in CQC.

Good luck with the elk/cqc portion and let me know if I can help at all.

[Micco]

Any update on the Elk/CQC/Vizia RZCOP integration?

I'm about ready to install my RZCOP and am trying to determine if I should use the Elk to interface or go straight into CQC.

My preference is to use the ELK, since I like the stability of a hardware solution for the control aspects, using CQC for the interface only.

[SamVimes2]

I experimented briefly with the CQC driver, but went back to the elk. I have been very happy with it so far.

Look for groups/areas in the 'I' range on the elk (at least on my setup).