Trying CQC, need help with buttons

[Deane Johnson]

In seeing if I can manage CQC, I'm trying to put a on and an off button on a screen and have them turn a Z-Wave light on and off. A real one, not a simulator.

I've loaded the VRC0P driver and it's shows it's connected to the proper COM port.

My simple mind says I should be able to go to the Interface template editor, make a command button, select the VRC0P driver as a device and get a list of the actions it can control by action and node number. Obviously, I don't get any such thing so I must be way, way off track.

I have watched videos today until my eyes burn and haven't found the answer.

My approach in evaluating my ability to use CQC is to set up simple tasks using my peripherals. If I can turn a single light on and off with a button on my iPad interface, I can obviously expand it to my entire system at a later time.

One thing that throws me a little is not understanding Dean's abbreviations, but I'll have to learn to live with that.

I will say the software is more plug and play than I expected, but I can't figure out what to plug in order to play.

[Dean Roddey]

Some drivers, like the Z-Wave driver, need to be configured before you can use it. It needs to be told what names you want to give to the Z-Wave units and so forth. Actually the old driver, which is the one you will be using, is not nearly as nice as the one that is available now and about to come out in 4.6, so it might be worth working on another device for a few days and then coming back to the Z-Wave driver.

But, if you want to go ahead, what you need to do is to load the client side driver (there's a video on those), and then go to the driver documentation page which will explain the configuration process. All of the drivers are here:

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web2/ExtCont...evices.htm

Z-Wave is under lighting. Basically it will show you the Z-Wave units it has found, and you will give them names and tell the driver some information about them. A big advantage the new one has is that that information (and a lot more) is contained a 'device info' file that you just select for each unit.

Once you save the changes, the driver will re-scan, and when it completes, you will have the fields available.

For a quick sanity test, while in the Admin Interface, you can run the Field Browser (on the buttons on the tool bar to the left, hover over them to see the description.) The you can just do some manual spelunking and field setting to see if you are really controlling the Z-Wave units. If that works, then you are ready for the next stop, so let me know when you get there.

[batwater]

Deane , if you still need some help by tomorrow evening on what Dean suggested through the Admin interface, both setup and with the client side interface for the Z-Wave driver and then subsequent control tests via the Field Browser send me a private message here and if you are game we'll set up an impromptu Google hangout to do a screen share and I'll walk you through the various pieces.

-Ben

[Deane Johnson]

While I gather my thinking about how to proceed relative to the Z-Wave driver, let me pose another issue I need to figure out how to handle during this transition period.

My server and interfaces are all in use with Elve. When I work on CQC, I simply disable them in Elve which seems to free the COM ports and allow CQC to have access. This also worked with HomeSeer 3.0.

Last night as I was hanging it up for the night I discovered that that CQC still had control of my VRC0P and Elve couldn't take control back. I uninstalled the driver in CQC which restored my access for Elve.

Is there a simple way to disable CQC's hold on the devices at the end of the work period. Getting a driver in and working, then taking it back out daily isn't going to be very productive.


@batwater

Thanks for your generous offer. I'll take you up on it. I first need to think today about waiting for the new z-wave driver. It seems it doesn't make sense to figure out the old one at this point.

My demands on CQC are actually fairly light. The only interface devices I use are the VRC0P, Ocelot (relays only), Ti103 (x-10) and Global Cache GC-100 (for IR only). With Ocelot and the Ti103 out of the picture for CQC, that only leaves the Global Cache driver to work on. I almost need to figure out first how to have the driver capture switching back and forth between CQC and Elve during the learning phase.

[batwater]

Deane,

CQC allows you to suspend the driver which would then release it. Add the driver back in and in the same Server Driver Interface dialog, with the new driver you installed selected you will see a Pause / Resume button in the bottom let corner. This is a feature that Dean just recently added based on user requests.

If your zwave modules do not self report their status when there is a status change then you may want to stick with the v1 driver. You mentioned on Cocoon that you do not have a neutral wire in your gang boxes so based on that characteristic I'm presuming that the zwave modules you are using do not report their status when there is a change e.g. light on / light off / dim to 50%, etc. It is my understanding that the v2 driver is built around zwave modules that self report and thus does not provide the capability for polling module status.

What you learn (other than configuring zwave itself) will be transferable between drivers, given your circumstances I suggest you work with the zwave interface as it gives you immediate gratification of control, light on / light off. The GC-100 would be a good 2nd driver. Besides, your past the "hard part" with already having a working/programmed zwave network. ;-)

I'm happy to walk you through some of the basics with you, I'm by no means an expert but have been using the software for a number of years now so can navigate fairly well.

-Ben

[Deane Johnson]

I have (1) Leviton Wall dimmer, the one where there is no neutral, several Leviton lamp dimmers, and (4) Cooper Aspire Z-Wave wall sockets. I think there is also a couple of Intermatic appliance switches in the circuit, but those will go someday in favor of something better.

My intention was to go all Z-Wave, but the PCS X-10 has been so trouble free I haven't bothered with changing them out.

EDIT:

I just tested the Pause/Resume feature and it appears to solve the problem.

The driver status window shows "wait to connect" when it is running, "waiting for comm resource" when Elve has it, and "paused" right now. I guess I'm at the point of needing to figure out how to get it to be to display the items in my network, and to show up on a button in the Template editor. My goal is to get one set of on/off buttons functioning clear through to the iPad. From there on, it's simply repetition.

[SomeWhatLost]

just a fwiw type thing, but if you ever get a bunch of drivers loaded up, it would probably be easier to just stop the CQC service when done playing, and restart it when you want to play some more...
just may be a bit easier then pausing/resuming a bunch of different drivers...

[Deane Johnson]

I seem to have an issue with the driver connecting with the VRC0P. It shows the Driver State as "Wait for Connect". When went to the Client Driver Administration per the video, it gave me a screen with the message "This device seems to be offline at this time". That dialogue is locked on the screen and I can get it off.

[batwater]

Do you have the baud rate set in the driver correctly for the VRCOP? With Elve paused (and the CQC driver) can you try opening up a hyper terminal window to the VRCOP and issuing a N2UP (if you have a device on node 2) to get a status?

[Deane Johnson]

What would that be in English batwater?:-)

EDIT: It appears the baud rate is set at 57600. Seems a little high. A quick Google search indicates it should be 9600. Should I change it?