Z-Wave switches, direct linking

[ronisaacson]

Hey all, I have two Z-Wave switches that I’d like to link as direct responders so that when either one turns on or off, the other does the same. This is trivial to do with OH rules, but for this particular pair I need to configure the switches as direct responders to each other, so they remain linked even if OH is down. I recently changed all of my switches from Insteon to Z-Wave, and this was easy to do with Insteon, but I’m finding some confusing information on how to do it with Z-Wave.

Two questions:

1. Can OH be used to send the necessary configuration to the switches so they respond to each other? Or do I need to use some other tool for the initial setup, outside of OH?
2. Once that’s done, how do I configure the switches in OH so the linkage works correctly? I remember reading that the switches might only propagate local inputs (physically touching the switch) and not automation commands, and/or might not report their state in the expected way.

[rpwong (Russ)]

Yes, what you’re talking about is “association groups”. Here’s a recent conversation about that.

Multi-Controller Zwave Network

Hello Everyone, My experience with OpenHAB has been great! It’s a great product and there is a great community. I’m so thankful that folks have dedicated so much of their time to create something so useful! I’m a relatively new user, so please forgive my lack of technical accuracy! The problem I’m trying to solve, is that I have a single gang (SPST) light switch that currently controls an overhead fan and an overhead light in a guest bedroom. The overhead fan/light have the dangly chains to …

To set up associations, edit the thing parameters in MainUI (OH3) or Habmin (OH2).

If you associate two Z-Wave devices, then OH can be completely offline and they’ll still work. So, you don’t need to do any other configuration for them. That’s a double-edged sword, though, because you’ll never be able to control one of them in OH without controlling the other.

I would suggest treating the switches as a single unit in OH. Basically, set up an item for one of them, and don’t set up an item for the other one (since the association will ensure that it’s synchronized).

[ronisaacson]

Thanks, I got part way there. My two switches are Nodes 10 and 14, so on the Thing page for the Node 10 switch, I changed Group 2 to include Node 14:

Then I did the reverse on Node 14 and added Node 10 in that spot. Now the switches respond directly to each other, but if I use OH to send an on/off command to one of them, then only that one responds and not the other. So it seems I still need two separate Items in OH, unless I missed a step?

[rpwong (Russ)]

Hmm, I would have expected that to work. I guess your switches either aren’t registering the OH command as a “status change”, or the association group only picks up physical button presses. I only have one Z-Wave switch, so I can’t test it personally.