ZWave Updates and Association Groups for Controller

[Rafal (Rafal Lukawiecki)]

I am not sure if I understand the underlying issue or the concept of ZWave association rules for OH2. In OH1 I did not set them up at all and all devices just worked, ie. they received commands and reported state if I changed them using their physical buttons etc. However with OH2.5.5 I have a number of devices, notably all Fibaro switches/dimmers and the Sensative strip contact sensor which would not report their state back. They receive commands, so I can turn things on and off, but if I use a physical button to turn on a switch that change is not being processed by OH2. I checked that in UIs, event.log, and by querying smarthome:status for the connected Items in Karaf.

I then looked at the Things in Paper UI, and I have realised that many of them did not have anything showing for Lifeline or Group 1—HABmin was inconsistent with Paper UI, had values for some, none for others, and strange looking values (just a “removal X” without a name) for a couple more. When I set the Controller to be lifeline or group 1, some of them started reporting, but not all. For example, Fibaro FGS213 Single Switch 2 (dbReference 423) only started reporting its status when I have configured Group 2, labelled in Paper UI as Switch 1 On/Off and Group 3, labelled Dimmer 1, see screenshot:

For some devices, like Fibaro FGD212 Dimmer 2 (dbReference 133) I had to configure Group 2 or 3 to point to the Controller—those groups are labelled Sends BASIC SET command class frame S1 and Sends MULTILEVEL SWITCH command class frame S1, see this:

For yet another device, FGD212 Dimmer 2 (dbReference 787) I had to add the Controller as Group 2 target for its updates to be received by OH2:

Is all of this normal or do I have a corrupted ZWave USB stick (Aeotec Gen5)? Are those devices supposed to communicate their status with the controller regardless of those entries? Or is it vital to configure both lifeline and one of the groups? @Bruce_Osborne says in Zwave 2.5.x Association Groups that OH only uses the Lifeline association, but that has not been my experience, I am afraid.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

[Bruce_Osborne]

@chris is, by far our best expert here. I believe @rlkoshak move from OH1 to OH2. I am too new to assist much.

I do know you used to need to worry about setting the Lifeline. No it is usually defined in the database entry. If not, the binding auto discovers it so it no longer needs setting manually.

[chris (Chris Jackson)]

@Rafal

In OH1 I did not set them up at all and all devices just worked, ie. they received commands and reported state if I changed them using their physical buttons etc.

That seems pretty unlikely - unless you have configured associations, or the binding configured them, then it won’t work.

The binding in OH2 does the same thing as OH1 - it configures associations based on the Lifeline, and those set as “controller” in the database (same as OH1 did).

The only difference is that Associations have moved on and the binding now has to choose between the standard association class and the MCA class. This can mean that devices now report differently due to the change in the standards. I would suggest to reset the devices if you’re having problems and re-include them. If that doesn’t work, provide a log of the configuration, and a log of what you receive.

@Rafal

For some devices, like Fibaro FGD212 Dimmer 2 (dbReference 133) I had to configure Group 2 or 3 to point to the Controller

Generally, this should not be the case - only the lifeline is required if they are ZWave + devices. Other groups normally send different commands and are normally designed to send commands to devices rather than controllers.
If the devices are not ZWave+ devices, then it’s possible that you have to configure different groups as ZWave Plus moved to standardise the use of associations.

@Rafal

Is all of this normal or do I have a corrupted ZWave USB stick (Aeotec Gen5)?

If has nothing to do with the USB stick so don’t worry about that.

@Rafal

Or is it vital to configure both lifeline and one of the groups?

You should generally avoid configuring the lifeline AND another group to point to the controller as that will cause duplication of commands which will/may cause problems.

@Rafal

OH only uses the Lifeline association

OH doesn’t know where commands come from, so it’s nothing to do with OH as such. The device sends commands - how those commands are configured is linked to the association groups, but once the commands get sent, the binding has absolutely no way to know if it came from a lifeline, or any other association, or something else - it’s just a command.