Vera Sync Devices stop overwriting settings?

Issues
#1

Hi

For some of my Vera devices imported in to Home Remote designer, I’ve had to change their Capabilities or Attributes.

If I add new devices or scenes in Vera, in Home Remote designer I then right click the Vera object and select Synchronise Devices from the menu to update the devices and scenes etc.

However doing this loses any edits I previously made to some devices Capabilities or Attributes.

Anyway to stop this happening ?

Also a feature request.

The devices and scenes imported in to Home Remote designer from Vera is just one long alphabetical list of items.

Can this be organised better?

So that the items are organised into perhaps rooms / devices / scenes. So the items are grouped together better, rather than one long alphabetical list.

Also if I have deleted a device or scene from Vera, these items are not removed from the list in the Home Remote designer, even after doing a sync. I have to manually find them and remove them.

This also does not remove such a device from a Group page folder, that also has to be manually removed.

Thanks

#2

I’ve just added a new device to my Vera Plus a Neo CoolCam SOS keyfob. This adds two devices on to Vera, the parent keyfob scene controller device and a child motion sensor device which the red SOS button trips.

I wanted to add these in to Home Remote, especially the motion sensor device, but to do so I have to sync the devices again on the Vera object and then I lose the Capabilities or Attributes I have edited on some of the existing Vera devices in Home Remote.

Can something be added please to lock certain devices in Home Remote so that they are not overwritten again on each device sync routine ?

Thanks

#3

Custom attributes should not be overwritten on sync. I just tested on my machine & it seems to retain those values just fine. Capabilities might be overwritten but you really shouldn’t be changing those. If you are changing Capabilities, please explain why.

All devices are alphabetized by device Name. The device Name can be changed to help organize your devices. You could for example, add “Light_XXXX” to all of your lighting devices, “Sensor_” to all of your sensors.

#4

Hi Bill

For attributes I would have to test again and confirm to be totally sure.

However for capabilities I can say for 100% they are overwritten and lost.

I’ve had to add capabilities mainly for RGBW lights coming from Vera in to Home Remote.

image

If I run the sync these devices lose their capabilities each time and revert back to just:

Switch
SwitchLevel

I lose the ColorControl aspect. So then I have to manually edit them all again and sometimes I forget to do that and then later in the Android app, I go to change the colour of a light and find I cannot as I have no ColorControl available.

With regard to the view of Vera devices and scenes in Home Remote, I have 134 devices in Vera and 156 scenes and yes they are just in one long alphabetical list in Home Remote.

I find it difficult sometimes to find the device or scene I am looking for in Home Remote.

I just thought if as the devices and scenes were imported in to Home remote if it could group them by their room locations from Vera and group them by either being a device or by being a scene, it would make the long list easy to manage and navigate.

#5

Can you please show me the SDATA for 1 of these lights?

I’d like to see why the ColorControl capability isn’t automatically being added to your device. RGB lights are supposed to be of Category 2 & Subcategory 4. When it sees a combination of those 2 categories it’ll assign the ColorControl capability.
http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Luup_Device_Categories

That’s a lot of devices. I’ll can look into adding grouping options within the source. That could certainly be a future enhancement.

#6

OK doing some more detailed investigation:

1. Kids Bed Lights - Manufacturer YSRSAI, Model ZB-CL01

device #442

Zigbee ZLL RGB LED strip controller connected to the Philips Hue bridge and exposed in to Vera via the AltHue plugin for Vera.

category_num = 2

The subcategory_num field isn’t present for this device under its Advanced - Params tab.

{ "name": "Kids Bed Lights", "altid": "00:12:4b:00:1d:40:16:a1-01", "id": 442, "category": 2, "subcategory": -1, "room": 7, "parent": 420, "LampHexValue": "#FF0000", "configured": "0", "status": "0", "level": "0" },

2. RGBW Controller - Manufacturer Fibaro, Model FGRGBWM-441

device #176

This is a Z-Wave device and is connected to an RGB LED strip in my Kitchen.

category_num = 2
subcategory_num = 4

{ "name": "RGBW Controller", "altid": "56", "id": 176, "category": 2, "subcategory": 4, "room": 2, "parent": 1, "status": "0", "level": "0", "watts": "0.0", "kwh": "26.3400", "configured": "1", "commFailure": "0", "humidity": "10.9", "light": "26.3", "setpoint": "10.10", "heat": "10.10", "cool": "10.10", "state": -1, "comment": "" },

3. Cabinet Light Strip - Manufacturer Philips, Model Gen1 LED Light strip 2m

device #252

Genuine Philips Hue RGBW LED strip controller connected to the Philips Hue bridge and exposed in to Vera via the AltHue plugin for Vera.

category_num = 2

The subcategory_num field isn’t present for this device under its Advanced - Params tab

{ "name": " Cabinet Light Strip", "altid": "00:17:88:01:00:ce:6d:44-0b", "id": 252, "category": 2, "subcategory": -1, "room": 1, "parent": 420, "status": "0", "level": "0", "LampHexValue": "#FFDEF6", "configured": "0" },

4. TV Backlight - Manufacturer Dresden Elektronik, Model FLS-PP3

device #253

Zigbee ZLL RGB LED strip controller connected to the Philips Hue bridge and exposed in to Vera via the AltHue plugin for Vera.

category_num = 2

The subcategory_num field isn’t present for this device under its Advanced - Params tab.

{ "name": " TV Backlight", "altid": "00:21:2e:ff:ff:01:4e:4f-0a", "id": 253, "category": 2, "subcategory": -1, "room": 1, "parent": 420, "status": "0", "level": "0", "LampHexValue": "#FFDFF6", "configured": "0" },

5. Lamp Right - Manufacturer Philips, Model LCT015 RGBW Light Bulb

device #379

Genuine Philips Hue RGBW light bulb connected to the Philips Hue bridge and exposed in to Vera via the AltHue plugin for Vera.

category_num = 2

The subcategory_num field isn’t present for this device under its Advanced - Params tab

{ "name": " Lamp Right", "altid": "00:17:88:01:04:86:28:a1-0b", "id": 379, "category": 2, "subcategory": -1, "room": 1, "parent": 420, "LampHexValue": "#FFD482", "configured": "0", "status": "0", "level": "0" },

6. Lamp Left - Manufacturer Philips, Model LCT015 RGBW Light Bulb

device #380

Genuine Philips Hue RGBW light bulb connected to the Philips Hue bridge and exposed in to Vera via the AltHue plugin for Vera.

category_num = 2

The subcategory_num field isn’t present for this device under its Advanced - Params tab

{ "name": " Lamp Left", "altid": "00:17:88:01:04:86:29:94-0b", "id": 380, "category": 2, "subcategory": -1, "room": 1, "parent": 420, "LampHexValue": "#FFD482", "configured": "0", "status": "0", "level": "0" },

7. Sofa Light - Manufacturer Dresden Elektronik, Model FLS-PP3

device #444

Zigbee ZLL RGBW LED strip controller connected to the Philips Hue bridge and exposed in to Vera via the AltHue plugin for Vera.

category_num = 2

The subcategory_num field isn’t present for this device under its Advanced - Params tab.

{ "name": " Sofa Light", "altid": "00:21:2e:ff:ff:03:8a:5e-0a", "id": 444, "category": 2, "subcategory": -1, "room": 1, "parent": 420, "status": "0", "level": "0", "LampHexValue": "#FC18FF", "configured": "0" },

8. Masterbed RGB Dimmer - Manufacturer TKB Home, Model TZ77EU

device #429

This is a Z-Wave device and is connected to an RGBW LED strip.

category_num = 2
subcategory_num = 0

{ "name": "Masterbed RGB Dimmer", "altid": "93", "id": 429, "category": 2, "subcategory": 0, "room": 6, "parent": 1, "configured": "1", "status": "0", "level": "0", "state": -1, "comment": "" },

So it mainly seems to be a problem with the AltHue plugin devices in Vera.

I don’t know how to add a subcategory_num if that field is not present in the Vera web GUI on the devices?

I have asked that question on the Vera forum here.

#7

OK this seems to work in Vera in the Apps - Develop Apps - Test Luup code (Lua)

luup.attr_set('subcategory_num', 4, 442)

4 is the subcategory_num and 442 is the device number you want to set it on.

I can now see the subcategory_num field in the devices Advanced - Params tab and it also now apprears in SDATA as “subcategory”: 4

I will set them all to 4 and run the device sync again in the Home Remote designer, this should fix the issue.

#8

OK I’ve run the device sync on the Vera object in the Home Remote designer.

These RGBW devices have ColorControl listed under Capabilities still after the sync, so seems to be OK now.

Also the Attributes are not overwritten they remain also.

Thanks

#9

I see that these “AltHue” devices include a field LampHexValue that most normal lights don’t have. What I could do is, in addition to the subcategory check, see if this field exist. Then if it does, assign the ColorControl capability.

1 Like
#10

Hi

I’m also losing the “ColorTemperature” capability on some of these AltHue devices from Vera.

The “ColorControl” capability is remaining now after syncing the devices on the Vera object but the “ColorTemperature” capability is lost each time.

Thanks

#11

In this last release, I only added ColorControl for LampHexValue. “3.12.0” will include ColorTemperature also. It’ll be out sometime this week.

1 Like