We are releasing a new device handler for SmartThings that has a lot of code cleanup and a few new features. This is not the fully “new app” compatible device handler that you may have seen mentioned elsewhere. After hours of testing and troubleshooting, some of the features of the new app are just too inconsistent to push at this point.
LED Child Devices
The ability to create child devices to change the color of the LEDs. This will allow you to change the LED color and intensity from any app that can change the color of a bulb. There are four options here. The “Fan LED” & “Light LED” child devices are color devices. The other two are just “dimmer” devices to adjust the intensity of the LED when the light or fan is off.
Speaking of child devices, this device handler is creating the devices in a different way so that they do not give the “Network Connection” error. Unfortunately, they have to be recreated in order for this to take effect. If you delete both of them through the app you can go back into the parent device and change one of the preferences to re-create them the different way.
Lastly, If you are using “Virtual Device Sync” so that you can control the individual devices in Google Home / Alexa then you don’t need to recreate the child devices in the new way. Just keep the “Use VDS” option selected.
Yeah you can just paste the code over the existing one - no need to delete it
Lol, funny you should ask… We were just talking about the rainbow effect the other day. Let’s give our engineer a break before he quits before we ask him about upgrading the firmware lol!
@EricM_Inovelli I am using VDS, but still don’t see color control for the switches in Alexa app. Mine were set up as dimmers. Do I need to remove/re-add them as rgbw child devices or something?
Hmmm, so there is an option in the device handler to create child devices for the LED color, but since they are child devices I don’t know if they will show up in Alexa. VDS is just meant for the fan and light endpoints so they can be controlled via voice (man, SmartThings is a mess when I read back through that).
I see the LED show up in Alexa app under the "FAN LED RGB " child switch or the "LIGHT RGB child switch and can manually adjust them. For voice control I think I have some cleaning up to do with a couple integrations before it will recognize the names, the classic ST app reflects name changes but the new is listed as Inovelli Fan & Light (Fan LED), Inovelli Fan & Light (Light LED), etc. Last time I changed the names in the new app it messed them up and with discontinued classic support the changes don’t seem to be in sync.
Ok, that is good to know. The way the child devices are setup is if you change the color temperature to anything it switches the LED to white. If you adjust the color then it adjusts the color.
I believe the bug that didn’t allow you to change the name in the new app has been fixed. I just changed the name of mine and they still work.
Yes you can rename them in Alexa/Google. It helps for sure as well as grouping for voice control. I’ve been quite busy and not had a chance to clean up all the new child devices in the apps yet so that is why my voice assistant (and wife) are a little cranky lol. Basics are there going to sort things out with voice assistants this evening. With the Home Assistant/ST integration though I am able to set things a little differently for my voice assistants via HA as opposed to ST and Alexa(Ask Alexa and Echo Speaks) smartapps which may cause a different behavior of the standard Alexa/Google integrations.
It looks like you missed copying line 1. Line 1 has comment characters but your error is saying that line 1 has “Inovelli Fan + Light” (which is actually line 2).
Here is the raw url so you can just do a select all + copy:
So I got device handlers in. I am testing on both ST Classic and the new app. The app changes the led setting on switch but nothing happens on fan/light
I have a ceiling fan with a built in controller and i went with a wiring diagram offered by jtronicus LZW36 Fan wiring - #4 by mgreenb561 - Wiring Discussion - Inovelli Community
so its possible that compatibility is just sketchy, but i wired everything up, included the switch. i was getting ‘network error’ and nothing worked so i presumed module was not paired. Had to flip breaker to pair…had 2 wifi bulbs and an incandescent. The wifi bulbs illuminated and the incandescent flashes!! Still did not get to device handlers. Played with switches; i got variable speeds and got lights to go to 100 % and dim, with paddles but they made no sense (fan controlled light,up was down…very sporadic and random) . So though it is still possible that this fan is just incompatible, I did at some point get it to change speeds and brightness, so I think I know that the wiring is correct and it can do what it is supposed to
Did device handlers. Neither the app nor switches did anything. I edited to pair switch w device handler. In the ST IDE there were no defaults for any of the parameters, so i put in all defaults…still nothing. The led indicators do react properly to changes i make on the app. Maybe device handlers got corrupted? (that is my weak point…i thought i was getting better) I am thinking more of a problem with module. Even if the fan has compatibility issues (because of the controller wires) the light is just a stinking blue wire (it lit) and should work
Plastic electric box only 10 or 12 ft to module
Without a solution from here, I am guessing I need to take it down and just bench test module for variable outputs
Hi @EricM_Inovelli, running Alexa & SmartThings with the VDS child devices; everything is working quite nicely. But (isn’t there always!) a couple of thoughts that would make it even nicer… (though I’m guessing you’ve already though of them too)
For the light, can we have the same options as all the other switches (no delay on the switch & smart bulb mode). For the fan, is there a way to have it show up (in SmartThings & Alexa) as a fan (rather than a dimmer? And, probably related, respond to “medium” and ideally “breeze” settings (“Low” & “High” do work for me)
Thanks for everything you do!
@SandyB We can definitely look into adding the “no delay” option to the light on Fan + Light. As for the Smart bulb mode, I’m not sure if it is necessary on this device, but let me know your thoughts on this. We mainly added it to the dimmer because certain smart bulbs (Hue & Lifx) were having issues because of how our device works with 3-way solutions and non-neutral mode. It also uses a different hardware dimming type which has advantages and disadvantages.
I have not seen these issues on the fan+light because it doesn’t have the differences listed above. I have been using a single Hue bulb in one of my fans for several weeks without any shutoff or flashing issues. It has been very stable.
As for your other questions, I have started working on a “Fan Child Device” that you should be able to switch your device to if you choose. I don’t think I will make it the default because it will add another child device handler that users have to install to get started.
Hi @EricM_Inovelli, personally I would turn on the “no delay” option if it was there (as I have on the other switches that don’t have scenes configured) - but it’s not a big deal, almost all my usage here is through voice - I was thinking for consistency more than much else (more important if similar code goes onto your upcoming - hopefully! - dual switches). SmartBulb support; yes thinking more about it, the way it’s wired with the load always connected, the option is not really relevant.
A ‘Fan Child Device’ sounds perfect, that’s exactly what I was hoping for!
All my 3-way (and 4-way) switches are currently using single LZW31s & aux-switches. But I am curious about what is (or may become) possible using multiple Inovelli’s - on a good sale day, your switches aren’t all that more expensive that the aux’s (which doesn’t seem right! - but please take this as a complaint about the aux prices rather than the other way round!!). I believe, in a normal lighting circuit, a second Inovelli switch can be associated with the Inovelli that’s controlling the lights (all works except the led indicator on the secondary). Does the same concept work with LZW36’s? (for both fan & light). For any existing multi-way fan wiring, it seems like there must be at least 2 wires between the light and/or each switch - so these can always be “repurposed” to provide live & neutral to all the switch locations. And if Z-Wave can do the rest…
Thanks for the update
@EricM_Inovelli I see this is the ST section and I’m on Hubitat but it’s the only place I’ve seen the 700ms button delay option for the LZW36 mentioned. I would definitely use the Disable 700ms button delay option if it were available. My wife doesn’t want me to replace the other two fan controllers because of the delay. As soon as she told me that I changed the dimmer setting from 3 to 0 to make it as fast as possible in the hopes of winning her over with that change eventually. I have already switched all of the LZW30-SN and LZW31-SN to instant and just use the hold on or off or the config button for scenes now. My wife either uses the switch or Alexa but she doesn’t remember any of the scene options anyway. I still will only buy the Red series even if I can’t use the scenes as fully as I initially had thought (I’m not sure I could remember that many scenes either) if only for the LED notifications which I love.
The fan + light does have association and multi-channel association to allow it to control other devices. I need to do more testing on what is possible here, but I know that it was implemented. In theory you can control another LZW36 with multichannel associations. You can also control LZW30/31s via Fan + light with associations.
@Terk We will look for ways to optimize the communication time for the LZW36 like we have on the other devices. There is another radio involved which will add a little delay that the LZW30/31 do not have. Currently if you set your minimum light level to the lowest level that the light turns on at and change the ramp rate / dimming speed settings you can get the device to seem much more responsive. It is just a matter of getting everything set correctly for your particular setup.
Just wanted to say I’m a huge fan of this switch. I bought two and they’re in the kids’ rooms, and the kids love being able to use the switch now (couldn’t reach chains of course), and now I can also automate them and use Alexa to turn them off. I installed the original DTH when I got it (not sure what version but VDS was supported), and got VDS setup, and all was working great. I have three devices listed in Smartthings- fan, light, and switch itself for each room. Anyway just updated this DTH, and some strange behavior is happening. First, the switch itself now always shows as being “on”. I turn the light and fan off, and the switch shows on. I click the switch to turn off, and light and fan turn off, but a second later the switch goes back to on as status (light and fan stay off like they should). Also, the status is not always right now for the light created in the VDS. If I click off on switch itself to turn off, sometimes it shows the light is on when it actually turned it off. I updated the VDS smartapp, but not sure if I missed a step or if there is something else I need to do. Do I need to delete the VDS lights and re-create them? Or is this how the DTH is supposed to work now and I just need to make sure I don’t touch the switch at all, and control everything through the VDS created fan and light “children”? I hope this makes sense and isn’t too confusing. I suppose the switch is always technically “on” because it has LED’s, even if the light and fan are off, its just this code update changed the way it worked previously for me.
Clarify - when I say “switch” i mean the combined fan/light switch in the smartthings app, not the physical wall switch. No issues with control through the physical switch.
