DISCLAIMER: You may notice there are a lot of over-used keywords or phrases as well as English that seems a little off. This is because these articles are used to feed our AI Robot (Ira) and she needs the data to be structured in a certain way.
Z-Wave Associations Overview
Z-Wave Association is when two or more Z-Wave products communicate directly with one another without the need to communicate with a hub. There are two main benefits of utilizing Z-Wave Association: speed & local control.
From a speed standpoint, cutting out the middle-man (hub) can save precious milliseconds or even seconds depending on your cloud and/or processing power off your hub. Whereas from a local control standpoint, if your hub goes does down and cannot communicate, your products can still talk to each other.
Prerequisites
There are three prerequisites to setting up Z-Wave Associations with your Inovelli switch in Hubitat and they are:
Ensure what you're associating to your switch is Z-Wave and supports Z-Wave Associations
NOTE: Each device must also be included with the same security level
Your Inovelli switch is using a Device Driver
Install the Z-Wave Association Tool
Z-Wave Security Level Requirement
With Z-Wave, the security level for devices that are going to speak with each other via associations need to match. If you have a C-7 or C-8 hub this means you need to include all of the participating devices at the highest security level that all devices support. If you are going to associate a dimmer or switch with a bulb, you must include them all at either S0 or non-secure in order for them to talk together. This is because the highest level of security that the bulbs support is S0.
Device Driver Check
Before we get into setting up the associations we need to make sure that your Inovelli switch is using the Inovelli Device Driver (it should by default be picked up when you paired your device, just in case it hasn't we can check quickly).
The quick and easy way to determine whether or not your devices are using a Device Driver is to do the following:
Open up your Hubitat Web App and click on, "Devices" at the bottom
Search for the device you want to check and click on it
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the, "Device Information" section
Look where it says, "Type" and see what it says in the box - make sure it corresponds to the your product in the Device Driver Chart
If it doesn't, please proceed to the, "Device Driver Installation" section below
Device Driver Installation
In an effort to keep directions consolidated into one area, please see the, "Hubitat Device Driver Installation" page for instructions on how to install the Device Driver for your Inovelli device.
For non-Inovelli devices, please reach out to Hubitat support, the device manufacturer, or comment in either the Hubitat or the Inovelli community for advice.
Z-Wave Association Tool
The Z-Wave Association Tool is an App that was created to allow our customers to easily create device-to-device “associations” with Inovelli devices and other compatible Z-Wave devices. The tool requires special code to be present in the driver so it will only work with Inovelli devices. Anyone is free to add the code to other drivers though if they would like.
Code
The most up-to-date code for the app can be found here. It consists of 2 pieces of code that need to be installed in the “Apps Code” section of Hubitat. One is a parent app and one is a child.
Parent App
Child App
Terminology
Source Device:
This is typically going to be the device that does not have the “load” (or light) attached to it. It is the device that you want to use to control the other device. Generally an Inovelli Switch or Dimmer.
Destination Device:
This is the device that you want to be controlled. If it is in a virtual 3-way, it is the switch or dimmer that has a “load” (light) attached to it. Technically, you can put multiple devices in this group which may be the case if you are trying to control multiple bulbs.
Group
An “association group” is a z-wave concept that lets you define a “group” of devices that are controlled from a “master” device. The groups can have different capabilities, but our devices use these particular groups:
Group 2: Used to send ON / OFF commands to the devices in this group.
Group 4: Used to DIM UP / DIM DOWN devices in this group.
So, when you create an association from a switch to another, you simply need to create an association for group 2. When you create an association for a dimmer device, you configure an association for BOTH groups 2 & 4.
Setup Instructions - On/Off
NOTE: If you'd like to have your devices Dim in addition to turning On/Off, then please set up Group 2 first (below) and then move to the Setup Instructions - Dimming instructions (Group 4) in the last section.
Below we will walk through setting up an association to that turns devices On and Off (ie: No dimming). To do this, we will use Group 2.
First, we open the Z-Wave Association Tool app from the “Apps” section of your Hubitat Hub.
Next, click on “Create New Association”
Then, click the “capability” drop down and choose “Switch / Dimmer / Bulb”. Next, select the source device. Use the terminology above to decide which device you want to be the source. It is the device that you want to use to control the other(s).
For the destination device, choose “Switch / Dimmer / Bulb” and select your device(s) as needed. Also, use the terminology to determine which devices to choose here. They are typically going to be the devices that you "want to control.
Lastly, select, "2" under the, "Which group number"
Lastly, click on “Done” to associate the two devices. You should now be able to control your devices directly from the switch! This “multicast” method of communication should be instant and very reliable.
NOTE: If you would like to add Dimming to your associations, then please go to the Setup Instructions - Dimming section.
Setup Instructions - Dimming
Below we will walk through setting up an association to that dims the devices up and down (ie: No On/Off). To do this, we will use Group 4.
NOTE: If you'd like to have your devices turn On/Off, then please set up Group 2 following the instructions in the: Setup Instructions - On/Off section above and then add the dimming functionality from the below instructions.
First, we open the Z-Wave Association Tool app from the “Apps” section of your Hubitat Hub.
Next, click on “Create New Association”
Then, click the “capability” drop down and choose “Switch / Dimmer / Bulb”. Next, select the source device. Use the terminology above to decide which device you want to be the source. It is the device that you want to use to control the other(s).
For the destination device, choose “Switch / Dimmer / Bulb” and select your device(s) as needed. Also, use the terminology to determine which devices to choose here. They are typically going to be the devices that you "want to control.
Lastly, select, "4" under the, "Which group number"
Lastly, click on “Done” to associate the two devices. You should now be able to dim your devices directly from the switch! This “multicast” method of communication should be instant and very reliable.
NOTE: If you added an Association for Group 2 (On/Off) from the Setup Instructions - On/Off Section, your screen should look like this:
