Rather new to Qolsys and ADC, but liking everything so far. Have begun my z-wave deployment with some initial light switches. Find it frustrating the the ADC app and website do not show the status of the lights, as the Qolsys panel shows clearly the on/off status. Does anyone know if that will be addressed in the future or is it a compatibility thing?
Actually patent law is to blame on this one.
No, the Z-Wave lighting issue isn't a bug. It's a legal issue. Some a%#holes at Lutron convinced the US patent office that their "idea" to transmit the status change of a light switch via a wireless signal is non-obvious and therefore a patentable invention. Lutron has a patent on doing that and the rest of the world is out of luck. You could always dump your Z-Wave stuff for more expensive Lutron Caseta stuff which is also supported by Alarm.com and then you can see light switch status on the Alarm.com app. Meanwhile I'm hoping my pending patent on alternating steps between my left and right feet when walking in a forward direction will be granted. Wish me luck.
Interesting, well maybe transmitting the status is patented, but maybe they could poll the status every minute or so. Damn companies troll for patents and then impact the end consumer.
After recently switching over from Honeywell Total Connect/Alarm.Net to Alarm.com I am completely stunned and disappointed by this step backward. I was told that Alarm.com offers superior flexibility and rule options for automation compared to Honeywell Total Connect/Alarm.Net. While this seems true so far I am very disappointed to not see z-wave device on/off status displayed in Alarm.com. This feature is offered by Honeywell Total Connect and many other z-wave hubs/controllers so why is it that only Alarm.com is going along with this absurd patent request by Lutron? I would even consider installing Lutron switches but am I correct that they require their own hub and cannot not be controlled by my Qolsys IQ panel? Thanks for entertaining my further questions on this topic which has already been addressed.
Lutron Caseta or RadioRa2 are their own system and require a primary repeater hub, yes. They are integrated with the Alarm.com app on the back-end, not locally.
This is not simply Alarm.com where the issue lies. Other manufacturers likely pay Lutron for rights currently to use their patent features.
It’s annoying and inconvenient, but in the grand scheme, I think Alarm.com should be more interested in the automation aspect anyway (without having to interact) rather than creating the perfect remote control.
Thanks for your comments. I don’t mean to start my posts here on this forum as a complainer. I was just shocked when coming from another competitor’s platform that had this feature with no apparent patent infringement. Obviously Alarm.com wants to maintain compatibility and a relationship with Lutron. Can I use another z-wave hub/secondary controller to monitor device states and control the same devices on my Qolsys z-wave network? Searching the forum it appears Vera and 2Gig can work together but I can’t find out if Qolsys will allow my Veralite to join the network as secondary. Maybe this has already been addressed here.
The Lutron patent is with the light switches themselves, not with the control panel (Qolsys) or cloud service (Alarm.com). I’m not aware of any Z-Wave light switches that can report manual status changes without infringing on the Lutron patent. TotalConnect uses Z-Wave light switches. Is it possible TotalConnect simply reports the on/off status according to the last command sent by the control panel? Or does it reflect the actual status even when the switch is flipped manually?
According to my experience as recently as January-February, Total Connect takes a few seconds to confirm locally within the z-wave network and then does update to show actual device status when controlled through the app or alarm panel. Even if a z-wave switch is flipped on or off manually at the switch its status will update on the app UI within a few seconds. You can log in at random times and see what devices and lights are currently on or off. My VeraLite will do the same thing. I am happy at least that Alarm.com will report a device malfunction if it is commanded on or off and does not actually do so. So at least we have that bit of confirmation. The beauty of z-wave is that it offers two-way communication as compared to the old X10 and other protocols. Thanks again for your expertise!
We’ll look into it. This is a topic I investigated pretty heavily a few years ago and I’m very interested in. It drives me crazy that I can’t see my light status so if Honeywell has a way around it I want to know what they’re doing.
To an earlier question here, you currently cannot use the Qolsys IQ Panel in a two-controller network. It cannot assume primary or secondary status to another controller. I do not like this myself, and I have suggested this feature be added. It is possible a future firmware upgrade may enable this.
Thanks for answering this Jason. Yes I hope Qolsys adds this feature as other controllers are needed in the home whether they are hubs, handheld remotes, etc.
It’s a pretty simple solution but it has caveats. Honeywell is polling the light switches on a constant basis, the switches cannot report status without it being requested. Unfortunately it is a solution that does not scale well. The more devices you have, the more your panel must constantly process.
I hope ADC will someday show us on the app our devices’ status as Honeywell does but I can understand the scaling demands. As a workaround–f Qolsys will start allowing a secondary controller such as Vera we could check the Vera app for devices’ current status if necessary. The reason I switched from Honeywell Total Connect to ADC was that ADC automation features and rules customization is superior in my opinion.
I am definitely an advocate of that. Zwave was intended as a universal protocol which would foster a large market of interoperable equipment. The 2GIG panel allows a much greater deal of flexibility in this circumstance. I see no reason why Qolsys shouldn’t want to at least match that.
Hi Jason, last week I was able to add my Veralite hub as a secondary z-wave controller to the Qolsys. I placed the Qolsys panel in pairing mode to add devices and then within Vera’s online “Z-wave settings/Advanced” menu I selected “Copy Z-Wave network from a primary controller”. All of my lights/devices in my Qolsys network are showing up on Vera and controllable by both. I haven’t had time to experiment yet with adding more secondary controllers this way (wall controllers or handheld remotes). Of course all the devices have to be named in Vera again–the names/descriptions don’t transfer over. Perhaps this is better posted to the Qolsys thread but I just wanted to respond to earlier posts here. Vera polls the devices at specified intervals to update their on/off state.
That’s great news! What firmware version/revision of panel are you using?
Firmware is Q1.4.2-ADCS4.1-ADCL4.1
I haven’t had time to experiment much to see what the limitations will be but I’m not convinced the Veralite thinks it’s a secondary controller. It still give the option to add/include devices directly and I don’t think it would allow this if it’s secondary do you? Nonetheless it did copy the network from the Qolsys controller. Thanks!
Yes, I tested myself with the same result. The Qolsys panel will not recognize it as a controller exactly. Nor will the Vera recognize Qolsys that I can see. In the case of 2gig, the Go!Control will learn in as a controller in Vera and Vera can push equipment additions.
So far I haven’t been able to learn in/include more devices directly into Vera even though the option/steps are provided to do so. It just isn’t working. These are types of devices (sensors) that Qolsys won’t recognize so there’s no chance I can add them to Qolsys and then copy them into Vera same as above.
Correct, Zwave sensor device types will generally not be compatible with security controllers.