I have two VZW31-SN switches configured for a virtual 3-way. Pressing the paddle on either switch causes the load (5-bulb chandelier) to operate as expected - on/off/dimmer, and the LEDs on the switches stay synchronized. But when I operate the light from Alexa things get… odd. The switch with the load attached works as expected. The virtual switch’s LED is where the oddities begin. The LED will go on or off as commanded by Alexa, but it will not show the dim level. Alexa can dim the lights, and the load switch shows the level correctly. It’s only the virtual switch that does not. Also, the dim level was out of sync a couple of days ago, and turning the light on from the main switch paddle would cause the switch to reboot. The behavior continued until I brought the virtual switch to 100% on the dimmer and reset the load switch with the air gap. I have not been able to re-create this behavior.
What I want is for the dimmer level to be consistent on both switches when the dimmer is commanded from Alexa.
My setup:
2 VZW31-SN switches. On the same breaker, but no traveler between locations.
No load on the virtual switch
Hubitat C7
Inovelli driver on both switches
Bi-directional DA setup between the switches for both on/off and dimming
Association behavior set to “Both”
Only the load switch has been added to Alexa
The virtual switch’s LED did not respond at all to Alexa commands until I set association behavior to “both”. While it now shows on or off correctly, the dim level is not correct on the virtual switch if the dimmer is set with Alexa.
One possible fix I have in mind is to add both switches to a group and have Alexa control the group. I’m not sure if I would then need to set association behavior back to “local” on the load switch.
Are there any other ways to get the dimmer level to synchronize when commanded by Alexa?
I have associations setup, in both directions (switch with load to virtual, and vice-versa). The associations work fine, as long as the action (on/off/dimmer) is performed at the switch. When the command comes from the Hubitat, the dimmer level does not get updated on the virtual switch. The on/off status DOES get updated on the virutal, which has me puzzled.
With Zigbee, I do not know what you mean by associations. Isn’t that a Z-Wave term?
I thought Zigbee bindings was essentially the same thing as Z-Wave associations.
The VZW31-SN is a Z-wave switch. If you have Zigbee switches, those would be VZM31-SN. Might be best to confirm what you have so @PJF can point you in the right direction.
There is apparently some confusion in the post, lol. My question is about a z-wave association, not Zigbee. My switches are VZW31.
I have four associations total, two for group 2 (load switch → virtual switch, and virtual switch → load switch) and two for group 4 (same). The associations work nicely - on/off commands and dimmer commands from either switch are set on the other switch. The issue is that commands from the Hubitat (or Alexa via the Hubitat) are not consistently pushed to the virtual switch. On/Off state is updated - the LED on the virtual switch comes on when the light is turned on by the hub. Dimmer state from the hub is not pushed to the virtual switch.
Example: I have Alexa turn the light on. The LED indicator brightens on both switches to indicate an “on” state, and both show the correct dimmer level of 100%. I then have Alexa set the dimmer to 50%. The LED on the load switch lowers to 50%, but the LED on the virtual switch remains at the previous level, 100%. What I want is for the dimmer level to be reflected correctly on the virtual switch when a change is sent via the hub.
I stand corrected. The switches now work exactly as expected. I tried them again just now (about 3 hours after creating the group 3 associations) and the virtual switch dimmer level is now kept in sync with the load switch when commanded from the hub (and Alexa). Thank you for the fix!