Has anyone been successful to get the Fibaro Roller Shutter 3 with the newest firmware 5.11 running in Home Assistant? Incl. a correct position feedback? I have three of them with an old firmware and I’m wondering if it is worth it going through all the hazzle of sending it to the dealer to get a firmware update.
Hello,
I tested the same automation as mentioned by majstermod
Here are my findings:
- Position / level is correctly presented when the position is changed manually via the pushbuttons
- Changing the position via Hass.io UI controls is not reliable. When I set the roller shutter to fully open or fully closed (by clicking the up/down arrow in the UI) the position is sometimes not updated after the roller shutter reached it’s final position (and the motor has stopped).
I’m testing this second case, because I want to be able to change the position with my Google Home (via Hass.io)…
So now my current ‘working’ setup is without the suggested automation, but is polling the “cover.fibaro_system_fgrm223_roller_shutter_controller_3_level” with a ‘Polling intensity’ setting of 10s. I know this is a sub-optimal ‘solution’…
Note that I got a quite thorough status update on the fibaro site:
But this forum is probably the better place to discuss this…
Best regards,
Bart
Hi,
Same issue here. Seems to be a known and reported issue in HA:
I’ll comment there with a link to this topic.
I created my own work-around based on the work-around mentioned by LooSik on the open Zwave Github page. It consist of 3 automations. Firstly an automation that starts a polling automation as soon as the cover starts drawing power:
- id: '1558164709864'
alias: cover_study_start_sampling
trigger:
- above: '0'
entity_id: sensor.cover_study_power
platform: numeric_state
condition: []
action:
- alias: ''
data:
entity_id: automation.cover_study_sample_status
service: automation.turn_on
Secondly an automation (enabled by the first automation) that polls the cover every 2 seconds:
- id: '1558123485015'
alias: cover_study_sample_status
trigger:
- platform: time_pattern
seconds: /2
condition: []
action:
- data:
entity_id: cover.study
service: zwave.refresh_entity
And finally an automation that stops polling automation 5 seconds after the cover stops drawing power:
- id: '1558165456495'
alias: cover_study_stop_sampling
trigger:
- below: '1'
entity_id: sensor.cover_study_power
for: 00:00:05
platform: numeric_state
condition: []
action:
- data:
entity_id: automation.cover_study_sample_status
service: automation.turn_off
So far this seems to work for me. The slider moves (in 2 second steps) while de cover is moving and is at it’s final position maximum 2 seconds after the cover has stopped moving. I’m (so far) not experiencing any (zwave) network issues, but that network at this momoment is only a z-wave stick and this one fibaro module. I’ll soon add 3 more same modules with the same automation. I’ll see if it then still works well.
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Which firmware version is installed on your Fibaro Roller Shutters?
@ffm777, not sure if that question is for me or not.
I do not know what firmware version is installed in the Roller Shutters. I do not have a Fibaro hub. I run Hass.io (on a rpi obviously) with a Aeotec Z-stick gen5. I do not know how to retrieve the firmware version from of the roller shutters with that. I’ve looked at several places like the OZW log, the entity attributes, zwcfg_0xxxxxxxxx.xml, but cannot find it. Any hint were to find it would be appreciated.
When I ordered the Roller Shutters online, the supplier called me and asked if I owned a Fibaro hub. If not they would update the roller shutters to the latest FW version for me before shipment. That would mean that they would have to open the box and they also wanted to know if I had no objections to that. Great service! That was on 1st of May. So, I assume that have a FW version as per 1st of May.
Then you are on the latest firmware version 5.11. That probably explains why a refresh entity call does give you the proper position of the shutter. I bought my Roller Shutters back in January and they have a very old firmware. In order to get them updated I have to uninstall them and send them to the dealer. Which is a pain. But most likely this is the only way to get them working properly…
Well, ‘working properly’… I think it’s still somewhat of an ugly work-around. But at least it works indeed. I still have hope that the last bit is HA issue that can be solved with a roller shutter update.
If your dealer is willing to perform the updates for you, is he not willing to lend you a Fibaro hub so that you can do the upgrades yourself in your own home without having to unmount them? Probably easier/faster for you and for him.
I don’t think so. In general, it is completely annoying that most manufacturers provide firmware updates only through their own hubs/gateways. Therefore, from now on I will only buy devices which can be updated without a proprietary hub. Like the Shelly devices which can simply be updated over the Internet. I should have waited for the Shelly 2.5 modules instead of buying the overpriced and not supported Fibaro Roller Shutters. Maybe I will simply replace them with Shellys and sell them on Ebay. Not worth the hazzle.
I agree. It’s something I didn’t consider this when buying the fibaro modules, but I will next time I buy new home-automation hardware. I didn’t know the shelly modules, but they look very good at a very nice price. However, in general I prefer Z-wave or Zigbee above Wifi for these type of applications.
I never considered that as well. Well now I will.
Those Shelly 2.5 look nice. I’m with Plevuus though Wifi is not the technology of choice for me. But I’ll buy one of those and give it a run for its money. Well, if I can use them in Switzerland.
Why? Many experts claim that Wifi is the future for IoT devices. For me, Wifi is definitely much much more reliable than Zigbee. Z-Wave also works nicely, but devices are expensive. I see no real downside with Wifi devices. And Wifi is for sure future proof. Who knows what will happen to the other standards…
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I just replaced one of my Fibaro Roller Shutter 3 with a Shelly 2.5. Works like a charm. Positioning works flawlessly and the correct position is shown on the slider. Couldn’t be happier. I think, I will replace all of my Fibaros with Shellys and sell the Fibaros.
(it goes a bit off-topic, but anyhow…)
I’m not an expert on the topic. I’m not sure which experts you are referring to, but keep in mind that many of these expert opinions you read on the internet are from people who have a certain business interest in a certain technology. To be open and honest with you, I do work for Hue/Philips/Signify. Here I’m expressing my personal view and experience as a consumer. Another thing to keep in mind when reading the expert opinions is that they often trying to predict (or influence, as mentioned above) where the market is moving towards. That does not necessarily have to be the best technical solution.
On the future proofness, I think it’s wise to assume that the protocol/product/service of your choice at some point will cease to exists. No-one knows what the future of IoT looks like and I personally wouldn’t trust anyone who claims he/she does. I also feel confident that widely adopted non proprietary ones (Wifi, Zigbee, Z-wave) are here to stay for at least quite some years. That is also why Home assistant is so great. It ties it all together regardless of protocol or vendor.
There are 2 main reasons why at this moment I prefer Zigbee or Z-wave above wifi for home automation applications. Zigbee and wifi are mesh-networks while wifi is not. That should make them more robust and reliable. That is also my own personal experience at home. The second reason is the power consumption. Zigbee and Z-wave nodes consume significantly less energy than wifi nodes. That is especially interesting for battery operated devices, but I think also for mains operated devices. They are on 24 hours/day 365 days a year. It all adds up. In my home I have ~38 connected devices (mostly Hue of course) and that number will grow. (They use Z-wave, Zigbee, Wifi, Somfy IO (ugh) and Arlo proprietary low energy wifi. Really like HASS :-)) I also like the idea that there is an extra layer of security between my modem/wifi-router and my lights, roller shutters, etc. (although that could also be achieved by have separate modem and wifi-router or having multiple wifi-routers)
I agree with most of your points. Concerning the reliability, I have zero problems with my Wifi devices as I have perfect Wifi coverage across my house. However, Zigbee is a constant pain for me. I have 7 Zigbee devices in my garden (in addition to some devices inside), which have various “unavailable” times throughout the day. They are all placed within 7-10 meters of each other. Some work perfectly while others in close vicinity have constant drop-outs. All controlled by a Hue bridge. I also have a Raspbee board on my Raspberry Pi for which I can display the mesh using the deconz software. There you can see that Zigbee meshes simply do not work as intented. Instead of connecting via close neighbours devices often try to connect directly to the gateway even if this results in very unstable connections. So I’m definitely not a friend of Zigbee. Of course, with Z-Wave it’s a completely different story. Meshing works very well in Z-Wave. But as said above: I have perfect Wifi coverage in my house so this is not an advantage of Z-Wave. On the other hand, I would never ever leave anything mission critical to a Zigbee device.
i didn’t know this brand.
i admit that wifi is also far more easier for me than z-wave.
but most of the wifi tools require internet connection to work. And i’m not a big fan of a cheap product that works now but may not work in 2-3 years when the chinese server is turned off for some reason.
Maybe the brand you gave is a pure local device and in this case it is indeed interesting.
Anyway zwave has the two advantages of mesh and power consumption.
Just for ex i first bought 2 door sensor (wifi) they work fine, but like i said they need to be controled over a dedicated app that sends its commands to a server in china 
These are tuya clone brand and there is a tuya HA module.
These sensor a recognized by the tuya phone app
but they are not recognized by HA (whereas my first plug also a tuya clone brand is recognized)
This is the reason why i went to z wave, as i know for sure => zwave is local, no need for internet or chinese server
It can be used without any internet connection. It has MQTT support built in out of the box. It can be used via their cloud, but I strictly use the devices without internet access. And if you want to, then you can flash them with a Tasmota firmware.
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ok then this device is quite interesting 
I will have a friend coming over to my house with a Fibaro Home Center hub to help me out updating the firmware of my FGR-223.
Is there a way to avoid having to remove the device from Home Assistant (meaning unpair it with the z-wave pen from Aeotec that I am using)? Or will I have to go through the trouble of removing and adding it again to my HASS (and reconfigure it all over again)?
Yes. You have to remove them from HA and then pair them with the Fibaro Home Center. Then remove them there and reconfigure them in HA. But it’s worth it. With the latest firmware, the Roller Shutters work quite ok in HA. Only the position reporting is still flawed. You either have to poll the devices to get proper position information or create an automation which updates the entity information after the shutter has moved.
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I hoped that the latest firmware actually solved the positioning reporting issue, as this is the only issue I am experiencing (and I have an old firmware).
What problems were you experiencing then?