Fibaro Z-wave modules

First post here so please be gentle with me.

Does anyone have any experience of Fibaro modules? I have 2 on my network, an FGR-22 Roller Shutter 2 and an FGS-223 Double Switch 2. Both modules were faulty on arrival, the roller shutter would only operate one output via a z-wave command or by using the input switch and then failed completely, the switch 2 had output 1 permanently on despite any switch or z-wave input. I sent the roller shutter back and received a new one which is now working fine. I have also replaced the Switch 2 and this one works in all regards except that input 1 does not raise any z-wave messages when triggered so I can’t see a real time status in home assistant, input 2 works OK. Output one can be switched OK with z-wave but again no status message is returned so the home assistant is out of step.
I am really disappointed with the quality of these things given their cost, has anyone had a similar experience? Also, do you have any suggestions in respect of the current fault or should I just keep sending them back until I get one that works correctly?

Regards

Chris

I’ve said his a few times, in a few discussions…

When I first decided to get in to home automation I thought z-wave was the way forward. I got a couple of z-wave bits, got myself set up, thought it was a horribly clunky protocol at first but figured it was just because I was new to the game. Then I bought a couple of Hue bulbs just to experiment and instantly regretted choosing z-wave as my staring point.

Z-wave is a total PITA to set up, even worse to reconfgure. Once you have it working it’s great, and stable, and all the things that made you pick it in the first place, but if you want to make a change to your configuration (as we do, we’re all tinkerers after all!) you need to write-off most of the day.

I’m sure if you went out and bought a ‘complete’ z-wave system, with all the bits from the same manufacturer, and used their hub and their software and whatever it’s probably not as crap, but I don’t think you’d be on this forum if you wanted to tie yourself in to that kind of infrastructure.

So yeah, I still have the two fibaro dimmers and the fibaro motion sensor that I originally got (and they’re working fine), but unless I come across a situation where only a z-wave device will fit the bill in the future, I will be looking at Hue for lighting, probably wemo for power, blink/wifi/mqtt for motion sensors/cameras, nest for heating, or whatever I find that is basically not as clunky as z-wave.

You used the words “I am really disappointed”, that’s exactly how I felt after a couple of weeks. I think the way z-wave is marketed makes you think it’s a lot better than it is, and you expect all the manufacturers to produce top quality items, and it’s just not in my experience.

I have FGS-223 and it works perfect. I don’t have any issue with it. But the process of adding it to the network was very problematic. I don’t know exactly how I did it. For 2 hours despite many attempts the switch didn’t want to add to the network and suddenly appeared in HA itself.

Thanks for the replies. I can’t say I had any issue in getting the modules to connect to the network, I can see them OK in OZWCP, set the appropriate config variables, included the zwave lines in th YAML file and everything appeared. It just seems that there are niggling hardware faults with these modules which can be avoided.
I think I will order a replacement, maybe third time lucky will apply here.

Regards

Chris

Hi Guys. I have 11 Fibaro modules and have never had any issues. 3 smoke detectors, 2 movement detectors and the rest is dimmers. The only negative thing I can say is that the dimmers are best at dimming normal lights. With LEDs the lowest point is a bit to bright…

Cheers :slight_smile:

I have about 20+ zwave devices, mostly fibaro the motion sensor where a pain (old firmware) but it seems to work alright now. The only downside is that if i restart hass (which you need to do after a rename for example or add/remove) it takes ages before the devices become “ready” since it will poll all the devices first before its “ready to operate”

Hi All
So, I replaced the module only to find I had the same problem with the new one.
I then decided to speak with Fibaro tech support who advised that the reason the 2nd switch is not sending any z-wave messages is because it is not associated with the controller. By default, when you add the module to the z-wave network, it only sets up an association with the controller for switch 1.
Therefore, is there anyone who can advise how I manually set up an association for switch 2 using either HASS or OZWCP?
As always, any help would be much appreciated.

Regards

Chris

Associations can be done via the z-wave panel in hass. Just select your z-wave device and choose the second switch and select the association, then select what to trigger. As far as i know, thats all there is to it. Just remember that older z-wave devices don’t do direct associations towards a seconds swithc. For instance if you have a old fibaro motion sensor, that one doesn’t have multiple associations options, so letting it trigger the switch 2 on a device does not work (it will switch 1 instead at best)

If you have a old fibaro switch and a new one, you cannot get the association like a hotel switch solution with those 2. So make sure you have the newer ones. I believe if you have the zwave plus ones, your good to go.

Hi all

I was searching around the web and found this:-

It routed me to a revised FGS223 XML file which I copied to the Rpi, removed the device and re-added it using OZWCP rebooted HASS and now all working fine.

Thanks to everyone who has helped with this issue

1 Like

@Rune isn’t there an addon you need to use for some dimmers and low voltage devices?

Hi. Not sure what you mean :slight_smile: If you are thinking on the “bright” low point there is a addon you can buy to prevent flickering, but it doesnt help the brightness.

This thing:

I got the info from here:

In the Fibaro column, says you need bypass for low voltage. Don’t know if that might help your dimming issue?

Good tip, but already have one. It prevents flickering, but nothing more :slight_smile:

hmm that’s disappointing, was looking at buying some fibaros for dimming. Think I’ll test the Quibino one instead then.

Let me know how they behave then :slight_smile:

When I had to buy dimmers it was between Fibaro, Qubino and Aeotec. After researching the highest quality components were supposed to be Aeotec and it was also newer than Fibaro. I have 11 of the Aeotec ones now only connected to various LED and it works very well and can dim quite a lot without any flickering. Only thing I would have liked from Fibaro is the double click for full brightness.

I can’t recognise the problems with z wave. I have more or less depreciated my hue setup as z wave works more reliable in my case.

Aeotec Nano Dimmer? They are about 20 Euro more expensive then the Fibaro dimmer in Norway, maybe I will buy one for testing :slight_smile:

That depends if you then save buying a bypass :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: but they are also more expensive in Denmark, but ended up buying at Amazon.de where the price difference is 10 euro.

Hi folks, what the latency of the Aeotec dimmers (in wave panel averageRequest/ResponseRTT) ? My fibaro dimmers are on the order of 80/120ms. Qubino RGBW (different beast though) is way faster - 20/30ms.
One of the great benefits of Fibaro dimmers is that’s they are quite configurable - I use 2 gang momentary switches and one is used to control wired dimmable LEDs (through dimmer) while the other is used to control hue bulbs (through scene activation and HA).

One of my Aeotech Nano Dimmers have the following stats:
Node information:
averageRequestRTT: 26
averageResponseRTT: 58
capabilities: beaming,routing,listening
friendly_name: Spot Køkken
is_awake: true
is_failed: false
is_info_received: true
is_ready: true
is_zwave_plus: true
lastRequestRTT: 24
lastResponseRTT: 37
manufacturer_name: Aeotec
max_baud_rate: 40000
neighbors: 1,7,9,10,11,12,14,15,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,25,26,27,28
node_id: 8
node_name: Spot Køkken
product_name: ZW111 Nano Dimmer
query_stage: Complete
receivedCnt: 20
receivedDups: 2
receivedTS: 2018-08-08 21:22:06:212
receivedUnsolicited: 3
retries: 0
sentCnt: 37
sentFailed: 0
sentTS: 2018-08-08 21:22:06:055