Help understand entities

Configuration
1

hi,

I am trying to understand entities, it seems for the same “thing” i have multiple entities defined.

for eg: 1. I have a GW light switch it shows up under 2 entities (A&B below):

A: zwave.dinning_light_2 Ready is_awake: true
is_zwave_plus: false
is_failed: false
is_info_received: true
capabilities: beaming,routing,listening
node_id: 2

B: switch.dinning_light_switch_2_0 off node_id: 2
friendly_name: Dinning Light Switch

  1. I also have a temp / motion sensor it seems to have 6 entities similar as above.

I am trying to get a better understanding of this to use with groups / views …

THanks,
jay

2

For Z-Wave devices, you have both the A node, which provides all the Z-Wave specific information, and the B node (or nodes) that provides the information for it’s use as a switch/sensor/whatever. For almost all the automation you’ll do you’ll only need the B node, the only time you’re likely to use the A node would be if you wanted to generate notifications (say) when the battery is low.

3

Thanks,

one clarification: so if I want a notification like: door opened, do I use A node info? or this is only for notification of the device’s hardware itself…

4

As I said, for almost anything you’ll be using the B node. The A node, starting zwave, only contains Z-Wave (and device) specific information. You’ll really only ever use the A node if you want to be notified of a low battery (for battery powered devices).

The simplest thing to do is to watch the status of all the various nodes for your device while you operate it. For switches, see what happens when you turn it on and off. For sensors, trigger the sensor.