State Reporting - Remotec Dry Contact Module ZFM-80

Hardware
1

I recently installed a Remotec ZFM-80 to control my fireplace. Easy installation, works fine (besides being slightly bigger than a decora faceplate hole which is a really dumb, but known issue.)

But I was surprised to find out to discover that it doesn’t report it’s current state to the zwave network though. (ie when turned on manually with the button). I’m using ZWaveJS so I had to set up my own polling using zwave.refresh_values (once per minute) which is fine but that is kinda disappointing for such an expensive device. Is there something I’m missing here? Does anybody have one of these that does actually report it’s current state?

Also - does anybody have any idea if this device can fail and go into the ON state? Little concerned about that since it’s hooked up to a gas fireplace.

2

It looks to be an old Z-Wave Classic (not Plus) device. It’s very common to require polling for that generation of devices. To be sure, you’d have to watch the driver logs (Debug logging level) to see if it’s reporting something or not.

3

On the other hand, according to the user manual it reports relay on/off status via Association Group 1, and zwave-js automatically assigns the controller to that group (see device file), so it should be seeing changes to the switch. I would check the logs.

4

Shoot why didn’t I think to check the logs first and oh boy that’s a handy doc! Bookmarked!

So I am getting something in the logs on button presses.

Button On

2022-01-14T03:41:00.078Z SERIAL « 0x0110004984a10a04100120252772867085bf                              (18 bytes)
2022-01-14T03:41:00.079Z SERIAL » [ACK]                                                                   (0x06)
2022-01-14T03:41:00.080Z DRIVER « [Node 161] [REQ] [ApplicationUpdateRequest]
                                    payload: 0xa10a04100120252772867085
2022-01-14T03:41:00.081Z CNTRLR « [Node 161] Received updated node info

Button Off

2022-01-14T03:41:55.503Z SERIAL « 0x0110004984a10a04100120252772867085bf                              (18 bytes)
2022-01-14T03:41:55.504Z SERIAL » [ACK]                                                                   (0x06)
2022-01-14T03:41:55.505Z DRIVER « [Node 161] [REQ] [ApplicationUpdateRequest]
                                    payload: 0xa10a04100120252772867085
2022-01-14T03:41:55.506Z CNTRLR « [Node 161] Received updated node info

They are identical though? I don’t see a state value. And a home assistant event is definitely not triggered. I tried listenting for both zwave_js_notification and zwave_js_value_notification events (not quite sure what the difference is). Not sure where to go from here.

Man would it be nice to be able to filter that log by node though!

5

If I refresh the node manually I get this.

2022-01-14T03:49:34.553Z SERIAL » 0x01090013a102250225286c                                            (11 bytes)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.554Z DRIVER » [Node 161] [REQ] [SendData]
                                  │ transmit options: 0x25
                                  │ callback id:      40
                                  └─[BinarySwitchCCGet]
2022-01-14T03:49:34.557Z SERIAL « [ACK]                                                                   (0x06)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.564Z SERIAL « 0x0104011301e8                                                       (6 bytes)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.566Z SERIAL » [ACK]                                                                   (0x06)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.568Z DRIVER « [RES] [SendData]
                                    was sent: true
2022-01-14T03:49:34.585Z SERIAL « 0x011800132800000300bf7f7f7f7f010103000000000201000060              (26 bytes)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.586Z SERIAL » [ACK]                                                                   (0x06)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.589Z DRIVER « [REQ] [SendData]
                                    callback id:            40
                                    transmit status:        OK, took 30 ms
                                    routing attempts:       1
                                    protocol & route speed: Z-Wave, 40 kbit/s
                                    ACK RSSI:               -65 dBm
                                    ACK channel no.:        1
                                    TX channel no.:         1
2022-01-14T03:49:34.599Z SERIAL « 0x010b000400a103250300bf00cb                                        (13 bytes)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.602Z CNTRLR   [Node 161] [~] [Binary Switch] currentValue: false => false       [Endpoint 0]
2022-01-14T03:49:34.606Z SERIAL » [ACK]                                                                   (0x06)
2022-01-14T03:49:34.609Z DRIVER « [Node 161] [REQ] [ApplicationCommand]
                                  └─[BinarySwitchCCReport]
                                      current value: false