Z-Wave Multilevel Switch

The ZWave Multilevel Switch is a dimmer for lights. The Multilevel Switch comes in a number of different packages. These can be wall warts, outlets, and small packages that fit within electrical boxes.

Installing a Multilevel Switch

The Multilevel Switch Device has an input terminal, "1", for setting the dimmer value, and an output status terminal, "1S", for showing the state of the dimmer. Dimmer values are integers from 0 to 100, where 0 is off and 100 is full on. If the Device is assigned an off value, the dimmer will turn off. If Device is assigned an on value, the dimmer will go to its last non-off value. So, if the Device was turned off when its "1" terminal value was 50, assigning the "1" terminal an on value will return the dimmer to level 50.

Generally, the "1S" status output will track the state of the "1" terminal. However, if the "1" terminal is assigned the value on, the "1S" terminal will show whatever value the dimmer's last non-off value was. If the switch malfunctions or is out of radio range, the "1S" terminal will not track the state of the dimmer. The "1S" terminal is useful when one needs to know the actual state of the dimmer.

The "1S" terminal will display on or off values in the following 2 instances. When the dimmer's value is 0, the "1S" terminal will display the value off. When the dimmer's value is 100, the "1S" terminal will display the value on.

Create the Multilevel Switch Device by running the SwitchMultilevel Script. The parameters for the SwitchMultilevel Script are:

address :

• the Z-Wave address of the device

port_location :

• this parameter is only necessary when there is more than one Z-Wave network. The port_location is the USB port of the network's Z-Wave controller. It is used to differentiate Z-Wave networks. In *nix systems, this is in the /dev directory with a name like /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/cu.usbserial-00001004. Type "ls -lrt /dev/*" for hints. On Windows systems, the location is COMx where "x" is a number (1,2,3, etc.).

Example

To add a Multilevel Switch Device with ID "switch" and Z-Wave address 5 to a system with one Z-Wave network, run the SwitchMultilevel Script with the following parameters:

id: "switch"
address: 5