I recently installed some Bali brand motorized shades that include Z-Wave compatibility, and I learned them into my 2Gig GC2 with no issue, they appear on ADC, and are all working properly.
My only question is this - the shades also came with a remote control (that is also working, I programmed so that all 4 shades raise/lower together) and I followed the procedure provided by the shade manufacturer to learn the remote into the GC2, but I can’t figure out what benefit this provides. The remote shows up as a controller on ADC, but switching it off/on does nothing.
The procedure provided (included below) has me add the shades to the GC2 first, add the remote as a controller on the panel next, then pair the remotes and shades. Based on this, the remote would be the secondary controller , right? Why would I want to add this to the panel or Alarm.com?
Side note: I saw a recent post about changes at alarm.com regarding shades, will this include not classifying these as “lights”?
The procedure provided (included below) has me add the shades to the GC2 first, add the remote as a controller on the panel next, then pair the remotes and shades. Based on this, the remote would be the secondary controller , right? Why would I want to add this to the panel or Alarm.com?
Similar to a Minimote and associating devices, the handheld controller needs to be a part of the same network to control Z-wave devices on it.
There is no benefit in terms of info in ADC or control from ADC. It is just for the remote’s purposes.
I saw a recent post about changes at alarm.com regarding shades, will this include not classifying these as “lights”?
At some point I should think so, but I haven’t heard anything specific about when shades might be split off from switches. Typically I believe the shades report as the same command class as switches, and ADC simplifies all switches as “Lights”
Ideally these would all be broken out, and I know it has been discussed in the past. I’ll check with ADC and see if any new info comes out.
One follow up: I learned in the handheld as I would any other Z-wave device. Is this not the correct way to add this? It just reported as offline, but I’m not sure why.
Offline means that the panel tried to reach the remote for status and the command failed. This is going to be common with a battery operated remote that moves around, but I don’t recall if the GC2 firmware addresses this with the Minimote so offline errors are ignored.
The remote doesn’t receive commands from ADC or route signals to other devices, so any offline errors should otherwise have no effect on the system.
