justsam
Well-known member
This is more of an FYI than a question but thought I would share a recent experience.
I have had a 3 way Z Wave switch (Dragon Tech. WS-100) in service for about 6 years now, with the companion switch, Dragon Tech. WS-100. The switch is controlled by Z-Wave from a 2 Gig Alarm panel. Recently the switch would only momentarily turn on and then immediately turn off. Turns out it would only do this in the early morning when it was colder in the garage where the switch was located. Cold in this case is no lower than 40 degrees F, as the FAU is in the garage and produces some radiant heat. I should point out this is a simple binary switch, using internal relay, no dimmer function and it controls fluorescent lights overhead.
I thought I could just replace the master switch with a new Leviton Z-Wave which I did but it would not manually work from the companion switch location, Z-Wave worked fine. It appears there is no standard protocol for communication from master to companion switch, and I wound up needing to replace both switches, (Leviton) even though only one had failed. Even wiring was different as the older Dragon Tech Companion required only one traveller and neutral, where the new Leviton companion required one traveller, hot, and neutral.
Replacement was made easier in that all switches used side wiring clamp plates, and my initial install I had used Wagos.
I have had a 3 way Z Wave switch (Dragon Tech. WS-100) in service for about 6 years now, with the companion switch, Dragon Tech. WS-100. The switch is controlled by Z-Wave from a 2 Gig Alarm panel. Recently the switch would only momentarily turn on and then immediately turn off. Turns out it would only do this in the early morning when it was colder in the garage where the switch was located. Cold in this case is no lower than 40 degrees F, as the FAU is in the garage and produces some radiant heat. I should point out this is a simple binary switch, using internal relay, no dimmer function and it controls fluorescent lights overhead.
I thought I could just replace the master switch with a new Leviton Z-Wave which I did but it would not manually work from the companion switch location, Z-Wave worked fine. It appears there is no standard protocol for communication from master to companion switch, and I wound up needing to replace both switches, (Leviton) even though only one had failed. Even wiring was different as the older Dragon Tech Companion required only one traveller and neutral, where the new Leviton companion required one traveller, hot, and neutral.
Replacement was made easier in that all switches used side wiring clamp plates, and my initial install I had used Wagos.
