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Question about couple of command classes

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 21:47
by Shazard
I am struggling with several command class undertanding.

What is MultiChannel command class?
What is AlarmSensor command class?
The Alarm Sensor Command Class can be used to realize Sensor Alarms.

I don't get the semantics of the sentence. I have Fibaro MultiSensor and it has this SensorAlarm command class. But it never chages values no matter what I do... so i don't understand... is it capable of producing sounds if associated correctly or what is "Sensor Alarm"? I thought Alarm is Alarm and Sensor is Sensor, how do you mix them ?

Re: Question about couple of command classes

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 22:56
by pofs
MultiChannel is a CC to support devices with multiple channels (instances).

At first, Z-Wave network didn't have a concept of channels, so it was only required to specify a device ID to address devices. When multi-channel devices were first introduced, it was needed to send messages to specific instances without breaking backward compatibility. So MultiChannel CC was created to include channel information into the packet.

There's a few command classes (like MultiChannel, MultiCommand, CRC16, Security etc.) you shouldn't use directly, because they're intended only for internal operations.

As of AlarmSensor, it is an outdated command class for alarm notifications. I suppose it was created for something called "Zensor Net" (network of battery-operated nodes, e.g. networked smoke alarms, that are able to operate for months or even years on the same battery, yet they are still able to communicate internally or via some master node).

It was superseded by Alarm CC, which is recommended for new devices.

Re: Question about couple of command classes

Posted: 16 Sep 2014 07:46
by Shazard
Thank you very much, so I don't need to worry about implementing these CC on my client UI.
Thanks.