johnnynine
Active Member
My abridged ViziaRF story...
New Installation
I recently replaced my buggy original ViziaRF remote with a newer ViziaRF+ remote (thanks for the help AO), factory reset all my devices and reinstalled the z-wave network. The installation went much smoother than may prior installs and all the bugs I found in the old remote have been fixed although I did find a new very minor bug. I also had a few devices that took several attempts to include in the network, and when updating routes some nodes would fail to update on the first attempt.
Less than desireable performance
I have around 60 ViziaRF devices and my network has never been reliable even after multiple full factory resets and reinstalls. I use a lot of controller switches as 3way switches and it can take up to 45 seconds for some controller switches to actually notify the load switch to turn on the light. A few are instantaneous and some are not... and sometimes one that is normally quick will be very slow. I also have several 4 button controllers and some of them suffer the same performance issues. When I use the handheld primary controller remote to control lights the performance is instantaneous as long as I am somewhat near the destination switch.
Node Rediscovery issues
In the past I have tried using the node-rediscovery feature but it would often times fail to find all the nodes or the remote would lock up. I have not tried this with the new remote, but none of my devices have moved (nor had they in the past) so I'm not sure this is necessary.
Emails with Leviton
I have talked to Leviton several times in the past over the phone. I have also had email correspondence with Ben, an Applications Engineer at Leviton who told me to update my buggy remote with the latest firmware. My original remote was introduced before the remotes were flashable so this was not an option. Ben told me that I would have to buy a new remote or send in my remote to get it updated even though it was still under warranty. I agreed to send it in and requested several times for instructions on how to do so (via emails) and never received a response. During a phone call with Ben he also indicated that he could replace my controller switches with newer ones since they apparently knew of some issues in the older controllers. After following up on this via several emails I never received a response. During a phone call I also let Ben know that I offer a free ViziaRF software developer library online for .Net developers. Based on this and the # of devices I have he then asked if I would be interested in working with them testing there product and I said that was fine. I have not heard from them regarding this, however I don't mind since my primary concern is getting my ViziaRF lighting network stable.
Bug reports to Leviton
As an early adopter of ViziaRf and developer of software using the RS232 device I found many bugs in the primary remote controller, in the RS232 device, and incorrect documentation of the rs232 communication protocol. I documented all the issues I found and sent Ben an email. I was happy when Ben passed the email on to the engineers and Ben sent me their responses. Most of the bugs that I documented were reported to have been fixed, and I can confirm that the new ViziaRF+ remote that I have does not have any of the bugs that I reported. I was notified that a couple of the issues that I reported were by design, however IMHO I would say that in the particular case of those issues the design leads to user confusion.
The Latest Phone Call
Today I spoke to Barry, a technical support representative at Leviton. Barry told me that the slow performance that I was seeing between the controller devices and the destination switches was because I have too many devices for the network to perform well. I have about 60 ViziaRF devices. I then asked how many devices a network should have to operate quickly and reliably. He said 30-35. I double checked this with him and he confirmed it so there was no misunderstanding. He put me on hold several times to get more information from someone/somewhere as well. He said that when I use the controller switch the command was bouncing around the network trying to find the best route and since I have about 60 nodes it would take longer than if I had less nodes.
This was news to me and quite disappointing. Leviton (as other Z-Wave manufactures do) claim the network can support 232 devices.
I asked if there were any settings I could change to improve the performance. Barry said no, the only way to improve the performance would be to reduce the number of nodes in my z-wave network.
A call to one of our dealer friends
I called one of our dealer friends after speaking with Leviton and he said that the Leviton statement regarding the number of devices and performance was not true. He recommended I get the Think Essentials software and it could optimize the network. I have ordered the software and will give it a try.
Conclusion
My overall satisfaction with ViziaRF and Leviton is less than - less than desirable. I've been trying to deal with these issues for a couple years and my family is now at the point where it has to be fixed or it needs to be removed. Of course after investing $$ in many ViziaRF devices I would prefer to get it working as advertised.
At this point if someone were to ask me if I recommend ViziaRF, based on my experience with the product and the Leviton support I would have to say strongly - no. My level of disappointment with ViziaRF and Leviton support is fairly high due to the performance problems, refusal to replace a very buggy early primary remote, and the lack of followup emails from Leviton regarding replacing some of my devices. I do appreciate that I was able to get some details from the engineers which is fairly rare, but unfortunately it didn't solve my issues.
John
New Installation
I recently replaced my buggy original ViziaRF remote with a newer ViziaRF+ remote (thanks for the help AO), factory reset all my devices and reinstalled the z-wave network. The installation went much smoother than may prior installs and all the bugs I found in the old remote have been fixed although I did find a new very minor bug. I also had a few devices that took several attempts to include in the network, and when updating routes some nodes would fail to update on the first attempt.
Less than desireable performance
I have around 60 ViziaRF devices and my network has never been reliable even after multiple full factory resets and reinstalls. I use a lot of controller switches as 3way switches and it can take up to 45 seconds for some controller switches to actually notify the load switch to turn on the light. A few are instantaneous and some are not... and sometimes one that is normally quick will be very slow. I also have several 4 button controllers and some of them suffer the same performance issues. When I use the handheld primary controller remote to control lights the performance is instantaneous as long as I am somewhat near the destination switch.
Node Rediscovery issues
In the past I have tried using the node-rediscovery feature but it would often times fail to find all the nodes or the remote would lock up. I have not tried this with the new remote, but none of my devices have moved (nor had they in the past) so I'm not sure this is necessary.
Emails with Leviton
I have talked to Leviton several times in the past over the phone. I have also had email correspondence with Ben, an Applications Engineer at Leviton who told me to update my buggy remote with the latest firmware. My original remote was introduced before the remotes were flashable so this was not an option. Ben told me that I would have to buy a new remote or send in my remote to get it updated even though it was still under warranty. I agreed to send it in and requested several times for instructions on how to do so (via emails) and never received a response. During a phone call with Ben he also indicated that he could replace my controller switches with newer ones since they apparently knew of some issues in the older controllers. After following up on this via several emails I never received a response. During a phone call I also let Ben know that I offer a free ViziaRF software developer library online for .Net developers. Based on this and the # of devices I have he then asked if I would be interested in working with them testing there product and I said that was fine. I have not heard from them regarding this, however I don't mind since my primary concern is getting my ViziaRF lighting network stable.
Bug reports to Leviton
As an early adopter of ViziaRf and developer of software using the RS232 device I found many bugs in the primary remote controller, in the RS232 device, and incorrect documentation of the rs232 communication protocol. I documented all the issues I found and sent Ben an email. I was happy when Ben passed the email on to the engineers and Ben sent me their responses. Most of the bugs that I documented were reported to have been fixed, and I can confirm that the new ViziaRF+ remote that I have does not have any of the bugs that I reported. I was notified that a couple of the issues that I reported were by design, however IMHO I would say that in the particular case of those issues the design leads to user confusion.
The Latest Phone Call
Today I spoke to Barry, a technical support representative at Leviton. Barry told me that the slow performance that I was seeing between the controller devices and the destination switches was because I have too many devices for the network to perform well. I have about 60 ViziaRF devices. I then asked how many devices a network should have to operate quickly and reliably. He said 30-35. I double checked this with him and he confirmed it so there was no misunderstanding. He put me on hold several times to get more information from someone/somewhere as well. He said that when I use the controller switch the command was bouncing around the network trying to find the best route and since I have about 60 nodes it would take longer than if I had less nodes.
This was news to me and quite disappointing. Leviton (as other Z-Wave manufactures do) claim the network can support 232 devices.
I asked if there were any settings I could change to improve the performance. Barry said no, the only way to improve the performance would be to reduce the number of nodes in my z-wave network.
A call to one of our dealer friends
I called one of our dealer friends after speaking with Leviton and he said that the Leviton statement regarding the number of devices and performance was not true. He recommended I get the Think Essentials software and it could optimize the network. I have ordered the software and will give it a try.
Conclusion
My overall satisfaction with ViziaRF and Leviton is less than - less than desirable. I've been trying to deal with these issues for a couple years and my family is now at the point where it has to be fixed or it needs to be removed. Of course after investing $$ in many ViziaRF devices I would prefer to get it working as advertised.
At this point if someone were to ask me if I recommend ViziaRF, based on my experience with the product and the Leviton support I would have to say strongly - no. My level of disappointment with ViziaRF and Leviton support is fairly high due to the performance problems, refusal to replace a very buggy early primary remote, and the lack of followup emails from Leviton regarding replacing some of my devices. I do appreciate that I was able to get some details from the engineers which is fairly rare, but unfortunately it didn't solve my issues.
John