Mutiple bugs/problems in Z-wave device configuration
Hi,
I'm not sure if I should put this under the category "Report a problem" or "Share an idea" because this post is a combination of bad UX (in my opinion) and bugs related to the device configuration.
First problem: Save button not working as expected
When you edit a parameter in the device configuration and click save, the UI responds "Device saved". In my opinion, this should indicate the changed settings are saved to the device, but that's not the case. If you click back to the device configuration, you will see the changed settings and you would expect everything to work, but this is not the case.. the setting it NOT changed to the device, even if the UI says so.
Steps to reproduce this behaviour:
1. Go to device configuration
2. Change one of the settings, clik save
3. Go back to device configuration and you will see the updated value.
4. Click on the label left of the value and click retrieve. You will see that the updated value is not saved to the device.
Just by pure luck, after many hours of troubleshooting, I discovered that you have to click the label (yes, the label!) to get to an additional menu for each parameter, which lets you retrieve and send/save the parameter as shown in the picture below:
By pure luck, I discovered this hidden menu after days of troubleshooting a Fibaro Dimmer. I even went to the store to buy an additional Fibaro Dimmer 2 in case it was an hardware error with the dimmer!
Second problem: Config page does not display correct values
When you edit the configuration page, you would expect that the values shown are the values actually stored in the Z-Wave device. Very often, I find that the values shown are not the same as stored in the device. This is somewhat related to the problem mentioned abovem but this also happens for values changed by the z-wave device itselv, and not by the user. Example:
I have not changed the value, but clicked the label and pressed retrieved. The setting is not the same as shown on the device config page.
Third problem: Sending (saving) the config setting disables all other parameter menus
When you save a setting (by pressing send!) and get the confirmation message, you are not able to click any other labels to get the additional menu. You will need to navigate out of the page or refresh the webpage to retrieve the menus again.
The same problem 
When you press save in the device configuration form, the entire form contents (General, Configuration and Icon tab contents) are saved to the cloud, not to your Zipato gateway. Only after you synchronise are those form contents transferred to your gateway. When your gateway receives new configuration for a certain Z-Wave device after synchronisation, it will transfer this new configuration to the device. Or it will wait until the device awakens, if it is a battery powered device.
A major drawback of this approach is that the user is not notified in any way whether new configuration was transferred successfully or not.
This is why we implemented interactive controls for managing device configuration. These controls are available for every configuration option by clicking on the configuration option label.
When you send new configuration value by pressing "SEND", the value is sent directly to the device and the response from the device is shown in the status bar below the controls.
When you retrieve current value of a certain configuration option by pressing "RETRIEVE", the value is retrieved directly from the device. In other words, you can always get the exact configuration value as it is on the device by retrieving it with the interactive controls.
Each time you open the configuration tab, the values are read from the cloud. We cannot guarantee that these values will always accurately represent the configuration values as they are on the device itself at that moment. The simplest example is when a user makes a change in the configuration tab and then saves the new configuration to the cloud. But the user forgot to synchronise. Now the values on the cloud and on the device are not the same.
We can however guarantee that you can always retrieve current device configuration by using the interactive controls.
The third problem you describe is indeed a bug in our ui which we will try to fix as soon as possible. But you don't need to refresh the entire ui, just close the device configuration form and open it again and interactive controls will work.
When you press save in the device configuration form, the entire form contents (General, Configuration and Icon tab contents) are saved to the cloud, not to your Zipato gateway. Only after you synchronise are those form contents transferred to your gateway. When your gateway receives new configuration for a certain Z-Wave device after synchronisation, it will transfer this new configuration to the device. Or it will wait until the device awakens, if it is a battery powered device.
A major drawback of this approach is that the user is not notified in any way whether new configuration was transferred successfully or not.
This is why we implemented interactive controls for managing device configuration. These controls are available for every configuration option by clicking on the configuration option label.
When you send new configuration value by pressing "SEND", the value is sent directly to the device and the response from the device is shown in the status bar below the controls.
When you retrieve current value of a certain configuration option by pressing "RETRIEVE", the value is retrieved directly from the device. In other words, you can always get the exact configuration value as it is on the device by retrieving it with the interactive controls.
Each time you open the configuration tab, the values are read from the cloud. We cannot guarantee that these values will always accurately represent the configuration values as they are on the device itself at that moment. The simplest example is when a user makes a change in the configuration tab and then saves the new configuration to the cloud. But the user forgot to synchronise. Now the values on the cloud and on the device are not the same.
We can however guarantee that you can always retrieve current device configuration by using the interactive controls.
The third problem you describe is indeed a bug in our ui which we will try to fix as soon as possible. But you don't need to refresh the entire ui, just close the device configuration form and open it again and interactive controls will work.
Building a logical and functional way to make a config seems be a hard one. I have waited one year to see really working configuration page for devices. If you like to see working devices, it is better only keep the defaults.
Building a logical and functional way to make a config seems be a hard one. I have waited one year to see really working configuration page for devices. If you like to see working devices, it is better only keep the defaults.
When you press save in the device configuration form, the entire form contents (General, Configuration and Icon tab contents) are saved to the cloud, not to your Zipato gateway. Only after you synchronise are those form contents transferred to your gateway. When your gateway receives new configuration for a certain Z-Wave device after synchronisation, it will transfer this new configuration to the device. Or it will wait until the device awakens, if it is a battery powered device.
A major drawback of this approach is that the user is not notified in any way whether new configuration was transferred successfully or not.
This is why we implemented interactive controls for managing device configuration. These controls are available for every configuration option by clicking on the configuration option label.
When you send new configuration value by pressing "SEND", the value is sent directly to the device and the response from the device is shown in the status bar below the controls.
When you retrieve current value of a certain configuration option by pressing "RETRIEVE", the value is retrieved directly from the device. In other words, you can always get the exact configuration value as it is on the device by retrieving it with the interactive controls.
Each time you open the configuration tab, the values are read from the cloud. We cannot guarantee that these values will always accurately represent the configuration values as they are on the device itself at that moment. The simplest example is when a user makes a change in the configuration tab and then saves the new configuration to the cloud. But the user forgot to synchronise. Now the values on the cloud and on the device are not the same.
We can however guarantee that you can always retrieve current device configuration by using the interactive controls.
The third problem you describe is indeed a bug in our ui which we will try to fix as soon as possible. But you don't need to refresh the entire ui, just close the device configuration form and open it again and interactive controls will work.
When you press save in the device configuration form, the entire form contents (General, Configuration and Icon tab contents) are saved to the cloud, not to your Zipato gateway. Only after you synchronise are those form contents transferred to your gateway. When your gateway receives new configuration for a certain Z-Wave device after synchronisation, it will transfer this new configuration to the device. Or it will wait until the device awakens, if it is a battery powered device.
A major drawback of this approach is that the user is not notified in any way whether new configuration was transferred successfully or not.
This is why we implemented interactive controls for managing device configuration. These controls are available for every configuration option by clicking on the configuration option label.
When you send new configuration value by pressing "SEND", the value is sent directly to the device and the response from the device is shown in the status bar below the controls.
When you retrieve current value of a certain configuration option by pressing "RETRIEVE", the value is retrieved directly from the device. In other words, you can always get the exact configuration value as it is on the device by retrieving it with the interactive controls.
Each time you open the configuration tab, the values are read from the cloud. We cannot guarantee that these values will always accurately represent the configuration values as they are on the device itself at that moment. The simplest example is when a user makes a change in the configuration tab and then saves the new configuration to the cloud. But the user forgot to synchronise. Now the values on the cloud and on the device are not the same.
We can however guarantee that you can always retrieve current device configuration by using the interactive controls.
The third problem you describe is indeed a bug in our ui which we will try to fix as soon as possible. But you don't need to refresh the entire ui, just close the device configuration form and open it again and interactive controls will work.
And when did you publicly announce this functionality. How would people know this? Why does it have to be a forum post before someone tell us about it?
And when did you publicly announce this functionality. How would people know this? Why does it have to be a forum post before someone tell us about it?
Thank Eric S. for this post.
it helped me solved a problem I spend hours on... I even opened ticket.
I agree with all comments considering that applying new configuration does not work in a logical way on Zipato.
I would even say that this is somehow very poor UX.`
On the other side, this feature is very useful.
Too bad Zipato never really consider UX as a priority in their developments....
Thank Eric S. for this post.
it helped me solved a problem I spend hours on... I even opened ticket.
I agree with all comments considering that applying new configuration does not work in a logical way on Zipato.
I would even say that this is somehow very poor UX.`
On the other side, this feature is very useful.
Too bad Zipato never really consider UX as a priority in their developments....
Replies have been locked on this page!