Z-Wave Associations vs Rule Machine/Simple Lighting

I'm porting over the Leviton VRCZ4 driver to Hubitat from Smarthings. The existing driver depends on the VRCZ4 having z-wave associations to the loads it is controlling. I have this working ok, but kludged up to configure the associations.

So I have a question, looking at how @mike.maxwell did the VRCS4 driver it looks like it doesn't depend on associations, but rather to use it you configure things with something like Rule Machine or Simple Lighting. So I'm trying to decide what's "best" for a driver, to use something like the Inovelli z-wave association tool to configure associations, or change the driver to work more like the VRCS4 driver where you configure behavior via Rule Machine or Simple Lighting.

Words of wisdom? Thanks. Once the VRCZ4 is done then VRCZ1 is next. I'm relatively new to the Hubitat environment so not sure if there is a preferred approach.

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Sometimes it will depend on the device and whether or not it passes enough information to an associated node. For example, I ported the Aeotech WallMote which boasts 6 or 8 or 12 or something "scenes". I can't remember the number. At any rate, it counted swipe up on each of the buttons as a separate scene because it was a separate association group.

Unfortunately, if you don't associate a node to that group and you associate the hub's node instead the message that comes from the device is the same for every single one of the swipe ups and then there is a different message for all of the swipe downs. So instead of having:

  • Button 1 Swipe Up - Message A to Group 1
  • Button 2 Swipe Up - Message A to Group 2

I had:

  • Button 1 Swipe Up - Message A to Hub
  • Button 2 Swipe Up - Message A to Hub

And even though it was two different buttons that could have gone to two different nodes from the hub the difference was indiscernible because there was nothing about the initiating button in the actual payload of the message.

So... if you are in a similar situation you may be forced to do it by association if you really want all of the potentially functionality. If the button events DO send enough information to parse the event and determine what the event was then you have complete flexibility and it comes down to preference I think.

I prefer to not use association because when things are working on the hub and we are taking full advantage of the local processing and a stable hub the difference in time between a scene controller to a node versus the scene controller to the hub to a node is mostly negligible. Plus, having it go through the hub adds a ton of flexibility because there's an event that you can use to do other things other than just turn on a light. For example, my VRCS4 is used to switch modes and control media devices as well as toggle lights. It couldn't do that with just the associations.


Hey, I have 3 VRCZ4s and they're the only devices that aren't working properly in my Hubitat ZWave network (came from Vera where they did). They're detected as a "VRCS4", and sort of work.

Any progress on the driver? I'm no programmer, but I'd be happy to help test or anything else I can do.


Hi @misko and @sidestream84,

I think I got you both on another thread, but I've just completed porting my App and Driver for the Leviton VRCZ4-M04 Zone Controller from SmartThings to Hubitat Elevation. I'll probably do some additional tweaking, but you should find the current versions fully functional -- have a try and let me know?

See my posting to App and driver porting to Hubitat...

Download the Hubitat app