I went to the Orlando Pool/Spa Show yesterday and got to get my hands on the new Intermatic MultiWave system. It is a small 5 relay multi-instance switch. It works out of the box with their new zwave remote (improved over Iwave model). The controller can manage and report water temperature on the fly. The device also has an RS485 input for additional expantion of devices that can all be controlled by the Zwave remote. The remote allows for extensive expansion of scenes and pages for each device it adds. The pool controller has a detatchable antenna housing on the top of the unit so that you can place the antenna at a better location and attach it to the unit via Ethernet cable. They plan to add an additional Eth. jack to the antenna so that you could essitianlly daisy chain to other antennas to create a zwave web of repeaters.
I just hope that MCV can get some optimal control over this equipment and still allow the remote to function as designed. It is supposed to be available in April.
Yes, we have several that we are testing and installing. They are not operating correctly with VERA out-of-the-box due to all of the multi-channels and features. MCV is looking into one of my units and is actively working on getting it running with VERA as we speak.
As far as using it with the PE953 Controller, it works great. Intermatic is planning to make some modifications already for a few more features to release next year. As for now, this does the trick.
The ball is in Intermatic’s court right now but they are communicating with MCV each step of the way (pretty much daily now) and figuring out how to get all of the features available for VERA. Currently MCV has been able to capture and control all five relays. So that is what you would get out-of-the-box with UI4’s latest release. Intermatic is working on helping control the heat pump settings as well.
Does anyone have an update on what channels Vera can control on this unit now? Looks like the last update was a little over a month ago so I’m wondering if there has been any progress made?
Intermatic is modifying their code now to accommodate all five switches and the temperature controls. They are supposed to get me a test unit with the beta firmware here in October. They will not be releasing the new firmware though until they have added some more features that are being included in their next release. I do not know how far down the pike that is though. I will update the progress as soon as my test unit arrives.
Any idea if that means we will have to purchase new units too or will it simply be a firmware upgrade? I am purchasing a unit now as they are finishing up my pool/spa as we speak so I need to get something on there. It would be a shame if they make us buy all new hardware when this functionality comes out.
This is all nice. What about those of us who need a simple pump on/off like the Intermatic CA3750? I can’t beleive we still don’t have a simple device to turn a pool pump on or off.
I just got the Beta firmware from Intermatic. All of the switches report the proper status feedback and are controllable as expected. There is still not a Heat Pump Set Point and Current Temp being displayed in Vera but this may just be a modification request with Vera at this time so I will try to push the ball back to their court and keep the dialog open between MCV and Intermatic.
Also, those still looking for a CA3750 should know that apparently RCS picked up the unit and are selling it under the model PMC30-ZW.
Ok, and as for the heat pump control, MCV has responded (very quickly I might add :)) to adding this to the code and hopefully they will be able to start working on this in 2-3 weeks after some other current bugs are dealt with.
Great news! Are they working on Current Temp display too?
Will we be able to create a scene such as “Spa on” that will trigger it to go to its spa mode vs “Spa off” that will return it to the pool mode? Or if we can’t access the device’s modes can we at least make a scene that says “turn pump 1 on, switch valves 1 and 2 to the left, and set temp to x”? Thanks for any info.
As for now, you can already handle the Spa mode with one switch. It is already something that you set up locally within the PE653. It automatically switches your actuators and switches your heat pump from the pool set temp to the spa set temp.
So if you have your heat pump settings already set on the PE953 remote and switch your pool to spa mode on Vera, then you will see the heat pump automatically turn on as well. So in a sense the Vera will tell you when the pool is heating. We are just waiting on the ability to know the current temp and be able to adjust the temp settings within Vera.