I've been reading through the forums and it appears that Indigo does not currently support secondary controllers in a Z-Wave network. Being new to Z-Wave, but a long time user of Indigo, I had no idea this would be an issue. Now I'm stuck with a large investment in equipment that doesn't work together. So the purpose of this post is twofold:
1) Confirm that Indigo does not support secondary Z-Wave controllers in the network (for what I'm trying to do)
2) Figure out a fix or workaround for my scenario, even if I have to write a script or plug-in
My wife and I recently moved to a new home and so I am starting over with home automation here. I began with X10 many (many!) years ago and most recently had over 100 Insteon devices in our previous home, all controlled with Indigo. I decided to move to Z-Wave for this home and have purchased about 15 modules so far, most of which are light switches (dimmers and on/off relays). I also purchased 2 Kwikset 916 deadbolts. These all work great with Indigo so far. For security, I went with a Qolsys IQ Panel 2, partly because it also supports Z-Wave automation.
My goal is pretty straight forward. I'd like the bulk of the home automation controlled with Indigo. I've acquired many ideas and scripts over the years and would like to continue to use them. I'd also like to control a few of the same lights and the same locks from the Qolsys Panel. The panel provides a secondary connection out of the home via cellular so if the Internet goes offline for some reason, I could still be notified of events such as the back door being unlocked, etc. It also provides a backup inbound connection for checking status and controlling devices. For example, when we come home at night, I'd like to press a single button on my iPhone that will activate a scene to disarm the security system, unlock 2 locks, turn on a few lights if it's night time, etc. The home is pretty remote and I'm told the Internet goes out pretty often in the area.
So here's the problem. In order to make all this work, the Qolsys controller must be learned into the network as a secondary controller, with Indigo as the primary controller. This somewhat works for lights that do not use encryption, but does not work for the locks that have been learned using encryption. This is consistent with information in a previous post from Matt.
After learning the Qolsys panel into the network, the lights can then be controlled via Indigo and/or via the Qolsys panel. However, as Matt stated, status and triggers are not handled properly between the controllers. I can probably find a workaround for these issues. The larger problem though is that the locks do not work at all. When learning the Quolsys panel into the network, it responds with: "Pass non-secure node paired process, but fail during secure node paired process – Status code: 518". I have confirmed with the security company that the issue is a failure of secure enrollment for the locks.
I can post more technical details, logs, etc., but before going down that road, I wanted to know if anybody thinks a workaround can be created. Or is this lack of support for secondary controllers something that can't be worked around?
Thanks!