Z-Wave the public standard

Information about obsolete / deprecated command class versions available

#1

I just stumble across a few command class versions (e.g. Multi Channel version 1 and 2) which are obsolete and are not described at all in the public documentation.

However, there a devices in the field that use outdated / obsolete / deprecated versions of command classes. I would like to see the specification even of these versions in order to be able to implement a correct communication with these device and to understand the differences / evolution between the versions.

Is it possible that the current documentation is updated with this information as well?

#2

Hi,

Unfortunately these command classes are not available for publishing. Generally you should not encounter a lot of products relying on these command classes.

Generally the command classes are designed such that new functionality is appended to the end of the commands, thus legacy devices will be able to truncate the commands, and only parse the parts they do understand.

This helps maintain backwards compatibility.

Best regards,
Crilles

#3

While this may be true of some command classes where new data is added to the end and they are therefore implicitly backward compatible, is this a correct assumption for the Multi-Channel command class - the commands are different.

I guess that ZWave ensure that no new products are approved that use this class - can you say how long this has been the case? I’m just a bit suspicious that there are still a reasonable number of ‘heritage’ devices still using this class and it would be good to have it documented if possible.

#4

I agree to cdjackson, if a command class is striktly backward compatible the parameters are even present in the newer versions. But I think that some of these changes are not striktly backward compatible.
But what is the point in not publishing them? If everything is open, why are especially these few classes / versions not open?

#5

Regarding the multi channel the story is a bit different, as the command class identifier is the same as multi instance, however the command identifiers are completely different. Unfortunately I do not have the multi instances command class in a shareable format.

Best regards,
Crilles