The Number of Z-Wave Devices That are Supported on the 2GIG GC3 or GC3e

Hi, DIYers. This is Michael from Alarm Grid. And today, I'm going to discuss the Z-Wave device limits for a 2GIG GC3 and GC3e security system. The 2GIG GC3 and 2GIG GC3e both have a built-in Z-Wave plus controller. So that way, you can add classic Z-Wave devices, as well as Z-Wave plus devices. It's usually recommended that you use Z-Wave plus devices with a Z-Wave plus controller. Because that way, you can get the maximum range and battery life, if that's applicable. But you can certainly pair classical Z-Wave devices into your Z-Wave network if you happen to have some that you want to use. But anyway, what we're going to be talking about today is the Z-Wave device limits for these systems. Now, the GC3 and GC3e both-- they meet the standard Z-Wave device limit of 232 Z-Wave devices. And that seems like a random number, 232, but traditionally, when you encounter a Z-Wave hub or a Z-Wave controller, 232 is actually pretty much the standard number that you would expect a Z-Wave a controller to support. There are some that support less, but in this case, both the GC3 and GC3e, they do 232 Z-Wave devices this is for local control only. And that's pretty important to keep in mind. Because you will likely be using your GC3 or GC3e system with alarm.com remote Z-Wave control. And alarm.com has a smaller Z-Wave Wave device limit of only 122 Z-Wave Wave devices. So what does that mean? -- Well, when you have a Z-Wave device that's paired with a GC3 or GC3e system, that's monitored and connected with the alarm.com servers. Normally, that Z-Wave device, it gets pushed over a to alarm.com automatically. And once it's on alarm.com, then you can access alarm.com using a web browser or using a mobile app on your phone, android, or iOS. And I think some other types of support as well, but mostly Android or iOS. And then you can control it remotely from the alarm.com platform. And what's also cool is that you can include these devices with alarm.com smart scenes so that they activate automatically based on a set schedule, or with certain pre-determined system events. So you will likely be wanting to use alarm.com because that's how you show off that you can control your lights from across the world. Pull up an app on your phone, and turn on your lights. It's pretty neat. But what you got to keep in mind is that alarm.com has this smaller Z-Wave device limit of 122 Z-Wave devices. So just to go through it, you pair 122 Z-Wave devices with your 2GIG GC3 or GC3e system and they all get pushed over to alarm.com just fine. But then when you go and add that 123rd Z-Wave device, that one's only going to be on the panel for local control. It's not going to be sent over to alarm.com for remote control, for smart scene control, all that cool stuff. You'll only be able to go to the GC3 or GC3e and control it locally. So let's say you've exceeded that Z-Wave device limit of 122 Z-Wave devices for alarm.com, and then you get a new Z-Wave device that you really want to have on alarm.com. What you're going to have to do is you're going to have to go back on your GC3 or GC3e system and delete, maybe a lesser important Z-Wave device, so you get under that 122 device and so you're down to 121. And then when you add a new 122nd Z-Wave device, that will be pushed over to alarm.com. And when you do this, you want to make sure that alarm.com has updated the Z-Wave list to where it only shows 121 Z-Wave devices. So that way, when you do add that 122nd one, it will get pushed over to alarm.com. So kind of give the alarm.com some-- a chance to do a panel Z-Wave refresh that will ensure that then the new Z-Wave device can be pushed over to alarm.com. And then you can go back and add the Z-Wave device that you deleted and put it back on the panel. So that way, you can still have it for local control. Maybe it's not as important that you have it for remote access, but it's still nice to have remote control. And just to keep in mind, 122 Z-Wave devices is a lot of Z-Wave devices. Unless you have like a really big home or really big business, or something, you probably won't hit this limit. Most people don't. But we do have some customers that do hit those limits and they are important. So if that's you, then keep that in mind. Just keep that limit in mind. For 2GIG GC3 or aGC3e, it's 232 Z-Wave devices for local control. And alarm.com has that smaller limit of 122 Z-Wave devices. Now, we have GC3 behind us and we're going to show you a little bit of how to access the Z-Wave menu. OK. So we have our GC3 system. We have the main screen pulled up. And just to be clear, the GC3e is going to have pretty much the same menus. That system just has an updated design to make it a nice little refresh look. But we have our GC3e-- GC3 here, sorry. And I'm going to show you how you would get to it. So there is a smart home controls menu down here. That's how you would activate Z-Wave devices. But if you wanted to add Z-Wave devices, you can go to the Installer Tool box up here and you're going to need to provide the installer code, which is 1561. And that's the default installer code. You may have changed yours. We recommend keeping the default. But if you did decide to change yours, or your previous installer did that to keep you out of programming, then you would enter whatever number is appropriate. But remember, the default's 1561. And then you would just choose a Smart Home settings. And you can see here, this is where you would add devices, remove devices. Removing is clearing them from the network, which is often what you want to do before adding a new Z-Wave device. You can check the network status, do some diagnostics. They have some advanced settings in here, such as making this secondary Z-Wave controller. And like I said, the GC3e is going to follow a similar format. But that's how you would access the Z-Wave menu more or less to set up your Z-Wave network. And we're just going to back out to the Home screen here. And that's the Z-Wave menu on the GC3. So those are the Z-Wave device limits for the 2GIG GC3 and GC3e. Just to reiterate, it's 232 Z-Wave devices for local control on the 2GIG GC3, and 2GIG GC3e. And then there's that smaller 122 device limit for alarm.com for smart scenes, for remote access on your mobile app, or your web browser. So keep those numbers in mind if you're playing to have a very large Z-Wave network. If you found this video helpful, make sure to give it a thumbs up below to like the video, and remember to subscribe to our channel to get updates on future videos. And if you have any questions about the 2GIG GC3 or 2GIG GC3e, or alarm.com, or if you're interested in signing up for monitoring service, please feel free to shoot us an email at support@alarmgrid.com. We would love to hear from you, hope you enjoyed the video. Thank you.