Any device that supports Z-Wave associations has an integer “assocIn” slot exposed on its corresponding ZWaveDevice component. The “assocIn” slot is the target of an association link.

For each association group a device supports, it has an integer slot “groupn”, where n is the group number. Any “groupn” slot is a source of an association link.

A ZWaveDevice’s component glyph (shape) shows “assocIn” and “groupn” slots, as shown in Figure 26.

In Figure 26, there is dimmer device (node 8, left) and a dimmer remote device (node 11, right). A dimmer remote is similar to a dimmer device, except that it does not support a direct connection to a lighting load.

In this application, the need is for the dimmer remote node (node 11) to be able to control the light that is wired to the “1stFloor_Dimmer_8” (node 8) device. To provide this, you simply link from node 11’s “group1” (source) slot to the node8’s “assocIn” (target) slot, as shown below in Figure 27.

The link in Figure 27 causes an association to be made from node 11 to node 8. When node 11’s dimmer switch is activated locally, a Z-Wave message is sent directly to node 8, causing the light wired to node 8 to change to the level set by node 11.

Note if the light is controlled directly at node 8, the dim level displayed at node 11 does not change. However, it is preferred that the current status of the light connected to node 8 to also be indicated at node 11. This requires adding another link from node8’s “group1” slot to node 11’s “assocIn” slot (Figure 28).