So, I looked in all 3 switch boxes and I am pretty sure, that my wiring is laid out to match the line/load in the same box.
I love the capabilities of the switches, but what is currently most important to me is the LED - it allows me to determine at a glance if the house alarm is armed (fast red blink) or off (Solid Green). I also use it to let me know if the garage door is open (pulsing Pink).
I have the LZW31-SN on two other fixtures, one is a single and one is a 3 way. The situation with my 4-way setup is that I only need the switch on the right most box (the 3-way at the end - which contains only a line and 2 travelers), as it is the one in front of the door exiting my house… I am racking my brain to figure out how I would wire this up. The only example I have found was for 3 smart switches. I would prefer 1 or possibly 2 at most.
I came up with 3 possibilities (and am still working out the wiring).
Wire the Line and Neutral through to the final switch and have it control nothing (I could potentially put smart bulbs in the fixtures and use the switch to control them through SmartThings.
Wire the first 2 switches as a 3-Way, and pass the Line and Neutral through to the third
Wire only the 3rd box up as if there was no Neutral.
I have limited experience - though I have wired up multiple smart switches in my home.
I think this way would be the easiest assuming the wiring is correct above. There’s nothing wrong with having no neutral on the dimmer model, just needs to be configured for that. You may find your lights are “dim” if the switch is off, if so, you may need to verify switch is setup for non-neutral, wired correctly, and may need to install the Aeotec Bypass. Or you can change out your bulbs that are less sensitive.
So following up on that thought, you already have a hot in each box via the black. You need two conductors to connect Aux switches, the hot and a traveler. So you can use the white of the 3-wires as the travelers. That leaves the red available to send the switched hot from the Inovelli back to the left box.
That’s what I am thinking, although I’ve never implemented anything like this. Basically a non-neutral going the opposite direction. No guarantees, but at least theoretically that should work.
But if you are going to buy 2 Auxs, which not just get 2 more Inovellis and use an Inovelli documented installation:
I guess I missed this portion of Inovelli training. I have neutral in all my boxes, so I haven’t had to deal with non-neutral setups.
Found it on the support page:
'Three way installs are when you have two switches controlling one load. Please see below for the various configurations. Note: You can only use this switch with a special auxiliary (add-on) switch made by GE or HomeSeer if you do not have a neutral wire. You cannot use this switch with an existing dumb switch or another smart switch without a neutral." Source: https://support.inovelli.com/portal/kb/articles/inovelli-wiring-diagrams-dimmer-switches-gen-2#Non-Neutral_Wire_Setup
Mix and match can be a dangerous term. Keep in mind I’m new here and just an average joe home enthusiast, but I’ve been working with industrial automation systems for 7 years and home automation for about a year.
My idea would be to change your 4-way switch to a 3-way switch, then wire that up as a standard 3-way with the smart 3-way smart dimmer on the load box. For the end switch, it would just need a line and neutral to power the switch up (I think a 2-way would work fine) You would add both smart switches to SmartThings hub and use ST to receive inputs from the end switch and push that input to the 3-way smart dimmer. That would handle your on/off commands for the lights.
Be aware, this would be dependent upon your SmartThings hub, as well as your internet connection. Either of those goes down and the end switch wouldn’t be able to forward commands to the smart dimmer.
edit: Alternatively, I don’t have any experience with setting up ZWave association, but you might be able to do that without needing to have commands pass through your ST hub. ST hub does support ZWave association but I’m not sure if you’d need identical switches for this to work.
@sw99 - I’d imagine it would depend how it’s connected to the load. You’d want the dimmer to control the load directly because of the dimming aspect of it. The On/Off’s may not work if no load is connected, so not sure how it’ll work.
No Luck - Re-opened the box with the 4 way, and all 3 switches are remotes for other 3/4 ways, so no local neutral available. Gonna do the 3 smart Inovelli switches for now (with the on/off in the center) until I find a better alternative.
@sw99 - Aux switches are cheaper to be honest. 2-PK on Amazon (if you can find them). I picked up Lowes clearance ones for $2.97. Granted, you won’t have the fancy lights, but they won’t mimic one another, so that may make you made.
So what if you make the left and the middle into a 3-way. Put an Invelli on the far right switch as a standalone. You can specify notifications there. Invoke switch functionality via scenes or maybe direct association.
@sw99 - Hmm I thought we could get line to pass all the way through to dimmer, then use AUX switches in the left and middle boxes. I don’t have paint on here, and may have to wait until I’m home to draw it out. It will require some rewiring though… Then again, I’m doing a couple things at right now so I may not be thinking about something.
