The pictured device is an Eaton Aspire RFWC5. When I’m finished with my home automation project, instead of pressing or adjusting more than 11 different switches around the apartment to control the lighting, this 5 button scene controller will be the only switch I regularly interact with. Top button for dim lights throughout the apartment, 2nd for medium brightness, 3rd for full brightness, 4th is an accent light toggle, 5th is a water fountain toggle, off button ieally shuts off everything but the water fountain.
It was a nightmare to find, when I bought it on ebay it seemed to be the only listing for a black 5 button scene controller anywhere on the whole internet. It was also seemingly brazenly overpriced. I paid $85 USD for this, which appears to have been its MSRP. Other white scene control 1-gang button stacks by Levitron were selling for over $100. A lot of money for a 5+1 on/off button z-wave remote to plug into a junction box! It also turns out that it’s an absolute nightmare to configure. Along with being original z-wave not z-wave plus, I’ve been banging my head against the wall for days now trying to get this working with Home Assistant and I just haven’t been able to do it. Here’s a thread that shows how bad it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/kdwam6/need_help_with_eaton_rfwc5_scene_controller/
I feel like this is a perfect opening for Inovelli:
- It’s just a very straightforward z-wave scene control remote which Inovelli’s current switches are already are (they only lack this particular physical configuration)
- There is nothing really available on the market right now for this kind of device
- What you can find is absurdly expensive for what it is
- That stuff is using outdated tech
- At least some of the existing products are nightmare to try to use. I seriously texted the above picture to a friend and told him they were “the devil’s buttons” when I was sharing my project progress.
- There is fairly little overall design work needs to done for inovelli to create this kind of product from its existing line of switches and dimmers.
In closing - this class of device could really use an enthusiast-friendly, fairly priced modern product from inovelli!
