Blue Series Firmware Feature Request

I have 6 blue switches didn’t set them up yet.

If I bind the switch to a group of lights when the main paddle is pressed does it send an on and a brightness signal to the bulbs or just “turn on”? It would be great if it sent a 100% brightness or even better if that was configurable for how it turns on the lights when in “smart bulb mode”. Meaning a configuration option that takes any number between 0 and 100 for brightness %. I ask because I use an off transition from home assistant so the lights will be 1% if a brightness command is not also sent.

I will primarily use this with home assistant and the smart bulb mode/binding is simply a backup so it would be great if there was a configuration option for the main paddle to become the scene switch and the binding functions to be moved to the current config button. Essentially reversing the order of what is currently configured. That way what’s being used the most is the biggest switch for people to use vs having to tell everyone touch the smaller config button.

For context.

The “defaultLevelLocal” and “defaultLevelRemote” settings are the one you’re looking for. Setting to 0 will make the switch turn on to it’s previous level. Setting to 100 will make it turn on at 100%.

Awesome. Hoping the second request is possible with reversing what the switches do currently.

Main paddle is scene button and config button does binding control/load control if it’s in smart bulb mode.

Can you elaborate more on the second part. Idk if it’s bc I’ve been beaten down this week and my brain is fried or what but I don’t really follow :frowning:

2 Likes

You see how the main paddle is used when in smart bulb mode and binded to a light group?

Is it possible for an option for that to be done by the smaller config button? That way the main button can be used for scenes alone and the config button could do on/off with binded lights.

Edit: I realize it’s being called a “config button” I’ll replace “scene button” with that

2 Likes

Got it - so how would you envision the config button to work (tap 1x to turn lights on, 2x lights off, etc)?

If it’s unable to poll the binded group (not sure if that’s possible) then yes exactly how you described. If it’s possible to poll to check if the group is on then a single tap turns on if off and turns off if on.

As I said I would primarily have home assistant control what happens so using the main paddle for scenes is ideal while still having backup binding control provided through the config button since there is a big size difference i think most non-tech people that come over would use the paddle which is fine but then it wouldn’t deliver the dynamic lighting controlled experience without home assistant getting a say in what happens when the lights turn on. So I’d rather switch that around. Again this should be an option not default so people can just choose what button they prefer that controls binded lights.

It’s technically possible if this can’t happen that whenever the main paddle is tapped to turn on binded lights and the 1x event is sent to home assistant then it also sends a command to the lights but that could look weird if it turns on to a specific color or light temperature and then home assistant within a second sends a completely different light color or even brightness. It’s also inefficient as that’s unecessary traffic.

After I just set up the switch and binded it to a group of lights it would be great if there was the ability to do as I described.

Binding takes over the paddle. Any press is a binding command. Yes it’s also sends scene notifications (button presses) but binding commands will be received by the lights first before home assistant has a chance to send a command off the press up or down of the paddle.

It would be great to have the option to move binding commands to the config button and I also see that the switch does read the binded group as in it can read the group’s state (on,off and brightness). So it should be possible to make a tap of the config button if off turn on the binded group/lights, if on turn off binded group/lights. If double pressed and binded group/lights are on turn up brightness just as the current paddle does with a double tap on the upper paddle. All 3 things the paddle does for binding could be done by the config button.

1 Like

Checking that the above is true because z2m says the following:

Default level for the dimmer when it is turned on at the switch. A setting of 255 means that the switch will return to the level that it was on before it was turned off.

I ask because I am having a problem with defaultLevelRemote (Firmware bug: defaultLevelRemote does not work) and wondering if z2m needs updating.

Zigbee binding does not support that kind of if/then/else logic. Binding associates an event (on/off/changeLevel) on the source endpoint with a single Zigbee command sent to the destination endpoint. It might be possible to make the config button ‘bindable’ to a Zigbee command, but it could only be associated with a single specific command. One possibility might be to make the config button send a zigbee.toggle command. But that’s about as close as you could get with bindings.

What you’re asking for is more appropriately solved via automation on a hub and not via bindings

1 Like

The switch firmware itself would do what I suggested.

The switch is already aware of the state of the binded group. This should be possible to achieve. It also does increase brightness on a double tap on the upper paddle. Again the firmware can do this.

I would prefer the config button to be used as a backup if home assistant is down. I would rather use the main paddle for automations and the config button as a backup if home assistant is down.

My point is that would be a custom feature/command and is not the same thing as zigbee binding. Zigbee binding has defined standards that don’t include the logic you are describing

1 Like

I’m on z2m edge 1.28.2-dev commit: 9f0b162
I haven’t checked for an update in the past week or so since I’m not at home and don’t dare take it offline to update in case an issue comes up.

I’m have the latest from GitHub manually installed. defaultLevelLocal works as expected.

1 Like

@Dan001 I don’t completely follow what you’re asking, but it sounds like you could accomplish it by keeping the level of the switch in sync with the level of the lights when you control them with your automations.

You could create two groups, one with just lights, and one with lights and the switch. Bind the switch to the group with just the lights, and direct your commands from HA to the group that also includes the switch. Then the switch always has the most up to date information about the current level of the lights, and can react accordingly. Or, since latency is less important, just send the HA commands to both the light group and the switch as two separate zigbee messages.

This may not be helpful to you, but there’s one situation where this is not true: if local protection is enabled. I’ve configured my blue series switches to be able to adjust the color temperature of the lights using the paddle. The way it works is like this:

  • Pressing the config button toggles local protection.
  • When local protection is on, indicate it by blinking one of the LEDs
  • When local protection is on, interpret the scene commands sent by the various paddle taps to adjust the color temperature.
  • If it’s been more than 30 seconds since the last scene event, and local protection is on, turn it off (restore normal mode)

Obviously this requires home assistant to be up and running. It sounds like you want the ability to use binding as a backup for when HA is down. What if you kept local protection on all the time, and then if the hub is down, you can (I think?) use a magic sequence of buttons to disable local protection, to get the switch to work like a switch, using bindings.

I just don’t know what the magic sequence of buttons is to disable local protection, or if it even exists.