I finally got around to installing my blues this weekend and I had a few questions I thought I knew the answers to.
1 - Switch configuration
I have no issues with single-pole switches, but when I did three-way replacements, I guess I didn’t understand. I do have Neutrals and they are/were used. I tried using two Blues together but I couldn’t understand how to pair them together. The “Powered” switched and the traveler didn’t respond to each other, either off or on. I ended up just going the Blue with Dumb and got that configured and they seem work now in tandem. Is there something special that needs to be done for Smart and Smart - I looked at the diagrams and they match. I don’t mind going dumb switch as it saves some money but I’d like to be able to dim/control hue’s.
2- How do I get Blues to control Hue? I’m using Smartthings and Hue Bridge. I’d like for the Blues to control the Hues to dim, change color…ect. I do have some that are in a Three-way - Dumb setup currently but hoping to move those to Blue - Blue or Blue - Aux. Currently, all my switches are on/off. If I enabled - SmartBulb, the bulbs would no longer power on once they were off (the switch would show the status light as if it was on/off but the bulbs didn’t reflect that). I have some automations, outside of this, that modify the lights status but if they’re switched off, while in Smartbulb mode, the automations fail as the lights aren’t powered.
If binding is required - do I lose functionality from the Hue side of things?
3- I’m not able to disable the click. When going to settings on the switch, I set it to disabled but it’s still present
Nevermind, just found a topic on this and seems to be normal with Blue-Dumb setup, I’d need another blue/aux to allow the disablement.
When you have a 3-way with two Blues, the wiring is different from when you are using a Blue with an Aux or dumb switch. Two Blues don’t communicate via a traveler conductor. They both need to be powered individually but sending a hot and neutral to each. They then have to be bound using Zigbee binding:
This makes no sense. The purpose of the Smart Bulb Mode is to continuously power the connected load irrespective of paddle presses. When you say the bulbs were “off” does that mean they weren’t powered, or does that mean there were powered (as they should be) but just turned off? If it’s the latter, until you get binding worked out, turn them on via the hub or the Hue app.
Okay, I was going to run thru the sequence of events to break them out here but I guess I got it wrong. I reset everything this morning and started over before making this post.
So now, in the same setup (3-way Smart > Dumb) - When setting SmartBulb to enabled. The Smart switch doesn’t respond to On or Off presses. The LED bar will indicate the state it SHOULD be but the bulbs don’t. I can use the dumb switch at this point to power them on or off without issue. Disabling SmartBulb - I can power on and off no problem right away. But that means the lights are considered completely offline from Hue’s/SmartThings point of view.
But it looks like I will have to do bindings, so maybe that’s the piece I’m missing here.
Thanks again for your replies, really appreciate it.
This is the correct behavior. The bulbs should be fully powered so that the paddle cannot cut the power to the bulbs. You can now use the scene/multi-tap capability of the switch to use Routines to turn the bulbs on and off.