thanks @ny_robert. i have set up the button controller smart app with button 1 push and hold both configured against the set of lights that are to be controlled. that is working (albeit with quite a delay) to send an on/off command to the bulbs. i didn’t seem to need any scenes to make this work, it was just in the button controller functionality assigned to the switch.
as for the other end of the 3-way, unless someone from inovelli can do some magic, i’ll have to get an add-on/aux. i tested it out as-is and the 3-way switch will definitely cut power to the lights vs acting like a button press on the smart switch.
it’s funny, but after all this, i may just have the switch cut power to the lights. i don’t think i’m really gaining much in terms of control and the delay is really significant in button mode. aside from being constantly online to get periodic firmware updates, having the rgb lights constantly powered doesn’t really seem to make much difference unless i wanted to have them turn on with a specific color, at which point i could likely create a scene where the switch turns them on and then the color is set…
The child device is if you would like the option to control the ability to “disable local control” via another app. Like, if you want to disable local control on a schedule you could turn on / off the child device on that schedule. To use that feature you would need to make sure the “Switch Level Child Device” was installed, but it doesn’t seem like you are looking for that feature.
As for the delay, I have also noticed the slight delay with SmartThings. It is that wonderful cloud processing that they have going on. With local hubs (such as Hubitat), the processing is instant.
Lastly, the 3-way dumb switch issue is because of how the light circuit is setup, and as you mentioned, it would take magic to fix the issue. When the dumb switch is toggled the circuit is broken and the light turns off. Also as you mentioned, using an aux switch is really the only way around that problem.
thanks @EricM_Inovelli, that’s all good to know. i figured it was the cloud being the delay, and it’s longer than i would have expected, somehow voice via an echo seems faster.
very much appreciate you all and the community here, it’s nice to get this level of support and the product seems really solid so far.
So what will be correct strategy to use smart switches with smart bulbs? Disable local relays and recreate behavior all the default functionality (paddle up for ON, paddle down for OFF) using smartapps?
Hi @2vanger, at this time that would be one of the options. Our dimmers also support direct z-wave device to device association. So the dimmer will send on / off & dim up / down down commands directly the the bulbs
as I mentioned in earlier - there is 5-6 seconds delay when using your app for creating association.
To create the association - I will need to disable local relay to keep bulbs always on, right? But then physical buttons on a switch stop working - how would it control the bulbs?
This is what I was wondering as well. It seems that if you use the direct association method, you’ll have to power through bulbs independently, like bypassing the dimmer. It seems when you disable the internal relay, you also disable all switch functions except scene controls.
Hi @EricM_Inovelli, Are there instructions out there that explain how to setup the z-wave device to device association? I have 10 Red series switches and 4 smart bulbs along with 20 other black series dimmers or on off switches. I would love to get them all working how I want to. Thanks!
The black switches lack direct association*, scene control, notifications and power monitoring. You would need a red switch in that situation.
(*) That’s based on my assumption of “Smart Bulb Controller” meaning direct association and/or the ability to disable the relay. Their series comparison image on the product page could be more clear on this front.
You can disable the internal relay with the black series though. See image. Why would this info be included in the manual with the device if it weren’t useful?
Just as a follow up to my own post, it looks like z-wave association on group 2 and 4 and disabling the internal control via settings still allows the switch to dim the lights.
The only issue now is that the light bar shows 100% all of the time instead of reflecting the level of the lights. I feel like this is something that could be done, but will look at elsewhere.
@Eric_Inovelli or others, as I move more deeply into this, I have a few questions:
Is “disable internal relay” the same as toggling the “disable local control” in the switch settings to “yes”?
Is there a way to show the % on the bar corresponding to the controlled device level or average? For example, if I am controlling 4 kitchen canned lights, I’d like 80% brightness to be represented equally to if they were dumb lights and I was controlling to 80% brightness.
Is there a way to control on/off as if I was controlling dumb lights? I’d like my bar to light up 10% when the lights are “off” similar to “dumb” lights even though the switch is on.
Right now my bar shows as 100% on all of the time, which isn’t WRONG, per se, but it seems to be a “dumb” solution to a “smart” setup.
Yes, it means the same thing. There are two ways to, “disable the internal relay” as well – Remote and Local. Remote means that no Z-Wave commands will be sent to the switch to turn on/off/dim the switch. Local means that the relay is disabled at the physical switch so you won’t be able to turn on/off/dim from the switch itself.
There are two different areas in the menu where it says, “Disable Local / Remote Control”:
I wish. We are looking to add this to an alternate firmware. The reason why it wasn’t added the first time was that we made these switches to reach as many people as possible who may have hubs where the parameters couldn’t be changed (ie: Ring, Wink, etc) and a lot of the memory on the switch was used up creating the config button options. In other words, you can change parameters directly from the config button (ie: change the ramp rate, min/max levels of brightness, etc) and this is useful for hub/gateways that you can’t do this in the app.
So, we couldn’t add this function with the base firmware – however, as mentioned, we are exploring an alternate firmware where we remove the config button options and add in some of these other features such as a syncing LED bar.
I THINK there may be a workaround for this though where you can create an automation that will make your LED bar match the level of your bulb via an automation, but I also could’ve dreamt that as I can’t find it in the forum.
Are you saying that you’d like the LED bar to act the same way it does when the switch controls dumb bulbs and the relay is enabled? I think that’s what you’re saying, but thought I’d ask.
I suppose what you could do is have your LED bar set to a default of 10% and then set a notification that says, “if Smart Bulb X is on, turn the notification to 100% (or whatever brightness you want)”. I know it’s kind of janky so let me think more about this one.
Tagging @EricM_Inovelli to see if he has any suggestions and/or can add it to the alt-firmware sheet.
Thanks for the responses. Everything above makes sense. To clarify the last request, I am looking for the “off” behavior to resemble the switch when in the off state with relay enabled, which I have set to be 10% for the “glow” and ease of finding the switch in the dark. To date I haven’t found a way to change parameters via WebCore.
Perhaps @EricM_Inovelli showing us how we can add a child device for settings (like the disable local control) would be beneficial, then I could change LED bar level and color (would like to change color to red for alarm on, cyan for rain expected, etc.) dynamically by just changing the parameter.
Typing out loud here…
Edit: And as I go to customize a child device what is this I see? AWESOME!!!:
LOL, I was just about to respond with "well, actually . . . " but it looks like you figured it out. I’m not 100% sure about WebCoRE, but Hubitat lets you send a level with the setColor command so you can change it to any color and change its brightness. The device handler does the math for you so the level in the setColor command should be between 1-100 and the driver will convert that to the 1-10 that the parameter accepts (i.e. Math.round(level/10)).
I have an Inovelli Red Series switch in a 3-way configuration with a GE aux Add-On switch hooked up. I would like to have the smart bulbs that the switches are connected to powered 24/7, but still allow both the Inovelli and the GE Add-On control the bulbs. I have “Disabled local control” via the SmartThings app, and associated Button 1 Press/Hold with On/Off for scene control of my bulbs.
However, my GE aux switch is unable to send commands to the bulbs when local control is disabled. My interpretation of the Red Series capabilities was that the Inovelli could tell when the GE Add-On is pressed, and then could activate a scene to turn on smart bulbs. Is this incorrect? Is there no way that the GE Add-On can send signals to the Inovelli to turn on smart bulbs if local control is disabled?
