Sounds like the Zooz does what I had thought “internal relay disable” did…bypass the internal relay and act exactly as if load were hardwired to line (except for the front pull out disconnect still killing voltage on the load side, but I dunno if the Zooz has that pull out or not). My plan as of now is to do just that…hardwire the load to line and leave load disconnected on the switch. Then I still get the messages to the hub and can set the bulbs to mirror the switch without any extra SmartApps beyond Smart Lighting. And the LED on the front still works as a bonus.
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I dont have any of the Zooz switches/dimmers, but this is what I was able to find:
ZEN26 Firmware 2.02: Added on/off reports to the hub and LED indicator status changes with disabled physical / Z-Wave control [changelog]
ZEN21 Firmware 3.03: Added on/off reports to the hub and LED indicator status changes with disabled physical / Z-Wave control [changelog]
ZEN27 Firmware 2.07: Added on/off and live dimming reports on paddle presses when physical control is disabled for easier smart bulb control [changelog]
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If you put quotes around internal relay disable one more time like it’s some non-existent festure, I may lose my mind lol. C’mon man, it disables the internal relay!
Just messing with you. But also I may lose my mind.
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Henceforth I shall refer to it as “internal” relay disable. Or maybe internal “relay” disable.
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Wow… I really wish I had seen this thread before spending a few hundred dollars on switches. @Eric_Inovelli the OP is 100% right on this - these switches do not allow disabling the relay (which is the feature I bought them for). There are 3 separate pieces at play:
Z-Wave controller/devices <------> Switch state (on, off, dim level) --------> Light bulb
^this is the relay. this is the only part I want to disable
I want to disable the relay and leave the rest of it intact. I still want to control the switch’s internal state both locally (pressing and holding to dim - this is not the same as scene control, I though I was going to be able to have an actual dimmer switch), and remotely (from home assistant, node red, etc). I just don’t want the switch’s internal state to ever have an impact on the voltage… but the way it is set up now makes it so I can’t even control the internal state.
Smart bulb mode gets really close, and almost acknowledges the problem, except that when you turn the switch off it still cuts power. When I have a smart bulb it should never cut power - smart bulbs don’t like turning on/off.
That’s not correct.
Exactly. Turn on Disable Local Control and the switch will not physically cut the power to the light.
You can do that now, but a new firmware 1.52 (beta) was just released that you should consider.
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How is that not correct? When setting Disable Local Control, changing the switch brightness or on/off from home assistant still affects the power because the relay is still enabled (if the relay is disabled then how is the voltage changing?)
I’ll take a look at the beta firmware, from that thread it looks like it’s almost there, other than remote toggling still cutting power. But sounds like they’re open to feedback on that part
Disable Local Control prevents you from cutting power at the switch. Disable REMOTE Control prevents you from cutting the power via the hub. Generally, the thought was if you have a smart bulb you usually wouldn’t want someone to work the switch in the traditional way, turning the bulb off but would still want control from the hub for whatever reason. So you would just Turn on Smart Bulb Mode and Disable Local Control and then you couldn’t physically cut the power via the switch.
There have been varying viewpoints on how this has been implemented, so the new firmware is trying to address this.
The only part of this that I don’t think you can get around is making the switch internally “track” some state (on/off, level, etc.). But otherwise, everything you want is possible — and Z-Wave Central Scenes are indeed part of it. You need to create an automation that responds to the scene events and manipulates the actual bulb devices accordingly. For example, the scene for single tap up can turn on the lights, single tap down turn them off, hold up begin raising the level, release up stop changing the level, two taps up do…whatever you want (or not). This is now mine are set up and they work exactly like a “real” dimmer with a “real” load would; the only difference is that the hub is in the middle (not a problem for me — I did get a smart switch for a reason 
).
But in any case, the goal is that you need to manipulate the bulbs with your automations, not the switch/dimmer (this also applies to things like voice assistants or other ways you might want to manipulate the lights). The switch/dimmer is just a powered button device if you aren’t using it to directly control the load. You’d definitely need local control disabled for this to work. Whether you disable remote control is up to you, though I don’t do that myself since I know not to manipulate the device from the hub, and that’s entirely within my control. There are different ways that this feature could be implemented (one of which could be as you described), but I personally actually prefer it this way because it avoids me needing to put yet another automation between the bulbs and me, one that would “mirror” the switch/dimmer state to the bulbs.
I think it is misleading to say that you can disable the relay to keep constant power to your smart bulbs, because it isn’t explicitly stated that you have to disable the physical use of the switch to do so. I could have put a piece of tape over my dumb switch and got the same result. I just want to use my dimmer like a normal dimmer but power constantly be sent to my bulbs. I don’t want to have to hold a class for everyone that covers over that 1 tap means this and 12 taps means that. I wanted to be able to control the lights from my phone and with motion detectors and my wife just wants to be able to hit the switch like normal and it is implied that this can do both.
What you are looking for is actually being worked on for the next firmware release.
I believe Inovelli is looking to have 3 options:
- Regular Mode: Switch behaves like a normal dimmer
- On/Off Mode: Load is set to 100% whenever the switch is “on” (you can change the brightness all you want, but as long as the switch is on it will output 100%. It will still cut power to the load when turned off though)
- Always On Mode: Load is locked to 100% regardless of the dimmer setting. Even when the dimmer is turned off it will still output 100% (used for smart bulbs that must be always powered)
It isn’t explicitely stated because you technically don’t have to disable local control (what you’re calling disable the relay) to get constant power to your bulbs. That’s what smart bulb mode is for. It doesn’t make a lot of sense not to disable local control in that configuration, but technically speaking you don’t have to.
Not exactly. With the tape on the switch, you wouldn’t be able to use it as a scene controller. Well, you’d have the config button, unless you put tape on that too. Plus, it would look stupid.
Not sure what you’re looking for here. A normal dimmer will vary the voltage and waveform to the bulb, which is diametrically opposed to power constantly sent to the bulb. It sounds like you want the bulb powered full time but still want to operate the smart bulb. If that’s the case, turn on the SBM and DLC. You can then control the bulbs either via direct association (if the bulb supports it) or via a scene.
It’s not only implied, it’s possible. Control the smart bulbs directly from your phone via your hub without any interaction with the dimmer. Associate the dimmer with your Zwave bulbs and your wife will be able to work it as if it was a dumb dimmer, with no class involved.
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FWIW, where I ended up with this is I just don’t have dimmers controlling smart bulbs connected to load at all. The bulbs are hardwired to power. I’m not disabling local control nor using the newer smart bulb mode (as I honestly haven’t kept up with what that mode does and my dimmers work the way I want, so I’m not interested in fixing something not broken). The dimmers work like I want, except the disconnect pull tab doesn’t kill power to the bulbs. Small price to pay.
Edit: with my simple setup, the LED bar tracks dimmer changes as well. This gets mucked up when using scenes, but I can deal with that using automations to set the dimmer to an appropriate level for a particular scene.
From what you have said in another post, that is not what smart bulb mode does: " The smart bulb mode insures that the bulb is powered at full brightness. It doesn’t have anything to do with the switch making or breaking power, so even if you have that setting turned on, the switch will still turn the bulb on and off. In addition to setting the Smart Bulb Mode , you want to Disable Local Control."
And from testing, that is not what what bulb mode does. If I click down once on the dimmer, the smart bulbs go offline.
I wasn’t concerned with scenes, I just wanted a “smart switch” that would keep my bulbs online all the time. Like I said, I don’t want to have to educate everyone on how to use the dimmer
This option is apparently only helpful if you have zwave bulbs
Yep, what I said in that post is correct. You have to understand that there are two separate functions that play into this. SBM insures the bulb is power at full (99%) power. That means the dimmer won’t dim, it doesn’t mean the switch won’t turn it off. If you want that too, then disable local control.
There are reasons they’re separate, but it doesn’t pertain to you. As @jtronicus mentioned, newer firmware will blend these functions.
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Well, uh, yeah . . . A Zwave switch will talk to Zwave bulbs. If you have Zigbee bulbs, then you want a Zigbee dimmer. The blue series is coming out later this year. If you have WiFi bulbs, then you’re barking up the wrong tree.
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As much as I appreciate the firmware having the features I would like, I don’t appreciate having to make a separate purchase that costs more than the switch itself in order to have it.
I could have bought a more expensive dimmer that would do what I want but I guess I got what I paid for. And your responses have ensured that I will never buy another product from this company and won’t recommended them either.