I am new and researching this. I recently purchased a bunch of Sylvania recessed RGB LED’s (Smart Bulbs). I have read it is best, almost a must to hardwire them to power instead of using dumb switches.
My question is what is the purpose of disabling the relay for smart bulbs? Does it keep constant power to the smart bulbs or do I still have to hardwire the smart bulbs to power?
I also have these smart bulbs sets in 3 and 4 way. I have read I can continue using dumb switches with inovelli switches. What does an Aux switch provide vs. a dumb switch. Where can I find an Aux switch? How can I tell the difference. Is the Aux switch wiring different in 3 / 4 way vs with dumb switches.
I want to get these for basic scene control and remote power on/off control. I don’t want to have to pull out our phones are yell at Alexa to turn them on and off. I also want to have the these smart bulbs always powered.
So the beauty of the relay cut off on the Inovelli switches is that you can sort of fake a real switch with connected bulbs. So let me give you an example:
When you disable the relay on the switch, you are essentially disabling its ability to connect/disconnect power from the line to the load. So when you wire the switch, you tie the line/load together which in essence provides constant power to the lights. That also means, that you no longer have a switch to control them.
What you then do is using a rule or scene in whatever hub you have, you can assign any “button” i.e., one click up/down to turn on/off the bulbs via the hub. You are never cutting power but controlling it. So the switch is really functioning as a controller as opposed to a physical switch.
In a traditional installation, the switch will kill power to the lights and you control the switch not the bulb. If it’s a smart bulb, no power = no control. So in this way, Inovelli switches can work in two “modes” direct or scene controller. I have them set up both ways in my house.
With respect to aux vs dumb switch. Dumb switches cannot do dimming and only support on/off and I don’t think it would work with the relay being off for scenes as it wouldn’t likely send the “taps”. An aux switch usually runs about $20 and is a paddle type switch that sends signals back to the “main” switch as an input and therefore would act the same as the main switch.
I couldn’t tell you about wiring off hand as I haven’t wired up Inovellis with dumb vs aux yet (although it’s in my future)
So my question is how does the relay work being disabled? More specifically, do I connect the smart switch as normal, line to line, load to load, traveler to traveler, etc and with the relay disabled provides that constant power to smart bulb? Or do I have to pig tale the smart switch and smart lights to the line wire coming from the source / breaker? Seams, long term using the Aux switches are better.
Also if I use dumb switches, the smart switch cannot since or tell if a dumb switch is used just to send a command to turn off or on the smart lights?
That is definitely one way to do it. I personally just tied the line/load together at the switch so it was constantly powered. I did this more so I didn’t have a switch constantly on in my dashboard (I’m crazy I know).
But @IcePick’s way is just as good. As to the dumb switch, the inovelli switch can sense if it’s a dumb switch or an aux switch. There was a post that wrote up how it worked, if you search you can find it. If you want to do just on/off dumb switches work fine. I have a few setup this way. The only thing is if you are a stickler for all the switches behaving the same, rocker vs click up and down. If you want dimming at all locations, you NEED aux switches.