I want to be able to control my bedroom lights–all on Gen 2 Inovelli dimmers–from bed without needing to use my phone.
I’ve been searching online fruitlessly for remotes. The only option appears to be the Aeotec Nanomote, which apparently doesn’t do association like its predecessor, the Minimote, did. The Minimote looks like what I’m after, but it’s no longer produced. (Why’d they stop making it?!?)
I’m currently on SmartThings but plan to switch to Hubitat or Home Assistant to reduce latency and cloud dependence but it feels like, even once I’m on a non-cloud hub, a remote which talks through the mesh network to a hub so that the hub can send the same command back to the switch that’s 10 feet away is silly.
I’m seeing a real dearth of decent looking options, and I’m really surprised by this.
It’s not even clear to me that arbitrary dimming can be done via Z-Wave remote (like how you can dim with the switch paddle), which I’d ideally like.
Sadly there isn’t very much. There’s a few, but all are sort of variants on the same theme (tiny two inch puck with ~4 buttons).
Aeotec NanoMote Quad - 4 buttons, supports press / hold for 8 scenes total. $45 Aeotec WallMote Quad - 4 touch surfaces, supports tap / hold for 8 scenes total. Also supports swipe up and swipe down when in direct association mode. $60 NodOn soft remote - 4 buttons, supports press / hold / double-press for 12 scenes total. Coin cell battery. Magnet built into the back. Water resistant. I have one of these and I like it. $45 NodOn Octan - 4 buttons, supports press / hold / double-press for 12 scenes total. Appears to be a different casing design for the same functionality as the NodOn Soft Remote. Includes a magnetic wall plate to mount it on. $54 Fibaro KeyFob - 6 buttons, supports press / hold / double-press / triple-press, plus 6 programmable combo actions (push several buttons in sequence), for 30 scenes total. $50
Also including for some completeness:
Hank 4-button scene controller - I don’t think this is available anymore. 4 buttons, supports press / hold for 8 scenes total. Rechargeable coin cell battery, charges over Micro-USB. I have one of these and I like it, although on a tabletop it’s easy to get it spun around and have to look at it or feel for the USB port to know which side is up. Was about $40.
Nexia NX1000 - 5 buttons, 3 pages, all softkeys, each supports press / hold for 30 total scenes. I think this is what you want. However setting the text for the labels appears to use a funky part of the Z-Wave protocol that’s not well supported. If you use SmartThings there appears to be a device handler here that can sometimes set the button labels.
The swipe up/down function of the WallMote sounds interesting – can that be used to dim fast or slow depending on your finger movement, do you know?
It’s at least good to know I’m not missing something major, though I of course was hoping I somehow had missed other options!
From what I’ve seen, the Hank 4-Button Remote is the same hardware as the NanoMote - a lot of Z-Wave devices are made by manufacturers you’ve never heard of for white-label manufacturing. Like Inovelli’s lightbulbs and sensor (and the first gen switches maybe?).
Unfortunately I’m not quite sure about the swiping. Never tried one.
And I agree the Hank and NanoMote are most likely the same PCB just with different casings. Hell, even the Inovelli flagship stuff is manufactured by another company, just probably with a contract that prohibits that company from letting anyone else use Inovelli’s PCB or firmware…