Replaced single pole dumb switch that controlled a single fixture with 2 Philips Hue 1600 lumen white & color bulbs (Model 9290024717). White 2-1 switch wired per instructions and added to Apple TV 4K (3rd generation A2843 connected via Ethernet) HomeKit hub running TVos 18.0.
Configured White 2-1 as Smart Switch. In HomeKit set Paddle Up to turn on the 2 Philips Hue bulbs and Paddle Down to turn off the 2 Philips Hue bulbs. Worked fine for 2 days with Paddle Up & Down control of the Hue lights. When Paddle Up the Hue bulbs would turn on and White Switch 2-1 LED would glow bright blue and When Paddle Down the Hue bulbs would turn off and White Switch 2-1 LED would glow very dim blue. Hue bulbs also turned on and off through Apple iOS Home app (iPhone 12 Pro Max iOS 18.0.1). Worked fine for 2 days then Paddle Up and Paddle Down would only work part of the time to control Hue bulbs on/off and then stopped working entirely to control Hue bulbs on/off. Hue bulbs remain operable through iPhone Home app. Can also control the White 2-1 Switch LED through the iPhone Home app.
Cycled breaker to reboot White 2-1 Switch. Removed White 2-1 Switch from HomeKit, factory reset White 2-1 Switch and added back to HomeKit just as before including configuring White 2-1 Switch as Smart Switch and in Home app programming Paddle Up to turn on Hue bulbs and Paddle Down to turn off - testing this inside the Home setup screen the Hue lights turn on and off as programmed. But the physical Paddle Up and Paddle Down only turn the LED bright blue and back to dim, but do not turn the Hue lights on and off. The White 2-1 Switch LED remains controllable from Home app and the Hue lights remain controllable from Home app. But the physical White 2-1 Switch buttons do not control the Hue lights.
Since the LED bar is moving in sync with the paddle presses, double check the Button Press Delay. I don’t have a White to confirm, but the default is 500ms on Blues and Reds. If that gets changed, inadvertently or otherwise, to a lesser value, the hub may not recognize the button presses and consequently not fire based on them.
I think that would have required me to press the config button rapidly 13 times to change that parameter accidentally. And I haven’t pressed that config button anywhere near 13 times. Plus wouldn’t that have gone back to the default 500ms when I reset the switch? Also, when the problem first presented itself on the 2nd day after the install, the paddle presses were working at first intermittently and then ceased working entirely. My guess is the switch is defective.
I also checked signal strength on the White Switch - it showed green, so signal seems fine.
Previously, all my HomeKit enabled lights were “dumb” LED bulbs controlled by smart Caseta switches. Caseta has been as reliable as an old school dumb toggle switch. It just works. But I wanted to add a few colored Hue bulbs for accents - so now the light had to be powered on all of the time since it had the “smarts”. Inovelli’s in “smart switch” mode seemed perfect for my use case. And for the first 2 days after installing this non-Caseta smart switch I was absolutely thrilled with it. Function, build quality, fit and finish all on the same level as Caseta. Although I’m not so sure about build quality now. But maybe it’s just a bad apple. The White Switch is powered and its LED responds to Home app commands so it’s receiving. The 2 Hue lights connected to the White Switch’s load terminal are still powered and rock solid responders to Home app commands. The paddle itself works as it is causing the White Switch LED to brighten and dim on paddle up and paddle down. It just doesn’t seem to transmit to the hub. I also tried rebooting the Apple TV 4K hub but that had no effect either.
Opened a ticket and was told the button assignments may have been done differently by HomeKit when I reprovisioned the switch. I’d already experienced the irregular button assignment when I set up the Switch the first time. So I’d already checked that before I opened the ticket. And the paddle presses stopped sending commands before I reprovisioned.
Tonight I power cycled my router, Apple TV 4K hub and via breaker the White Switch. Removed the Switch from HomeKit then factory reset the Switch. Tried to add it to HomeKit and it did start the add process and was pulsing blue but after a minute or 2 I’d get an error from HomeKit that the accessory couldn’t be added. I factory reset and retried a half dozen times and it will not add.
Hey, first, just want to apologize for the experience thus far. I can completely understand the frustration and want to at least acknowledge that I’ve seen this post and will make sure we get this resolved one way or another.
Let me talk to the person who handled your ticket and I’ll review it myself to get the full picture, but what I may end up doing is sending you a new switch with an upgraded firmware to see if that fixes what you’re seeing if you can’t end up getting it to pair again.
I agree with one of the comments below in that usually it’s something with the network that’s happening that’s causing the switch to lose communication with the hub. This was not uncovered in our beta testing nor during Thread and Matter certification, so this has come as a surprise for us over the past couple of weeks. On top of that, Matter is constantly evolving and sometimes that leads to issues with compatibility (it’s not supposed to, but it can).
That said, at the end of the day, it’s our responsibility to make sure you have a product you’re excited about and I’ll make sure we do everything we can to hopefully bring back the excitement you had during the first couple of days. We’ve been working literally around the clock on these issues and I believe we’ve figured out what is happening with the signal and pairing issues and we currently have a new firmware file that, so far, the people who had similar issues, have had their problems fixed.
Let me know if you’re able to pair your switch again and, it so, I can try to push a firmware file to you via Apple. It not, I can just send you one that I’ve flashed myself and see if that fixes it for you.
Again, really sorry for the experience - but know we’re working on it and it’s literally our top priority right now.