These look cool! I assume manual control will be like your other dimmers where holding the switch will increase/decrease brightness?
I’d also like to see a mock-up of @drphungky idea with making the bottom buttons look like a rocker. Anything that makes it easier to use for non-techy people is a win in my book (even though we all know smart rockers are just two buttons behind the rocker 
).
Thanks for the detailed responses.
Just looked at the sticker on the back, and it actually is a rebranded Leviton IWC600. It was designed to have a load directly connected to it, but I did not have a load connected to it, I just used it as a scene controller. There was a setting to disable the load which freed up all four buttons to be used as scene controllers. Manual here: INSTALLATION & USER GUIDE - PDF Free Download
Looks like you can still nab one off ebay: https://www.ebay.com/c/1200008019 Or I can send you mine for free if you wanted to play around with it. I replaced it with a Inovelli Red Series last year. 
Freaking genius.
Ditto.
Well, @anon14959390 will have job security for a long time with these suggestions lol. This forum is awesome!
A couple design thoughts:
The Caesta is an amazing switch, and its design is definitely sexy and simple, yet the biggest non-nerds complaint is that the buttons are small and you often hit the wrong ones easily. As much as I love the idea of an 8 button scene controller, it might only appeal to seasoned smarthomers who actually have 8 scenes to run!
I imagine most smarthome newbies will have only 3 scenes for the most part: Home, Away and Sleep. So having the top 3 buttons as large as they are makes sense to me, and the bottom 2 smaller would work to make control of individual lights distinctive.
I think these modular ideas are amazing! It would be awesome to have that! But I also think those ideas might be better for 2nd gen of this switch. There is a lot of programming and tech going into a small space, so I would suggest making a great product that might not be as complicated, and add more functions to gen 2 once the backbone is solid.
I think another thing that is really showing up in this chat, but should be pointed out again is your guys branding. Your LED strip is definitely a huge part of what makes you recognizable! So moving forward with switches this might be a good time to maybe pick 1 or 2 other recognizable characteristics, like a distinctive light bulb shape etching on the buttons, a unique haptic feel, or a unique “click” sound to stand out even more, or that catches attention of a stranger using it.
I think swappable switches is awesome, but maybe just get a small set of varieties, It also appeals to newbies. Also outsourcing the to a 3rd party might be a great way to cross promote, especially if you get one who works with contractors or wholesalers.
Love this. Maybe horizontal bottom led?
Ecobee Switch+ is nice, it not only motion detects but it also has a built in night light. Having a switch that auto turns on is awesome.
Maybe an option could be giving out designs to 3D print buttons?
Lurkers are awesome!
New member here, very interested in this project. Lots of good ideas on this thread, I have a couple of thoughts:
Load vs. no-load setup
Would it be possible to install and configure this without a local load, as a pure scene controller? The dimmer buttons could dim the active scene(s).
The use case for this is, my house has a bunch of old PCS UPB 6-button controllers. I really appreciated their convenience but some of them have stopped working and something like this would be great for a retrofit.
Scene vs zone control
I know this is planned to be a scene controller but I think adding zone capability - allowing more than one scene to be active at the same time - would dramatically increase your applicable use cases. I know this would require some thinking around what happens when a device is part of multiple scenes but I think that can be worked around with a config flag.
The old Smarthome Keypadlinc had an option where you could buy clear buttons and have your own printed labels for each key
See here and if go to the “Manuals” section, you can also download various labels they actually provide pre-printed when you purchase the kit:
In addition, you can also replace the default white LED difuser with colored ones that allows you to customize the LED backlit color for each button
https://us.amazon.com/Insteon-2401L-Change-KeypadLinc-4-Color/dp/B0007N7274
This is a very good point. The more I think about this, the more I think the LED bar (and maybe config button too) should stay and put the buttons where the paddle currently is. (That saves on injection molding costs too… heh). Maybe dump the config button and have the bar go all the way bottom to top? Then it can be the status light for all 4 rows of buttons. But that LED bar really is distinctive; I think it should be kept if at all possible.
Maybe the option is have a light on the button to show the button is active, and then keep the big LED bar to show the level it’s at? Or segment the LED bar to be the status light for each row of buttons.
@Eric_Inovelli Very excited about the scene controller, however, will this project come at the expense of Project Windy City? Many of us have been waiting a long time for independent fan switches and I’d hate to learn new ideas (and to be clear, Rock Out is one I absolutely love) are taking precedent over existing projects like Windy City.
Outside of that concern, I love so much of the feedback community has provided already.
Labeling the buttons would be critical and I’d much prefer an etched version vs stickers. #WAF would significantly fall if it came with a sticker pack. AND if you do figure out etching…then you can potentially offer it retroactively to your other lineup of switches. I have roughly 30 inovelli red series (mix of dimmers and switches) throughout my house and would LOVE to swap out the paddles in a few rooms that have multi-gang boxes with etched paddles to identify which switch is which.
+1 to the idea around incorporating music controls. Would be great to pair with my sonos system.
The stickers would be a “no-go” for me as well. Only because my OCD would ‘eerk’ me if I saw a sticker was slightly tilted…I know “just don’t put them on tilted” answers are coming, but sometimes static makes the sticker cling to product quicker than you’d like…
Man, I don’t check this for 1 day and look at all these suggestions! It’s gonna take me a minute to check all these out. Hol’ up!
Hey all – echoing @anon14959390, love all the engagement and ideas! There’s so many and it’s got our heads spinning over here with excitement! This is exactly why we love this community
We’re going to take this and talk through a couple of the points (likely tomorrow as today has been a long one!)
One thing we’re wrestling with is the LED bar. Some thoughts/questions below.
Do we keep it to match our existing paddle switches, or since this is a new design (ie: not paddle, but flat), do we move to a different design? What’s driving this question is that we’re going to launch a paddle remote and 5-Button remote and on either, we will not be able to put that long 7-LED bar as it would kill the battery (unless we have some sort of wireless charging, but we’re not sure on that yet).
The paddle remote will match our On/Off switch LED Bar (ie: one LED).
In addition, I’ve learned from @EricM_Inovelli that the chipset can only handle 7 LED’s without adding a separate MCU. So, if we put the long bar on the side, we would have to add an additional MCU to support the indicator scene buttons (as well as the backlit buttons).
So, the argument for adding the LED Bar is that it would match current aesthetics and from a brand/marketing standpoint, our, “distinctive assets”. It would also show the level at which the light is dimmed and would be a large canvas to depict notifications.
The argument against it is that it would drive the cost up by adding in an additional MCU and 7 more LED’s. It also wouldn’t match the remote that we want to put out later.
Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts around this!
Would the individual LEDs have individually assignable brightness? If so, 7 separate LEDs could still indicate individual brightness, potentially giving more information at a glance.
@Eric_Inovelli, I would love to see it match as I think that is the Inovelli look. I am okay with the higher cost as long as it is not double the cost. With the additional MCU will you be able to have more in terms of capabilities in the firmware? I think having an LED on the remote is not needed for indication other than to show transmission of signal.
Another vote to keep the full LED Bar. I think it is a feature that makes a product look distinctly Inovelli. Wish the Red Series On/Off had the full bar as well.
I’m a bit sleep deprived right now so apologies if this isn’t my most coherent reply…
I think the real question is, do you go for maximum functionality of the wired module, or go for visual parity between the wired and wireless module?
And my answer to that is this: in all things, go for whatever provides the most flexibility and functionality and value to the customer, as that’s the Inovelli DNA that’s worked pretty well so far.
Battery powered remotes can’t run the big beautiful LED strip, and that’s understood. Not having them be visually identical is not a problem. So don’t make this product less functional today so it can match another future product that has technical limitations you aren’t facing now. Give the user everything you can.
The backlight doesn’t need to be RGB, just white or dimmable white. That may save you some GPIO pins. If however there’s not enough for 7x RGB LED and a backlight, you could fudge it- wire the bottom two LEDs on the strip together. This might make some animations look slightly odd but I don’t think would be noticed enough to offset the significant BOM savings. Thus you have 7 LEDs, but only take up 6 LEDs worth of space on the chip.
That said, I think adding the MCU is probably the way to go, especially if it allows both the trademark RGB bar and also a status light next to each scene button. Yeah I know BOM+++ more LEDs more MCU more everything. But given everything this does, I don’t think you should be trying to sell it for $38. I think $45-$55 is the ideal price point here.
@amdbuilder showed me this post, I pitched him an idea and he insisted I post it.
(Since it sounds like a remote is planned at some point) Imagine that this wall switch is a base/dock for a detachable remote. The remote would have charging contacts on the back that magnetically attaches it to the wall switch for charging/storage.
We are exploring ways to do this. First thought was stickers but @harjms is against that so thats out. What I think I would like to do is have a 10 pack included in the box that has the most used icons. This seems to make the most sense but we are still kicking around the ideas.
We like this idea too and are trying to figure out how feasible it is with the paddles/buttons being replaceable.
Not sure about haptic feedback. I think the goal is to have the buttons feel like they do on the fan+light switch. It’s not impossible to have the haptic but have to see about how much it will add with not only cost but also size into the device.
I do like this idea.
Music to my ears! lol.
Good thing this will be 700 series. We maxed out the memory space on the 500 with the Red Series Dimmer.
Welcome!!! Improving the WAF is not something that had occurred to me with this device but makes sense.
Yes. Goal is to have each of the 3 scene buttons be able to have at least 4 scenes set via multi-tap.
Yes. The dimmer buttons would have programmable steps to them. Thought is 3 taps per side. On the right side it would be 1x = 100% 2x = 80% 3x = 60% and on the left 1x = 0% 2x = 20% and 3x = 40%
That is a challenge and I would have to see a well done example since all I see here is something chinsey.
Again, I do like this idea.
Welcome to the Community! As others have said, this is something we’ve thought of before but don’t have a firm timeline on this device.
Yeah, I think it’s insteon that has something like this and just to replace the paddles with something custom is $30??? A little rich for my blood.
Found everyone’s guy for creating custom buttons.
My OCD is having a hard time with the non-symmetrical layout.
@Eric_Inovelli and @Brianna_Inovelli I think we found who put that midden mic in the office.
The biggest things are better battery life, which is unimportant to this device, better range and more memory space to add cool features!
Yes sir!
He is isn’t he?
Likely but it would need a neutral wire to do this. I do this with a Red Series Dimmer in my house now.
Can you elaborate on the Zone Control? It’s been a long week and my Monster hasn’t kicked in yet.
The projects will be worked on simultaneously. There are other reasons this project jumped in and looks like it cut to the front of the line but no worries here.
Never thought of this before. I wonder who else could be interested in something like this.
Yes they would in the current design.
Didn’t want to quote the whole post but I agree with these thoughts. Functionality is a primary focus and aesthetics will come next. In my mind it’s like a 51/49 thing here though. I also wouldn’t mind that price point but TBD here.
Just to be clear- I don’t mean an actual haptic feedback engine, like iPhone has, with an electromagnetic gadget to make a tap feeling. I just mean use a microswitch that makes a satisfying click feel when you push it. Whatever microswitch you use on the Red dimmers, use that one here.
I can second @stylekyle 's comment. My partner has zero interest in multitap anything. I don’t blame her- multitap is clever, but it’s not discoverable. It’s something extra to remember, and people who are already busy/stressed don’t want to have to remember how their light switches work.
I have had good WAF using the config button to do things. ‘Top of the paddle is full on, little button makes it really dim’ was accepted easily. I expect multiple scene buttons would be similar.
Interesting. I wouldn’t mind this as an option, but I think I’d rather have dimmer style behavior (push once is on or off, push and hold starts dimming).
I agree. Nobody wants an ugly switch 
Yeah, it would more match the fan and light switch as far as feel goes.
This functionality would still be there too. You’d be able to press and hold to dim down or say you know you want it at 40%, just do 2x on the button and be done.
But would that come at the expense of using multitap of those buttons for scene control? Yeah I know asking for more scene controls on a scene controller seems silly. But if there’s a theme in the rest of the house, of doubletap does X, tripletap does Y, etc it would be nice for that to carry over to this device even though it’s not a paddle.
I’d suggest that should be a toggleable option- multitap of the light control buttons always sends central scene commands, but the parameter will control whether it also dims the light to 20/40/60/80 as you say.
