Again, sorry for my ignorance, and I appreciate how much everyone there is trying to push the new Z-Wave 2:1s out the door, but if I’m understanding this correctly, this may be some really good news to help get optimal dimming without buzzing from all kinds of bulbs. In my total noob view, as I understand it, some bulbs, particularly some (most?) LEDs respond better to trailing edge to avoid the power rush and smoother dimming, but lots (all?) incandescent bulbs respond better to leading edge. (BTW, I’m not sure if I should say “respond to” vs “are” - that’s how ignorant I am - so please excuse/correct that).
If that is so, then as long as I don’t mix bulb types being controlled by a switch, I can flip the parameter between leading and trailing edge and see which one works better with any given bulb. Is that correct? (Also, BTW, I know we can use different bulbs controlled by a switch, so that wouldn’t prevent me from changing the parameter, but what I’m talking about is “best practices” of using the same band/model bulb to be controlled by a switch.)
I’ve also noticed a lot of LEDs cannot be dimmed anywhere as low as incandescents can (I often cannot set the favorite button to less than 30-35% for LEDs or else the bulbs won’t turn on). Will this help with that too, or is that another issue? (I remember seeing a thread about perhaps having an initial value to get the light to turn on and then a 2nd value to where we want it to end up, as once on, they often can be dimmed lower - but that might have been on the Hubitat forum).
Excited to hear from 1st users how well this all works out. Seems like the best switches are going to get significantly better.
What are you using for Z-Wave? This is the Z-Wave thread.
We will have this up before you get your switches. It’s what all three of us are working on today (Alex, Eric M., and myself) which is tying up the loose ends. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!
100% correct, see you got this!
Correct, it would be best practice to use the same bulbs across the switch.
Yes, this should help this situation.
The rule of thumb though, at least in my opinion, is spend the extra money on some quality bulbs. Philips, GE, etc. A lot of times, we’ll see issues with the random Chinese company bulbs that are selling for $0.02 per LED bulb (I’m exaggerating, but you get the point… cheap bulbs) and it just simply is made with crappy components, so regardless what smart switch you put on it, there will be problems. They will work fine with dumb switches, but since you’re dealing with electronics of a smart switch, it doesn’t play as nice.
I didn’t see the one combo I have, which is a 3 way with with neutrals and 2 red dimmers.
I’m not worried about as I don’t have travelers (I removed the travelers) and use associations in Hubitat. They’ve been working fine for years, with the one exception is that the non-mains one doesn’t really dim smoothly. But I hardly ever dim them as I’ve used Hubitat to set the favorite button to the low level I want.
The TL;DR for 3/4 way with these is that you need to associate groups 2,3,4 from any secondary switch to the primary switch (the load switch). And then you need to associate groups 2,3,4 from the primary switch to any secondary switch. On all of the secondary switches you need to set param 59 to 1. On the primary switch, you need to set param 59 to 3. You will then control the primary switch from your hub in all of your automations and the secondary switches will stay in sync.
@Eric_Inovelli will have better instructions but that’s the quick summary from my setup.
Sharing this for anyone using Home Assistant, I’ve put together a blueprint that makes it easy to configure multi tap actions for all of the buttons on this switch. It supports multiple different switches (all performing the same action).
Source code is here if anyone wants to take a look. Please feel free to contribute on GitHub with improvements.
Hubitat doesn’t list a param numbered 59. What is the text/label for param 59?
What I do have is param 12 (Association Behavior When should the switch send commands to associated devices?) set to 15 on the on primary (load) switch which is All and param 12 is set to 11, (timer, 3 way and local) on the second switch.
I don’t use Hubitat, so I’m not sure how it’s broken out, but here’s the reference from Z-Wave JS.
In Z-Wave JS, param 59 is broken out into two different controls:
Send Local Commands To Associated Devices
Forward Z-Wave Commands to Associated Devices
On the primary (load switch) you want both of those enabled. That’s the equivalent of a 3. On the secondaries, you want the first one enabled and the second one disabled. That’s the equivalent of a 1.
Sorry…I have Blue 2-in-1 with Zigbee2MQTT as well.
Of course, that was a mistake. I am using Z-wave JS for Red 2-in-1 (to be exact - will use when I’ll get dimmers , most likely tomorrow)
Ok, cool, I think @Alex_Inovelli is knocking out the Z-Wave JS instructions. I’ll make sure the associations instructions are ready tomorrow
Are you good with the Zigbee Binding for 3-Ways or do you need instructions there? I’m trying to get things organized and I can’t remember if I created those. I think I did, but everything is a blur lol
My home is full of Red Series Dimmers and I have a few that are setup as 3-4 way switches on the edge of my zwave network that seem to go dead occasionally or don’t respond, likely due to distance. If I swap out those “edge” switches with the new 800 series, and of course upgrade my stick to an 800 series, will these work and be wired up the same way as my existing Red Dimmers? To be more specific, 2 of the 3 in the circuit would be Red Dimmers 500 series and 1 would be the new 800.
Also, what is best 800 series stick to migrate to? I’ve got a Aeotec 5 that has been rock solid for 2 years now and I’d love to have something that is easy to migrate to without having to reprogram everything.
Thanks!
I just got my switches put in! I’m noticing the lights do a quick flash when they get set to 100% when set up as a non-neutral dimmer. Is that to be expected?
Maybe a little bit, but not a whole lot. I have an 800-series controller that I’ve tested with the Phoenix switch, and I’m not seeing much range difference from my 500-series controller.
, most likely tomorrow)