Zigbee 2-1 Switch (On/Off & Dimmer) | Project New Horizon (Blue Series)

So Hot Right Now Projects & Roadmaps
, ,
#556

“…(I know pre-orders are open…”

Typo or did I miss this on the product page for the blue series?

Don’t need a 10pk but will pre-order to support you guys.
GL and thanks!

1 Like
#557

Just a poor choice of English on my part lol – I meant it as, “I know pre-orders are open during this time…” (the 6-8 weeks UL would be doing the additional certification).

My bad :slight_smile:

I should have the page opened tomorrow or at the very latest over the weekend. I’m just trying to finish the Zigbee2mqtt and Hubitat instructions today and tomorrow so that everyone can feel confident in seeing the switches working on their platform of choice. I’ll probably get to the Alexa instructions after pre-orders are open as that’s the easiest one to do.

Thanks for the support, it really means a lot!

3 Likes
#558

@Eric_Inovelli makes perfect sense thanks for the thorough explanation!

1 Like
#559

How much for a ETL certification? Seems like you can get one for about $19.99 (Zooz pricing anyways).

#560

Apparently I stumbled onto this site on the perfect day! I spent all of yesterday reading through this thread and got the pleasant surprise at the end that I hadn’t missed the preorder! I getting a new place in July and I’m excited to get to use these Blue series switches to smartify my lights!

1 Like
#561

Alright all – finalizing everything today (hopefully). Would anyone mind skimming through the various pages to let me know if I missed anything and/or if there are any outstanding questions or things I can clarify?

Here are the outstanding items (if I’m missing anything, let me know):

–

Aux Switch

  • 10pk Aux Switch Page = I don’t have pricing, so I can’t put that one up yet. I’m hoping to get final pricing over the weekend, if not early next week
  • Single Pack Page = I need to build it out more and my focus has been on the 2-1, so I need to give it a little more love, but it’s pretty straightforward.

–

2-1 Switch (Single Pack & 10pk)
Thes pages should be good – I think I have all the disclaimers up and accounted for (they are at the bottom)

–

Random

  • Color paddles are not going to be ready in time. We are having a hard time matching Lutron colors - @Darwyn_Inovelli is working on it.

–

Product Pages:

Setup Pages:

A caveat on the setup pages. You may see some notes to myself to go back and fix (ie: Replace URL or Replace Pictures, etc).

The feedback I’m looking for is: Do these make sense and can things be clarified better? I realize it’s difficult w/out having the product in hand, but from a first impression, I’m curious what you think.

#562

I was looking at the setup instructions and I have 3 suggestions:

  1. Since device handlers seems the way to go for most users at this time I would suggest you change the language to something like “device handlers will work for most users” and for the edge drivers something like “if you’re feeling brave”; IMHO by calling them old and new you are implying that edge are better, but later you explain they aren’t complete
  2. When looking at the instructions to install the device handler I don’t see or can’t recognize the blue series
  3. You might want to explain why someone would want to use the default pairing vs the manual pairing holding down the three buttons

Bonus: when using dark theme some of the diagrams are hard to read because you have black text over a very dark background

2 Likes
#563

Is using an aux switch preferred over two (or more) smart switches in a multi-way setting? The wording of the notes section under Multi-Way (Smart) - Neutral Wire scares me a bit (“You will have to rewire your setup to a non-traditional way of wiring (we’re going to put 120V to each switch) so that the switch will work.”

Not sure of a better wording and maybe this is more just for my planning purposes than something that would be helpful to others, but there’s a part of me that just wants to buy a bunch of contractor packs of 2-1 switches and make everything the same. But the idea of changing wiring to a “non-traditional” way of doing things for the few multi-way switches I have just gives me a little pause if that makes sense.

#564

Also the instructions to bind switches together seems missing from that section

#565

Non-traditional means line to every switch instead of powering on/off line and traveler in 3+ way arrangements in the red series, I assume it’s the same here. I had to rewire a few light fixtures and a few 3-way switches to comply with inovelli’s needs. It is “non-standard” and requires electrical work, but it all meets code of course.

#566

Awesome, thank you! Exactly what I was looking for.

Updated, great suggestion!

Updated – thank you. I should have the URL shortly, although it may be kept private for a couple weeks prior to launch.

I struggled with this one tbh – curious on your and everyone’s thoughts on how to best explain.

Here’s how the switch works:

  • When power is first restored to it the switch will start the pairing process (ie: auto-pairing) and it will send a signal to the hub that it’s ready to pair. This eventually times out after 3 minutes.
  • If you miss that window or you install the switch without a hub and then want to pair later, the easiest method is to hold down the config/upper paddle for 20 seconds. This will factory reset the switch and also put it in pairing mode.

I thought about just scrapping the auto-pairing and tell everyone to start with the manual method bc at least it would factory reset everything, but then I thought people may be confused as to why their switch is pulsing after first install.

Good catch – updated :slight_smile:

#567

@Eric_Inovelli one thing that might be useful is a list of “community contributors” that can be tagged and/or messaged that consistently are helping others on the site for specific installs. I’d be more than happy to represent ZHA and/or HA and could be helpful on ST as well.

#568

Great question and we get it a lot actually. It really comes down to preference. Some people prefer having the LED bar at both ends of the 3-Way, while others are content with having an auxiliary switch (and some are ok with a dumb switch).

Here are the pro/cons to both IMO:

Aux Switch

  • Pros
    • Cost effective (saves you $20+)
    • Does basically everything the Blue Series does except it does not have an LED bar (with the Blue Series, you can multi-tap the aux switch for scene control, and all the other configuration parameters will be mimicked when using the aux switch – ie: if you set your ramp rate to fast, dim speed slow, etc, when you press the aux switch, the smart switch will still acknowledge those parameter changes)
    • Wiring is basically the same as it is with a dumb switch

  • Cons
    • Not a cohesive look (very close, but not identical as there’s no LED bar)

2x Smart Switches

  • Pros
    • Provides you with all features including animated notifications and an LED bar
    • Cohesive look/feel to your house

  • Cons
    • Not budget friendly
    • As @kreene1987 mentioned, the re-wiring is to code, but you may have to climb up to adjust your light fixture lighting which is a pain if you have vaulted ceilings or a fixture that’s hard to get to – he’s exactly right in that you’re just rewiring it so that line power gets to both smart switches
    • Not all hubs support ZigBee binding which is required to have two smart switches (right now we’ve confirmed Home Assistant and Hubitat, but are working on SmartThings)

Me personally, I would go the aux switch route simply bc the extra LED bar is not worth the extra $20 – and despite my pickiness of ad copy and other marketing design, having an aux switch not match my smart switch isn’t that big of a deal to me. I know I’m shooting myself in the foot regarding sales right now, but I thought I’d give my honest opinion. As I said though, everyone’s tastes are different!

Yeah, this is a good point and the more I’m thinking about it, I think this needs to live on both the product page as well as the instruction manual and wiring pages.

Maybe just a blurb or graph or something that shows the differences between the various setups. What do you think?

Yeah still working on those :laughing:

#569

Normally (or never) is the neutral wired to a dumb switch. The Aux switch will need a neutral or line on one leg of the switch and the other is the traveler.

2 Likes
#570

@exces6 – something like this work to clear things up? Open to suggestions and tweaks. I’d put this on the product page, wiring page and manual.

Pro Con of Dumb-Aux-Smart Switch in 3-Way
Pro Con of Dumb-Aux-Smart Switch in 3-Way2000×1000 185 KB

  1. Dimming available if 2-1 is set as a dimmer. If on/off, the aux will also be an on/off.
  2. The aux switch will match all parameters that are set from the smart switch (less the LED Bar parameters) so that whatever is set on the smart switch, when the aux switch is pressed, the smart switch will keep those parameters
  3. Requires ZigBee binding – as of today, this is only available on Home Assistant and Hubitat (SmartThings is a work in progress and we aim to have it completed by launch)
  4. Make sure your hub supports ZigBee binding – as of today, this is only available on Home Assistant and Hubitat (SmartThings is a work in progress and we aim to have it completed by launch)

EDIT: I’d also specify that this is for the 2-1 switch only and make specific charts for each individual switch (as some are different).

#571

@Eric_Inovelli I like that chart! I could also see value in a “similarities and differences” chart just to put front and center “choose this → get this”

Really anything like the above that makes all of the options clear is great.

And to your point 2, does the aux switch match all scene control options with its buddy 2-1? Meaning a triple tap on the aux elicits the programmed triple tap response programmed to the smart switch? I assume yes; sorry if I missed that. Just making sure the aux has more than a single input if that makes sense.

I also think it could be useful to pull the wiring diagrams for each type of setup together under a heading for wiring type. So both 3 way options for neutral are side by side. That might make it too messy but when I was reading it was kind of frustrating to keep scrolling from "multi-way (dumb) to multi-way (Aux) neutral to multi-way (smart) neutral. Maybe all of the neutral setups could be grouped together so people who know what they have in their home can see every available option in one place?

#572

This is how I would do it. Red X’s and green checkmarks based on features gained. You could do $/$$/$$$ for price as well.

#573

I believe that is so! I think it was mentioned above or another post, but yes, a triple tap up on aux switch will be recognized on the blue series.

3 Likes
#574

When will this switch and the aux switch be released

#575

@harjms I believe that is so! I think it was mentioned above or another post, but yes, a triple tap up on aux switch will be recognized on the blue series.

Thanks! That was my initial interpretation as well, just wanted to be sure.

@Eric_Inovelli Speaking of the arrangement of the diagrams page, some of the links seem broken.
Multi-Way (aux) 3-way schematics and 4-way schematics link to the dumb switch sections. This is the same for both neutral and non-neutral sections. The headers under Multi-way (smart) do the same thing (link to dumb not smart sections).

And just to clarify what I was suggesting before: Since people know whether they have neutral wiring or not, so I was thinking maybe it would be nice to have a section for neutral wiring and a section for non-neutral, with all the various switch combinations under their respective headers. Most people coming to the site will probably be approaching it as “I have neutral wiring, where are all the options are available to me?”