For the ST peeps out there – sneak peek on the Edge Driver front.
In the example below, I’m using an Aeotec Multipurpose Sensor + 2x 2-1’s. I wanted to see how well the LED notifications worked in a couple scenarios.
Scenario #1 = Vibration Test – if vibration was detected, the LED bars would light up purple.
Scenario #2 = Open/Close Test – if the sensor is open, LED bar lights up red, if it’s closed, it turns green. This was setup to only happen between a certain timeframe. Sorry for my right hand blocking the other switch, it was hard on my janky setup.
Can these work in 3-4-5 way applications say if they are not connected to one another? Is that what Zigbee binding is? Lets say the switches all have line/neutral/ground (120V) going to the switches in their individual loctions, but only one switch is connected to the load (lights). Can this be accomplished? Basically some of the switches will only be powered on, with nothing directly connected to control. BTW, I will be using smartthings as my platform, so hopefully this works.
Yes, but on ST the “app” to get them bound to each other is in development and may or may not be ready at release. On Home Assistant I have this working great in a 3-way arrangement.
@mringer14 - great question and I just wanted to build on @kreene1987’s answer in that we should have bindings working for SmartThings prior to launch (it’s actually a ST limitation that we’re trying to work around).
However, what can be done if bindings aren’t completed, is scene control in which you can set each switch to communicate with each other similar to bindings (it won’t be as fast, but it will still work).
The basic premise is shown a little but up in this thread (where I demonstrated Smart Bulb Mode, multi-taps and aux switches on SmartThings).
Essentially what you will do is set Switch #1 to turn on Switch #2, #3, #4 and #5 whenever a single tap up is performed (you’ll also program this on the other switches) and vice versa for off with a single tap down.
Then you could set multi-taps to change the dim levels if you want.
Hope that makes sense?
Edit to add a real world example:
In my old house I had a smart light switch at the top of the basement stairs that only controlled a single dumb bulb. I also had multiple light switches at the bottom of the stairs and throughout the basement. If I single tapped up, it turned on the load and also sent a scene command to the other light switches to turn on so that my entire basement lit up.
Then if I multi-tapped, it would turn on my Hue lights by my projector.
Great question - I don’t have any reason to believe they won’t be!
We just got the FCC/IC report back that we passed, so that’s a good sign.
We failed this same test with the original design on the Red Series, which set us back a bit.
Still waiting on UL, and that’s the only reason we would fall behind. They haven’t given us any reason to believe we’d fail that test, so I’m taking no news as good news!
Out of curiosity, how many switches is UL going to destroy during their testing process? The little kid that likes fireworks who still lives in my head thinks UL might be a fun place to work…
The good news too is that UL is the one that seems to be conducting these reports, so at least the switches are passing their tests and hopefully this is a sign that they will pass the overall tests.
Here are some random pics of the setup – It’s kind of interesting to see how they do it. I’ll post the official reports once they are ready.
I’m in the same boat. I’ve still got Insteon at home, I just use them as multi-way dimmable switches, I could never seem to get a PWM module to work. I’m not surprised Insteon went out of business since they hadn’t seemingly DONE anything in years. But their hardware was the ONLY one I’ve ever tried that was up to my expectations. I’m really hoping Blue here is the next step.
I’m ordering one, then probably 20 more if I like it!
Quick update – we received certification numbers (not officially completed, just at least have the numbers so we all can stalk the pages to see when they’re done!)
I’m not sure if this has been discussed yet, but is there any info on the energy efficiency of these Blue Series switches? Being ZigBee, I know they can be quite efficient, but I’m curious about how much energy these consume when in standby.
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