Alright everyone – message heard loud and clear. Not pleased with the vertical design. Truth is, I am not either and I’ve tried to push the LED Bar design, but it’s simply not possible.
I’ve had to back up and think about what this product was actually meant to achieve and it was never really meant to be a light switch first, but rather a button controller. Yes, it has the ability to Dim, but that was a bonus that was added in case people preferred the flat front design instead of the current Decora paddle design.
Having discussions like this where everyone is involved is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it helps us create the best products we can and it’s the backbone of the company – on the other hand, we can get distracted from the original scope and try to fit every idea into the design and that’s exactly what has happened here.
For those that are saying this is not Inovelli’s best design and it doesn’t match the rest of our portfolio must have not been around 4 years ago when we first tried to launch this product as it’s the same exact design we had before, but now you have the ability to configure a few different options:
Design from 2020:
Project Link: Z-Wave 5-Button Scene Controller + Dimmer Switch | Project Limitless
Design from 2023:
I think we all got wrapped up in the concept @Xero came up with (me included – it’s a beautiful design). I also maybe failed to let you guys know this is a B2B project and they don’t care about the vertical design (in fact, their words were, “we have no need for that since we aren’t planning on using this as a light switch”) so I had to draw the line somewhere once we exhausted our options to achieve this design and I thought the alternate proposed was a decent proposal from the manufacturer. Again, not as pretty as what I’d hoped, but still solved for what we were trying to accomplish which was to have something be able to work with the Fan/Light Canopy Module and somewhat resemble the LZW36.
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So, here’s what I’m going to propose:
Great idea @stephen.brown2! We will create a dual switch (we’ve been wanting to get this off the ground, but it was behind a few other projects in terms of prioritization) where you’ll be able to control two loads or use it as a remote to control the canopy module.
We can design it exactly like the mockup we all wanted (me included). We won’t be limited by the amount of LED’s on the side either as that was another roadblock to this design:
There were only two LED’s per bar, so it wouldn’t even give it the full effect we wanted. Now, if we create a dedicated switch, we could put 8 LED’s on the side (rather than the 4 that are in this button controller).
So, again, I appreciate the passion behind wanting the best product and because of this, I was able to run it by our COO and pitch the idea of moving the dual switch forward.
But as for this project, I believe we need to all remember what it started out as – a button controller, not the LZW36. Again, I know I thought we could do it and I wanted it to replace the LZW36, but we simply could not fit it into the current button design.
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However, given we don’t have the capital to create this right now, we will have to go down the crowdfunding path to accelerate this.
Thanks again for all the back and forth, while it’s tough to read sometimes and I feel like everyone is taking direct pot-shots at me (I don’t think you are, but it’s how I feel sometimes bc these switches are my passion as well), I know you guys are doing it because you want the best, which is what we stand for.
Thoughts?