What I was saying was that I really do like how Inovelli is placed in the market. Including devices like this.
They have highly functional devices that are both open to any DIY type person and to contractors who do professional installations.
In contrast to something like Control4 which may be highly functional, but is limited to those with the means to pay someone else to do everything.
Agreed. I really like that as well. Not only are they well priced, but they are better than their over-priced competitors.
TL;DR: Inovelli > Control4
As you said, their devices are open to both DIY and contractors.
So, my question still stands: Will there be any details made available to help 3rd parties to produce high-end face plates/buttons?
I doubt collaborate, but for sure you could take a device and design your own buttons.
Zooz has a $45 scene controller. People can convince themselves to pay $100 or so for one that does some things better, but $200 or $250 for a metal button one could be a stretch.
That is precisely my question. Are there any plans to release or sell the design files so that OTHER people can design buttons without starting from scratch?
Itās nice to see that Inovelli is well on track to match their normal 2 year product annoucement to availablity schedule. I look forward to preordering a bunch. Black Friday 2024?
I have been following this project since the beginning and looking forward to the blue buttons as I see a lot of use cases for my home. Even stopped expanding in this area for more than a year now.
What is the updated timeline for the release ?
@Eric_Inovelli Update?
I had a plan to take a 2gang switch and make it a 4 gang switchbox, all with 2-1Dimmer Blues. But, right before cutting the hole realized a switchbox on the other side wouldnāt let the 4gang fit.
Now Iām hoping that the button controller becomes a reality so I can have 4 areas in 2 switches. Please Please say this project is still active!!!
Both zigbee and zwave ones are still in the works. Remember that a lot of the engineering and design is done in China and they recently had a few weeks off for lunar new year.
I would expect an update from @Eric_Inovelli when he has new things to share.
I am very interested in the Zigbee button controller as I havenāt found anything like this to replace the old Insteon ones Iām trying to get rid of. However thereās an accessory which would actually work for all your devices but is especially useful with the button controller is a box to convert it into a tabletop controller, hereās the old one I have:
Sure I could design and 3D print something these days, but it would be nice to be able to just buy one.
I have never seen one of these before. This is awesome!!
Here is what I found when searching online. It seems like all of the desktop ones are made for low voltage applications. Extron makes a few variants. There is also the FSR DSKB-1G . Black Box is no longer a company, but they have some available on Ebay..
If you want something cheaper (although not as aethetically pleasing), there are many āsurface mountā 1-gang boxes available from different vendors that are rated for line voltage. Like this one on Amazon..
This should fit most standard switches:
You would still need your own faceplate, as their switches have integral faceplates.
This project has gone eerily quiet.
iām very interested in this product - it looks like it will stand above products in the market.
it says above in the intro post that there will be monthly ārecapā posts. the last of those was in october 2024 (> 6 months ago). what does that mean?
from what i can tell, timeline was updated in april 2024 and estimates mass production in sept 2024 (~5 months in the future from when that update was made). sorry for stating the obvious, but itās now 12 months since that update and all dates on the visible roadmap are now > 6 months in the past. what are we to infer?
Nothing, probably.
If you look at the product page, youāll see that this is in the tooling stage. I believe itās been in that stage for about a month. After that, beta testing and later certifications must be completed before production starts.
If youāve followed these projects for a while, youāll know that the opening posts take the same form. There is always a timeline, and itās never accurate. There probably shouldnāt be a timeline, IMO, but itās just impossible to predict how slowly or quickly the stages will proceed . . manufacturer availability, tooling issues/setbacks, unpredicted issues uncovered during beta testing, certification delays beyond the control of Inovelli, international issues and so on.
There is always a promise of monthly updates, but updates will come when there is something to update. Sometime after this project was posted, Inovelli updated their production flow so that you can see the stage of a particular project on the productās page. That page also allows you to sign up for updates for that particular project. I donāt know if there have been any recently, but signing up is still a good idea. At a minimum, you should get a notice when a project moves to the next stage.
IMO, donāt expect this to move along quickly. Since this isnāt just x buttons on a switch, Iād expect beta testing to take some time.
All of this is just my view of things . . . .
Iād like to become part of the beta testing for the USA. Iāve used homeseer for many years, and Insteon is their most popular product line. Iāve also used extensive z-wave and now zigbee. I just talked with Ira on a chat, and was told to sign up for the beta test program. Insteon does not work in some noisy enviornments, and zigbee works perfectly. Iād like to pursue that avenue in testing zigbee in different cases to determine functionality. Please let me know how to obtain a zigbee keypad to begin testing.
Ira is a bot ā¦
Beta testers are usually well-known and respected members of this community. This is your first post ā¦
The button controller isnāt a thing yet ā¦
Just a quick update here:
This project has been a real engineering featā¦ weāve gone back and forth on multiple iterations of tooling and trying to get the different combinations to work properly while maintaining the proper tactile feel and allowing proper backlighting for etching and itās been a challenge. However, I think (thinkā¦ fingers crossed) we got things working. We should receive the updated samples in mid/late August. We are pushing for a CEDIA demo so this is important.
I will know more once we receive the samples on a timeline, but this is one of the reasons we havenāt opened up pre-orders for this version. I know the site is typically out of date and I apologize.
Realiatically, is this project ever going to come to fruition? Iāve been wanting to get rid of my UPB switches for a long time and thought this would be a good solution. I have been slowly migrating all of my switches from UPB, Homeseer and GE to Inovelli to get a common look. But Iām tempted to go to the Zooz Zen32. Seems like a pretty good product.
Hey everyone!
Just wanted to provide a quick update on this project:
We just received the latest samples and are working on trying to figure out why there is still some light bleed around the edges. There are still some minor issues such as the paddle and buttons being hard to remove and weāre reviewing the feedback from the B2B company that had some concerns. From a tactile feel, these are great, but weāre weighing whatās acceptable and whatās not.
Here are a couple of pictures that have some of the issues weāre working through. Could we get some of your feedback and comments on the light bleed and if it bothers you?
(Note that the camera is picking up a bit more light in the last picture than what is visible in person.)
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you all for your patience on this project!
