I just setup association between an LZ31-SN and 4 Illumi LZW42 bulbs (setup with no neutral, local control disable and a bypass). Basic functions, such as local on/off and dimming work as expected. However, the following behaviors are not what I expected:
Remote control needs to be disabled so pressing the on/off button on the app doesn’t turn the power off.
a) This result on not being able to turn any notification on
b) Although the bulbs can be dimmed from the switch on the app, they cannot be turned on/off directly or the color cannot be changed
Dimming the bulb from the switch on the app results in a non linear, non smooth operation. The bulbs dim in rough steps, when the dimming is smooth when initiated from a scene.
Are these behaviors expected?
I do understand that that I can create a “disable remote control child device” and could toggle it before turning notifications on, use scene to turn the bulbs on/off dimm them or change color.
A = Correct – so, I just leave the remote capabilities on and don’t touch the switch from within the app.
B = Similar to A, just keep the switch at 100% (I think it only goes to 99%) and then ignore it in the app and only control the bulbs.
Yeah, this will happen if you use the switch as smart bulbs are not meant to be dimmed physically. They’re supposed to have 100% 120V power going to them and then be dimmed from an app or remotely. This is why we put the disable relay feature on the device so you can keep 120V going to the bulb to power it on and then not be able to physically cut power to it at the switch.
When you Associate the devices together, what you’re actually doing is sending a Z-Wave signal to the bulb to turn on/off/dim and not actually cutting power to it.
NET: I think the behaviors you’re experiencing are bc you’re still using the switch to turn on/off the bulbs.
Eric, for clarity, and as indicated, the switch relay is disabled and never turns power off to the bulbs. I’m referring to using the switch dimming function in the app (with local and remote disable). Although it works and dims the bulbs via the association, it is not smooth.
What I am after is an easy way to control the 4 bulbs as a group, such that they can be turned on or off and adjusted as a group. Obviously I can created scenes (and I have) for specific bulb outputs, but I have not found a way to dim or adjust color of the bulbs as a group on the fly. Any suggestions?
I have also found that using Association 3 works well to keep a group in sync but has a small delay compered to A2 and A4 but the bulbs turn on/off/dim uniformly.
EDIT: you may be able to set an automation to toggle the disable relay (enable child device) with button 7(config). Another option would be to use Smart Lighting app, disable associations, add group to mirror dimmer. Result= Push config disable relay to control smart bulbs, push config and control all or to set an automation to turn off smart control automation.
Thanks for the feedback. I ended up adding a virtual RGBW device and set it up in webcore to push any changes to the group of bulbs. I have also enable child device for remote enable, and toggle it to send notification to the switch. Everything works, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t putting together a complex solution when an easy path existed.
I’ll take a look at the Trendsetter app, as I never heard of that app.