I have a media/multipurpose room with 7 recessed lights. While when general use of the room is being used, the normal dimmer on all 7 dumb bulbs is great. Where i have the problem is when we are wanting to watch movies/tv with the projector. I would like approximately 5 of the bulbs to be off, with the other 2 to be dim (5-10%). Having color bulbs would also be fun. Would prefer to stay zigbee/zwave (Sylvania or Sengled?)
Has anyone set this scenario up? Recommendations for bulbs and/or configuration?
A few options…
Get all 7 on smart bulbs. A BR30 bulb in a recessed light should also accept an A19 bulb, the light projection will be a little different but there’s a TON of options for A19’s compared to BR30’s, including some Inovelli bulbs. You could then put your switch in smart bulb mode and control them through automations.
Another option would be wiring those 2 to a separate switch and control them individually. You could use zwave association to turn them on together.
I am in a similar situation as yours. In my basement, I have two Inovelli Red dimmers controlling two sets of recessed lights (8 and 9, respectively). I use Singled BR30 Zigbee bulbs. You can certainly set up scenes to do what you are looking for, but the experience may not be as great as you hope.
Two issues I have experienced (not the fault of Inovelli) are:
Poor Zigbee connection causing either lengthy dropouts or slow responses between the dimmer command and the Zigbee bulbs. Maybe due to my dual band Wi-Fi causing interference (2.4ghz).
Popcorn effect (bulbs change in a random order, one at a time). This may be due to Smartthings sending commands one at a time, but I don’t think is unique to it.
For the moment, I am reluctantly keeping the setup because I showed my toddler different colors and enjoys changing it. I hope to one day go back to regular BR30s. There is a set of Home Depot store brand non-smart BR30s that change color temperature based on the dimmer level, which I might be interested in, because I would like to have cooler temps during the day and warmer at night.
Does smartthings do zigbee groups? It’s been too long for me I don’t remember. If you put the bulbs into a group, and then toggle the group in your automation instead of the individual bulbs, it should reduce the popcorn effect. BUT, your ultimate solution will be to pick up a couple of the new Blue series switches and setup binding from the switch to the bulbs. It’ll be as fast as wired and will bypass the hub completely.
It’s my first time hearing about zigbee groups, so I looked it up. It appears there is a beta version of some Edge driver for zigbee button that supports it.
Smartthings has lighting groups, but AFAIK there is no RGB or color temperature control, and most critically, cannot be used as part of an automation… super limited functionality.
Is this absolutely known true? I could have sworn I put my kitchen into a group and automated the heck out of it based on time of day and motion triggers…
Yep. If you have RGBW bulbs in a group, only dimming and on/off is exposed. Additionally, the group is not exposed to Routines. (At least with Sengled Zigbee RGBW bulbs.)
ST’s grouping functionality is derived from the capabilities that Samsung put into it. Using the Blue switch for grouping won’t change any of those grouping capabilities.
Separately, Inovelli is working on an app to allow Zigbee binding with ST, however details regarding that are sparse.