Dimmer Function for Smart Bulbs

@Eric_Inovelli and @EricM_Inovelli I think if this could be done, it could be done for both the on/off switch and the dimmer although I’d understand if it was just the dimmer as an “upgrade”. I’m sure this would be a little difficult with the current Hold/Press structure, however, it would be a really nice feature to be able to hold down or up and adjust the dim of the smart bulbs. If the strip on the dimmer could talk to the bulbs and find out their dim state and report, that would be a great extra but not a necessity. Currently I have the light set to disable local control. The up button “press” turns the lights on and the down button “hold” turns the lights off. a double press or double hold will adjust dimness by 15 point intervals. The reality is this is a pretty tedious task to dim or increase brightness. Being able to just hold up or down would be a huge plus!

@Gtaz19 I am a little confused. We can currently hold the paddle to dim the Smart Bulbs up/down. Are you referring just to having the LED Light Bar be in sync instead of always on due to “Disable Local Control” being on? Did you setup Association #4 for the switch to the bulb which allows local Dimming?

@Daweeze it sounds like i’m the one confused. I actually only have 1 on/off right now and thought this would be cool functionality for that. I purchased 1 the other day to see if I liked the brand. I do! No I’m debating what the need for the on/off switch is. If you have smart bulbs, you can just turn off local control and use a dimmer as an on/off switch and if you are in a room w/o smart bulbs then you have dimming capabilities. really no reason for the on/off in my opinion anyway. having said that, I was unaware (assuming we’re on the same page) that the dimmer allows for holding the up or down in order to dim, say, a phillips hue bulb or multiple. If that’s the function the dimmers are capable of, then I know what I’m ordering in bulk!

1 Like

On/Off switches are good for bath fans and switched outlets (living room lamp or bedside).

Yes dimmer can support dimming levels. See:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5XCJcoF6FE

They recently posted this which will help make things more clear…

That’s very cool. Looks like I’ll be getting a bunch of these dimmers! I had the on off switches around my house because the smart bulbs can’t dim from the switch with a traditional switch. this changes everything. this is great. the other solutions for dimming I never really liked.

Hmm, so with Hue bulbs, even though the bulbs work via the hue hub, I am pretty sure SmartThings still uses the cloud for control. this may be an issue with lag. I’ll have to do some testing. I have Gigabit internet here but i don’t know what they will limit me at…

I have 42 of the Inovelli iLumin RGBW bulbs going here for all my standard bulb replacements. I haven’t installed my cans in the Family Room yet for my hue BR30 bulbs yet.

Whoa, whoa, whoa did I miss them coming out with a Red Series Fan switch? I don’t see that on their product page or is it to be released soon?

Yep, available for Pre-Order…

Fan/Light Combo…known as “Project : Hurricane”

and Fan-Only…known as “Project: Windy City“ coming hopefully soon after that…

So I just picked up 3 of the holiday packs. I have HUE thought my house in every form factor you can think of. I like the HUEs even though they don’t do green great, for the bulbs at least, because their software is probably the best in the biz to date IMO. At the same time I’m hitting a wall with what I can connect on a single HUE hub. I really don’t want to have to switch between hubs. I’ve started branching out into other lights, but none of them connect the same way to smartthings, Alexa, ect. Definitely no 3rd party apps like HUE enjoys. Also the 2 Phillips HUE apps themselves are pretty nice. At minimum, I’m very used to them, I got HUE the day it launched many years ago. I have 6 ilumins coming from the holiday packs so I’ll try them out. Am I strictly controlling them through smartthings or is there an app outside of that with more features?

Thanks I hadn’t been following Project Windy City. That makes more sense.

Sorry, Hubitat user here. I am using primarily the Z-Wave radio but just started using the Zigbee radio this week for a doorbell sensor and a few Keen Vents I scored off eBay.

As of right now, we do not have a 3rd party app to control these. I do like the 3rd party Hue apps, but unfortunately, there are some limitations from within ST that do not allow for some of the cool features Hue has. We may work on some sort of SmartApp, but that’s definitely down the road when more LED’s release. Great question!

Let me know if you have any luck with your Keens. They are the only smart devices i’v ever really been disappointed by. I only got 5 as a test years ago before lowes kicked them out. The devices never stayed connected to their hub and have basically been dumb forever. i have the hub still connected batteries are full and they are connected to my thermostat as well. They have been useless for me. most of the time they don’t even respond when I am standing there trying to control them. Have had them controlled through smartthings as well as just the keen app. Good luck

An app would be nice. It’s not very pleasant to set up scenes in smartthings. Not only that, you don’t get real time feedback while setting them up so you constantly need to save view the scene and make adjustments.

The other issue is, Some things work through the smart lighting app and some functions are only possible through ABC app. Like I can only link a scene to a button using the lighting app. But other functions I can only do with the ABC app like volume control. So you need to keep track of each switch and which buttons are being used in different apps.

This is just the landscape with smart home tech right now though… but an app for real time feedback of scene setting would be great. Setting up scenes like the one I have here take a while to get right w/o an app.

I can’t compete with this ^^^

This is still a little confusing as I can technically Dim with my On/Off switch using the button control. I can set it to hold down 3 sec or in my case double tap. From this, I assumed the dimmer function on the dimmer was limited to actual electrical dimming only and smart bulb function would be the same as with the on/off red being that you would assign a button press to a 15% increase/decrease in brightness.

@Gtaz19
That bedroom scene is too cool for words. Can you share what you have going on here?

The fixture bulbs are obvious, but what’s throwing up the “stars”? The look like they are luminescing. Also, the pattern on the ceiling. Is that coming from the smart bulbs or something else?

Thanks, My girls love their rooms and controlling the lights. My other daughters room is similar setup but with different chandelier, furniture, paint and real window treatments (been lazy). The star effect is coming from this device. That’s the ones I have but I believe other companies now make similar items with the ability to adjust projected colors.

1 Like