Hello, this post is relevant for a near term project for me.
I am looking to controll smart recessed lights in a 3 way setup. I only care about advanced features on one location for each 3 way.
If I understand this post correctly, the aux switch is not really ideal for smart bulbs as it will physically cut power to the the bulb instead. If the bulb is put into local bypass, the on/off signal won’t be sent to hubitat/Smartthings, etc…
Meaning there are two obvious solutions that can be looked at…
Using additional Blue 2 3-way switches, all configured for local bypass. This means I can have the blue switches in multiple locations and each switch will be able to control lights (on/off, dimming, scenes, etc…).
Cap the ground and connect the three wires on the simple on/off location and install a battery operated switch/remote, similar to how Caseta does it.
The new red does scenes from an aux switch, and the aux scenes are different from the switch scenes. I think the blue does the same thing, but I have no first hand knowledge on that. Both devices should work for the case in the thread where the previous red switch would not.
Reading the thread again, if the lights were re-wired to have constant power and the Inovelli + Aux were left with local control enabled without a load then it could work by taking the level of the dimmer and sending it to the lights. Tapping at the Inovelli could be used for further function like color changes.
If you want to control smart bulbs, you should use smart bulb mode (always on) and then use scenes for dimming and on/off. Disable local control is all over this thread and is not necessary to optimally control smart bulbs. This thread may have been from before smart bulb mode was implemented at all.
I’m using LZW30-SN switches (fw 1.22) via ZWave2Mqtt.
Can you advise where smart bulb mode is in the switch configuration? I don’t know how to accomplish this without disabling local control when the switch load is powered.
I have a Blue 2 (VZM32-SN) wired 3 way with a Levington 3 way switch. The Inovelli is configured for smart bulb mode on hubitat. I have the button pushes configured and working. The Levington simply provided on/off power as expected.
If I replace the Levington with an Inovelli Aux and program the Blue 2 to tell it the Aux is there, what will that do? I assume this does add to Hubitat (based on earlier comments).
Does the switch keep power to the bulbs (because the Blue 2 is configured for smart bulb mode) and mimic the button pushes on the Blue 2?
It’s a completely different product than the switch in this thread. The Blue with an Aux in SBM will work how you want, with both scenes and local control providing a “dimmer” level in the switch even though the bulbs remain at full voltage. So yes, you see the on-off and level at the switch but the bulbs stay on and it can be controlled from both locations.