Trying to get Red series switches to work in any way with Hue and SmartThings. Like turn them on and off, linked to one scene. Dimmer would be awesome, but not necessay. That’s it. Can there be a serious, no nonsense how to?
I’ve seen HA how-to’s, but not for ST. I have tons of LZW31 Scene and on/off. Some locations I want them have neutral, some not. I’m experienced with electrical work, home automation, and the like, so talk tech!
Once got a LZW31-SN to physically power 4 hue bulbs with the resister thingy installed in a can to force there to be more constant resistance (forget the names and specs), but still needed to use the Philips dimmer switch and Alexa to use the lights. The LZW31-SN just looked pretty. Recently updated the firmware to the latest, couldn’t get it to work again, so put in a standard on/off and became depressed at my failure.
I have ALL Hue bulbs being solely controlled by Alexa, Hue app and in a couple places the Phillips remotes. I’m desperately needing some wall switches because guests have no clue how to control the lights.
Side note: kinda depressed due to the Red series being promised to work with Hue, and how I did a huge pre-buy only to be full stop until the bugs could be worked out with a lack of clear instructions to make it work. But now I see the Blue series being worked on with a much cleaner interface, making up for the Zwave to Zigbee cross interface mess. Smart move on Inovelli’s part, but I have a pile of sealed unused switches. I don’t have enough z-wave stuff to use them all. Inovelli wanna buy them back?
I believe you’re looking for this, specifically Setup #2?
I am not using ST so can’t be too much help there unfortunately, but you’re looking for scene control from the ST hub. The dimmer itself will be set to disable local and remote control and button presses/holds will get used to trigger the scenes to control the bulbs.
EDIT: The above looks like something similar, so I guess only look here if you want a different wording…
I don’t use SmartThings anymore (Hubitat FTW), but this page looks like it has the information you’ll need:
The fact that your bulbs are Hue bulbs doesn’t really matter, as SmartThings abstracts these details away from you (and apps like the above) by way of its device capability model. So, these steps should work for any switch, dimmer, or bulb. It’s just a matter of assigning some automation to the “scene” (button) event that SmartThings will see in response to the physical events, which you can associate however you want, though something like “button 1 pushed” (tap up) to turn on and “button 1 held” (tap down, with Inovelli’s driver — I’ve always thought this was odd, but that’s another story…) to turn off would be a logical starting point.
Pretty much what @chack and @BertABCD1234 said. The linked reference may be a bit out of date due to firmware changes:
1 - Red dimmers and switches are Zwave and Hue is Zigbee, so you are not going to directly control Hue bulbs via the switch. Instead, you will create scenes for the various dim levels and colors, and then use the multi-tap scene sending capability of the switch to trigger the scene.
2 - Ensure your switch/dimmer is in the smart bulb mode so that the bulb is constantly powered. You do not want the switch cutting power to the bulb(s) and you do not want the dimmer producing less than full output or directly controlling the bulb at all.
3 - The “resistor thingy” you referred to is called a Bypass.
If you seriously want to sell your switches and dimmers, people here will beat down the doors to buy them. See this thread and section:
Yeah, I knew I had to make scenes, but I am unable to get the switch to work at all now. Must have been something in the firmware update that switched a parameter? I was going from factory (1.35?) to latest. After update, the bulbs blink rapidly and switch goes through multi colors as if the bypass wasn’t wired in. Tried all the logical settings, but no go.
Been battling a nasty sinus and double ear infection for the last week+ so I’ve been home going nuts with little projects, and brain has been kinda mushy. Still with-it enough to know the black wire hurts
Can someone run down the parameters I’d need for a non-neutral install with 4 hue bulbs and a bypass in a can. (Thanks for knowing what I was talking about) Just to give it hot power and not freak out with seizure inducing disco lights. I can work the scene after I get the thing to stay on.
As for selling, I’ll wait for Blue to hopefully be released, then probably dump the Red. However for the moment they are my only hope at a semblance of normal light switch function, provided I can get ONE working and replicate it for my other rooms.
What process did you follow for the firmware update? Did you flash both files for the firmware update? For the latest firmware it looks like you would need both the 1.45 bin and 1.61 otz files.
Ultimately -
Parameter 21 will need set to Non-Neutral.
You may want to mess with Parameters 5/6 for minimum/maximum dim levels if you’re only having flashing from the lights at certain brightness levels.
Parameter 52 (Smart Bulb Mode) to Smart Bulb
For scenes -
Disable Local Control
Disable Remote Control
@chack With help from Nate at support, I was directed to a working copy of Silicon Labs 5.39 and had me update from the original firmware 1.39 to 1.48 then to 1.57. Yes two part otz and bin. All were a success. Excluded from SmartThings, included to Z wave PC controller 5.39 and zooz stick, then back to ST. Also had a HS smart stick + and the suite of HS4 tools if needed which I didn’t.
Had it set to P21 non-neutral, P52 to Smart Bulb, and tried local and remote disabled and enabled but no joy with any level values. The only way I was able to get the switch to stop flipping out (as if it was power cycling) was to unscrew the hue bulbs with only the bypass installed. Even with the level set max (99) as soon as I screwed the bulbs in, the lightshow started. The more bulbs I screwed in the slower the flashing so it’s definitely a power value setting but I didn’t have the patience to bench test every variation.
Some one has to have made it work, right? Figured it would have been cleaner with the newer firmware, not backwards…
The switch just continually goes red>green>blue when it’s powered? Can you try pulling the air gap all the way out to make sure it shuts off, wait for a few and then push it all the way back in and see if that changes anything? (should go through the red/green/blue cycle once as it boots, but shouldn’t continually be cycling through)
The upgrade/parameters all sound good. If the above doesn’t work, I’d recommend a factory reset. Try to unpair the device from the network if you can first, but otherwise just hold the config button down for 20s until it goes red and then after it resets, you’ll re-pair and redo the parameters.
@chack Yes, R/G/B and repeat. Even after the air gap, same. And way ahead of you. Already did a factory reset.
With NO bulbs, it boots up and functions normally. Light blue for on, bright blue for off. It malfunctions as soon as I screw a bulb in.
I’ve been in IT for 20 some odd years. When in doubt, restart
Does anyone at Inovelli, or here, have a complete list of parameters line by line? Just to make it turn on and off with a hue bulb load and bypass. No fancy automation stuff, just on and off…at the moment. Gotta get the bulbs to say on before I can make them DO anything.
Well crap that’s pretty much all I’ve got especially not being familiar with ST, though this really doesn’t sound like a hub-specific issue.
The Manual has all the power-related parameters with the exception of Smart Bulb Mode as Parameter 52. Can check the Inovelli SmartThings Driver around line 1073 to get the list of Parameters and descriptions below them.
Can definitely agree with your planned process, etc.
@chack I agree that it doesn’t appear to be hub specific. I suppose I could break out a new one, un-updated, and see how it goes.
It’s really frustrating. I’m doing everything right, I think?
The Manual KB link doesn’t appear to be working.
The language of the parameters isn’t that complicated and it shows up in the ST “edit” screen, but is mostly all geared toward normal bulbs vs these dang fancy ones.
Just want to double check after re-reading the OP. The currently installed Inovelli switch is the LZW31-SN dimmer right? I only ask since you mentioned swapping in an on/off which I believe require neutral wires?
It sounds like you’re running into a similar issue seen - here and here where the smart bulb mode + no neutral combination seems to result in the dimmer not getting enough power and causes the looping behavior.
If you disable smart bulb mode, does the switch work to turn on/off the bulbs? (I know that’s not where we’d want to leave this, just trying to rule things in/out)
Yep, I didn’t mention it before because I couldn’t put my finger on the post, but I was wondering if that combination was going to be a problem.
Take things in steps. Temporarily swap in some incandescents. Factory reset. Configure for a non-neutral. Then enable Smart Bulb Mode. If you get that far and it’s still cranking, then your wiring and settings are likely correct.
If you then swap in the Hue bulbs, try one at a time. That RGB thing you see on the LED bar is the switch continuously rebooting, likely due to a lack of power. I’m thinking all will go well until you remove the last incandescent.
Good call. Back to low tech. Had to find some appliance bulbs because I ditched all my incandescent.
Yes I was using LZW31-SN dimmer originally. When I said on/off, I meant dumb on/off. I did have the LZW31-SN dimmer working before the firmware update (acting as a wire nut not doing anything but passing power). It remained on, never touched it, just looked pretty.
Today I factory reset the LZW31-SN dimmer, set to non-neutral, load only. Worked with incandescents. On off dim.
Set to smart bulb and the incandescent stay on, screwed in hue bulbs up to 3 of 4 and all well. The last incandescent out, and flicker. 4th Hue bulb made flicker slower but still there. Mind you I have TWO bypasses in the cans and they did work once upon a time. Did the latest firmware make the LZW31-SN require more resistance? I’ll have to see if I have another bypass but 3 bypasses and 4 bulbs seems a bit much, no?
Keep in mind that certain LED bulbs just are not compatible. Throw in a non-neutral and that just makes the mix worse. I do not have Hue bulbs so I cannot speak to them specifically.
@Bry Understood, however the switch worked with 2 bypasses and 4 bulbs before the firmware update.
It’s the oldest and simplest room I’m working on at the moment (the one with non-neutral) and using it as a test. I’ll try another room with neutral and 12’ish bulbs.
I could understand lower end lights being overlooked, but home automation stuff isn’t cheap. I’m not using a $40+ switch with a $1 no name amazon bulb.
So more bypasses? And/or anyone have specific parameter settings?
Got it. Interesting. Just curious, which firmware worked and which did you go to that didn’t. Do you need a feature in the newer firmware? I believe you can flash an older version without adverse impact. I wonder if it would still work after reverting.
that’s pretty much all I’ve got especially not being familiar with ST, though this really doesn’t sound like a hub-specific issue.