Red Switches + Hue: On/Off or Dimmers?

Switches Wiring Discussion
1

We’re installing a number of Hue in-ceiling cans plus lighting strips throughout a new kitchen. I’m looking at Inovelli’s as the switches, given the ability to turn off the relay but still have the air gap in case that’s needed (feels like best of both worlds).

Questions:

  1. I’m seeing some people say that the dimmer switches will not provide 100% power, even with the relay off, so some smart bulbs act wonky as a result. Is that true?
  2. If the dimmer switches are set to on/off (but setting the dimmer level to 0/99), will that provide better compatibility with smart bulbs?
  3. If I just go with pure On/Off switches, can I approximate dimming ability by holding down the up or down paddle (I’m using Hubitat+Home Assistant+Homekit, so I’m pretty sure I can make the software side happen if the hardware supports it)?

Basically, trying to decide if the dimmer switch is the way to go with Hue bulbs, or whether to just use on/off switches and hack dimming together on the software/scene side.

2

Looks like a “Smart Bulb” mode has been added to the firmware recently.

Added parameter 52. Use to put the switch into “smart bulb” mode. If it set to 1, the power will output maximum % when the dimmer is on. 0 = normal operation, 1 = smart bulb.

Does that actually output 100% (re: Question #1/2)?

3

Looks like this is confirming some yes’.

Would be great to get a single blog post or knowledge base article about some of this. I see one for using with Zwave bulbs, but the vast majority of smart bulbs out there aren’t Zwave…

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4

As that poster I have 2 settings changed:

  1. Disable local control
  2. Smart bulb mode.

Works great through ABC Manager for my zigbee bulbs. The LED bar, however, is always on and 100% on dimmer.

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5

So, if the dimmer is always at 100% in smart bulb mode, there is no point in buying the dimmer model if using with philips hue?

6

The dimmer would still allow you to dim the hue bulb via webcore or rule machine but it’s not as slick as associating a zwave bulb.

7

I thought the dimmer value stays at 100% in smart bulb mode, so mirroring the switch’s current dimmer value to the hue dimmer level wouldn’t work?

In that case wouldn’t the dimmer model offer no extra functions compared with the on off model?

8

The switch output stays at 100% but the zwave commands to the hub to dim up/ down and turn on/off still happen.