Z-Wave 5-Button Scene Controller + Dimmer Switch | Project Limitless

Between this, the door sensors and new motion sensors, I’m going to have a lot of automations to set up this year!

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That’s bad–really bad.

You know, as a kid, I tore into all kinds of things. Took door knobs apart, took telephones apart, and about anything else.

I even was thoroughly investigating how my first grade teacher’s fancy raising & lowering chair worked during nap time. I thought I got it set back to the right height after I was done—but apparently, didn’t get it locked in place well. As, when she went to sit down, the chair dropped all the way down. Ooops. Miss Smith knew who was studying her chair–and that resulted in a conference with my folks. Uhoh!!!

So, seeing all the cool parts could get me into trouble. rofl

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Thanks for upgrading/redesigning the grounding screw! This is an improvement over the current design.

Any chance that the holes for the grounding screw for the case could be open to allow for a single wire to loop in and then back out again while still providing wire guidance for the “normal” installations?

No biggie, either way, Nice work!

Small update:

  • Changed project name to, “Limitless” as I had no idea what, “Rock Out” stood for and how it applied to the switch
  • We’re receiving initial prototypes (with working firmware) for approval (so that we can create the beta units) on Thursday, May 13th, 2021. Tracking # for those that are anxious like me: 773657658594

It’s going to be a wild ride!


Hmmm… how do you envision this to look? I’m having a hard time visualizing this as the plates wouldn’t work correctly, right?

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Fair enough and I am not 100% sure it would work but if the portion above the holes for the grounding connections were removed (sorry, might be hard to see below, drawing in black), could the screw not be used like a traditional grounding screw and this more advanced type of connection?

Screen Shot 2021-05-10 at 11.53.57 AM

Ok, I think I may have a solution in looking at this more in person. It’s hard to explain (and also draw) but I’ll try my best.

I think if we eliminate that ridge, it should work, right?

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I would think so! There might need to be a little plastic on the sides to keep the hold down in place but I like the idea and flexibility this provides. Kinda nice when the only area to nitpick is such a small detail. :slight_smile: On the other hand, any small detail that can be nailed down is one less annoyance down the road.

Nice work!

Dont even have to take out the entire ridge, just U’s where the wire slots in and out, this is industry-standard to my Leviton/HD experience.

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A hot soldering iron can fix that in a jiffy.

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And then, when the next homeowner pulls the switch out, they will wonder how the ground wire hot hot enough to melt the plastic :stuck_out_tongue:

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That’ll teach them to go looking in switch boxes! :stuck_out_tongue:

*nothing like my discovering the massive wire nut with like 5+ neutral wires was still hot after the circuit for the 3 lights in that box was turned off. Because. in the very back of the box, the red from the 14-3 cable coming in tied to a black going out that was on a different circuit. And that wire nut had neutrals from that OTHER (very much hot) circuit bound to it. Found out I have 4-6 circuits that share a common neutral thru use of a 14-3 wire. Guess that was allowed when they built my house.

I’ve now marked those and know to be aware of that issue. As much as anything, I need to make sure the two “hot” sides going out on a single 14-3 are on opposite “phases” so the neutral load won’t exceed the limit.

I’ve had the same thing happen to me. And this house was built in 2006. It can’t have been allowed then, so I can only imagine that the electrician and the inspector were both lazy.

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That issue will particularly manifest itself if any of the breakers are arc fault. They will erroneously detect and arc and trip.

The section commonly referred to that violates this is in the 2011 NEC. It’s not in the 2008, at least where it’s referenced in the newer versions. Then there is the fact that it’s a matter of what has been adopted locally.

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Yeah, my house was built in 1991-1992. Fixing that would require stringing and fishing many wires all over. No arc-fault breakers right now. I’m just “aware” of the CF I’ve got.

I reread your post and was actually referring to another issue that has come up recently in the forms. That issue pertains to where neutrals from two different branch circuits are tied together in the box. That is not allowed.

But in your case, I think you were referring to
two hots and one neutral on a 14-3. Those were permitted and may still be today. I am not sure if the NEC has been changed for those. Those are considered safe so long as the breakers for the two hots are on separate phases at the panel. This is typically done by putting the two breakers next to each other on the same side of the panel.

Because the two circuits are out of phase with each other, the neutral is only carrying one circuit’s load at a time.

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Exactly.

And, yes. I sorted it out in my mind–realizing that if the two hots were 180 degrees off in phase, then the max load on a neutral would be if one side was drawing 15A and 0A on the other. If both sides are drawing 15A, the neutral would effectively have 0A as it would be passing across the two hot leads.

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Why is this not out yet
image

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I thought the same thing when this thread was first created, but then I realized the genius in the naming… Rock out… Like eliminating the rocker switch. You took the rock out of the switch. I liked the play on words. But, limitless is good too. It certainly will be!

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Noob question here:

I have a 3 gang box, with 2 regular switch and 1 dimmer. Can I use this to control zwave relay with home assistant? So I will only have this scene controller instead of 3 different switch.

Yep, if one of the three will work on a dimmer you can hard wire that one. The other two will have to be controlled via the scene buttons.

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