I think it was mentioned before, but what zigbee chipset are these using?
MG21, down the road MG24. I think itās silabs? Quick Google should find.
@Eric_Inovelli Now that it seems like you are in the home stretch for this switch, can you provide any updates on the future blue-series roadmap? Iām (not so) patiently waiting for the motion switches.
Got my pre-order in for 20. Looks like Iāll have some red switches up for grabs soon!
Before anyone potentially asks, Iāve fought with my hubitat zwave network for years on reliability, and there are just some gremlins I cannot solve. My zigbee network though is reliable to the point that I forget itās even there, so Iām swapping out quite a bit to stop me from pulling my hair out.
I see a lot is being thrown at you guys from every direction, but if could add to it, is there a timeline for the MG24?
I just pre-ordered for 70 switches which will be installed in a new home Iām renovating over the summer. My current home has about 50 of the red series switches, and my experience with Zwave at that scale has been less than satisfying. Iām hoping Zigbee proves to be more reliable with a large number of devices. Home Assistant back end at both sites.
Iād been wavering between the blue series and Radio RA3 for the new place, and in the end Iād much rather support Inovelli instead of a proprietary solution that considers the enthusiast market an annoyance rather than an opportunity.
For whatever itās worth, Iām the original developer of INSTEON support for Home Assistant (and the corresponding py-insteon package). These Inovelli products feel like Star Trek compared to that old stuff, although if Iām honest Iāve never found another wall switch thatās as physically satisfying to use as the INSTEON hardware.
Hey all! Just wanted to at least pop in and say Iām floored from the support and excitement everyone is showing. Wow!
I have to finish some stuff up around the house (just got done installing a mailbox of all things) and I will come back later tonight to answer all the questions and thank each person individually.
Thank you so much again, I cannot wait to share this with the manufacturer. Theyāve put as much work into this switch as any of us and I can sense the passion from the firmware engineer (as much as Iām sure weāre annoying him about the most minute details - we told them out community is very passionate lol)
Have you brought up the other diffusers we made ā¦ ? I feel like thatās a pretty cool feature for these, with the individual LED control and whatnot.
Your timing with this release was perfect. I recently started building a house and planned to outfit with smart switches everywhere. I had been hoping that I would be able to get ahold of some packs of red series, but I was getting worried that I would have to order something less capable instead. Very happy to have been able to preorder a few packs of the blue series (and happy as a Michigan native to support you guys)
Iām surprised, Iāve got close to 40 z wave switches and itās the most stable part of my system (have around 100 ZigBee devices). Whatās your setup? Iām using home assistant with a 500 series zooz controller.
Thank you so much! See ya later GE lol
Looking forward to sending these north of the boarder!
If you pass on your SSN, motherās maiden name and the name of your first grade teacher, Iām happy to try running it again
Kidding, thanks for the support man, it means a lot ā looking forward to giving you that box w/your signature on it. Thanks so much for helping to make these the switches they are!
Iām really hoping to get color paddles out, but weāre having a hard time matching the colors of Lutron Claroās. The manufacturer is asking for PANTONE colors, but Iām not entirely sure how to get them.
I PMād the project manager to push on this, so hopefully we can ā but I would say weāre probably stuck with white for now.
What I planned to do though, is anyone who ordered a pre-order and wants color paddles, to extend the free shipping even if we get paddles after they release.
To be clear though, we will be coming out with the color paddles, Iām just not sure when we can get them.
Let me double check on this for you. I know Iāve asked about it, but I donāt think I got a definitive answer. Iām 99% sure we were unable to pull it off ā I just canāt remember why.
Great question ā we do not have them right now, but we do intend on getting them out. As I mentioned above, if we canāt get them out by the time pre-orders ship, then I will extend the free shipping if youād like to buy them after the fact.
The issue weāre running into now is that we canāt seem to match the color very well of the Lutron Claro line. The manufacturer is asking for PANTONE colors, which Iām not even sure where to get that from Lutron.
Definitely trying my best though as I know itās important to everyone.
Pun intended.
Iāve got a few notes from you that Iām going to implement (pairing procedures only apply to unpaired switch and this one), thank you so much! I will try to find a way to communicate it in a user-friendly way.
Good news is the diffuser is exactly the same as the Red Series Dimmer. I know Iām answering this late, but just in case you didnāt see, looks like @kreene1987 posted a good side by side: Zigbee 2-1 Switch (On/Off & Dimmer) | Project New Horizon (Blue Series) - #618 by kreene1987 - Projects & Roadmaps - Inovelli Community
I love it lol ā as luck would have it, we are about to start development on a wall-remote thatās decora for a B2B company. They are debating between LoRa and Z-Wave LR (either way, we can convert it to Z-Wave/ZigBee ā itās the design weāre working on), so this is great timing.
Canāt wait to start that thread and get it going. Iāve been wanting a remote for a long time ā in fact, Iām a little salty, but Eric and I developed the Zooz and Aeotec remote (it was for their manufacturer when we were with them).
Oh for sure ā the company weāre working on this project with is directly targeting Lutron, so Iām excited to finally have an opportunity to go after this project. The only thing holding us back on this was funding, but this PO will hopefully allow us to fund our own remote.
I will definitely reach out to you both once that starts if youāre interested in helping us with beta testing (if I forget, please remind me).
@PaulM did a great job answering so thereās not much I can add. I was actually going to ask the community for help here as admittedly, I have a Z-Wave network in my house and only a few ZigBee (going to be switching to ZigBee) so I couldnāt give a, āreal-worldā answer. Glad the community pulled through!
Regarding refunds ā yes, for sure ā what we do is hold all pre-order money in a separate account and you can cancel at any time, even after weāve placed the order with the manufacturer.
@PaulM is also correct in that I think weāre pretty safe with UL, itās just the time delay thatās more annoying than anything. The good news is weāve made pretty much this exact switch before and are pretty familiar with the UL process. We just had that hiccup with them not knowing how to classify our switch, but now that we are clear, we should be good to go!
Thank you so much!
Ok, awesome, I would say you should be good then, especially if that first one is 5ft away as it can be used as repeater.
Thanks dude! Thatās a really good shot. Just need to make those screws horizontal lol jk (but seriously).
Very interesting ā one thing that I have always wanted to do (but never had enough funding to do so) is create a program where you could essentially map out your house and put your smart products in ā it would show you the range of your Zigbee/Z-Wave switches, what ones are repeaters, etc. Essentially giving you a way to plan out your journey.
From our perspective, if you wanted to share it with us, we could recommend products to you based on what you have (be it ours or someone elses).
Anyway, hopefully one day ā but you are not alone in the wanting to plan things!
Yeah definitely ā Iām going to give it some more thought this week as I go through the forum knowledge-base and see where things land on that page. I at least need to fix the hyperlinks, so I will likely have to do some revamping anyway.
Looking forward to hearing the feedback once these are in everyoneās hands and theyāre using the KB for reference.
Yeah definitely! Appreciate the support on your end as well!
Wow! Thank you! I had to look up what a carriage house was and it made the saying, āif you have to ask, you canāt afford itā seem that much more real haha
Congrats on the build, thatās really exciting. Iād love to see it when the switches are installed!
So there is a pretty big announcement coming in the next week or so (I feel like I keep saying this and I apologize ā legal takes longer than I anticipate) in which I can outline a lot more, but what I can say is that our overall plan is to expand our Blue Series and run the Red Series in parallel with it. In other words, we will likely build out the Blue Series and launch the Red in parallel with it. However, Blue will be the lead pony if you will.
We will continue to focus on lighting (hoping to get more into canned lighting and have a more robust lineup from a bulb perspective) and build out new innovation with switches.
The pace at which we will do it will likely be slower than what Iāve laid out (Iāve always had a problem with being over ambitious) but once I get with the new COO (part of the big announcement) to determine what is and isnāt feasible, I will definitely let you guys know!
I know thatās vague, Iām sorryā¦ I feel like a politician sometimes.
Thanks so much! You can sell those Red Series on the open market for a ton ā itās crazy what I see out there!
Iām hoping Zigbee works better for you ā I experienced a lot of the same with Hubitat (it was the C7 if it matters).
Ha, itās all good, weāre used to it!
Let me check with @Darwyn_Inovelli on this one. I heard it should be ready for alpha release in Q2, but I havenāt followed up on it.
Wow! Sincerely appreciate the support both from the Red Series and now from the Blue Series. Thatās actually really humbling to know you went with us over Lutron.
I just starting tinkering with Home Assistant and was blown away at how well it handled Zigbee, especially the binding. Now I just need to figure out the automation side of it, but needless to say, itās awesome.
This is honestly so refreshing to hear in terms of someone saying out loud. Iāve talked to so many of these big companies over the years as well as so many investors and they all say the same thingā¦ the money is in the B2B market, stop wasting your time with B2C.
While yes, you can make some great money in the B2B market, the way Iāve looked at it is that the B2C market is what makes the product awesome so that the B2B market will seek you out. So, I spend most of my time working with you all (and honestly I have way more fun with you guys) and creating amazing products that we all wantā¦ and all the B2B contracts weāve gotten have approached us because of what theyāve heard about our products from average consumers.
Long winded way of saying, completely agree with you ā thereās so much opportunity and I hate hearing companies argue that customers are more of an annoyance and put their wants/needs on the back-burner to chase the big opportunities.
Thatās wild, thanks so much for joining our community!
I havenāt! I wasnāt sure if you wanted me to let everyone know
Wait, actually, I did share a video earlier in this thread that had your diffuser on it (bc I havenāt taken it off bc I love it so much). Do you have any pics you want to share? Iād love to share mine if youāre down? Would love to get community feedback!
Ha, I have to thank the community for the timing. I wasnāt planning on opening these up until Mayish, but everyone was so pumped, I felt like I was letting people down by not opening them up.
Congrats on the house and thank you for the support! Is your house in MI or did you move elsewhere?
Congrats on the house and thank you for the support! Is your house in MI or did you move elsewhere?
Unfortunately left Michigan for Virginia last year (couldnāt find a good tech job in Kalamazoo) though now Iām pretty much
fully remote of course, but now the wife has a good job thatās not remote. Oh well, maybe weāll come back some day (but then Iād need to buy even more switches!)
Definitely a zwave hop issue that cannot be replicated on demand, so nigh impossible to fix. I know thereās an antenna mod thatās all the rage on the hubitat forums right now, but Iād rather just reduce my zwave device count in favor of my preferred protocol of zigbee, which just works versus fixing a problem that shouldnāt actually be a problem. I own nothing but Inovelli switches in my house, and I see no reason to change .
I refuse to remove my Inovelli fan/light combo switches though (until a zigbee version comes along wink wink, nudge nudge). Also wonāt need to replace my better behaving zwave switches immediately either, but if the zigbee switches work as I expect them to, itāll most likely be a wholesale swap.
Excited about the Blue series pre-orders! Putting in a 10 pack order in shortly.
Question on the aux switches after trying to interpret this chart: Can these be used as independent smart switches that just happen to not have the LED bar? Or are these switches dependent on a separate smart switch / are they just sending signals to the ārealā smart switch on the 3 way circuit?
Guessing itās the latter but wanted to double check. Would love to have a bit cheaper switches in places where I wonāt always need an LED strip! Iām trying to eventually wire the whole house up with smart bulbs (to control color temp that changes based on time of day), so need smart switches / smart bulb mode everywhere.
(Please excuse me if the answer here is obvious! Brand new, not savvy with wiring or automation etc yet. And - really love the transparency in this forum about the companyās ups and downs + all the virtual focus groups!)
The aux switch cannot control the load. Itās used in conjunction with a smart switch.
The aux switch cannot control the load. Itās used in conjunction with a smart switch.
Thanks!
Though technically I wouldnāt need it to actually control / switch on-off the load - since Iām putting all my switches in smart bulb + disable local relay mode and controlling it all via a hub. But I assume you mean that it wouldnāt be able to do even that independently.
PANTONE colors refer to the proprietary PANTONE color space, and ensure a color is the same everywhere. If I recall right, to use a PANTONE color (at least with print) you must pay extra for a āspotā color. Basically, an additional unique plate dedicated to just that color.
I would be surprised if Lutron released the PANTONE colors for their face plates. That being said you could use something like this to get a reasonably close approximation: āPantone Connect on the App Store
I donāt know how accurate it is, but if you match a face plate in multiple different light sources and the result is the same you should be good.
Humā¦ How about releasing a line of ceiling lights with integrated motion sensors? I could see having some fun with hall lights, where you use the per-light motion sensor to āfollowā you at night. Talk about some insanely localized lighting potential. Not to mention aggregating the sensors during the day for room motion/presence sensing. There never seem to be enough motion sensor - plus no batteries!
The only problem I see is that you see being overly ambitious as a problem. There is nothing wrong with shooting for the moon, at a minimum will still end up in the stars!
Aux switches are intended for use in 3+ Way circuits, where there is already one smart switch. They simply send a signal through the wire that the smart switch detects to control the load. You wouldnāt want to replace an existing switch with these, unless itās a 3+ way circuit with a smart switch.
The timing of these is almost perfect for me. I just started building a home an expect the electrical work to occur sometime in July.
I have ordered three 10-packs of the Blue switches.
I will order a 10-pack of the Aux switches when that option becomes available.
Yes, the Aux must be used in conjunction with a switch or dimmer. It cannot be used by itself.
Will the aux switches work with the Red Series dimmers too?