I'm not sure if I'm trying to do something that's not supported, but I recently installed a few Zooz Zen35 dimmer/scene controller switches. They're all working just fine. I have some of the action buttons (as opposed to the main, load-control button) controlling other lighting in the rooms, including dimmable lights. When I setup the actions for a particular button, I'm setting the "Pushed" action to toggle the lights on/off...simple. My intent was to then set the "Held" action to dim the lights either up or down (cycling back and forth as long I hold down the button), the same way the actual big button/dimmer switch works in that device for the attached load. But I'm stuck.
I thought, perhaps, the action to use was "Toggle Dimmer", but I can't get that to work. It will either dim the lights up to a specific level, or shut them off - essentially what the Toggle Switch is already doing for the "Pushed" action.
Does Button Controller support what I'm trying to do? If so, how do I set it up so that if I press-and-hold a button, my light will alternate/cycle between dimming up and dimming down as long as I hold the button?
"Toggle dimer" will turn the device on to the specified level if currently off, otherwise it will turn it off if on (but it's different from "Toggle switch" which just turns the device on, generally to the last level but that's up to the device, if currently off, otherwise turns it on).
It sounds like you're looking for "Start raising/lowering dimmers" for "held" and "Stop changing dimmer" for "release."
Not all dimmers/bulbs will support the commands necessary to implement this. These commands are "Start Level Change" (up or down) and "Stop Level Change." You can verify on the device detail page for the lights you're actually controlling to make sure these commands are there and work as expect. If all is good, this should get you what you want by making Button Controller send these commands at the appropriate times!
Thank you @bertabcd1234 . But if I'm interpreting your recommendation correctly, I would only be able to have the button EITHER dim or brighten, but not no both (alternating). When I look at the "Start raising/lowering dimmer" action, it gives me a toggle for "Raise" or "Lower". So, it would seem I wouldn't be able to have the button automatically toggle between raising or lowering each time I release it. I can only configure that "Held" action to either dim OR brighten, but won't be able to have the button do both, correct?
In this particular scenario, I'm controlling a desktop lighting strip that is plugged into a wall-wart dimmer module. I was just hoping to be able to control brightness via that wall button - I'll have to settle for doing that with voice commands to Alexa - not the end of the world. Or maybe I'll install a Zen37 button remote at my desk and use that to control dimming.
Yes, if you want to use the same button for both, you'll have to either pick one or implement some way to select between the two. (Many people use two different buttons for this, maybe a button on top to dim up and a button on bottom to dim down, but you don't have to.)
One thing you could do if you want it going different ways with the same button is something like this in your actions, in your case, this being for whatever button held:
IF (level >= 99) THEN
Start lowering dimmer level on light
ELSE
Start raising dimmer level on light
END-IF
Your "release" actions would be the same, as that command is not direction-specific.
Button Controller, as you may infer from the above if you didn't know, lets you use conditional actions like Rule Machine, which allow you to do pretty powerful things. This is just one example; maybe you don't want it to need to be full blast before you go the other direction (maybe you could pick 80 or 90 or something instead of 99). It also depends on your light reporting its new state back at all but ideally in a timely manner. But in general, this is the idea.
I'm not sure how the Zooz Zen35 drimvers work, but my Tuya Scene controllers only send held on the release of a held button. You would need held to get the held event while holding the button, and then get a release event when you release the button.
If you start a level change up, it will just keep going to 100% unless you stop the level change. If your scene buttons report held while holding, and then report release when when you stop holding, you can use held to start a level change, and release to stop the level change, but you have to have an event to stop the level change somehow.
Edit: The way I handle that for my Tuya Scene Knobs, is to start a level change, and then stop it 400 ms later. Then every time you push a button, it dims or brightens a bit and then stops. So you have to keep pushing the button to get to the level you want. On my scene knobs, I can just keep slowly turning the knob left or right to brighten or dim that way.
Thanks @bertabcd1234 - very helpful suggestion that I hadn't considered. Will give it a try. And @chrisbvt - yes, understood. The Zooz seems to report "release". Now that I have a viable solution to work with, I'll set this up and report back.
BRILLIANT! @bertabcd1234 , your suggestion works perfectly. And @chrisbvt , my Zooz button is sending a "release" event so now I have a single button working exactly like that master button (load-connected). I can tap to turn on or off, and hold to dim up or down.
