Hi, I am considering buying a hubitat and so far everything I read about it looks great. I have one (hopefully basic) question I cannot find the answer to.
I have seen that you can create scenes which is great. I am looking to add in wall dimmers (behind my traditional dimmer). This should allow me to dim the light as usual but also control it through the hub. My question is if I can use my traditional dimmer and have that control the whole scene?
E.g. when I press the dimmer to turn it on it not only turns the pendant in the ceiling (as it normally would) but also two floor lamps (which each are covered to a dimmable socket I can control from the hub). When I use the wall dimmer it also dims the floor lamps.
Can I do that from the traditional dimmer or do I need to put a special one next to it (which I am sure would work but my wife would not appreciate it)
You replace a non-smart dimmer with a Smart Dimmer (Zwave or Zigbee) and it continues to work as a human-finger-controlled dimmer as well as via a Hub.
Of course, part of these answers depend on your country. There are different available products in different countries. Example: In the US, replacing the dimmer switch is the easiest solution (and relatively cost effective); however, that may not be true in other countries. But, csteele is absolutely correct on dimming a dimmer.
There are a few Smart Dimmers that are smarter than average.. Inovelli's Red series can segregate the dim action from the physical 'paddle'. The 'paddle' then functions as more of a Button, telling the Hub that a button is being held and when it is released. The hub can then be instructed to use those events to mimic a dimmer. Multiple dimmers can be told to follow along.
The screenshot shows the option to segregate. You enable that and the dim electronics built into the dimmer only operate via commands from the hub. Cool, huh? It becomes a button controller sitting right on top of a buttonless dimmer. The button controller tells the Hub about the presses going on and the hub uses those to raise/lower or on/off the dimmer function. AND the hub can tell any number of dimmers to follow along.
This is NOT a tutorial on how-to do this... it's just an attempt to highlight what-is-possible.
(I picked Inovelli because I have one and can screen capture the option.)
It sounds like you’re talking about using something like an Aeotec Nano Dimmer inside the gang box to control a light. If that’s the sort of thing you’re talking about, then yes, you can use automations to make connected smart lights or switches mirror changes in another connected smart light/switch. That said, while Nano dimmers can be triggered by a dumb wall switch, it would have to be an on/off switch, not a dimmer.
@EdMcW This sounds very close to what I want to do. Based on what you write I was able to refine what I searched for and found out that the hub actually gets status messages on changes. Hopefully I can get that also for a dimmer change and hopefully the latency is short so I can use it to control other lights. Thanks
Just for other new comers like me there is a in wall dimmer from Aeotec that might work. The spec is pasted below and other users have made it work. They recommend setting 2
0x50 (80) To set which notification would be sent to the associated
devices (Group 1) when the state of Nano Dimmer’s load is
changed.
0 = Send Nothing,
1 = Send Hail CC,
2 = Send Basic CC report.
3 = Send Multilevel Switch report
4 = Send Hail CC when using the manual switch to change the
load state.
