In youre OPINION, how well will the zooz dimmer work with smart bulbs (firmware update0

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So, in a week or two zooz will release an update to allow smart bulb dimming. Cool, IDEALLY I’d wait for reviews, but...... my wink relay in my bedroom broke, so I have no light in my bedroom. I can likely go a week or 2, but no more.

I’d ideally want the zooz27 to control my hue lights, but if it’s gonna be a p.i.a I’d do a toggle and aura by Lutron.

I know this is is impossible to answer, but in your OPINION, how well do you expect zooz to work.

Unrelated, zooz should just make a zooz 27 dimmer, but zigbee. Then have it work directly with hue, like the Lutron

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Then it wouldn't be a dimmer it would be a button controller. If you want something to directly control the hue, get a Hue dimmer. Problem solved.

No one is going to be able to tell you how the firmware is going to work...even the folks at Zooz didn't know for sure. I would not expect functionality before something is released. Also, when the firmware is released, you are going to have to update whatever device you buy since the ones sitting in warehouses will be the old firmware. So, unless you have a z-stick sitting around, there's another $35 you'd have to spend. I wouldn't wait for something that might be. I'd find a solution NOW. Something that is a known quantity that you are confident in how it works.

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Thank you. Also, I meant this Lutron Aurora Smart Bulb Dimmer For Philips Hue Bulbs

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Yeah, that device doesn't control the load of a circuit either. Therefore it's not a dimmer. The Zooz device you mentioned is a dimmer, which means it's primary purpose is to control the power going through the wires in the wall. If you want a button controller, then buy a button controller. Don't buy a device you might be able to turn into a button controller later after some firmware update. But again, that's just my opinion. But that is what you asked for.

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The zooz button controller works NOW. The on and off for hue lights works. The update is just for the dimmer functionality

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Then buy the Zooz since that's clearly what you want to do. I don't understand why you would want to spend more money for a device that gives you less functionality but hey, i like things simple and cheap. Some people like them complicated and expensive. That's just not me.

This device, for only $19 will give you 100% control over your hue lights...either directly from Hubitat or directly to the lights. And it does dimming. And it works today.

I don't understand why you want to spend more for the Zooz.

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I have this now. I don’t like the blocking off a switch look or rigging power always on, or the look of the dimmer.
Thank you for the opinion

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I got the Lutron Aurora and it's great. Gives a bit of "retro" look to the dining room and it's "easy" for people to understand how to use. I pulled the insteon keypad and put in a dumb toggle switch and all is good.

Bottom line.. It Just Works.

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EDIT: I tried the current (not new--the one they released around May or June of 2019) firmware on the ZEN27 and some of my assumptions below were wrong. Even-as is, I find it to work well for dimming smart bulbs because it does support "held" and "released" events on holds of the paddle up or down, making it usable with, e.g., startLevelChange and stopLevelChange. I have no idea what the new firmware is going to add, but they are aiming to have it out soon, so I'll see.

Well, I don't think this is Zooz-specific, but I'd expect it to work about as well as it would if you use Mirror/Mirror Me to "sync" the dimmer state (switch and level) to the "real" smart bulbs, which is apparently what the new firmware will do: mostly good, especially if you manipulate only the dimmer, but subject to getting out of sync if you don't (not disastrous, but I don't know if this means you could tap the paddle down to turn it off when the smart bulbs were turned on through commands to the bulbs directly and it wouldn't do anything until you address that--or it could just work, I don't know).

This might be better than some other scene-enabled switches where you get on/off control via the switch but holding the paddle doesn't do anything so you have to use mulit-taps/Z-Wave scenes (button events in Hubitat) to dim--say double tap up to brighten. You can figure that out since you set up the switch, but it's unlikely a guest would be able to. That's already what you can do, I think, though I'm not sure the ZEN27 supports certain mulit-taps.

Of course, the first paragraph is just guessing based on what they've said about the firmware.

PS - If Zooz made a Zigbee dimmer (unlikely as they are all-in on Z-Wave), that is no guarantee it would work with Hue. If it supported Touchlink, you could pair it directly with the bulbs, but to make the Hue app able to configure it, Hue has to whitelist it for use in their app (e.g., be "Friends of Hue" like the Lutron dimmer is). Nearly all such devices are battery-powered. In fact, I'm not aware of any mains-powered remote control devices that work in this way. It's far more likely such a dimmer would be intended for use with a ZHA or Zigbee 3.0 hub, like the GE/Jasco Zigbee dimmer is (one of few that exist in the first place). If you want this, there are lot of battery-powered options, some of which work with Hue officially (RunLessWire, Lutron Aurora), unofficially (Eria Dimmer, I think), and some of which work with Hubitat (Lutron Pico via the Smart Bridge Pro or RA2, Eria, etc.). Some people resist the use of the word "dimmer" for such devices due to the fact that they don't literally control the load; others don't get into arguments about that. :slight_smile:

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Only problem is that the dimmer doesn't report the level until it is done ramping the dimmer and you release the paddle. So, using the dimmer with no load connected, you would not be able to see how much the lights will have brightened or dimmed until after you release the paddle and let the bulbs catch up. Here's an example: the lights are on at 100%. I walk over and hold down the bottom of the paddle dimming the dimmer. Until I release the paddle it will not report the current level to Hubitat. So, the bulbs will not change while i am holding down the paddle. Do you see what I'm getting at?

This is another reason why trying to use a dimmer as a button controller just doesn't really work. Now, if the Zooz, with the new firmware, can change it so it reports the button as held/released, then that could be used to begin ramping the lights. But using mirror me won't work for ramping the bulbs up and down.

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Ack, you're right. I think they actually reported level changes while holding in the original firmware and Mike made them change it because it was too noisy on the Z-Wave network. :slight_smile: (They might be able to change it back, but the chattiness would remain.) All the more reason button events like "held" and "released" would be A+ here... :slight_smile:

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I suggested it be removed or a parameter supplied to disable/enable it. Ideally the parameter would control the reporting rate, similar to what can be done with zigbee devices.

Those that have Sengled bulbs using the new drivers will note the presence of a reporting preference the sole purpose of which is to allow the user to configure how often they want level values reported whilst in transition...

The issue with the original Zooz dimmer firmware being there was no way to configure it or turn it off and it reported each 1% level change, so under the right circumstances it could produce almost 100 events within a second or two...

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I’m guessing they didn’t coordinate with you on the update? I feel if they worked with you guys, they could make a good solution

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Maybe so, but they sell these to other hub users too and most of those users probably aren't doing the kind of crazy automations he folk implement...

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I feel dimming smart lights shouldn’t be considered a “crazy automation”

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It isn't but we were talking about following the levels of another dimmer in real time

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That may be the only reliable way to dim. I don’t know, you probably do though. That’s why the shoulda coordinated with you.

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So, what you're really saying is we are all power users and we are awesome, right? RIGHT?! :wink:

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It's not. However it's best to use the right tool for the job... square peg meet round hole generally doesn't work well....

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I agree using the right tool for the job makes life easier but then we wouldn't have all the cool toys we do now. My turn on sprinklers when a dog is crapping in my yard automation comes to mind. The sprinklers weren't intended for that purpose but it works better than anything else I've seen posted.