Inovelli mmwave switches

Speaking of crowd funding, the only thing that's ever piqued my interest is the Inovelli mmWave smart switch. I might actually jump into the pool, lol.

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A have a bunch on order. Both Zigbee and Z-Wave. Really hoping they will work as well as they could. :slight_smile:

Cant see this working that well... from my testing location of mmwave sensors is very imprtant for correct operation which a fixed switch install negates.

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On the whole, I agree. I think some users are going to end up surprised that they won't work as well as hoped in certain switch locations.

I only have one place in my entire house (admittedly, it's a small one) where this will work well, so I'm looking forward to getting my pre-order. I currently have a Linptech mounted right next to that switch today.

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Very true! That said, I think having mmWave sensors in a lower (switch height) location works quite well - for the Aquara FP2, I can confirm that it is certainly the case. Not sure if it will also be the case for the Inovelli devices, but Eric reported that it worked very well when setting up a sensor next to a switch.

I’m lucky enough that all my rooms have at least one switch in the perfect location for a mmWave sensor (I think anyway…). That said, in some rooms I already have a FP2 that works perfectly well, and I plan to keep those. Will likely change one of my dimmers in all other rooms.

I got half Z-Wave and half Zigbee in the hope that this will avoid overwhelming either meshes… will see how well that pans out!

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Concept

The project team has not yet produced a working demo for their concept. Their ability to successfully produce a prototype may be affected by product development or financial challenges.

Been at >75% funding since May 2023

At close to $100/switch, I’ll wait.

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I still think shielding is going to be an issue to avoid backside motion reporting, unless Inovelli tests this carefully and provides shielding, or recommends some sort of shielding approach.

In most houses that use plastic switch boxes the sensor, unless it's properly shielded, is going to sense right through the wall behind it into the next room. I had to use pieces of metal to shield two Linptech sensors that were mounted on a wall, and sensing motion on the other side of the wall behind them.

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As with every other crowdfunding campaign, iNovelli has updates on this campaign. You can see them here:

They have received/tested pre-tooling samples as of Jan '24.

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The Decora look would clash with my toggles, lol.

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There’s an easy fix to that! I should know…. I’ve updated all the switches and plugs to Decora style at every house I owned. As an added benefit, it made the transition to automated switches totally seamless.

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I neglected to note that ALL of my switches are Z-Wave toggles, lol.

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Yea, that would be a bit of a costly endeavour…

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I started down that route and then realized everything I'd miss out on, as it seems most offerings are decora. Plus it uses less plastic when I print my own custom covers and I can add in hue or minoston remotes

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If I had to do over again, perhaps.
Do any smart Decora have the rockers light up?
I like that feature of the GE toggles, although it is only one color, blue.

The Inovelli dimmer’s LED bar do a good job at showing you where the toggle is located, and look great to boot! :blush: (As we can see in @Rxich’s picture.)

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If this can be configured, it could actually be a big selling point. I have nearly 50 switches in my house, but only a few are physically located where a forward-facing motion sensor would be useful to detect motion in that room.

But, if the sensor had the ability to detect motion in all directions and different zones could be enabled individually, it could make the position of the device much less critical. Whether that's actually possible or not, I have no idea.

My current assumption is that these sensors will only be able to detect forward. I seem to recall seeing something that indicated it would have a 150° field of view with the latest sensor that was selected. That would seem to indicate that it has only a forward facing field of view.

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They should be updating the campaign page, but it is an afterthought for them. You are better off going to their own community page. Not horribly impressed with the project so far.

(Edit for grammatical correction)

This was my conclusion when this first came out on indiegogo. That is, in my house, the location of the switch is all wrong with regards to proper positioning for almost all my rooms (except one). This may not be as much a problem for other people.

(On the other hand, it does neatly solve the problem of getting power to the mmWave sensor)

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This is typical for Inovelli. They are horrible at producing timelines. Their products are great, their planning - not so much.

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