I have recently purchased a HE and read through a lot of the great information everyone has supplied in this forum.
I have read through a lot of the habitat AU pages but have not been able to find the answer to my problem. I am hoping someone more experienced can provide some insight.
Problem:
I have bought an apartment and would like to build a smart home system starting with the lighting. I would like to be able to dim and switch the lights from both the habitat and the physical switches. This is to maintain usability for guests and wife. This would not be an issue using in-wall devices however, the apartment utilises multi-gang (2-4) switches at most switch locations so there is not enough space to install all the devices in wall. I have looked around and can't find any multi dimmer smart switches other than the qDimmer (which I don't know if is ready for sale).
The in-ceiling smart dimmers or bulbs will loose power when switching off by smart switches. I am not sure how long a reconnect would take if it is feasible to set An automation to switch relay then update dimmer setting without huge delays.
Current the only options I can see are:
qDimmer but price is likely expensive
Nue in-celing dimmer with smart switches set to not switch the relay and used as signal for dimmer (maybe a multi press to switch circuit off)
Brilliant smart dimmer mech (wifi only) I will need many of these which may impact wifi stability due to number.
Physical switch left in circuit but pushed back in wall cavity behind standalone zigbee switch (assuming this actually legal)
If anyone has built a similar setup or has some ideas please let me know.
I'm not 100% sure what you mean here. You would have a smart switch both at the wall and in the ceiling, for the same light?
But another possibility you could consider: Some smart dimmers (including the Fibaro Dimmer 2) have two switch inputs, even though they only control one load. This would commonly be used for connecting two separate buttons for dim up/down. However, you can also choose to use that 2nd switch line for whatever you want within Hubitat. For example, SW2 could be used to command a separate set of smart bulbs.
To explain a bit more:
I don’t want the physical switch to render the smart light inoperable to remote commands. The double up of dimmer in-ceiling and smart switch is being considered purely out of space restraints behind the switch for multiple dimmer modules (fibaro or aeotec). If there was enough room for multiple aeotec nano dimmers this would be the easiest solution to maintain switch functionality and dimming ability. However, as there is limited space behind the switch and the use of multi gang switches everywhere this is not really an option.
I didn’t know the fibaro switches had 2 switch inputs, this may limit the number required in the wall. Does the fibaro (tasmota flashed) accept long press from a momentary switch on both inputs? And can the fibaro also be setup to not switch the relay but signal an in-ceiling dimmer to switch instead through Hubitat?
OK, I'm still not clear on one point: Are you only considering smart light bulbs if you have no other choice, or do you want the smart bulbs for the color changing features, scenes, etc? I had the impression that you would prefer not to use smart bulbs if you can manage it all using smart dimmers. Is that correct?
If you have access to install devices in-ceiling (or in-fixture) at the point where the circuit splits the live wire to your wall switch, then this is probably your best option, with one smart dimmer per light circuit. The Fibaro dimmers (and several other smart switches/dimmers) basically turn your physical switch into more of a signal switch, rather than a power switch. Flicking the switch won't cut power to the smart dimmer.
You can't flash Tasmota to these. They are Z-Wave, not WiFi.
Yes. On SW1, configured as a momentary switch, a long press will default to dim up/down (alternating). If you do want to make use of SW2, you need to use a custom driver and configure it to send Scene IDs depending on the detected action, instead of acting like a normal switch. You can then use rules to perform actions in response. It's an advanced configuration, and it does add some lag to the switch activations, as noted in the manual:
There is no integration with qDimmer and HE. Looks possible based on their documentation.
You can't uncouple the relay from the nue switches so would need to directly wire up the in-ceiling dimmers.
This could work but will need to flash them with Tasmota to integrate with HE.
I gather you mean a battery zigbee switch so this also could work assuming it's legal.
I'd suggest really thinking about the use cases for when you would actually dim your lights and the easiest way to do this.
e.g. dim lights to watch a movie have a button controller on the coffee table or use Google Home/Alexa.
For a bit of context I live in an apartment on my own admittedly but basically never use a switch anymore as I have motion and lux sensors and use the motion lighting app to active my lights when it's dark.
I went down the smart light route and have dumb switches still do use some buttons and have put them in the most convenient places rather than where the switches actually are. e.g. I have a button controller next to my bed that will turn off and disable the motion lighting in my room once I'm in bed.
I have another button in the kitchen to turn the lights on. I can also do all of this with google home also.
I've never had an issue with guests as everyone has pretty much understood how it works.
