Need confirmation on Homeseer dimmers/switches

After putting up with them for years, I’m finally giving up on my older GE z-wave dimmers and switches. I’ve had most of them since Radio Shack had a huge clearance on all their z-zwave products probably 7 or so years ago. From doing some research, I’m currently leaning towards getting Zlink branded switches and dimmers which appear to be the exact same hardware as the Homeseer dimmers and switches. I guess they both just rebrand the same OEM product. Anyway, before I take the plunge and make a pretty big investment, I want to double check to make sure there aren’t any issues with the Homeseer switches and hubitat. The last thing I’d want is to replace all of them only to find out something doesn’t work as it should.

There are ST drivers available so shouldn't be too hard to port.

We support the oem (zwp) versions of these as well as 2 specific homeseer models. They pair as Generic zwave central scene controller (dimmer and switch) , and have several button controller capabilities. I personally own several of them, zero issues.

They are nice switches.

I can confirm that thanks to @mike.maxwell, there is great support out of the box for the homeseer dimmers and switches. Also I can confirm that these switches and dimmers are very nice. They report almost instantly, and unlike some others report status even from the slave versions for 3 way. Hubitat also supports doubletap of the buttons.

How does the white color of homeseer compare to the GE? I noticed the Zooz for example is brighter.

The homeseer switches were whiter than the white switch plates that were installed in my home 15 years ago. Made the old switch plates look a little yellow. I just replaced all of the switch plates with new Lutron Casetta plates last week and the color is spot on with the switches. They look a little more modern as well since they hide the screws.

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Awesome thank you for pictures. How is the click? I find the GE like a rocker switch where you push it a bit but the Zooz is barely a click.

They are fairly short throw, but have a high quality feel. Feel much better (less wiggly) than the Leviton dimmers I have. Not squishy at all. firm click.

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Is there any reason why a HS – WD 200+ wall dimmer can’t be enrolled using Homeseer’s device handler they wrote for SmartThings? I copied that raw driver code into HE & unable to seem to get my dimmer to enroll/connect. Otherwise I’d try to add using the generic z-wave central scene dimmer DTH, but how would device ID be captured/entered? Could it be that my dimmer is just too far from the hub to be detected (25 ft?).

the wd 200 has its own driver in HE (HomeSeer WD-200 Dimmer)
If the device was excluded from the previous controller and you don't have any mesh issues, it should pair using that driver.
If HE doesn't discover it, even as a device then it's too far from the hub, or it needs a factory reset.

Perhaps I haven’t fully excluded the dimmer from my ST hub/environment (Although I’m led to believe I did when I chose forced removal). I may have to factory reset the dimmer as well as a last resort. Stay tuned.

Forced Removal is a Hub DB action. There's nothing about that process that should exclude.

You can exclude from a Minimote, from ST, Vera, Homeseer, or Hubitat. Any ZWave controller can do the exclude. Or you can do the device's factory Reset process.

Force Remove is used when you Exclude a device using NOT the Hub it was connected to... let's say it was paired to ST and you used a Minimote to exclude it. It would be ready to pair on some other Hub, but ST would still have the DB entry and no way to know what to exclude. Force Remove deletes the selected item from the on-hub DB,

Turns out is was a proximity-to-the-hub issue keeping the dimmer from enrolling properly. That's why god invented 100 ft/ long Cat5 patch cables :).
Would be great if the DTH that Homeseer created (modified?) that they make available (below) to support full functionality of their HS-WD200+ would work but I guess I 'll have to settle for the basic dimmer functions for the time being.

https://helpdesk.homeseer.com/article/177-smartthings-handler-wd200

I just put in a HS WD100 and I'm having two issues with it.

  1. When operating manually it either goes all on or all off.

  2. It makes my new Cree LEDs buzz like crazy unless it's at 100%. The bulbs were silent with the manual Leviton dimmer.

Ugh. Anything I can do here?

Interested as well. Im planning on ordering a good number of the ZLINK Dimmers (same switch). Im using with some cheap can lights, so buzzing is a no go.

Thats strange. My HD100's dim to the last set level when operated manually. I also don't have any buzzing, but am using different bulbs.

Yup. There is no guarantee on LEDs and digital dimmers. Some high quality LEDs buzz when dimmed, while cheap ones don't - and vice versa. All on the same switch.

Digital dimming is a completely different beast than analog/manual dimmers.

You just have to try them and see.

I'm using them with Cree 120w equivalent LEDs for high ceilings. I'll try a GE and Leviton switch and see if there is any difference.

The WD100 is now working manually.

Any tips for device settings in Hubitat or RM rules? It looks like some people set dim levels based on time of day. This is my first smart dimmer switch in years and I have some catching up to do. :grinning: