So I’m a big WebCore guy, but I’ve been warming up to Room Lighting and have been impressed with how well it works.
My question is I have a physical dimmer switch that doesn’t seem to adjust the dimmer level on the Activator device. Can I do this in Room Lighting or do I need to use something else to get the Activator device dimmer attribute to change with the physical switch dimmer switch?
I dont think RL will sync it both ways. Activator just sends commands to all devices in the Room, not the other way around. Do you only have one switch in the RL setup?
Just one. Switch Bindings works well to get around it where I add level bidirectionally between them. Mirror doesn’t work as it’s unidirectional and that causes the switch and the activator to fight with each other. I just didn’t know if there was as something in RL where I could designate a device like a switch or light that can mirror commands with the Activator device. I can continue to use my workaround. I just wanted to check.
I have 8 Wiz RGBW can lights in the ceiling of the room and a Tapo Matter dimmer switch on the wall.
I just thought of the fact that I could add a custom attribute for level to the activator, but it would only be unidirectional. I need the physical switch and the activator level to stay in sync with each other. The main reason I’m doing this is two reasons. First because I want the physical switch dimmer to control the activator device when someone changes it on the wall. I also have the activator device shared through HomeKit so I can control it there, but then the physical dimmer is no longer in sync with the activator device if I change it in the Home app.
Ok so the RL setup is actually for the bulbs.
I think the best way to have the activator and physical dimmer always stay in sync is going to be to keep the switch totally out of the RL as a device and use Switch bindings as you did to link it with the activator. I cannot think of any better way to do it.
If you put the dimmer in the RL setup then you could have it stay aligned with the activator when controlled from the activator but if you use the physical switch it would not sync back to the activator.
Hey Jeff. Thanks for the advice and that actually works perfect. I was able to keep fairly simple settings in RL and setup Switch Bindings to do just Power and Level. The default switch delay in SB is just long enough to allow the Wiz Bulbs to switch off before the physical switch shuts them off and it works well both from the Activator and the Dimmer Switch device. Dimmer level stays in sync between them.
So when the switch goes off it cuts power to the bulbs? Or am I just not understanding this?
If the bulbs are getting power from the load side of the switch, then when you dim the switch isn't it messing up the bulbs?
The bulbs are Matter based, but if you cut the power to the dimmer switch on the wall, RL still reports the bulbs as On. Which can be problematic with some RL settings because it will fire everything back on. Even the force reporting sometimes doesn’t work to turn them off. The issue is never with programic, it’s always with physical changes to the switch. But yes, dimmer works great like this keeping them synced and the power does seem to work more reliably with the switch not as an RL device.
I don’t think you understood.
You have a dimmer, it sounds like the bulbs are connected to the output of that dimmer.
So…. If the dimmer is dimmed then you are messing with the power supplied to the smart bulbs. Smart bulbs should only be connected to a fixed power source (no dimmers)
It can be done with the right equipment. For the dimmers I use these Tapo matter dimmers.
For the bulbs I use these Wiz matter downlights.
The dimmer switch is able to calibrate and tune itself so it doesn’t cut the power to the lights. It will say 1% level in the Tapo app and Hubitat, but the power doesn’t drop below a level where it will power off the light.
With the dimmer between the switch and the bulb synced, it works seamlessly between the two to adjust them both at the same time.
Yes that feature is for standard LED bulbs, not smart bulbs. You are messing with the voltage being supplied to the smart bulb which will potentially damage them. They should be connected to a steady power source.
I've had these for a few years and thankfully have never had issues, but you are right I probably shouldn't be doing that.
I moved the Minimum Light Level slider all the way to the top, turned the switch on and pressed the physical dimmer button until it was all the way at the bottom. Confirmed that Hubitat using SB and RL did adjust the bulb light levels accordingly and I used a voltage tester to confirm the output power from the switch never dropped. It does drop on the ones I haven't made this change to.
Looks like this should work.
Yes they are designed to accept a range of voltages, household power in the US can range from around 90v up to 130v I think. So a lot of things will function anywhere in that range. Dimming does more than just change the voltage though, I cannot off hand explain exactly what that is but I know it is more than just a voltage adjustment.
So yes, glad you got that figured out how to make it work without "dimming" the power going to the bulbs.
Download the Hubitat app
