My GF is really into the Philips at her place, and she finally got me to buy a bunch of them for my place ! She doesn't mind having them control off her phone, but I find that super annoying ! I closed my light from my bedroom last night and came to the kitchen in the morning and I couldn't turn the light easily.
One option is to buy those Hue Switch, which arnt really made to be put in place of a light switch, and I find them to be pretty expensive for what they are !
I've tried to look here and I couldn't find good recommendation per say... I just ordered some TreatLife Dimmer Switch (which I know seem to require a custom firmware to work with Hubitat), that I was thinking to use for my non Hue light (Which I should have discovered first so I would just have went that route and save lot of $).
From the video on YT, they does seem to be nice and have interesting touch capability. I should receive them tomorrow (with the Hubitat) and start testing this !
To solve my light which have Philips Hue Bulb, I was thinking to buy more of those TreatLife Dimmer Switch, but cap off the control output of the dimmer so it act just as an controller for my Hue Light.
I actually discovered Hubitat by talking to the Sinopé tech support as a way to control from their light switch my Philips Hue light. But I would have been ready to pay more for an integrated solution, but if I already have to jerryrig even with those, I'll save 2.5x the cost with the Treatlife (Though, those are Wifi and require custom firmware...)
Does this route make sense or is there some better solution for the price ?
I would go with Inovelli z-wave switches. They are at reasonable price and one huge plus is that you don't have to hardwired you load wire to Line wire for the smart bulb. You can supply a constant power to the load with software on those switches.
It still 2.5x more expensive than the Wifi one... At over 20light switch, we are talking of 500$ vs 1200$ CAD for Inovelli....
I like the Open Source firmware route since I do have the knowledge to write code(which I could just disable the relay control as well making it always one). But I don't like that it Wifi based, and Z-Wave (Or zigbee) seem to be much less low maintenance (Light switch still work when I play with my router config)... And I don't really have the time to code it... ARGH !
I am not trying to sell you Inovelli and I actually have none but they have such crazy option for controlling smart bulbs.
I have HUE and control all of them with Lutron Caseta pico/dimmers.
Can you still use the switch to control the bulb after you disable the relay with Treatlife?
Many WiFi devices don't work at all with Hubitat due to a lack of API that Hubitat could use to integrate them (many are meant to work only with their manufacturer's app and maybe some common cloud services). There are ways around this with some, e.g., if you can flash it with Tasmota, as you may have discovered. But in general, their cheap-ness comes at a price, like this.
I second the recommendation for Inovelli's, but if you don't need all the features they offer, the Zooz switches and dimmers alao support disabling local control and multi-taps (though not as many taps). They are currently also on a "Black Friday" sale, so their price is pretty competitive (which it is in general too, but I think I saw some for just under $20 USD this week).
Lutron Picos are also cheap, but the cost of entry into Lutron is high. If you buy more than a dozeb or so, though, you'll probably make up for it. And pretty much any button device would work if you either cover the switch (some are designed to do this, like the Lutron Aurora--no Lutron system needed as they are Zigbee and work directly with either Hue or Hubitat--while others like the Pico have an optional kit) or just know not to use it. But I do like the visual appeal of things that look and work like switches (as many of these can).
I installed a bunch of Zooz toggle style switches for a client's renovation project. Zooz is very affordable and works well - client was able to get them for $19 during a memorial day sale earlier this year.. I would go either Zooz or Inovelli.
Another thing to do is contact either company directly and see if they can't get you a deal if you order a bunch.
Zooz product picture is weird... Some of them show the ETL certification for US only, but other does have the C in front for canada... The manual does seem to show the C for Canada as well...
From what I read, it seem to only allow to disable the physical touch control of the light switch. But I want to keep the switch active, including the dimmer control, but I just want for it to send the Z-Wave information back to the hub, so it can than relay the information to my Hue lights. It say that for Parameters 15, that it just to enable or disable Paddle control.
I do exactly this. Just got it set up and it works great. Zooz Zen27 in smart bulb mode, with Hue RGB bulbs connected to a Hue hub and using the Hue integration to get control of it all with my HE.
If you don't disable local control, they will still send switch and dimmer information back to the hub. But if the Hue bulbs are on the same circut, you do need to disable this so the bulbs actually don't get electrically dimmed (or turned on or off, though that's not really as big of a concern). With Zooz--with or without local control--you can always use either the internally-tracked level (their "smart bulb mode" enables this even if the load isn't electrically modified) or just interpret the Z-Wave Central Scene events, which get translated to button events on Hubitat, in ways that make sense for automations with your Hue bulbs: for example, button 1 pushed = turn them on, button 2 held = start level change down, button 2 released = stop level change, etc.
I happen to prefer the latter approach, as I can modify either the Hue bulbs directly via voice, app, or non-Hubitat controls, while still allowing the wall switch to modify the device as expected from Hubitat (polling interval from the Hue Bridge excepted; not an issue if the bulbs are directly paired, but I don't like that, either). I also don't need to "mirror" anything this way.
Alright thanks ! I just find it really weird how it formulated ! Inovelli make much more sense with Disable Internal Relay ! Zooz saying Disable Paddle for me mean that the physical paddle pad is disabled, but if I send command over Z-Wave to the switch, the 'relay' will trigger still, which is not what I wanted.
I honestly can't remember how the Zooz works in "smart bulb mode," but regardless, I generally avoid sending Z-Wave commands to the switch/dimmer. If I want to modify something, I'll modify the lights directly, and then the switch/dimmer is basically just a hardwired keypad that sends button events (technically, Z-Wave Central Scene reports, hence why many of these devices say they support "scenes," usually in the form of muli-taps--or single taps, holds, and releases). I use those button events to control the bulbs.
Because I have more of them, I do remember off the top of my head that Inovelli separates the disabling of local (paddle) vs. remote (hub/Z-Wave) control, but for smart bulbs you'd probably want both disabled since your only option with these when wired standard is to use the scene/button events--they cannot internally track level or on/off state without actually modifying it like the Zooz "smart bulb mode" ones can. (Though some terminology may be important: Inovelli recently introduced a "smart bulb mode" parameter for some of their products, which simply makes sure that the level is always on full if set--so you don't accidentally hard-dim a smart bulb, for example.)
I use the Pico to run smart bulbs, like I have in my table lamps. The price of admission is fairly high, but they work terrific, no wiring involved. They can also be used without a real switch box (wall mounted), or on the nifty stand they sell for them.
If you are thinking about using any amount of buttons, the Caseta system will be well worth it. At $12-14 per Pico, you pay for the Bridge Pro2 pretty quick vs using other methods, like the Inovelli or Zooz switches which are between $10-20 more each, depending upon sales etc.
Don't get me wrong, those brands both have some very terrific switches, but in my opinion overkill to just use as a dumb button controller.
So... it pointless to get the dimmer version of these switch when used as a hardwired keypad ? I was hoping to use the dimmer control for my lighting as well.
If you don't plan on actually dimming a load, basically. The scene/button events they send are the same, and those are all I'd use to manipulate smart bulbs (unless you go into Z-Wave Association, but that would need Z-Wave bulbs).
The dimmers are still nice, IMHO, because they have a larger LED bar if you plan on using the "notifications" feature (or even just modifying the "regular" LED color or level as an automation, like I do with modes). But like @neonturbo, I'm not sure exactly what your plan is: it sounds like you might have "dumb" and smart bulbs on the same circuit, which won't work since Hue bulbs cannot be hard dimmed. This may be a misunderstanding, so feel free to ignore if that's not really what's happening.
The notification (and "regular"--it can be automated, too) LED is what sold me, but yeah, Picos are otherwise my favorite button device. In fact, their near-instant response makes them almost better in most cases. They look a little less like a normal light switch, but I've never had anyone ask questions. I see people sometimes complain about the "delay" on the Inovellis (a necessary evil: it has to wait to know if you're going to multi-tap), but they are hardwired, so no batteries (though Picos are supposed to last 10 years), still allow air-gapping the load if needed, and look more or less like a normal-ish rocker switch. They usually cost a bit more, but I guess Lutron isn't cheap either unless you buy enough to offset the startup cost.
I don't visually like the Lutron switchs... Also, they are still pretty expensive for what it is.
Zooz switchs can actually be used to remove the smart bulb and put regular bulb while keeping all the light switch the same. If I want other switch where no light box is present, I could add a Hue switch which look similar to the Lutron but have a bit more modern look.
That said, I can't seem to get the Zooz at a low price in canada... And I see some review about the Inovelli that the dimmer control isn't great when used with actual light.
I didn't expect it would be that hard to find switches !
Treatlife and Martin-Jerry wifi are great.... If you can get through the process of putting Tasmota on them and using Tasmota Device Manager here in HE. I have 37 of them now. Almost all of them cost less than $10 each when coupons and 4 packs bought. 3-ways, on/off, fan/light combo, dimmers. All great.
37 switches for under $500. Try doing that with Zooz or Lutron or Inovelli. All 100% local without cloud, direct on HE.
