I recently faced an issue where my Hubitat hub malfunctioned, leaving me unable to control my lights through my Pico remotes. This incident has led me to reconsider my current setup, especially focusing on fail-safes for lighting control.
I'm in search of a dimmer switch that can meet the following criteria:
The ability to turn off the internal relay, using the device primarily as a button to send commands to the Hubitat, for regular operation.
In the event that the Hubitat hub fails or becomes unresponsive, the dimmer should revert to a standard manual dimmer, allowing me to control my lights the old-fashioned way.
This setup would ideally ensure that, regardless of the hub's status, I will retain control over my lighting. Does anyone have recommendations for such a device, or advice on configuring a current device to meet these needs? I am looking for a solution that provides both the smart capabilities when the hub is operational and manual control when it is not.
Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions
Never heard of anything like this. Why not just use dumb bulbs along with smart in-wall dimmers? This is the way one achieves all of your requirements, except one does lose color bulbs in the process.
I do not have any Zooz dimmers that support Smart Bulb mode. But, I wam pretty sure that once they are told to activate smart bulb mode, they simply supply 100% power to the light fixture - regardless of whether or not the Z-Wave controller that they are paired too is up and running or not.
Additionally, you cannot control the power level to a Hue bulb via a dimmer. They are not designed to be attached to a dimmer. They need 100% power all of the time to function properly.
Yes, one could link a battery powered zigbee controller to a zigbee light bulb... But it would always directly control the bulb without going through Hubitat. At that point, just add Philips Hue Dimmer Switches via the Hue Bridge to control your Hue bulbs. But, realize that Hubitat is not in the loop at all between those two devices. This would be similar to how a Lutron Pico can directly control a Lutron Dimmer switch.
This is how I do it with my Hue Bulbs. Picos and other Lutron switches control them normally with Hubitat syncing everything. If something happens to Hubitat, I have a Hue Tap Dial on the fridge that is connected to the Hue Hub. This dial can get the main floor off as long as the Hue Hub is working.
If someone was to use Zooz or Inovelli's and put them in smart bulb mode, they would just need to remember the button press combination on the switch to have them resort back to normal state. Granted, you would be killing the power to the bulbs, but at least they would turn off until Hubitat could be fixed.
