I have an Inovelli ceiling fan control switch arriving - wife wants it in a 3-way. Wants both switches to be able to work if the hub is not working. I.e., I've gone to the great hub in the sky and she retires the hub. The Inovelli will work w/out the hub, but not sure what I would use for the second switch, or if the Inovelli fan switch supports being used in a 3-way setup to control both fan and light from the 2nd switch.
Appreciate suggestions...if there aren't any good options I'll go w/my plan to put a Pico remote in as the 2nd switch. I'll be gone anyway, so she would not be able to yell at me.
Was this not asked and answered in one of your previous threads?:
Just use zwave associations, if functionality without a hub is important. Otherwise I would probably just use a pico with the appropriate automations defined in the hub to do what you want.
I'm going through that thread...but using Z-Wave associations requires a hub, right? What she's asking for is something that doesn't depend on a hub/Z-Wave/Zigbee, etc., on the second switch. Or am I confused (again).
To properly do it you will have to pull 14/3 romex through (has to be one united sheath to pass code, so you couldn't just run a single wire by itself to make up) in order to be wired for 3 way. I could be wrong by I think you can wire the innovelli fan controller into a 3 way set up with a dumb switch on the other end but as I said, you will have to pull a new run in order to achieve this. The other option as stated above is that the fan switch will work without the hub (the piece in the canopy is done directly to the switch) and use a pico for 3 way communication. The pico won't work if the hub is down but the main switch will. These seem to be your only 2 options
Using Z-wave associations does NOT require the hub. I can unplug my hub and take it to work (50 km away) and my zwave associations still work fine. The hub is required to set-up the initial zwave association.
This is new construction so we can pull whatever we want to the 2nd switch. However, the other part of the issue is the wife remembering what does what - zero patience for remembering how things work. One of the smartest women I've ever known, but she won't dedicate 1% of her brain to remembering stuff like single-tap for X, double-tap for Y. W/a Pico I can put on little labels, and she's used to using them in other parts of the house, so I think I'm going to go w/a Pico regardless of her desire for non-hub control at both points.
Simplest way is to get a second Inovelli light-fan switch and also pair it with the receiver in the fan (or associate them together). Not the cheapest option, but the easiest. No extra wiring needed (assuming you have line and neutral at the second location). Associations might not work with a regular switch because the light-fan switch has some associations that standard switches don't have. You can associate (control) another switch with the light-fan switch, but not necessarily the other way. If you do, it turns both the fan and the light on.
Inovelli says they can’t be paired to more than one canopy module, but one user has said he inadvertently did so when installing two fans at the same time. So I’m not totally sure. You could always install both switches/canopies then just associate (zwave) the two switches to mirror each other. That way both sets of fans/lights would respond identically. The “unused” switch can be installed in an inconspicuous location (anywhere it can get line and neutral feeds) as long as it’s close enough for the RF signal to get to it’s canopy module.
Just for what it’s worth, I wanted to associate an Inovelli Red series dimmer (LZW31-SN) to their fan + light and was told by them that wasn’t possible. That said, I have no idea about any of the other previous suggestions.
