Which button for the job?

Ok, I've figured out a way to have task lighting that is also accent lighting in my office. Excuse the photo. My husband felt like throwing anything he could on the shelves. On the underside of the shelves, I'll use sylvania led strips. I was thinking about a button to swap lighting scenes in the office when I need the task lighting. What button would one recommend using? I was thinking about an amazon dash button, but am not sure if it works with hubitat. Any suggestions/input would be nice. TIA

The new SmartThings zigbee buttons seem to work well. I have three of them.

It supports press, double press, and long press (hold) to allow for three different actions.

the photo makes it look the size of a coaster. are they really that large?

[Edit] - haha! I just looked up the dimensions! Thanks @Eric.C.Miller. This might be perfect.

No, about 1 and 1/2 inches square.

We have them on both our bedside tables. A short press (tap) turns on the closest light, double press (double tap) turns on both lights, press and hold turns off both lights. It's turned out to be very convenient - even easier than asking Google to do it. My gosh we are spoiled!

Is there a native driver in hubitat? Or is there one that needs to be loaded?

"Samsung Zigbee Button" - built in.

THIS is spoiled. If you're looking for an idea, you can put your whole house to sleep with this. This is how our house interacts with us. Buttons are for visitors. (In most cases)

Cool!

The ST button mentioned above is cheap and would be my recommendation if you only want one or two. But really, you can use any button device Hubitat supports. There are many, and they've summarized the ones with built-in drivers (and the capabilities they support) here: Hubitat Elevation supported button controller capabilities matrix

If you feel like buting super-adventerous, the new Eria ZigBee Dimmer cheaper than the Hue dimmers (which can be paired to Hubitat and may work better for you if you want dimming buttons or extra buttons for any purpose). However, it's new and isn't officially supported. You might get some functionality with an existing driver, but if you've ever wanted to modify or write a driver, it would be a good learning opportunity. :slight_smile: (If it's doesn't use ZigBee group broadcasting or something Hubitat doesn't support in its present state, I'm sure we'll eventually see a native driver, and if any existing driver works they could easily add support if you provide the fingerprint and whatnot you get when pairing.)

For me: because I decided I really like buttons, I got a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro and am using Pico remotes for most of my new buttons. They're cheap, but the Smart Bridge Pro isn't, so you'll need to buy a few before you break even (but not really that many: 6 Hue dimmers * $24 = $144, while 6 Pico Remotes * $12 + 1 Pro bridge @ $80 = $152). But they're lovely because they can mount just like a standard switch in a decorator plate. Just something else to consider depending on your needs!

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Lutron Pico remotes are amazing button controllers for Hubitat. I bought a Lutron SmartBridge Pro2 just to use Pico remotes through my house, They are very reliable, are inexpensive, can be wall mounted in a standard decora faceplate, and have a 10 year battery life.

I just added Lutron Pro bridge 2 and picos a few weeks. Very impressed, watching the logs in HE I see a button press almost instantaneously. You'd never know it is first going through the Lutron bridge then via telnet to HE by watching the logs. I started with 3 picos and now have 12 in the house. I've found I talk to Alexa less because of them.

If you already have a Lutron Smart Bridge Pro, then a Pico is my goto for reliability.

However, Xiaomi Aqara are my second favorite, but I consider them "private" non-visitor buttons. The exception is my daughter's room because she can remember what the various presses and hold does.

Otherwise, I keep a Xiaomi Aqara tucked under a table next to my favorite chair in the living room. I can lock and unlock the door, toggle a floor lamp, toggle the kitchen light, turn off the dining room light and put the house to sleep with a single button. No worries about disconnection from the hub. Was always stable before and now it's almost guaranteed not to drop with the Trådfri outlets I have in place to route the Zigbee signals.

[Edit] Forgot to mention. Amazon Echo buttons will work, but if their cloud is down, so is your button. But that's not often anyway so it may be moot. You create a routine and the trigger is one of their buttons, the result is control of a virtual switch in HE and there you go.

Everywhere I turn, "Smart Pro Bridge" is worth the investment. I think I've been sold. This will be my after Christmas present to myself.

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I think the HE Community has a lot of Lutron fans!

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I have zero Lutron switches and dimmers BUT I do have a dozen Pico's that I bought and used back in 2014 on a Staples Connect (that had Lutron ClearConnect embedded.)

After adding the Lutron Smart Bridge Pro to my home and via the Hubitat Integration, I was able to shut down StaplesConnect, since Hubitat + Smart Bridge Pro duplicated it.

Same batteries though. Haven't changed a Pico battery yet. 2014 -2018 zero Pico batteries changed.

Yes, I'm a fan of Pico's. :smiley:

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I've been doing HA since early 2016. I never saw the need to add another hub when I could directly control zwave and zigbee devices. After getting Hubitat and reading several threads that praised Lutron I started researching Caseta more. I'll date myself here, Just like Mickey, I tried it, and I liked it. I wish I would have done it sooner.

I feel like the hook is set and you all are reeling in (another) Lutron fish.

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@Eric.C.Miller - can you give me some insight on programming this button? It's my first button.

OMG ok . .. figured that one out. haha. Button controller. Duh.

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