Hi guys. I think I need some advice on setting up a Zooz ZEN72 dimmer switch. It will be controlling a single half-hot outlet that has a few lamps plugged in, each with a Hue colored bulb. On my bedstand I've got a Hue v2 remote dimmer thingy. The Hue bulbs are integrated into my Hubitat hub via the Philips Hue Hubitat app installed on the hub.
How should I set up the ZEN72 dimmer so that I can use the physical dimmer paddles to turn the lamps on/off, but then still ALSO be able to use the Hue remote AND Hubitat basic rules to control the lamps on/off?
I'm a Hubitat noob so hopefully someone with more expertise will come along. I intend to implement a similar setup with Hue bulbs controlled by a Zooz Zen72 dimmer soon, so this topic interests me.
I've done a fair bit of research here to prepare for my installation. A few things that jump out:
Zooz Zen72 dimmer is not rated for use with switched receptacles. It cannot handle a 15 A load on the receptacle. You should wire the outlet so that it is always-on, and do not connect the load to the dimmer. Only wire the line, neutral, and ground to the dimmer.
Hubitat has a built-in Hue Bridge integration that's well documented here.. TL;DR: You should manage your Hue devices and groups as usual through the Hue mobile app (which configures those things via the Hue Bridge). You then integrate Hue Bridge with Hubitat. While it might seem advantageous to "eliminate the extra hop" and use Hubitat's built-in Zigbee radio to talk directly to the Hue bulbs, the recommendation is to stick with the Hue Bridge. It's all local network so the latency should be minimal.
You can configure basic rules in Hubitat so that when the Zooz dimmer is physically operated -- i.e. "on", "off", or level changes that occur when buttons are long-pressed -- it triggers corresponding changes to the Hue devices that Hubitat controls (via the Hue Bridge integration). These automations all execute locally on your Hubitat hub, so it should be reasonably fast compared to something like SmartThings. But I'm sure there will be some observable latency compared to a solution where the remote directly associates with the bulbs via Zigbee. I'm very interested in hearing from anyone who has tried this setup and can share their experiences -- my wife is very picky about latency so I've got a lot riding on this solution
You can also enable Zooz dimmer "scene" functionality, so that multi-tap presses of the buttons can trigger different scenes.
I don't think the Hue remote will be effected by any of this. I'm pretty sure you can continue to manage it via the Hue app as you do today, and it'll continue to operate whatever bulbs/rooms/etc. it's currently programmed to operate. I'm not sure whether Hue remote events will be handled in Hubitat by way of the Hue Bridge integration. That is, I'm not sure that you could setup automation rules like "When Hue remote is pressed, do X." But I could be wrong about that.
Being that it is a Zen72, you could/should use smart bulb parameter. That way the switch would not dim the outlet, which is a code violation as well as not working with the smart bulbs. The Zen switch would effectively be a remote control.
I guess it would depend upon how complicated you want to get, but on a basic level Mirror app would track the dimmer and make the bulb match.
The trouble with Basic Rule and dimmers is that I don't think you can track and match dimmer levels. I am sure Rule Machine could do this, but it isn't the easiest to build a rule like this. So I would try Mirror first, and see if it works for you.
From there you could use double or triple taps on the Zen to set colors on the bulb via either the built-in or community based button controller apps. Maybe double tap up is a warmer color and double tap down is a cooler color?
If you are using the Hue remote with the Hue hub, that shouldn't affect anything in Hubitat. I am not very familiar with Hue stuff, but if you can or do have the Hue button in Hubitat, you treat that as a button controller.
Maybe someone else has a better suggestion, but those are my initial thoughts.
I have had a few conversations recently about this setup with Zooz support. To put it simply Zooz will indicate this is a bad idea and can cause the switch to fail. You need to use a Zen 30 double switch. You will configure the outlet to be controled by the relay. Then you can use the light part of the double switch to control the smart bulb.
Would you be willing to re-wrie the switch such that the outlets are always hot and the switch has no load connected? I have a ZEN71 which I wired this way and I have my lamp on a smart plug, and it also controls an LED string light via double taps. This way you avoid the issue where if someone were to plug in say a vacuum to one of the switched outlets, you would possibly fry the switch. I have done this in both places where they had switched outlets in my house. I would rather control the lamps via smart plugs/bulbs anyway and then all the outlets are always on so I am not restricted as to what can be plugged into the other outlets which do not have lamps.
Once that is done, then you can use rules to have the bulbs mirror the switch state, on/off and dimming. I think for the dimming you want to use the "track dimming" feature which might only be in rule machine, I am not totally sure.
@user924 - Wow solid research. So this is your level of knowledge even before you've set it up? I'm just gonna stare at you for a couple minutes with an impressed look on my face.
To match your first point, here is the reply I got from the Zooz Support crew (thanks again @agnes.zooz ! )
The ZEN72 dimmer is not rated to control an outlet electrically, but you could use it to control your smart bulbs. The ZEN72 could be wired without a load (so the outlet would always have power) and programmed to control the bulbs via scenes or automations. Note that dimmers (whether they're regular dimmers or smart dimmers) could never be used to control smart bulbs electrically, even it connected directly to a light fixture, they would always need to be controlled through a wireless signal to avoid equipment damage.
You'll want to wire the receptacle to power directly and just power the ZEN72 dimmer with line and neutral. You can then use the scene control / button functionality on the ZEN72 to trigger the bulbs remotely via Z-Wave including your favorite brightness and color presets with single or multi-taps on the paddles.
Let us know if this type of set-up would work for you.
@neonturbo - It sounds like Zooz Support is recommending that I bypass the ZEN72 and just directly wire the outlet receptacle to be always on. So I suppose there's no need to use the "Smart Bulb Mode" parameter.
You'll want to wire the receptacle to power directly and just power the ZEN72 dimmer with line and neutral. You can then use the scene control / button functionality on the ZEN72 to trigger the bulbs remotely via Z-Wave including your favorite brightness and color presets with single or multi-taps on the paddles.
And thanks for the info about Basic Rules vs. Mirror. I'll go check out Mirror now.
I especially love your suggestion about double-tap to go warmer and cooler colors. That's the kind of thinking my wife wishes was native in my head.
@jtp10181 - Yep, that's exactly how I'm gonna have to do it, confirmed by Zooz Support. Wire the outlets to be always hot, and power the ZEN72 dimmer with line and neutral, no load.
And yes I'll definitely want to take that extra step to make sure the bulbs mirror the switch state. Thanks for the advice! Fist bump.
Hah, yes, we're in the midst of a major remodel and I've been doing a lot of planning for our smart lighting. I have a short leash on this project, so I'm trying to figure out as much as I can ahead of time and have a smooth rollout
That article gives a good idea what the deal is with the switches.
Hardwireing the outlet is a good idea since so much of there stuff is explicitly not supported on switched receptacles
I had a Zen74 that i used with the switch in smartbulb mode. In the end the switch failed and had to be replaced. After doing some research it seems that the zen74 and zen72 use triac dimmer elementa and can have problems with lower wattage environments.
I have around 60 Hue bulbs and strip lights. I would start with @bertabcd1234 ‘s more feature rich CoCoHue integration versus the built in one. I also have some Zen77s, Zen30s, and Zen34s that I use for scene control. I would recommend using @jtp10181 ’s custom driver. I would not use the “Mirror” app as it added additional latency. Instead, either use “Button Controller” if you want to have multiple button press actions available with scene control enabled on the Zooz, or use “Simple Automations” for on/off, and “Rule Machine” for track dimming (mirroring the Zooz level to the bulb) with scene control disabled. I would recommend the former, as mirroring the Zooz will not be as smooth due to slower Z-wave responsiveness. I use scene control with my Zooz dimmers and the Simple Automations/Rule Machine setup with my Aurora rotary dimmers (Zigbee). This is after a lot of trial and error.
BTW, I would go with a Zen30 for your outlet. You can disable the relay and have an additional button for other functionality like fast on/off and just use the paddle for dimming and scene control.
Hah! Actually, I had a modest Caseta deployment pre- remodel. Great devices and compatible with my (pre- remodel) no-neutral wiring. But the family hates the physical controls from an aesthetic and usability standpoint and prefers something more tactile, and now that the house is rewired, I have a lot more device options than before!
We did our entire house in them (all new wiring) From an aesthetic standpoint I love them (as does my wife). They look so much nicer than plain old rocker switches. I'm not sure why some loathe them. Perhaps it's because I like different Hey, if you want to unload some after the remodel, I'm sure plenty here will scoop them up
It's really the lack of tactile control that puts us off. Hard to operate in the dark or as you're walking by. Five buttons crammed into a small decora-sized rectangle requires a lot of precision to operate vs smacking a large paddle up or down
And from an aesthetics standpoint, it's largely about matching styles with other non-smart (or smart-bulb mode) controls. As I get older and more easily confused, it's nice to have consistent lighting controls everywhere throughout the house so I don't have to think as hard
I guess I'm good at accurately hitting the controls, though to be fair I use more automation than actually touching a switch.... I get what you are saying though as far as precision and not wanting to think about things. (Still think they're better looking that paddles though, )
I dont have the zen72 but I do have a couple zen26 and zen22 that I have tried to use with my hue light to replace the hue switches and just leave the zooz ones. I have failed on everything I have done, I tried disabling the relay and use the smart mode together with the mirror app or the button controller and while it looked like it was working at the beginning as soon as we started to use Alexa, Google, or the Hue app to control the bulbs everything was a mess the status didn't match anymore, the zooz switches were not able to work nicely anymore. It is like something that should be easy to control, it is done really hard either by hue or by the switches company not getting a proper interconnection between them and hue.
So far nothing I have done has work and I would really like to make them work, all my hue lamps were purchase long before my habitat so as long as they keep working I am planning to have it and do not change to any other kind of bulb, even after I would like to continue using hue, my bulbs have been working for more than 4 years without any failed so I love their quality while I heard from friends that they have to change bulbs more often.
If anyone have a solution I would love to try it. So far I have tried everything mentioned here including the CoCOHue app and the custom drivers, but habitat and Hue never stays in sync no matter what.
Try this app, it should work better in your case than the mirror app. Also, for CoCoHue make sure you enabled the v2 API then you will get instant updates (under Advanced, enable push updates)
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