Aeon Labs Smart Energy Switch, Module & Micro Dimmer and Switch modules

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

Hey all, has anyone used these new devices from Aeon Labs? I’ve got some of the newer products for a test/review with Vera2.

Does anyone have some examples of wiring diagrams with the Micro Dimmer and Micro Switch? These are very small modules about the size of a Chunky Bar and they get wired in-between the current switch or dimmer and give z-wave control using any standard switch. These also monitor energy use, just like the Smart Energy Switch.

I also have the Smart Energy switch, which is an appliance module with energy monitoring. I don’t see this device registering any energy use, where do I look?

Anyone with experience with these would be great!

2

Bump. Nobody has one of these yet? How about the Energy Switch? I’d like to at least know some info on how to monitor the device’s wattage through this. Does it act like the Energy Meter and show the watts in the upper right?

Thanks for the help! Hopefully MCV replies back since they are selling this energy switch right now, I’d like to know how to use it.

3

SmartHome.com.au has been selling those here in Australia for a couple of months. I haven’t picked one up yet but I do plan to try one out when I have the time. I will report back here when I do.

There’s an instruction manual you can download. Basically you connect two of the pins to the power supply, two to the device you’re controlling, and two to the switch.

People outside south-east Asia won’t be able to use the modules from smarthome.com.au because of different Z-wave frequencies. I am guessing that Aeon Labs made a small run of these devices on the AU/NZ Z-wave frequency to test out the market and iron out any implementation wrinkles before moving into the bigger EU and NA markets.

Disclaimer: I am a customer of smarthome.com.au—practically anyone with Z-Wave in Australia has to be because they are the only distributor of Z-Wave at AU/NZ frequencies.

4

Im using the SmartSwitch which I thought was Aeon but the manufacturer within Vera is labeled MIOS, but it’s probably the same thing. No labels or markings on the device at all.

The watts appear in the top right corner automatically and I thought it was working well but per MCV, this device is sending meter reports every second flooding the network with z-wave traffic locking the chip. Mine is defective and being exchanged.

JOD.

5

@ASIHome Barry … have you heard anything about availability of the micro dimmers/switch???

6

Mine seems to be the same, I got mine from Aeon for a review and I don’t think it’s working other than properly turning on and off the device. I see this under Advanced:

Version 3,2,78,1,42
Manufacturer MIOS
Model SmartSwitch

I see nothing reported for Watts in the upper right as I do with the whole house energy module from Aeon. I guess I’ll have to open a support ticket, doesn’t seem that MCV is monitoring these forums and I see nothing in the Wiki on using these.

7

They will be later in the year. Late Q2/Q3 as they are waiting on UL listing.

8

Hi all, I finally spent some time with the Aeon labs devices I have in for review. I now have one of the micro smart energy modules working and the Smart Energy Switch started finally showing wattage after a week or two. Not sure why this didn’t report energy use from the get-go, but seems that something is wacky with the latest beta’s which could be contributing to these issues.

I have some pics of the install I did of the Aeon In-Wall Micro Smart Energy Switch. This device is meant to sit behind your “regular” switches or outlets in your home, and they actually sit inside the gang box behind the switch. They are meant to be wired in-between the switch and the power, requiring a neutral wire.

Below are a few pics. Due to the small size of the wiring terminal block on the Aeon Micro Smart Energy switch, I had to use some smaller electrical wire to get it connected. I’m no electrician so don’t get your panties in a bunch if you don’t like what you see - but it works :slight_smile: and is reading energy useage.

I installed this Aeon In-Wall Micro Smart Energy Switch behind an outlet, so I can remotely get the outlet to turn on and off. There is no external control here (I didn’t put a switch in front) so it’s automated by Vera and scene’s to turn on and off the overhead light that’s plugged into it when I open the schlage lock at night, etc. Keep in mind there are a few of these models from Aeon, the Aeon In-Wall Micro Smart Energy Switch (appliance module), the Aeon In-Wall Micro Smart Energy Dimmer (it’s a lamp dimmer module) and the Aeon In-Wall Micro Smart Energy Motor Controller - this I do not have…

The wiring diagram is pretty basic from Aeon, and left me wondering exactly how I was going to wire it up. This diagram below from smarthome.au helped me understand the concept of these little devices. [url=http://www.smarthome.com.au/zseries/z-waveinwallsetup.php]http://www.smarthome.com.au/zseries/z-waveinwallsetup.php[/url]

One issue though, when I tried using my coffee maker (keurig) using this outlet to automatically turn on, it didn’t work. Im wondering if I exceeded the wattage. It turns on and then off when the keurig is plugged in here. When I tried other incandescent and fluorescent lights, worked fine and instantly shows the wattage used. Very cool. So, now I have a basic outlet that’s Z-wave controlled, yet you’d never know it.

Pics here of Vera GUI in UI4 showing the Aeon SES (external appliance module) and the micro module. Note the wattage showing in the upper right. I did notice that in order to get the wattage showing sometimes, I have to hit the little wrench and then hit CONFIGURE NODE RIGHT NOW and then the wattage shows yet again. Not sure what this is…

[url=http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/vera-aeon-microses-gui.png]http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/iamges/vera-aeon-microses-gui.png[/url]

[url=http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller08-small.jpg]http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller08-small.jpg[/url]

[url=http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller2-small.jpg]http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller2-small.jpg[/url]

[url=http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller5-small.jpg]http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller5-small.jpg[/url]

[url=http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller6-small.jpg]http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller6-small.jpg[/url]

[url=http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller06-small.jpg]http://www.myhomeserver.com/wp-content/images/aeon-mcontroller06-small.jpg[/url]

9

Nice…

does it fit tight? or is there space left inside the gang box?

I can’t see the last photo

Just a heads up, they are going to change the PCB in a couple of month and that module will be discontinued, the new one will have the same functionality but it will be a little bigger (51.549.218.2mm actual size vs 51.55318.2 mm future size)

10

It’s not very tight and I had no problem mounting the outlet with the Micro SES module behind the outlet in the gang box. It’s not tight, but close. I had no problems with the signal strength, seems the antenna works just fine. One thing is once it’s connected to the live power, I flipped on the breaker, paired it with Vera, then flipped it off and finished the install.

I can see someone putting this in and then forgetting to pair it. I guess you can do this with a rapid external switch flip 6 times but I didn’t install an external switch on this one. This is where enabling Load sensing in this module would be great…
As far as I know it doesn’t have load sensing…

11

HI @myhomeserver:

I’ve been testing both MSES and MSEI for a while now (about 3 months) and these units are great, very relliable, smooth dimming operation and great coverge. My only concern is about the size… here in Chile we use smaller gang boxes and the switches are actually bigger so the available space is very limited. It is very difficult to fit those units into the gang box, aside from that, as I told, once installed they work great.

In your pictures I saw that you are using the v1.04 of the Micro SEI… I’ve tried the v1.03 which seems a little bi bigger. Could you please post the exact dimensions of your Micro SEI, just to compare?

12

It seems pretty good. Where do you get those?

13

These are not out yet. ASIHomes posted that it will be available Q2/Q3 of this year.

  • Garrett
14

How does the Aeon Lab in wall light switch work? Is it a proper 3-way switch, i.e if it is switched on with Vera and you toggle the wall switch does it then turn off and vice a versa? Or does the wall switch have to be on for it to work.

Thanks

15

[quote=“Bagman, post:14, topic:167447”]How does the Aeon Lab in wall light switch work? Is it a proper 3-way switch, i.e if it is switched on with Vera and you toggle the wall switch does it then turn off and vice a versa? Or does the wall switch have to be on for it to work.

Thanks[/quote]

I am sure the switch doesn’t have to be on, unless you wired it correctly. I assume the standard single pole wall switch acts like a slave for an Intermatic 3-Way (as you mention) and just triggers the relays in the microswitch. So you either control the microswitch via Z-Wave using Vera or remote, or you trigger it directly by flipping the switch and its contact triggers the relays turning on the light.

I assume you don’t have to flip the switch on/off to trigger it each time and that it acts like a 3-Way in that if the light is on and the wall switch is off and you turn the wall switch on it should turn the light off. Can anyone confirm this?

16

I’ve been testing these micro switches for a few months and they work great. Very reliable. The loads are controlled remotely or from the external switch and can be turned on and off from both no matter if they’re on or off. The only minor “problem” is that in some cases it would take two flips of the switch to turn it back on (When the light is on and then turned off using Vera).

Another problem occurs after a power failure, depending on the version of the micro switches, they either switch off (newer models) when the power is restored or return to their previous state.
I contacted Aeon Labs and suggested they that they allow this behavior be configurable by the user.

I also tested the micro motor controllers for controlling blinds and these work well too, except that the command to stop the motor mid-way does not work from Vera (1.1.1048). It works from the external switch though.

I had no problem getting the wattage from these devices.

17

Thanks Roy. When I installed one of these micro appliance modules I put it behind an outlet and didn’t use a switch, just remote control. The module is installed BETWEEN the switch and the device, and it always has power so it can be controlled from the external switch or remotely. I do wish these had load sensing so I could simply flip a light on that it connected and it would trigger it as if it were an external switch

I’ll try and get my Micro Dimmer module installed sometime this weekend and give feedback on that.

18

I ended up installing both the Micro SES (appliance switch) and the Micro Illuminator (dimmer module) from Aeon labs and although I didn’t use an external switch for the Micro SES, I did use a momentary switch in conjunction with the Micro Illuminator and it works great. These in-wall micro devices have the option for two types of switches, momentary and traditional “flip-flop” type. You can press the button on the module six times rapidly and it will switch to the momentary option and this works better. I bought a pass-seymour 15A momentary switch meant for a garbage disposal and it worked perfectly. I’ll be posting my review of these new Aeon Labs modules in a day or two on MyHomeServer.com, keep an eye open.

19

Aeon Labs contacted me again concerning these switches and it appears the one I have is faulted. After a power failure, they are supposed to return to their previous state before the failure.

20

I measured the Micro SEI and its 2" square, and 3/4" thick. The inside dimensions of my gang box is just about 2 1/8", so there is a 1/16" gap on either side if that, so it’s pretty tight. It all depends on the DEPTH of your switches and any wire nuts used in the box can also limit space. I’ve installed two of these so far and have had no issues fitting them in behind the switch or outlet.