Combining 2 light modules w/plugin?

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

Hi guys,

is there a way that I can combine 2 devices into 1 virtual devices? I have puck lighting on both sides of my galley kitchen, currently set up as “counter lights 1” and “counter lights 2”.

i would like to hide these 2 devices and somehow create 1 virtual device that syncs these 2 devices together. ex. 1% of “cabinet lighting” would send 1% to counter lights 1 and 2.

is there some way to accomplish that with a plugin?

Thank you for any assistance!

2

You can associate the two devices together. Acting on one will act on the other, and vice versa.

3

That sounds like exactly what I am trying to do! Can you provide any direction? I have been unable to find a manual that outlines this process. Thank you!

4

Very few switches support Association unless you have Cooper or Levitons this likely will not work, and Association doesnt work if you trigger the lights from the Vera UI so isn’t going to give you what you want anyway.

What kind of dimmers do you have?

5

I am using GE (Jasco) dimmable lamp modules for these. Line voltage puck lighting kits plugged in behind my refrigerator and microwave on either side of the kitchen. I feel like there should be a way to program this to work, but it is just beyond my abilities at this point haha.

6

GE/Jasco devices do not support associations, so you will not be able to control another Z-Wave device directly from the GE/Jasco switch, as was suggested in earlier posts.

It is possible to have a scene that turns on one or more Z-Wave devices(your puck lights are under Z-Wave control right?) be triggered by another Z-Wave device, such as your GE/Jasco switch. ***Major caveat.

***In order for the triggered scene approach to work and respond immediately, the triggering Z-Wave switch must support the Instant Status feature or there will be a delay of up to a minute(s). Unfortunately, the GE/Jasco products do not support Instant Status so the triggered scene may not work immediately.

However, Vera has a feature that can fake the Instant Status capability with GE/Jasco switches provided the switch is close enough to Vera that Vera can “hear” the switch’s communications directly, without requiring routing through intermediate Z-Wave devices.

7

How are you planning to turn them on? I mean if they are lamp modules, I assume you are not going to bend down and hit the manual switch…

If you are going to automate, then the scene to turn them on should include both. If you are going to do it manually via the GUI or a phone app - then just call a scene with both of them instead of hitting a single switch in the GUI/phone app…

8

Right, but I was trying to get it to where I could change one light to say, 50 percent, then the other one would go to 50, and then change the first to 25, then the other would go to 25, instead of creating 100 scenes for “lights at 1%” “lights at 2%” etc

9

Use PLEG to match the LoadlevelTargets. Bring in the property from each device, and if they are not the same, check which changed last and set the other to the same level…

If you are not familiar with PLEG, there is a learning curve…

10

If you really want it to work flawlessly, I would switch out your dimmers with a Leviton or Cooper RF dimmer. You can associate them directly together, and they will stay insync exactly as you have stated. Even if the Vera is down or you decide to eventually move on to a new system, because they talk directly to each other they will continue to work.

Otherwise, PLEG is the only way to make this work. Because there are no scene triggers for changing the light level in the Vera, you can only trigger on on/off. PLEG will let you watch the light level variable of each light then trigger an action to update the lights.

11

Also the PLEG solution will only work if the Light switches support instant status.

12

Ooh, that is a good point, the Jasco’s he has do have instant status like behavior, but I don’t know if they update instantly on just a light level change, vs on/off.

Since the only lights that truely support instant status also Leviton and coopers you might as well just do the direction association at that point.