I’m just getting my feet in the water here and starting with some basic things. One request from my wife was a “remote” for the bedroom nightstand lamps. We used to have x10 so there was a simple desktop gadget with a button. And, as is nice with x10, if the light had been turned off via x10 a simple off/on toggle of the lamp switch would override the x10.
Flash forward to now. I use plug-in dimmers for each lamp. Can control them great with scenes or direct settings in my VeraEdge. But if I’ve turned them off via software they lamp can’t manually override that. Conversely if we turn the lamp off via their physical switch my scenes can’t turn them back on. And I don’t think it’s practical to have to always have an app running nearby to control the light.
Seems like a pretty basic problem that likely has been solved. But all I can find are wall mounted switches. There are a couple that are at least battery powered but still made to be mounted on a wall.
How do you guys tackle the problem of “local control” of a lamp? Seems that there should be a simple battery powered zwave button somewhere I could buy and just program it to the lamp it sits next to.
You don’t state which lamp module you are using, but some of them have a feature called Load Sensing. This feature will detect when a lamp is manually turned on and will activate the Z-Wave controlled outlet. This does not help you turn on a lamp via Z-Wave, if the lamp’s physical switch is off.
I have a GE45601 on my nightstand to do exactly that. When I get in bed, it allows me to switch off the living area and bed room lights by clicking their assigned buttons. (remote is set up for device rather than scene control) I can also use it to switch on outside lights if things go bump in the night.
I also have a similarly set up remote next to to couch. Although that one is starting to gather dust now that I have a Qi charged tablet lying there as well with full AuthomationHD on it.
You don’t state which lamp module you are using, but some of them have a feature called Load Sensing. This feature will detect when a lamp is manually turned on and will activate the Z-Wave controlled outlet. This does not help you turn on a lamp via Z-Wave, if the lamp’s physical switch is off.
Thanks for the detailed response! I’ve not been seeing those options which is a bit embarrassing… clearly I need to work on my googling Most of what I found were for the wall.
Right now I am using the Schlage RP200RNX wall plugs for the bedroom lamps b/c they are $20 at amazon. They aren’t technically rated for the low load of the LED bulbs but they work well. I’ve converted every bulb in the house to LED so it’s something I’m trying to be mindful of for the minimum load spec of devices. However, I love what you proposed on that link. I’m very comfortable with wiring and may look at doing this on some level but go figure the lamps I’m looking to hook up like this (bedroom and a hallway) use a socket based twist switch. I’d have to take that apart and try to rejigger it to use a different switch and run the legs down inside the lamp. May be possible, just have to noodle on it a bit.
The GE Jasco 45631 Z-Wave Wireless Keypad Controller sticks on the wall and I love this little thing, but sadly, its really only good if you have a small network of zwave devices.
It only controls I think up to the first 32 nodes…but it sticks on the wall and can control multiple devices directly. I also use a minimote on my bedside but the tablet running imperihome is super nice bedside!!!
[quote=“myhomeserver, post:7, topic:186526”]The GE Jasco 45631 Z-Wave Wireless Keypad Controller sticks on the wall and I love this little thing, but sadly, its really only good if you have a small network of zwave devices.
It only controls I think up to the first 32 nodes…but it sticks on the wall and can control multiple devices directly. I also use a minimote on my bedside but the tablet running imperihome is super nice bedside!!![/quote]
Do you use this with your vera or do you associate the nodes directly with the switch?
