I am going to use LED Strip lighting for my bedroom lights (no light fixture).
I have a Wall Switch which controls a socket.
I would ideally want to use the wall switch for turning on and off the lights.
However I am thinking I also want the MiLight controller for dimming.
I feel that is all I would really get correct by introducing the MiLight Controller?
I would be able to turn on and off the LEDs just by cutting the power.
I can’t think of any additional functionality I would gain.
My question is really this… it will could be a problem where the MiLight controller and the actually light switch get out of sync.
Normal operation would be use the z wave light switch to turn on and off the lights. Only use the MiLight to dim when I need it dimmed.
(It would be fantastic to have a light switch I could turn on/off, and have a slider which I code to the MiLight Controller… so I could also dim from an actual switch).
I could see an issue where the MiLight could in fact be turned off which would have everything go out of sync with the light switch. I may just need to play with it. I could I guess run a scene which detects if the MiLight is set to off to turn off the zwave light switch and turn on the MiLight… however if I turn off the switch first there is no power the the MiLight controller. So I would need to turn on the MiLight controller, than turn off the light switch, which is an intrusive action…
Just curious how everyone is handling this? Really since it is just a white strip if I could just dim using a regular light switch it would be fantastic…
When you reconnect power to a MiLight controller, it usually turns the load on at the last used settings. The MiLight plugin will not know about the power being interrupted unless you setup scenes triggered by your Z-Wave switch to update it.
I use a number of schemes. In most cases I leave the controller/lamp powered continuously. I use the state of the wall-switch to trigger the plugin to turn on or off. Mostly the controllers/lamps are controlled automatically by PLEG logic or through scenes triggered by buttons on several Nexus 7 tablets around the house. I also use ZWave.Me battery-operated wall controllers to provide on/off and dimming (via scenes) in strategic locations. These are mostly to make it guest-friendly but I use them too.
I have one room where the wall-switch does interrupt power to the lamps. I have a scene triggered by the wall-switch that, after a two second delay, sets the plugin to 100% brightness - which also turns it on if necessary. I personally never use the wall-switch but visitors do. In case it got turned off, my pretend the house is occupied logic turns it on and waits two seconds before commanding the lamps on.
I thought about using a tablet, I already have one in my living area, however this is for a bedroom so i would rather not have a tablet on all the time in my bedroom. I will need to research these ZWave.Me controllers. Do you have any good information on these (Integration with MiLight, vera, looks) and pics of one of these deployed? They sound ideal.
The one room where your wall-switch does interrupt power… You mention you have a scene that triggers and sets the plugin to 100% brightness. Why? If someone turns the light switch off we want it off correct? Also if the controller has no power how would it register the command?
Do you have any good information on these (Integration with MiLight, vera, looks) and pics of one of these deployed? They sound ideal.
The best info on installation and usage is in one of Vesternet’s incredibly helpful Application Notes. This covers the BJ2000 (aka WallC). The latest version of this product, WallC-S, uses the Z-Wave plus chip. It will not configure correctly on Vera 1.5.622. It is apparently OK on the Beta 1.5.672 or recent UI7 releases.
The one room where your wall-switch does interrupt power.... You mention you have a scene that triggers and sets the plugin to 100% brightness. Why? If someone turns the light switch off we want it off correct? Also if the controller has no power how would it register the command?
I didn’t explain that too well. The scene is triggered when the wall-switch is turned on. The reason for the two second delay is to allow the controller/lamp to become ready to receive commands.
I have this same setup in every room in the house. The house has a shelf around each room with a plug on top and a light lights switch. I have LED strips and transformers up there for accent lighting in each room. The Milights work good and return to what ever it was last left on. So for my case most guests in the house or other family members already have a color (I have RGBW strips) and brightness set and they normally just flip on and off the switch as needed.
Everyonce in a while I will use my phone to change color or brightness as I need it. There is also a Milight Remote control floating around the house for guest to use if they choose to.
Z Wave.ME … maybe one day but isnt as plug n play as I would like. Just prioritizing my time and efforts on my projects.
I am thinking of getting a scene capable on/off/dimmer switch.
I wont actually have it wired to anything. Have the MiLight Controller always on.
When the light switch is hit, it runs the LUA to turn it on and off via REXs pluggin.
When the light switch changes the dimming, it runs some custom LUA to change the dim of REXs pluggin.
I can also set the some scene like trigger my alarms to slowly turn them on, off. etc. Anything else I do.
I have got my Cooper light switch installed. It’s a dimmer with instant status reporting.
I have the White milight controller on my led strip. The led strip is in a temp location at the moment. I setup a pleg device to basically mirror the targetloadlevel of the Cooper light switch to the milight white device.
I’m done right now messing with the various variables on the Cooper dimmer. I want to make the ramp up and down instant. As I believe it’s causing a delay on turn on. It’s also causing this step down on off. Where the milight goes to 20% than to 0%. The document for the dimmer is confusing so I’ll fix that later. I wanted to post the video just as proof it works.
I also hooked up a lamp to the light switch controlled socket for the video so you can see the timing.
Overall I’m happy, once I tweak this dimmer a bit more I’ll be done.
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