I understand the following Light switches support instant on for scenes:
My first question is can I wire the switch in such a way that no matter how it is physically pressed the outlet is always on? I believe I could I would just not use the out leads from the switch and hard wire the hot wire going to the outlet to be on. Not sure if there is a requirement for the switch to actually feel the load being turned on and off…
The reason for this would be for a MiLight controller to just use scenes, lua and PLEG logic but leave the outlet always on. I can get away with this another way by just using another outlet, but I was trying to reclaim that outlet from the switch.
The second and another important question would be if there is a Instant On, Scene capable light switch dimmer! Meaning I could turn on/off and DIM, and use lua and scene to actually dim the MiLight controller. That way I have control via the switch and the App.
I’m not clear on what you are trying to accomplish. It sounds like you plan to put a MiLight into a receptacle/outlet, but what is the dimmer for? You shouldn’t dim outlets and the MiLight is a self-dimmable device, it probably won’t take kindly to an external dimmer clipping its expected voltage at the outlet.
If your plan is to use a Z-Wave dimmer switch to run Vera scenes that then talk to the MiLight, then a less expensive Linear WT00Z-1 One Button Scene Controller would probably do you just as well as a Leviton/Cooper dimmer that you aren’t using for dimming a load. But, no matter which device you choose actually sending dimming commands from the switch through Vera scenes to the MiLight would be challenging, if it is even possible.
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:3, topic:185811”]The DZMX1 does NOT support Instant Status.
I’m not clear on what you are trying to accomplish. It sounds like you plan to put a MiLight into a receptacle/outlet, but what is the dimmer for? You shouldn’t dim outlets and the MiLight is a self-dimmable device, it probably won’t take kindly to an external dimmer clipping its expected voltage at the outlet.
If your plan is to use a Z-Wave dimmer switch to run Vera scenes that then talk to the MiLight, then a less expensive Linear WT00Z-1 One Button Scene Controller would probably do you just as well as a Leviton/Cooper dimmer that you aren’t using for dimming a load. But, no matter which device you choose actually sending dimming commands from the switch through Vera scenes to the MiLight would be challenging, if it is even possible.[/quote]
His intentions are posted in the Milight thread. He does not want to physically dim the power to the milight, but yet use the controller to send the commands to the milight to dim, change color and such.
Basically he wants an inwall wireless milight remote. Like one in the picture but inwall.
Let me see if I can explain what I want to do.
The switch right now controls an outlet.
I will plug the MiLight into a different always on outlet.
I would like to replace than the light switch with a scene capable/instant on Dimmer.
So really it will do nothing, it will change thecurrent to the outlet which has nothing plugged in.
However when I press on, off, or dim the VERA should instantly see this and I will have logic via scenes and/or LUA to trigger the MiLight plugin to set the same action as the unplugged light switch.
The real question is if I can buy a z wave dimmer which reports back the % instantly. I use some GE/JASCO dimmers and it isnt instant enough, but they dont support the instant update.
I think that Linear WT00Z-1 is what I need.
I am going to purchase it and see what happens.
I would rather have switches that don’t stand out so anyone can use them easily.
By the time all of this gets delivered and I get everything running it may be another month.
update: I have the Linear switch all wired up and have been playing with it.
So far I have figured out I can associate zone 1 of the scene controller to one of my GE dimmer switch devices. Everything functions perfect at that point for that light. The scene controller turns it on, dims, off.
When I try to associate the MiLight device (looks just like the ge light switch in vera), nothing happens when I click the button to turn on or off or dim. I haven’t yet tried to debug this. My gut is it may not work…
I guess the scene controller actually just turns off the GE dimmers directly? I always figured that it just issued the command to Vera.
I thought maybe just buying another light switch, which controls nothing. have the Linear scene controller control that, and setup PLEG to change the light level of my milight device to match the fake light switch… nasty I know.
As you have found associations are directly between the WT00Z-1 and the other Z-Wave device, Vera is not in the mix at all. The MiLight is not a Z-Wave device, so it cannot be directly associated.
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:9, topic:185811”]As you have found associations are directly between the WT00Z-1 and the other Z-Wave device, Vera is not in the mix at all. The MiLight is not a Z-Wave device, so it cannot be directly associated.
[quote=“joer., post:10, topic:185811”]Ah… I understand now (I had no previous experience with scene controllers).
So I think I am back to my original request.
A light switch dimmer with instant status reporting.
It doesn’t need to be a scene controller.
^ instant status with pleg should do the trick I believe.[/quote]No, I don’t think that you do. The inability to accomplish what you are trying has nothing to do with the switch being labeled scene controller or dimmer. The result is the same that you have experienced with the WT00Z-1.
You cannot directly(by association) dim a non-Z-Wave device with a Z-Wave dimmer. You can only activate a Vera scene.
I do not think that there is a decent way to dim a device up and down using scenes in this way. You will only be able to activate(run) a couple of Vera scenes with a dimmer or scene controller.
Using a dimmer(with no load attached) or the WT00Z-1 and PLEG, you could setup logic that says something like:
1 press in two seconds = scene1(10% dim level)
2 press in two seconds = scene2(50% dim level)
3 press in two seconds = scene3(75% dim level)
…
It’s a clunky kludge that I wouldn’t implement. It will not be intuitive and it probably will not be reliable. But I’m pretty confident that it’s doable.
He might be able to accomplish this with LUA coding.
Have a Vera scene that triggers on the dimmer switch changing value.
Inside the Vera scene, interrogate the new dimming value of the switch, then make an explict call to the MiLight plug in to dim the MiLights to the same value.
If your dimming switch is an instant status device, Vera would be notified immediately when the light is dimmed. Even so, there will be a slight delay as the command is relayed from Vera to the plugin then onto the MiLight.
(The MiLight plugin is available in the Vera app store. Be sure to pick up the correct one for your MiLight bulbs.)
Summary: it works just need a bit of tweaking on the Cooper dimmer switch. The variables have been a pita to work with. I just need to figure out what to set to stop the ramp up and down.
On other notes the Cooper dimmer is a nice unit. I light the function of my GE dimmers better. I like just holding the rocker to dim and not the tiny button on the Cooper. However the instant on is fantastic. Vera updates are immediate.
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