I’ve been researching Sonos and its methods of control for various uses. While I like the system, it seems like they’ve completely overlooked zone volume controls (I know they make a controller, but I’m not paying $400 to put a touchscreen control in every room of my house). While I’m content with changing sources and volumes through a phone or tablet, I don’t want my guests to have to try to figure everything out. I’d like to put simple volume controllers at each zone.
I haven’t been able to find any Z-wave volume controls, so does someone know of any type of wall switch that can send signals back to my Vera3. I figure I can probably create scenes to convert those signals into volume up/down commands for the Sonos devices. Could this idea even work or would there be too long of a delay?
I probably could use a remote, but I’m hoping to find something that I can mount like a light switch. I’ve spent a long time searching the internet, but almost everything out there seems like it will only work on lighting. Is there a switch (reasonably priced) out there that is primarily designed for controlling scenes?
I’m thinking out loud here on some DIY ideas for you, so bear with me
A dimmer light switch is only so called because, well you know. so to make the same sort of thing a “volume switch”, any z-wave dimmer device could potentially be set up to just trigger a 'Sonos Volume Up Scene", rather than the brightness of any light, lower the brightness, it lowers the volume. (Someone with coding experience could probably do all this within a single scene)
you could also configure the dimmer device on your Vera UI to make it look like a volume switch (by altering the associated dimmers .json file)
The same thing could also maybe achieved with a zwave thermostat, the various temperature set points could correspond to a volume setting ( e.g if moved from 18 to 17c then send volume down command)
I’m still new to all this to, but I like a challenge and I think either or the above could be a work around for you.
[quote=“habano, post:3, topic:172457”]Thanks for the reply anker.
I probably could use a remote, but I’m hoping to find something that I can mount like a light switch. I’ve spent a long time searching the internet, but almost everything out there seems like it will only work on lighting. Is there a switch (reasonably priced) out there that is primarily designed for controlling scenes?[/quote]
Qees has a pipeline (not impressive on delivering to deadlines though) with a switch that supports scenes. These can be found on various zwave web shops. This is what I personally am waiting for. A DYI approach could be a simple low voltage switch (such as a IHC switch) and connect it to a zwave device…
Thanks for the ideas. I’ve been looking at each of them while considering my needs and I keep coming back to the Cooper RF9534-N dimmer switch. I’d just like to be absolutely sure it will work before buying. As long as it has the capacity to support my simple scenes (On, Off, Vol. up, Vol. down), I may have a winner.
Getting the LEDs to correspond to the volume might turn into a nightmare, but it would be a nice touch.
Any input on this particular switch (or even the less expensive models in the product line)?
Qees has a pipeline (not impressive on delivering to deadlines though) with a switch that supports scenes. These can be found on various zwave web shops. This is what I personally am waiting for. A DYI approach could be a simple low voltage switch (such as a IHC switch) and connect it to a zwave device…
/Anker[/quote]
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I decided to buy a Cooper RF9542-Z which is an accessory switch and doesn’t actually control a load. Pairing was not a problem, but I’m not sure this dimmer will work for me.
Operating it as a dimmable switch, using D_DimmableLight1.xml, I can send commands from Vera to the device accurately. The LEDs even adjust their level correctly. Unfortunately, the device does not appear to be sending it’s status to Vera when operated locally.
Operating it as a regular switch, using D_BinaryLight1.xml, I can send the On/Off commands accurately. The device does report it’s On/Off status, but only after polling it. This seems like it might work for me as long as I poll every 1-2 seconds. However I have not seen anything to indicate that the switch ever reports it’s dim level.
I’ve spent a lot of time with this thing already, but I feel like I’m not getting anywhere. If I can’t get these basic commands out from the switch, then there’s no way I’ll be able to control a seperate device. Am I spinning my wheels with this?
Any luck with this? I have insomnia problems and sleeping to slow music helps me nod off
My Project is to have a volume control on my bed’s headboard that will IP control my sonos in increments of 1%. (The sonos remotes and ipad jump 5% which is way to harsh at night). I use DemoPad software which allows me to control the sonos in 1% iterations.
Next is to find a way to lower the volume by 1% every x-minutes (x being say 20mins) until off. The sonos has a great off and on alarm feature but no gradual fade over any period. When sleeping I generally set it at 5% and it would be great to lower this over time.
kasmonkey, that’s sounds like something that would be possible by programming some luup code. It’s seems like it would be rather simple to write. Unfortunately, I haven’t worked very much with luup. I recall seeing a post where parkerc wrote some code to manipulate the sonos volume based on percentage. It would probably be a good start if you could add in a time delay.
As for a physical component, I haven’t found anything that suits my needs yet. The Cooper unit I bought seems like it should control volume, but I haven’t been able to get it to report the dim level. I’m still working on that.
