It may be easier to use, but the 45601 cannot be used as a secondary controller in a SmartThings installation unless you had previously initialized it with a zwave hub that supports replication (like Vera).
When you have a handheld remote, you are in one of three situations:
- the remote thinks it’s the primary controller for the network.
It can include or exclude devices to itself. It cannot include or exclude them to the SmartThing network
It can directly associate local devices to itself.
It can define scenes involving devices using its same protocol.
- the remote thinks it’s a secondary controller and is recognized as such by smartthings. ST usually calls this a “button controller.” The Aeon minimote can serve this role. The GE remotes can do this for Vera, but not ST.
The secondary controller can include or exclude some devices for the ST network.
It can’t define scenes that ST can use, but it can link one of its buttons to a Hello Home Action created through the regular ST mobile app.
It can also act as a local controller .(see below)
- it can act as a local controller. This is pretty much the way your regular TV remote works. There will be a few devices, near to the remote, that can be directly associated to it. You may be able to control dimming or some other features.
It may be able to control several devices with one button press in an association group.
It may even be able to define local scenes (local, not global) that control several devices at once with one button press.
But ST won’t have any idea what the local controller has told the devices to do, so the status will get out of synch.
And the local controller can’t trigger devices using a different protocol, or
Hello Home Actions.
So just as an example, a GE 45601 is a zwave device. It can never control a zigbee device, like a Hue bulb or a zigbee plug in. It can only act as a local zwave controller.
And if you did set it up as a primary controller, assuming it has that ability, any devices it controlled would no longer be available for ST control, because a device can only have one primary controller.
So…
You only have to push a button on the lamp if you are trying to use the 45601 to include the device for the very first time (which won’t work with ST anyway) OR if you are trying to use the 45601 as a local controller and directly associate the lamp to the remote.
If you just want to use it as a local controller, go for it.
But the 45600 and 45601 just don’t work as secondary controllers for ST. So you can’t use them to execute hello home actions or control devices that have not been directly associated to them, or any zigbee devices.
If you use the Aeon minimote as a true secondary controller, you could do all of the above, even though the form factor isn’t as cool.
@Gasparian ,
Forget about ST for a minute. What’s the specific device you’re trying to control with the remote? Is that device known to ST? And does the remote work to just turn it on and off?
