3 way switches - better option than WD500's?

[HalD (Hal)]

In a 1-way switch (not sure what to call “regular, not 3-way or 4-way”), though, you expect a switch to be in a certain position when it’s off and a different position when it’s on. Since a smart switch can be turned on and off (and dim level set) from other than manual flipping, you’d lose that positional feedback.

I think having the physical switch in a “neutral” position is best. But this is just opinion, of course.

If you’re mixing smart and dumb switches in a multi-gang box, the smart switch(as) do look odd.

[professordave (DavidK)]

@HalD
Yes! And with traditional 3 way, on and off position gets switched when the other switch toggles.

So in a 3 way you cannot tell light status by looking at the switch position,

Which is the same for smart switches, so nothing different!

[lflorack (Lee Florack)]

@professordave

@HalD
Yes! And with traditional 3 way, on and off position gets switched when the other switch toggles.

So in a 3 way you cannot tell light status by looking at the switch position,

Which is the same for smart switches, so nothing different!

Agree with this. ‘Normal’ 3-way switches are already different because ‘on’ may be up or down and visa versa depending on what switch was used the most recently. To me, that smart switches return to the middle position is a non-factor and actually makes more sense than the constantly changing ‘normal’ 3-way switch appearance.

[TylerDurden]

@Toadie

Are the WD500Z-1 and WD500 still the best option or is there something truly ST compatible out there?

I still use these switches for 3 way… are they not ST compatible anymore? I don’t recall using a custom DTH. I think the only quirk was the LED indicator setting for the device behaves opposite of what is described.

[professordave (DavidK)]

ge Zwave plus/ homeseer zwave plus and maybe any zwave plus switch now supports direct association, so if you want to go with zwave plus, can use 2 zwave plus switches, one controls load, one is only for switching the switch connected to load.

The small led on the units will still be out of sync.

[professordave (DavidK)]

Oh this is the best solution if you need dimming.

If you only want on and off, the latest zooz switch(zen26?) is great, I did this with one zooz and one regular paddle on/off switch.

Works great

[RottenMutt (Eric Anderson)]

@HalD

In a 1-way switch (not sure what to call “regular, not 3-way or 4-way”), though, you expect a switch to be in a certain position when it’s off and a different position when it’s on. Since a smart switch can be turned on and off (and dim level set) from other than manual flipping, you’d lose that positional feedback.

I think having the physical switch in a “neutral” position is best. But this is just opinion, of course.

If you’re mixing smart and dumb switches in a multi-gang box, the smart switch(as) do look odd.

Regular is a non smart switch, it is either up or down (on or off). With regular switches you loss the position anyway unless you are supper anal… I know people that way!
I agree, mix is odd looking.

[TheSmartestHouse]

@RottenMutt

can you please send the files to SmartThings as soon as they are available. this will help put pressure on SmartThings to add OTA for zwave. their biggest reason for not doing it is that no one is providing z-wave firmware updates to them so it is not necessary!

Thanks for the tip. When we last checked with the ST team (a couple of months ago when talking about certification), they couldn’t tell us when the OTA function for Z-Wave would be enabled and didn’t offer to accept the files anyway but we’ll check again!