I really want to install dimmable Warm-White / Cool-White LED strip lighting over my countertops. If I understand it correctly, I can drive those lights with EITHER a Fibaro connected to SmartThings, OR a wall mounted Warm-Cool LED-Dimmer. Automating this lighting sounds awesome, but it’s not practical to tell family members they can only turn the light on or off through a phone app. I really want to have both controls present…
Is there a way to connect everything through SmartThings while also having a simple control on the wall To flip it on/off and control brightness as needed?
As long as you don’t want to change color and you just want dimming and on off, it’s easy.
In smartthings, you can have one switch follow another, and they don’t have to be on the same circuit. Switch A communicates to the hub, which then send the message to switch B. They don’t even have to be the same protocol.
The fibaro is what you would need (or some similar device) to add RF control to the LED strip. But once you have that, the hub can talk to the fibaro. And then you’re ready to have a different switch tell the hub to ask The Fibaro to do something.
You’ll find A number of possible options discussed in the following thread. The only one that isn’t going to work for some technical reasons is the Phillips hue dimmer switch, because it actually talks to the Phillips hue bridge, not to the smartthings hub. But I believe all the other suggested methods in that thread are using devices that talk to the hub, so you’ll be fine.
If you want to be able to change colors from a wallmount device as well, you pretty much have to go to a mounted tablet or Wi-Fi phone. Or use the “scene” idea where One button on the wall mount device means red, a different button means blue, etc. That will work for some people, but is usually too hard to remember for a family situation.
I choose to do a simple hybrid of what you are asking and @JDRoberts suggests. Basically I do the color/brightness control via included handheld remote because I am finding out that I really do not make changes to the settings after we settled on what she liked. Having the ability for RGBWW control via ST wasn’t justified for counter lighting in my use. Instead I use a simple ST compatible smart switch to turn off/on power to all my RGBWW power supplies. Then I have it all linked together with my kitchen lights GE wall light switch so anytime I turn on my kitchen lights ST will automatically turn on the cabinet lights to my preset levels. No regrets here using wireless RF to control my color/brightness versus ST.