I’m building a basement HT. Just outside the theatre room door I plan to have a row of 7 switch/dimmers with a custom wall plate to fit all 7. These switches will be within access just before you enter the room but not within line of sight inside the room and if you close the doors they are fully outside the room.
I am confused about which switch dimmer brand to choose and whether I should buy all dimmers or some switch and how would different ones in the same wall plate look.
Here is what each switch/dimmer will run(not specifically in this order)
8 perimeter soffit can lights, dimmable LED
2 front area center ceiling can lights dimmable LED
4 rear area center ceiling can lights, dimmable LED
An outlet in the floor that will energize a transformer running a fibaro controller running 30+ft of color changing dimmable LED strip light around the edge of the seating at the floor.
An outlet in the ceiling energizing a transformer running a fibaro controller running 65+ ft of color changing dimmable LED strip light around the ceiling soffit.
5 outlets located in 5 columns each one possibly running led strip lighting as 5 above. Aka the column edge would glow.
6ALT. 5 wall sconces running dimmable LED bulbs.
3 color changing dimmable LED can spot lights at the front of the room near the screen.
I’m slightly confused on the LED strip lights. I know the transformer plugs to 120v. I want to energize that outlet with a switch and also use the fibaro controller to scene the led strips such that I get dim floor lighting during a movie but brighter floor lighting when ceiling lights are on
Do I just use a smart switch here to energize the outlet and do any scene (on off with smart things) scenarios with my smart things hub control? Should I not smart switch the outlet at all, leave the transformer plugged in and powered and let the controller (fibaro?) be tied to smart things to turn off on dim or color change with a DIFFERENT switch press or app button?
The question above here really applies to 4. 5. And 6 above I guess.
I think 1,2 and 3 are ideal candidates for smart dimmers. But would it look weird to have 3 Homeseer dimmers in the same wall plate with a few GE smart switches?(not dimmers)
As for 7. I am not sure exactly what fixture or control I need yet but I’ve seen it in some theatre room designs so I’ve got to dig up that fixture info. I think they have to be controlled from something outside the fixture.
I’m confused on whether to buy all dimmer to match and use some as on off switches only ( if that’s possible) or get 3 switches and 4 dimmers and they would be mismatched in the wall plate or should I only have maybe 4 total switches and just use smart things to turn on other hard wired fibaro type controllers simultaneously when I’m trying to turn on a scene?
The overall idea was to be able to walk up and press up on a paddle for a “clean” mode. All lights on bright.
Or up on a diff paddle for a movie mode.
Or maybe a paddle yields a pre movie mode and once I press a button on phone or iPad it proceeds to dim out the ceiling and soffit cans and dims to low the floor and ceiling strip lights.
Thank you for suggestions and help on what to get. I can try to load a room floor plan if that helps but hopefully this is clear
Switches and dimmers from the same brand typically look identical with the exception of a dim level indicator and a few small details. They mix and match quite nicely. So if you are planning on using Homeseer dimmers, I would use the Homeseer binary switches as well. That way you know the case colors, LED colors, and rocker depths will match.
The Homeseer switches also have the advantage that they support single double and triple tap, which gives you some additional control options.
( i’ve moved this to projects so you can get individualized responses based on your own needs and interests.)
Can you or anyone offer a suggestion or clarity on where I need dimmers can where I need switches? The led stripe lighting I bought was the stuff from eBay/aliexpress. I ordered a fibaro controller from eBay. Am I correct that I’ll energize the outlet on/off 0-100% and a SmartThings setup with the fibaro is what will provide the dim levels or color changes etc?
I liked the look of the home deer but reading people not liking the delay for the double tap due to the cloud processing.
It sound a like with each dimmer I have basically 3 button functions plus hold for dim up or dim down.
Would prob set up such that single tap brings on full bright of all lights from any dimmer switch. Double tap brings on movie mode. And triple tap is some other function. And set all the dimmer switches the same so no matter which button you press you get the same effect.
Am I missing something? I don’t want to buy a bunch of expensive dinners to find that some won’t energize those switched outlets. Or something else I’ve overlooked.
Depending on the number of possible scenes you’re envisioning, why not use a wall scene controller like the Cooper RFWC5 (or RFWDC). Then you can eliminate any switches for the Fibaro LED runs altogether and use a 5-6 gang setup (if you go with smart bulbs for #7 and use ST to bridge the zwave to ZigBee gap, that’s another gang not needed).
The Cooper gives you 5 scene buttons, plus an All Off button; but I think it’s been integrated into ST as a button device allowing you to trigger any number of devices in any capacity from the buttons.
Thank you for the suggestion on the cooper. I’d looked around for something like that and didn’t find it.
So for 4.5 and maybe 6 I don’t need a switch or a smart outlet. Just hard wire the outlets and let the scene turn on the fibaro controllers that I want.
I like it. Can you answer this Q?
Doing this can a scene button for “room cleaning” enable a fibaro for stripe light to 100% and white and a diff scene button turn on that fibaro to 30% red color? Aka “movie mode” ?
So I can get dn to switch 1,2,3 and maybe 7 with a 5th gang for the scene controller. And I’m good to go.
I did not follow your zigbee comments. Are the bulbs all zigbee?
I thought I’ve seen these color changing bulbs before on avs and don’t recall them having to do anything especially fancy.
The short answer is yes, but it does take some work and tinkering to use a scene controller like this. Here’s the relevant thread with great contributions from @sainsworth.
You can use the RFC as a simple button device and let ST trigger the other lights/switches or dig into zwave association and scenes for direct control of zwave devices.
For your item 7, I typically think of smart RGB bulbs like Hue or Osram Lightify. They’re both zigbee. The Lightify line for instance has BR30’s or recessed retrofits that can do RGBW.