Aeon Minimote Questions

Devices & Integrations
1

I’m probably going to pick up a v1 minimote but have some questions on what it can do for me. It will be a nightstand remote to at least control my two bedroom lamps, each with GE links. I know that it will be possible to program 1 button to turn on to 10% dim and a second button to off for each lamp, but this ties up all four buttons. So here’s what I would really like:

  1. Use single button to cycle between 10% brightness and off for each GE link independently. I know that I can set it up as an on/off command, but it will turn on to the last state. When turning on from the remote I don’t want full brightness.

  2. Use a single button to cycle my fan (GE 12730) speeds. First press low, then, med, high, off.

  3. The last would be easy, just an all off command for the lamps and ceiling light which I can handle.

I already have all of these as separate shortcuts on my phone through SharpTools, but having the remote on the nightstand would be nice (WAF…). What are my options?

2

Tagging @tgauchat , who is a grandmaster when it comes to the Minimote…

1 Like
3

Making your own version of the Button Controller SmartApp is the most direct way.

I continue to insist that each Minimote should really be represented by 8 Child Devices of Capability Momentary Button, that way “any” SmartApp could select one or more of the Buttons in Preferences, … And, in fact, it’s not hard to write a controller SmartApp that spawns children like this.

Two problems with that design:

  1. You end up with lots and lots of Thing Tiles that you need to organize.

  2. Most SmartApps are hardcoded to offer inputs of Capability Switch, rather than Capability Momentary. That’s a drawback for all “rarely used” Capabilities. Doh! Grrrr.

Anyhow… So it’s best (for now?) to just make custom versions of Button Controller SmartApp.

Showstopper problem you will encounter:

  • There is some “debouncing” (de-duplication) going on in the process… Possibly at the hardware level. That means that two presses in a row of the same button will be ignored unless you wait for the round-trip… And this is very slow (≈1 second?). So, for example, it would take 10 tedious presses and 10 seconds to set your light dim level from 0% to 100%.
4

There is a built-in SmartApp called Button Controller, but it doesn’t do everything you want.

I modified that to come up with Button Controller+. It can do the actions you want, including the fan control. You can find it here:

7 Likes
5

Awesome! Thanks guys!

6

This will be addressed with the addition of “composite devices” very soon. Composite devices allow you to have multiple virtual devices under one real device. One example would be a remote, but another might be a fridge (thermostat control, door sensor, alarm, etc.).

The other part of this is “aggregate devices” which is a virtual device that has several real sensors or actuators. An example might be a garage door (actuating + sensing) or a set of lights (with different combinations of color control, color temp control, dimming control and on/off all working from one control).

6 Likes
7

Excellent! I know I have expressed my desire and recommendations for concerts along these lines a few times. I’ll let you know my address for the royalty checks!

8

Don’t forget about this app; it creates a device for each button - Virtual Buttons

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9

What is the best way to setup Minimotes with a V2 hub?

I have:
2 z-wave lights (plug units)
1 zigbee bulb

I would like to control them with a minimote.

Currently I am using Button Controller and each button toggles a different light. The 4th button triggers a routine.

This works fairly well but when my internet connection is down the lights are not controllable (at least I believe that is the case, I can verify again tonight).

Is there a better way to get “offline” use of the minimote or am I doing the best I can have right now?

10

We need to wait for SmartThings to officially make the ‘Button Controller’ SmartApp or it’s replacement local-compatible to get the ‘offline’ capability. Also note that any devices that you control with a local compatible SmartApp will also need to have their device types blessed as local compatible.

It’s a bit of a headache at this point and falls short of what people originally expected, but it sounds like SmartThings is in the process of certifying some device types and SmartApps to run locally.

For reference, you can see which SmartApps are running locally via the IDE at:
https://graph.api.smartthings.com/localInstalledSmartApp/list

1 Like
11

Hi Bruce -

I’m digging your Button Controller+ SmartApp for my minimotes, thanks for making it! I’m a little confused as to what the difference is between the “Dimmers to Toggle” option and the “Dimmers to DimLevel 1”/“Dimmers to DimLevel 2” option are. All of them allow choosing a dimmer level… is it simply that the latter options just set the dimmer level and don’t allow toggling the lights off?