Brilliant Control - Claims It Will Work with SmartThings (But limited Integration)

Yes I have. No load and just using it as a controller for smart things and other things

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I love the brilliant controller. When I get off of work I will put some pics on here and explain more. But well worth the money. Also look at the atmos controller. I already pre ordered 2 of them

Please do, thanks! One more question if you don’t mind: if the company went belly up tomorrow - would the device still work or is it dependent in Brilliant maintaining some kind of cloud-based services. I know ST needs the cloud too but I’m less concerned about Samsung’s health than I am about a relatively young startup :).

I am concerned about SmartThings health as well LOL. The transition from the Classic app to the New app is concerning. Particularly future support of custom apps and device driver support.

I have been in the game for probably 20 years starting with x 10. Candidly I would consider yourself lucky if you get a few years out of any consumer-level gadget like this. principally because technology is changing so rapidly and secondary because in a few years there will be a much better gadget to replace whatever you have today.

I have SmartThings 100% integrated with the controller also my Nest thermostat and my ring Spotlight cameras. Brilliant said that more integration is to come shortly, they’re going to integrate the rest of the nest products. They’ve already done a great job with Sonos and also Philips Hue’s which I also have and have integrated. I did test to see if it’s local controls or cloud-based and they’re both. I killed my internet just to try it and it still worked locally, the cloud-based is good also because it gives you all of the updates without having to worry about it. It’s a great controller and so far is working great so if the company does go belly-up tomorrow it would still work as a wonderful All in One controller. I have the one gang but they do make them into three and four gang. This one where I have a picture of does not have any load on it but I do have another one in the house where I do have a load on it. Great controllers can’t wait for the other ones to be shipped from atmos also

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I also love how I can upload my own pictures for a screensaver and you can even have that screensaver work at certain hours so at night I don’t have it blaring in my face LOL. I think once they get the rest of the integration for the nest cameras and Nest alarm and Nest doorbell it will be a great piece of equipment. I’m interested on getting a two or three gang one but they were a little out of my price range right now because I spent the money on the other controllers that will be shipped in Spring

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Thanks for the pics! The closeups make it a bit difficult to get a sense of how big it is though. Is it larger than a standard wall plate? More importantly, does it “feel” larger and more obtrusive?

It takes the place of a single switch and is about the size of the average cell phone. Probably like the Galaxy S7 Edge. It’s not too big but yet it’s not too small, honestly I think it’s the right size and it’s very well built.

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After seeing the Brilliant Switch on an Instagram ad I wanted one. Some searching lead me here
 only if it had z-wave and Google Home, I would be sold on it!

I already pre-ordered to and spoke to one of the owners of the company. They’re based out of Tampa Florida and I’m on the other coast of Florida. It was great talking with them and seeing their vision for the future. They will be shipping in about a month and a half to two months. But I agree with you it’s time for the fun now. Just the other day at my parents house where I put SmartThings in, my dad has a bad habit of using one of the bathrooms and not turning on the exhaust fan. It drives my mom nuts. I put in is Z-Wave Smart Switch 4 exhaust fan and then a motion sensor near the toilet where you don’t see it unless you’re looking for it. When you use the toilet and toilet only the bath fan will kick on. Once motion stops it will stay on for another 15 minutes and then shut off automatically :slight_smile:

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Just got mine
l Like it - but there is VERY limited smartthings integration. For example it can’t access routines!?! How hard can that be brilliant? Smartthings is doing all the work - it’s just a call to invoke.

COME ON BRILLIANT - Great product but it will die like all the others if you don’t support it. We need true smartthings integration. You should remove the smartthings logo until you have real integration not this half ass.

OH YEAH AND ANOTHER THING! SMART HOME MONITOR - Brilliant please for the love of god add support for that now


my brilliant control has been working great, I have two of them. You are right I don’t know why they can’t do the routines on SmartThings because it pulls up everything else. They’ve also been promising nest camera and doorbell integration from the beginning and it’s still not here. I have the nest hello doorbell and 13 other cameras around my house inside and out, I can’t change now. I do have to ring spotlights and it pulls up those cameras just fine so what’s the problem? There’s no way that I’m going to trash all my Nest cameras and start over with ring. That would be ludicrous, the money I’ve already spent I can’t do it again. Brilliant needs to listen to what the people want and it seems that Nest integration top priority for consumers. Don’t get me wrong The Nest Thermostat integration is great but we need more

After doing some more research, this scenario (an unused switch) is the only one that makes sense for me today. I can’t put it on a switch that has a load because Brilliant cannot yet be controlled by SmartThings! That means your smartlighting, routines, scenes and pistons will not be able to turn a light attached to Brilliant on or off. I just want to call that out in case folks miss this further up in the thread.

You’re 100% right and I think it’s really foolish on SmartThings and Brilliant not to get together on a more integrated level. I like how you can integrate SmartThings into the brilliant control but you can’t integrate brilliant into SmartThings. In SmartThings I do have brilliant kind of integrated where SmartThings allows brilliant to control SmartThings switches and Lighting but why won’t SmartThings recognize brilliant as a Smart Switch. If that happens then it would be great because you would be able to include it on a load and do routines. I’m also still waiting on more Nest integration with SmartThings and brilliant. I would love brilliant to be able to control my Nest lock, view my cameras and doorbell. And I would really love for SmartThings to be able to recognize and control all of my Nest products like my thermostat, doorbell, alarm, cameras, front door lock
 I guess the old saying why can’t we all get along really does take effect. I honestly can’t wait until my atmos controller come in. I ordered them on the pre-order sale and hopefully they’ll be shipped within a month or so. They have claimed that they are fully integratable with all of Nest products and SmartThings. Wouldn’t that be great, but as we all know a lot of these companies like brilliant has made a major claims in their pre-order so they can get their sales up but then have not delivered on final product. Example brilliant with Nest integration. I like how I can use my thermostat but they promised Full Nest integration and yet I still cannot see any of my cameras or lock my door or answer my doorbell. Also I really hope SmartThings can get along with Nest one day, I just purchased the Samsung refrigerator with the home hub and it can do the ring doorbell but not the nest hello doorbell. I have invested too much money and time and Nest just to scrap it and go to ring

To be candid my love affair with Brilliant is over. I ended up returning all of my Brilliant devices after an incredible amount of frustration getting devices to work properly in multi-switch configurations using two or more Brilliants. At the end of the day I invested many many hours with no return on investment. I did keep one Brilliant only because I spent too much time on the project to leave empty handed and I wanted to see how the product gets updated over time. Eventually Hue groups was introduced and that works well.

As I see it, devices like the Brilliant have a short shelf life. It will be great for a year or two until something better comes along. For a few hundred bucks I have no regret keeping one Brilliant device but the product fell short of my expectations. Going into it I thought it was the best idea in the world. In the end - it is “ok”. I use it to turn on and off the lights. But it is not as robust and programmable as I thought it would be out of the box. Maybe one day. It looks great on the wall I will say that.

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SmartThings offers absolutely no official integration with Smart Home Monitor (neither Classic, nor New), even for officially published SmartApps / developer partners.

This is SmartThings’s limitation. Not Brilliant’s.

With all tech platforms, the future can go one of 2 ways (or perhaps both):

  1. The product can steadily improve, especially if the company is lucky enough to secure significant market share and resources based on their early/premature releases (or be acquired by a strong company which commits to continuing the platform / product-line).

  2. The product can be outpaced and, pretty much killed, by a competitor - whether that be a startup or a mega-corp (e.g., Amazon). This latter case has the most examples: The Ubi (voice control), Pebble (ummm
 major brand smart watches?), Revolv (purchased by Google and replaced with Nest), 


Right now SmartThings is still in Category 1.

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I agree SmartThings is still in Category 1
 for now.

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So, I don’t pop on the forums much, but thought I would chime in. I’m a chronic early adopter. My collection of impulse candy has plenty of paperweights like Zunes, Fire Phones, Palm Pilots, WebTvs and every X10 device every made. And my collection grows. For Brilliant, I’m at a crossroads
 waiting to see what will become of this one.

My home is complex. Currently runs ST with 437 devices (211 of them Hue bulbs). And yes, I still can’t believe ST still does not support light/device grouping (eye roll). The Brilliant seems to have everything, in theory, to add simplicity to an otherwise complex setup.

I have two dual gang Brilliants now, with room for 12. I wanted the second unit to see how the integration was given that one was already setup.

As far as craftsmanship goes, I have to say that the Brilliant switch is about the most beautiful device I have every setup. Not just the device, but the packaging is incredible. Easy to install, but not so easy to setup. The setup interface is just so-so.

I’ve had these in use for a few months now, and here is why I haven’t replaced the rest of my Lutron switches

-Setup - is too complicated to do, for each switch, with the micro-miniature, tiny keyboard. I hold my breath at each peck of this tiny keypad, hoping to not follow with another backspace. This wouldn’t be quite as bad if I weren’t bent over sideways to reach the unit, or kneeling on my hard tile floors ( I don’t own a 7 inch chair at this time). Setup really needs to be done on the mobile device or a PC. To really get this thing to sing like I want it to, a more intuitive setup is needed. And I agree with an earlier poster - the mobile app probably needs to be scrapped and replaced.

-ST Integration- only one way, doesn’t really work for me. Now since all of the lamps in my home are Hue, this is not as big of a problem for me, since Brilliant now supports Hue grouping. (did I mention that ST STILL does not support grouping???). I don’t have to point out each and every reason why this is important. However, I suspect that this is more of a ST problem and not Brilliant. So, I am patient in this regard.

-Camera- I love the intercom feature. Camera is sufficient, and from another Brilliant, if I can squat down far enough to see it (not your fault, Brilliant), I get a live - crystal clear image of my the banister of my entry stairway! And if I’m lucky enough to capture the attention of someone in that room, I get a nice, gleaming video of their crotch. So, for future hardware modifications, let’s incorporate a gyroscopic camera or someway we can aim the thing. Not a biggie, just a thought.

So, all in all, I like the switches and the way they look. If nothing else, they create a pretty nice photo gallery. I also love that there is representation from Brilliant here - which is not common, especially from ST (For the LOVE of GOD, will you please give us a way to group lights!) Please keep us posted as to what your planned feature rollouts will be, and be a little more forthcoming with timing.

Cheers,

ddk

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