Control Hue bulbs with a dimmer switch with no load?

[Chris_Monroe]

Hi Fam,

I’ve been toying around with different devices in my ecosystem and am now working on the bedroom. We currently have 2 Phillips Hue smart bulbs. One in each lamp on each nightstand. They each go to their own standard wall outlet and we use our google home or phone to turn them off and on. We have the SmartThings Hub and the Hue Hub as well.

There is a toggle wall switch next to the door that controls an unused outlet on a wall away from the bed. What I would like to do is to disconnect the switch from the outlet so that the outlet is always on. Then I would like to replace the switch with a Leviton DZ1KD-1BZ smart dimmer switch. We have others of this model in our home.

I’d like the dimmer switch to control the 2 hue bulbs and possibly even a third in the room, turning them off/on and being able to dim them. I’ve heard you can use the actions as a trigger, either with SmartThings, Google Home, and/or IFTTT. However, I’ve never done this before and didn’t know if the dimming feature would work (or anything for that matter).

My questions are
1.) Has anyone tried something similar and do you have advice on getting this started?
2.) Is using the dimmer switch as a trigger the best solution? Will it dim the bulbs? and how do I set it up?
and
3.) I can switch the outlet to always on (I have an electrician friend helping me), so do I essentially just hook up the dimmer switch to a power source, ground line, and not to a circuit? (I really just like the position of it being next to the door, but don’t really want it to control anything on the circuit. I also don’t want the switch battery powered).

Thanks for your help in advance.
~ Blaque_Nite

[JDRoberts]

You can just use the regular smart lights feature in SmartThings for this and have the bulbs mirror the switch. It’s pretty easy. Since you have an electrician helping you, it shouldn’t be any problem to get the switch tied off. Just make sure that it is not actually controlling the current to the bulbs.

How to create lighting automations with Smart Lights

As far as tips on getting responses, absolutely the number one best tip for getting responses to your topic is to have a topic title which asks a specific question. The more specific the better. So if you can include the brand/model number of devices or be specific about the use case, that’s it. Most people won’t even read threads called “Need Help” or “ Weird problem” or “Wiring question.” This is a very busy forum and since smartthings can work with so many hundreds of different devices, people tend to just read threads which look like something they know they have information or ideas about. I’ve gone ahead and changed your thread title to something which should get some responses.

[JDRoberts]

BTW, there are already two FAQs in the community on switches to use with hue bulbs, which do describe the kind of set up you’re talking about. So you might also find those helpful. The topic title is a clickable link.

FAQ: Looking at a good Wall Switch for my Hue Bulbs (2018 Short FAQ)

Looking for a wall Switch to replace the one I have atm. What i need it to do is -Turn on Off -Be integrated with Smarthings and Alexa (No wifi if possible) -If it mathers be compatible with Hue Lights

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FAQ: Philips Hue and Other Smart Bulbs - What sort of light switches to use with them? (Long FAQ)

Thinking on a big move to Hue lights, the real question is - what switches to use with them? If they’re all automatable via ST and other devices, do I really want to put them all on controllable switches too? There’s the advantage that I can arrange to ensure those switches are on so that the the Hue bulbs would be too…but it also leaves open the ability for folks to just turn them off and leave them off. Hmm. Thoughts?

[JDRoberts]

Oh, and before I forget, you might also find the following of interest:

How to Get Started Creating Complex Rules in SmartThings (2017) (SmartThings Classic)

(This is a wiki post: feel free to edit it or add to it as needed. Also, I can’t take any screenshots since I can’t use the app at this time due to its incompatibility with voiceover, so feel free to add screenshots where they would be helpful.) At one point, one of the biggest advantages of using the SmartThings platform was the wide variety of devices that it supported. However, by the end of 2017 several competing platforms had caught up in that regard. Where SmartThings still holds a significant advantage over some of the other low-cost home automation solutions is in the ability to really build really complex rules in a fairly simple manner. You won’t have to be a programmer, but you may need the help of other community members to get the logic constructed just right. So how can…