Dimming with ZWave Remote?

Devices & Integrations
1

I have several Z-Wave remotes - the ZBWS3B decora-style switches and the Aeon remotes. I’m using the Button Controller to control dimmable lights with it, but the “held” event doesn’t seem to be fired and isn’t apparently tied to dimming.

How can I configure a button to dim or brighten on hold?

Thanks

2

These are zigbee, not zwave and if you are using Gilbert Chan’s devicetype it only supports presses, not holds

3

If by that you mean increase dimmer level while holding a button down, it won’t do that. The Aeon Minimote can send two events, pushed or held. The latter is from holding the button for about 2 seconds. Button Controller allows you to select what happens on each of those events for each button. So you can get one dimmer level out of pushed, and a second one out of held. That’s it.

4

Look for Button Controller +. It allows a ton more options for pushed and held buttons. I use it to dim to 75% when held.
Cheers,
Scott

5

@av8rdude Thanks, Scott. I’m not finding “Button Controller +”; how would I search for that?

Thanks

6

@NWTony https://github.com/bravenel/SmartThings

7

You can also program individual buttons using Rule Machine.

8

Thank you for the inputs. @bravenel did some nice work on his modifications to the button controller, but since I wanted specifically relative dimming, I’ve gone and modified the latest ST code to add specifically a choice of relative/absolute dimming to buttons. Works a charm.

You can download it here.

Unfortunately, I’m challenged by the SmartThings/GitHub integration. I tried to create a repo with this, but suspect instead I created a pull request to the main branch. Some of the features I created are:

  • Dimmable devices can be set to toggle (value 0), or to absolute or relative dimming.
  • Relative dimming works. e.g. a value of 20 will increase it 20% each time, until full bright, at which point it wraps back to off.
  • Those can be mixed between pushed and held.
1 Like
9

Nice idea!

Fan adjust in Button Controller + is similar, although fixed for the 3 levels of a ceiling fan. I really like this idea of adjusting a dimmer. How about up and down both? I’m going to think about putting this in Rule Machine. There, combined with a delay, one could get all sorts of cool automations going.