Sure they could. First of all, if you live in an apartment, as the OP does, it may be that all of your Z wave devices are already within one hop of the hub. So in that case no repeaters are needed. “All Home Automation is local.”
Second, almost all mains powered devices will work as repeaters, not just light switches. In Wall outlets. Pocket sockets are good. In Wall relays. Plug in sirens and doorbells. For zwave, lightbulbs are reliable repeaters. Plug in sensors like the HSM 200. Some thermostats. Smart vents. Even a device I personally hate, the single purpose range extender.
You’re absolutely right that when designing a home network you need to consider The backbone and where to place your repeaters. But those repeaters don’t have to be light switches.
Just as an example, I feel quite confident that my Z wave network is as strong as most residential designs even though I have no zwave light switches. I use Lutron Caseta for my light switches and mostly plug in pocket sockets for my zwave repeaters.
So there’s no reason to shy away from this particular device just because it’s not a repeater. You should know that it’s not a repeater, but if you have other reasons for using this device, there are lots of other ways to build a strong Z wave mesh.
Has anyone had issues physically moving the switch. It seems my switches are not long enough as the ecolink exterior switch doesn’t catch the og switch when sliding it up and down. If I press in really hard while sliding it sometimes catches the og switch.
I’ve tried a cotton ball and a few recommendations from the manufacture but I still can get these to work on any of my toggle switches. I guess that is one thing to watch out for, make sure your toggle switches are long enough as mine seem to be too short.
You should be able to replace the existing toggle switch with something with the longer toggle for under five dollars, especially since you won’t care about the looks since it goes under the Z wave device. The other issue might be that the switch is setting too deep into the switchbox, so the toggle isn’t sticking up enough above the surface plane. In that case, just changing toggles won’t make any difference, you would need to get a backplate that can lift the switch mechanism up a little. Home Depot should be able to help Since we’re still talking about the regular switch. Get something specifically designed for this purpose, don’t just start sticking random stuff into the switchbox.
I don’t know if @Navat604 might have any other ideas.
Looking at the pics. Looks like the Toggle area got pushed in a little so modifying the 2 mounting area of the screws to the gangbox is not going to work. I see the whole switch is not sitting in properly.
You can try bending the Toggle switch back out or replace a new switch. You should be able to do this by turning off the circuit breaker, loosing the 2 mounting screws of the Toggle switch to the gangbox and pull the switch out just a little with your finger. Picture with red arrows.
Unfortunately replacing or modifying the switch isn’t an option thus reason I went for the TLS-Zwave5. @Navat604 I too thought that it looked bent or recessed into the box too far but its perfectly flush. Removing the switch from the box didnt even help.
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I tried 4 different switches in my home and they all look the same so it must just be the design. I 3D printed a little cap that fits on the end of the light switch, it makes it usable but I don’t feel confident enough that it will work long term so I will be returning per the mfg recommendation.
This was the response from the manufacture - "After some review of the pictures you sent us, we are going to recommend that you return your TLS5-Zwave sensor to Amazon for a refund. The reason for this is the tabs in the sensor for switching the light switch are too short for your type of light switch and we need to make some adjustments to the length of the tabs in our future designs. "
I’m working on software-based inversion. If the switch needs to be placed upside down, you can flip the on/off directions. Should be ready for release soon.
Samsung Connect updates are being tackled as well.
The top post has been updated with a coupon code for 10% off all ecolink products purchased through The Smartest House.
This appears to be the Decora version we’ve been waiting for. It looks mostly the same compared to the older but has a Z-wave certification date of January 11th, 2018. The previous (technically unreleased) decora version was recalled for some reason. This hopefully should be better. The DTH should still work with this switch, but I’ll definitely make improvements.
This is a unique device, it is 2 separate units that are designed to allow installation in a multi-gang switch. Each unit is paired and operated individually. Looking at the info on the device, it should work with SmartThings. Certified on January 9th.
As I’ve mentioned before, the word “Decora” is trademarked by Leviton. For that reason, only a Leviton switch can be called a “Decora” switch.
Any other brand with a similar style should be called a “rocker” switch, as this new model is, or possibly “Decora style,” Although legally that one is trickier.
It’s quite common for Chinese companies to issue a switch they call “Decora” and then for them to have to withdraw it and re-issue it under the “rocker” name if they want to sell in the US or Europe because of the trademark violation.
I don’t know for sure that that’s what happened here, but as you may remember, I did predict it would happen when the first model was released under the Decora name.
FWIW, I’ve been using your Ecolink TLS-ZWAVE5 DTH on Hubitat for a week or so now with no problems. (Just as usual, minor code changes to account for the Hubitat vs. ST namespaces/classes or whatever those are in Groovy.)
So I got one of the rockers from Amazon, and I installed it, it paired, and I loaded up the custom DTH. The state of the device will be correct, ie it will correctly display whether the light is off or on. However, when I turn it on or off in the app, it has only worked with a great delay, and now it doesn’t work at all. Any thoughts?
Edit: I just moved it to a room closer to my hub, and it works very well. It appears I was trying to use it in a location that was too far from my network. I just moved and have not been able to install any of my wired z-wave switches, so my network must not be very good.
I bought a toggle switch version. I have a SmartThings hub at two houses. So I tested at home first. It paired fine. First switch I tried it on failed. After it flips the switch it swings the internal mechanism out of the way so you can use the manual switch. When it does that it retracts the switch just enough to turn it off (after it turned it on). Another switch it worked fine in. Almost every switch in my house is multiple gang. But the primary purpose I bought it for is single gang at the other house.
So I took it to the other house 120 miles away. I unpaired it remotely by “force remove” in SmartThings. I’ve done this MANY times with many zwave devices without issue. You just factory reset the device and re-pair it. No big deal. Well basically the EcoLink switch is now bricked as there doesn’t seem to be a way to factory reset it. Only by unpairing from the original hub (which it has now forgotten).
Try doing a “general exclude.“ You can do this from any Z wave controller, it does not have to be already paired to the device. Issue the general exclude from the controller (which I assume will be the hub at the second house), and go through the exclude process again with the switch. Once you have done that, you should then be able to include it to the new hub. The zwave protocol includes this utility so that you can reset the device if the original hub has died or is no longer available. It’s always a good first step if you are troubleshooting a device that won’t include.
If you happen to have a minimote, you can also issue the general exclude from that.
First of all, if you live in an apartment, as the OP does, it may be that all of your Z wave devices are already within one hop of the hub. So in that case no repeaters are needed. “All Home Automation is local.”
(Just as usual, minor code changes to account for the Hubitat vs. ST namespaces/classes or whatever those are in Groovy.)