It’s been pretty much impossible to create a double tap feature using just a custom DTH, although it’s been tried many times in the past with many different devices. The problem is always the timing. Messages can and do bounce around the mesh a little bit, and then you have cloud lag. It’s just really hard to correctly recognize a double tap just via a DTH. You can find lots of threads back from 2015 and 2016 in the forum about people making attempts and saying “I have it working!“ and then a month or two later saying “never mind…”
Starting in late 2017 we started seeing devices using zwave central scenes which could capture the double tap in the device itself and then send a different scene code for it. Those worked just fine and there are quite a few of them available.
Since this device does not catch double tap at the device, I don’t think it’s possible to come up with a reliable DTH for double tap for it, so I would not expect to see that added to the DTH.
I was just able to connect this bulb to my ST without the QR code. Now the remote don’t seem to work anymore. Is there anyway I can connect the remote with ST being connected to the bulb?
And is there a way in ST to create a light bulb group?
The remote and bulb come paired out of the box. You first need to follow the instructions in the manual to unpair them, then add them individually into ST. From there, you can set the button actions to control whatever you want.
As far as groups are concerned, the new app allows you to create lighting groups, but only gives control for on and off, and you can’t add these to any automation. Your easiest solution would be using the custom SmartApp called Trend Setter. It can group different bulbs together, giving you control over color and temperature (if the bulbs support either/both). The downside of this being that this grouping is a virtual device in the cloud and will not be ran locally.
Hey @BradyCampbell - I’m in the same boat. How are you faring lately with this?
For those of us that want these lights to work in groups (on, off, dim, and color temperature) with remotes AND Smartthings: I don’t want to control other devices with the remote - I just want to be able to use one remote per group to control each room (ie one remote for 4 lights in living room, another remote for 8 lights in kitchen, etc.) while still being able to turn off all the lights (and maybe the color temp and dim) at once through Smartthings.
@BroderickCarlin - You’ve been a tremendous help with all of this stuff on the EcoSmart bulbs / remote. Thank you! Can you help those of us in my situation know the best way to move forward to set up a house full of these lights in groups that use remotes and can also be controlled by smartthings or do I need to pick just smartthings or touchlink?
I haven’t found a straight answer just yet. One person said to use the Smart App “Trend Setter, some have special code they use, some say it can’t be done, some say just use touch link.
AFAIK The only thing you’re going to be able to do to get remotely close to what you’re trying to do is to create individual scenes for what you want. Doing this, you will get up to 3 predetermined values for dimming and color per remote, with the 4th as your off. Build your scenes in ST, assign them to the button presses, and that’s that. Obviously this doesn’t give you COMPLETE control in terms of numerous state changes for your bulbs via the remote, but hopefully it helps.
This what I have been doing to control multiple bulbs. I use webcore to do such. But I also create a separate virtual dimmer switch. I then use the virtual switch as the master, and the bulbs as the slave. I replaced a GE dimmer in our bedside lamps with 2 smart bulbs. To keep things simple we called it lamp. I then made the virtual dimmer named lamp so me and the wife don’t have to call different voice commands to get the same result. Then in webcore I have a piston setup where if the virtual dimmer is turned off and on or level changed (brightness) it will update the bulbs with a like command.
I really do not notice a delay with voice or phone control as compared to the GE dimmer. Aka it doesn’t take longer to turn these on compared to the old setup. Works really well, bulbs maintain a good sync (brightness and on and off) to each other.
I then have a separate piston setup for color temperature based on time of day. The later it gets in the evening the lower the temp changes (reduce blue light before bed). In the morning when the bedside lamps are turned on for my wake up command they resort back to the 5000K temperature to add more blue light to help wake me up.
On the other hand (since this is a post about the remotes!) I have another piston setup to control the remotes. I have 2 remotes paired to the piston and when any button is pressed (Button 1 controls on/off, button 2 is 100% brightness, button 3 is 50% brightness, and button 4 is 10% brightness) the piston tells the lamp (virtual dimmer switch) to change its power state / brightness level. I know this is redundant (calling a piston from another, but the results work really well and it has been reliable in the short while I have had it setup.
I can share webcore pistons if anyone is interested.
I do it this way for a few reasons. Also, I understand there is a delay, but to me its not worse than how I had it before. With any of the devices I use to control the lights (Google Home, Smartthings button, and now the EcoSmart Remotes) I see no worse delay than I previously did.
The main reason I setup it this way is for simplicity. 99.9% of the time when we want one of the bedside lamps on, we want them both on. The only time would be if one of us wants to stay up late and read and only have 1 light on. In that case we can call out the device explicitly and tell it to turn off (usually done using google home). But most of the time I want both lights turned on/off or brightness level changed. Having a master virtual switch is mostly beneficial for google home. I know they have built in lighting groups, but I have other lights in the master. So if I say lights on/off, it turns multiple lights on/off, whereas if I only want the lamps, I just say lamp on/off.
Program wise its not the most efficient, but it works for me and the delay is still a common 1-2 seconds max.
I’m using the default handler within smartthings and I got it paired but for whatever reason button presses aren’t being registered at all in the classic app or webcore. I’ve tried removing device. Readding. Nothing registers. But for whatever reason in the new smartthings app. Using the default programming functions I was able to get it to do basic controls. Anyone seen this before?
I just noticed the Aurora remote is physically the same on the outside as the ecosmart remote. @BroderickCarlin do you know if they are the same internally/firmware wise? And if so, why they use a different DTH?
It looks like the devices utilize the same industrial design but the fact that the two join to separate DTH’s would indicate to me that the two are running different firmware. The firmware on the EcoSmart remote is also specifically setup to use the same group ID as the EcoSmart bulbs which leads me to believe that the 2 are not functionally equivalent
I just got back to this topic. Thanks for this webcore code. I have almost 20 remotes!
How did you create Keypad 1, Keypad 2 etc variables? Are they virtual/child devices?
EDIT: Nevermind, I had to select individual buttons through WebCore settings to become available in piston. duh!
It is very common for Chinese factories to offer the same external cases as a standard part to multiple clients. It keeps costs down while the interior parts and firmware may be very different.
I’ve successfully added the remotes and bulbs to ST and am able to control them. However, I also have some spare remotes, is it possible to add those to ST to control other devices like Hue bulb or smart plug? Currently, it seems ST allows the remote to control ecoSmart bulbs only.
