A clarifying question for those of you that have worked through this 3 way dimmer switch issue. I was going to order the Evolve pair, but seems they may not be working as designed? Is it important that the switches are paired (which one would think is an out of box feature/adjustment), or will the dimming and ST integration work regardless of the pairing? Trying to understand what the real issue is here, and what the options might be. Could the dummy just be an on/off switch if that is the issue? Or is the 3 way setup a bad idea with the dimmers? I have an LED setup and have seen good comments about the Evolve LRM -AS and LTM-5 combination. Thank you!!
I also see on the Evolve website for the LRM-AS dimmer, that they donāt support LEDs. Thought I saw some LED dimming success previously, maybe not in the 3 way setup? Any suggestions for that setup? Maybe it works but not in extremely low load?
Update with the WD500Z dimmers and WT00Z associated switches. Have 3 dimmers setup, each controlling 2 ledās (Costco retro-fit kitleds at ~23 watts each). One of these dimmers have the WT00Z associated with it (Minimote came in yesterday).
I can dim the lights down without proble. The associated switch can do the same. Only thing I see is the small led on switch that indicates on/off doesnāt reflect correctly on the associated switch, just shows last position that was set on that switch physically.
At $30 each, much cheaper than the Evolves (which are same exact switch, just rebranded).
As far as the LEDs, slight hum, but once recessed in ceiling, have to turn head back and forth and strain to hear the hum when dimmed.
Any update on ST support with associated switches? I currently have en Evolve LRM-AS and LTM-5 installed but only the LRM-AS works. The LTM-5 shows up in ST but will not work when I physically press the switch or send commands via ST. Is this common until I use the mini-mote to associate them?
Yes. Until you use the minimote to associate the switches, the ltm one will not work. I just installed a 4 way with the linear brand ones this weekend. Once associated, they work great.
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Alright cool. I do have the Aeon USB stick but I could not get it to work with Home Seer. I will send it back and get the Minimote. Thanks for the quick reply!
Malathanā¦ just to confirm how you installed your 4-wayā¦ did you use 1 Dimmer switch and the others were the LTM-5 switchs?
Correct. The challenge was rewiring the insidesā¦finding the load wire and such. Since the associated switches just need power, the travel wires were capped off. Basically, I took the approach of locating the load/line wires and installing the dimmer. Once confirmed that it worked, I then went to each additional switch (2nd and 3rd switches) to install the LTM* switches, each just needing power. One at a time, I would then associate with the dimmer switch using the Minimote.
Association is done by clicking the āassociateā button, then double clicking the up/on rocker swich on the dimmer. The minimote should start flashing quickly. Next go to the LTM and double click it. Done.
Next, power everything off, install the next LTMā¦lather, rinse, repeatā¦
(*). FYIā¦ Switches I am using are the Linear brand. They are the SAME swiches as Evolve, which are rebranded switches. Just heads up, you can pick the Linearās up through newegg for $31 each. Still expensive, but cheapest I have found.
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If it helps anyone reading this thread, I finally realized I needed to tie BOTH the hot and load wires together in the receptacle housing the LTM-5 accessory switch. This basically kills the 3 way function of the light and makes sure it is only controlled from one light switch.
As others here have mentioned, I simply made sure that the LTM-5 was added to the pigtailed hot wires so it always had a power source, and added it to the pigtailed neutral wires and pigtailed ground wires.
I did have to purchase the Aeon Labs MiniMote mentioned elsewhere in this thread in order to pair the lights. Itās important to note that you must add the MiniMote to your SmartThings hub before the associate command would work.
Overall, very pleased with the results of the Evolve light switches however, it was a huge pain to figure out the 3-way wiring!
Digging this up. Thereās got to be a way to associate devices with ST rather than buying a remote. Hereās where I left off.
So far Iāve found that SmartThings offers the ability to send a command to the aux switch to associate the dimmer into the auxās group 1 (I think thatās our ultimate goal but Iām no expert). To do this I created a custom device type with the āswitchā capability selected and dropped this into the def on() command then installed it to my aux switch and hit the āonā button on the right. Surely thereās a better way to do this but this seems to give me some result.
zwave.associationV1.associationRemove(groupingIdentifier:1, nodeId:0x10).format()
zwave.associationV1.associationSet(groupingIdentifier:1, nodeId:0xD).format()
This returns something like:
debug Parsing 'zw device: 16, command: 8503, payload: 01 05 00 01 0D '
Things to note:
- nodeId is hex (for 16 (0x10) or what weād like is 13 (0xD)) but Iāve tried both hex and integer
- The debug return is 16 which is the aux switch.
- This method doesnāt seem work (well, I donāt know exactly what should even happen since this is my first switch of this sort) sadly though I feel like I might be on the right track, just need someone with a tab more experience to chime in
Anyone else have any findings?
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You are on the right track. There are some limitations of the smarthings API that make this solution a little clunky but it works for me. In your custom device type, you want to run:
zwave.associationV1.associationSet(groupingIdentifier: 1, nodeId: id).format()
where id = the zwave network id of the LTM-5. You can get the network ID from the MyDevices page. This association only needs to be done one time. After that the LRM-AS will communicate directly with the LTM-5 switch.
If others are interested, I can put this up on github over the weekend.
Hereās my work towards an Accessory Switch device type, maybe it could be of some help: https://gist.github.com/mckeed/182cc9689299e20af17b
Itās set up to allow either entering the device id of the target switch in the device preferences, or you could make a companion SmartApp that lets you select the accessory and target switch and just calls accessory.associate(target).
Iāve just been too super busy to test this and finish up proper support for these, sorry.
Thanks guys,
@duncan thanks for creating a sweet app, I like being able to set the device id in the prefs.
With that said, I gave your device type a whirl and havenāt had any luck. Iām using a Linear dimmer and aux switch but Iāve read the documentation and the aux requires group 1 to be associated with the dimmer so no surprises there.
The log shows the associate command runs fine (13 is my dimmer network id).
Accessory switch associate 13 cmd [85010113].
Any way to get the associated devices to check if the device is added? I tried:
return zwave.associationV1.associationGet(groupingIdentifier:group).format()
which returns
[85010113]
not sure what that means.
That associationGet should work, you have to post all your code for me to figure out whatās wrong.
Once the association is made with the mini-mote is the minimote required?
ie; can i buy a minimote; associate my switches, then return the stupid 45$ thing?
You will not need it anymore for this task. You might find that after you look at the ST app for it that itās worth keeping.
Hey @duncan. Firstly, thanks again for posting your code.
I literally have what you have but added the associationGet at the end for debugging. Hereās the gist:
https://gist.github.com/LeBlaaanc/413e8d1e014b7588a91e
I assigned it to the switch and set the group id to ā1ā and my network id to ā1Bā which is the dimmerās network id. The accessory isnāt responding at all unfortunately.
One thing that has me stumped is whether the device id for associationSet() requires a hex or an integer value. It seems you convert the hex to integer in your code if I understand it correctly.
zwave.associationV1.associationSet()
The way you changed it, it will no longer actually send the associationSet, but I assume it also wasnāt working before you changed the code?
When you send that associationGet, there should be an AssociationReport command that comes back into parse() and, since thereās no zwaveEvent() handler for it, it should make a displayed:false event in the deviceās event list. Are you seeing any event like that after you call associate?
With you code as is I get the following after updating the preferences.
8:33:16 PM: debug Accessory switch associate 1B cmd [8501011B]
8:33:16 PM: debug Media Room (Backdoor) updated() settings: ['group':'1', 'deviceId':'1B']
8:33:16 PM: debug Accessory switch associate 1B cmd [8501011B]
8:33:16 PM: debug Media Room (Backdoor) updated() settings: ['group':'1', 'deviceId':'1B']
Update
Ah wait nm it is working but just at the switch (not in smartthings). Sorry wasnāt aware that was the expected behaviorā¦ woops.
I may have come to the wrong conclusion as Iām not as experienced in this area as some, but it looks like you guys were able to associate the accessory switch to the main switch without using a minimote? Can you write up a quick set of instructions on how to do this? Iād gladly tip a couple bucks in Bitcoin for your troubles!
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