My GE In wall smart switch is not working after install. It doesn’t even control the light manually.
Some questions
I have installed Line in (e) and Load (d) wires only. I don’t have a ground to this switch. Should it work without a ground ?
Should it work manually before being paired ?
Should the led be lighting ?
Seems silly that you have to pair this within 10ft, How can you install switches around your home if you need to pair them? ST Hub doesn’t travel around the house very easily. But that is a separate issue I will address if I get this thing working.
Can’t speak to the wiring issues, but pairing in place is exactly what the Aeon MInimote is great for, and is probably why smart things include that in their lighting kit. It is a secondary zwave remote which is supported by smartthings, and therefore can include, exclude, or associate zwave devices that are out of range of the hub, as long as they do not require security pairing.
Interesting I wonder how the ST hub gets the pairing from this remote ? I guess if I get this switch working but can’t pair I will purchase one of these…The cost of this system really adds up…
Yes, it’s a standard zwave-certified “handheld controller,” essentially a secondary controller, it and smartthings communicate using standard zwave command sequences for controllers and secondary controllers.
You can either get the first generation, and upgrade the firmware, or get the second generation. Mine was a first generation included in the smartthings lighting kit.
@Ron unfortunately with the GE switches you need all wires for it to work. Hot, Ground, and Neutral. I with with @JDRoberts that the Aeon Mini will work. Another solution is to get an inline z-wave switch such as the AEON Micro switch that goes in the wall and bypasses this issue. link here
Found the neutral pack in the back of the switch box. I needed to connect to that with some of my own wire.
I have another switch I would like to control but it is just inline so it only has two wires in the box for sure. That one is not going to work without the Micro switch as @theedpope pointed out.
I still don’t have the ground wire connected because the ground pack in the box is crazy short and way in the back. I need to get some more wire to connect that as well. Previous owner did a lousy job of wiring this place up. I have been fixing so many bad wiring issues. The joys of home ownership
By the way one more variable on this install was that the lights are florescent so I didn’t know if that could be a problem but for this switch it apparently is not.
@JDRoberts Any advantage of the V2 model ?
I am assuming this is the v2 model ?
Confused because aeon still shows the older model on their site. They show the one with the round numbered buttons not the square unnumbered remote. I would think they would show the new model.
Yes the LED light stayed lit, it is configurable and I don’t remember the default setting. I have it set to blue when light is off, and off when the light is on. I think you can reverse that or have it always on but I forget the possible settings. I have two of these working now.
I am having issues with a GE switch i picked up used and trying to find out if I just have a bum switch or what. Did you confirm if the swtich works without being paired?
the blue light on my switch is on and it gives an audible click when pressed on or off. I look at the light and it does flicker briefly but that is it.
so far i didn’t try to pair it but i dont’ want to pair it if i can’t even get the switch to work correctly. :-/
Did you ever figure this out? I have 2 of these switches in 1 box. Both show the blue led light but only one of them turns on the lights. The other switch shows teh blue LED and clicks when i turn it on and off but it doesn’t turn on the light.
I would verify your wiring. Typically it’s a wiring issue since smart switches don’t wire up the same as dumb switches. You obviously know that if you already have one working.
I’m assuming it’s not a 3 way setup. Just one switch and one light. Just verify your wiring one last time. Then provide a few more details and maybe we can figure it out?
It is not a 3 way setup. Both switches are wired correctly as far as I can tell. Line, Load, Neutral and Ground. Both connect to a bundle of neutral wires in the back of the box. Both of the switches have the blue light showing when in the off state. I am positive that I am connected to the correct light (load).
When I swap line and load the blue light turns off and the switch no longer clicks when turning on. I have also swapped out the switches with each other and also swapped it out for another z-wave switch I have and none of them work in that location so I am pretty sure it is not a faulty switch.
Is it maybe that my Line or my Neutral slipped out of the nut bundle? Maybe they are making a connection but not a good connection? But then why is the blue light on and the switch making a sound?
I have a cheap multi meter I have never used. Is there a test I can do to determine I am getting a solid connection?
It’s hard to help without knowing where all the wires are going.
Sometimes (my house) the line power comes from the light in the overhead and the dumb switch just opens the return path back to neutral. Possibly this is what you have? Do you have a picture of the original dumb switch installed before you unhooked it?
With a smart switch the power comes from the switch and flows through the bulb to neutral in the light box.
You could take a meter reading on the switch screws.
Do the load to neutral both with switch off and on.
Do line to neutral
You should have power on load side with switch on but not off.
This is how my home is wired for all my 3-way switches making the GE add on switches not work so I have been unable to automate my three way lights. I wish they made a z-wave switch that worked like a normal 3-way switch pair so it would work with all wiring configurations. I learned after running into this issue that there are about 5 ways to wire a 3-way switch and the GE switch/add-on combo only works for one of these configurations. It’s also really hard to figure out which wiring configuration you have without disconnecting the light fixture and testing all of the wiring which is beyond what I am willing to do to replace a switch.
For some of my 3 ways I’ve used the micro switch in the light box. Then wired switches to micro’s switch input. It works but I did have to unwire all of it and reconfigure the wiring to make it work.
Again like you said a lot of effort, just to make the light smarter.
Is your wiring such that the neutral wire is only in one box? That is the case in my house, for all the areas that have 3 ways, only one of the boxes has a neutral.
if this is the case you can use linear branded aux switches, it only needs 2 wires, neutral and line.
What I did is use the traveler wire to send the neutral over from one box to the other.
Then you set up wireless direct association from the linear aux to the GE switch that is physically controlling the light.
No I have a neutral in both but the power comes into the light fixture and then to the switches and this configuration isn’t directly supported by the GE or Linear switches. I did have someone try to help me on this community that gave me wiring diagram to convert the wiring inside the fixture but this scared me for several reasons. 1) I wasn’t sure which of the other configurations I actually had since there are several where power starts at the fixture 2) I was worried eventually I would forget I rewired things and if I tried to convert back to normal switches I wouldn’t know why they were not working
I did convert one of these because I didn’t use the “other” switch. So I altered the other switch to be always closed circuit since this switch was near I door I never used and then I just wired a single zwave switch for the other. Actually I could do this with all my three way switches since I never use a switch anymore, I have echo and dots all over my home now so I pretty much voice control all my smart switches. Actually comically at times when I am standing right next to a switch repeating over and over “Alexa, turn on bathroom sink” because she just isn’t hearing me.
