GE Jasco Z-wave Smart Remotes (CES 2017)

Does anyone know if these have been publicly released yet? Or a release date? I still haven’t seen anything…

Nothing yet.

3 years later, and these things still are only a CES pipe dream. Not sure who @LoganMarshall1 bribed to get his hands on some, but still not publicly sold!

https://twitter.com/appmyhome/status/1214678812983582720?s=21

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I didn’t bribe anyone Jimmy. You should treat people with much more respect & kindness than you currently display to people on social media.

Jasco’s staff were very nice, helpful and thoughtful and gave me an incredible opportunity to try these out. They’re an amazing product and just like Jasco and their community, I’m excited for the release.

Logan

I suspect that wasn’t an entirely serious suggestion of bribery, I think everyone would be happy for the product to be released, whenever that eventually may be. Personally while I’m sure it’s worthwhile, I’ve dealt with my need in other ways in the interim.

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Yeah, sorry if the sarcasm was lost through the internet @LoganMarshall1

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Gettin close!

Jasco just uploaded over 10 videos on their public youtube yesterday,

quad remote looks awesome!

https://youtu.be/NICoHNAvi40

Still not on their website

https://byjasco.com/products/smart-home-automation/z-wave

Logan

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They’re live! Has anybody seen a SmartThings DTH?
https://byjasco.com/ge-enbrighten-z-wave-in-wall-portable-quad-scene-remote-white

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These are new devices but old technology. :roll_eyes: Zwave local scene controller (not central scene controller). Only one association group. It is broadcasting a basic command (“basic” has a specific meaning in zwave) to a fixed set of Z wave devices.

I’m not sure you can make it work with smartthings other than exactly as designed: as a parallel means of control for some Z wave devices.

It doesn’t work like the old minimote. It doesn’t work like a central scene device like the Aeotec Wallmote. It’s a local scene controller like the old GE 45631, which never did work as a button controller with smartthings. It can be added as a secondary means of control, but again, only for other Z wave devices.

Maybe you can do something with that one association group, but I don’t know. Since it’s a Z wave plus device that’s supposed to be reserved for the lifeline group, not for the basic command.

(I understand that they wanted it to be a competitor to the Phillips hue dimmer switch and not require a hub of any kind, which is why they didn’t go with central scenes, but personally I find it disappointing.)

@Kianoosh_Karami

Bleh. Glad I went with the Eria remote then. Zigbee, fits a standard decora wall plate and shows up as 4 buttons you can do anything you want when pressed.

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One positive use: the two button one would make a really nice battery operated auxiliary switch for a Z wave master. Essentially a zwave equivalent of a pico. Put it anywhere, and it would work locally even if the smartthings cloud was out.

It shouldn’t require any special DTH, literally all you have to do is add it to the network and it will function as a secondary controller.

https://byjasco.com/ge-enbrighten-z-wave-in-wall-solo-scene-remote-white

So I can see it being helpful for that particular use case. :sunglasses:

This is what we waited 3 and a half years for? :sleeping:

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Based on the video that @LoganMarshall1 posted above,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NICoHNAvi40&feature=youtu.be

They’ve delivered exactly what they promised: the Z wave plus equivalent of a Phillips hue dimmer. in fact, it’s a bit of an improvement since it can handle up to four different device groups with full dimming control for each.

And it does give you a battery powered auxiliary for a three-way set up, to compete with the Eaton Cooper anyplace switch.

So it does what it was designed to do and it was marketed highlighting exactly those features.

I understand that people using multi protocol platforms, like smartthings, would like it better if it could do more, but I don’t see any indication that Jasco ever promised anything like that.

A promise that was broken, repeatedly, was the one from smartthings itself that they would provide a stock DTH for a wall mount multi button device. Any brand. Even just the Remotec z90 would solve a lot of use cases, particularly since it’s available on both the US and UK frequencies.

@erocm1231 created a device type handler for the remotec four years ago which still works very well. Although I don’t know if it works with the new V3 app or not.

[OBSOLETE] Remotec ZRC-90 Scene Master - Button Device Supporting 24 Unique Button Commands (see post 177 for 2021 app version)

Anyway, I agree of course it would be nice if the Jasco device could communicate with the hub. But there may be some alternatives if the device as released doesn’t meet your needs.

I am really late to this party but I wanted to share my experience with these. After seeing them at CES this year I picked up a two- and four- button without paying enough attention to the functionality.

Thinking that were like the Aeotec minimotes, I was dismayed to realize I couldn’t customize how SmartThings handled commands in the cloud. And to make matters worse, they easily connected to the hub but pairing them to the corresponding devices for the local scenes was a headache. As a result I had to scale back the intended application.

On the upside, the response time is instantaneous because they operate locally, and the magnet tray is a very elegant way to store them in a blank decora-style switch.

I would not recommend these unless you just need a simple remote and the devices you are using it to control pair easily. In that use case, they’re well-designed, but on the pricey side.

TLDR: JDRoberts is right!

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A news 700 series version of the two button remote just went through z-wave cert. @JDRoberts can confirm for me, but i think it now supports cerntral scene and 3 association groups
https://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/3958?selectedFrequencyId=2

Yep.

Use in one of two ways. :sunglasses:

  1. with direct zwave association, you get tap or double tap on both the top and bottom. Lifeline plus two association groups

  2. or with central scenes communicating to a hub, you can get single, double, or triple tap on both the top and bottom buttons.

https://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/3958?selectedFrequencyId=2

Since smartthings doesn’t provide UI support for central scenes, you’d have to capture them with a custom DTH.

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how did you get to pair the scene, I managed it to connect to the HUB, but nothing after that.

Sorry that it has been some time and my memory is fuzzy, but my recollection is that I had to repeat the ‘local scene’ pairing process described in the product instructions over and over and over again, and I could never get the remote to pair with more than one device.

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Did you ever get this to work? I’m having the same issue.

Hi, I was not able to get it to work.