I recently purchased the GE (Jasco) 4 button wireless controller switch, https://jascoproducts.com/products/ge-z-wave-wireless-keypad-controller, and was able to join it to my ST V2.0 controller, however it is basically a dormant device in the network.
Is this a paper weight, or is there something I can do to get it to work with ST, even it just works to control a single smart light bulb?
I was able to get this device to control 4 different lights directly via direct association when I was on V1 Hub. Give that a shot. or you can search for the custom device type for it on the forum and use the button smartapp on the marketplace to have it do things.
thanks for the replies guys. Still trying to sort this out without having to buy any additional hardware, but if I actually get this working I’ll post it fully step by step with my setup.
thanks again.
This has been discussed a lot. I know the answer is frustrating but it is important.
The SmartThings zwave controller in the hub is certified at the “basic” level. That means it can pair with any certified zwave device and send it an on/off command.
Above that functionality There are different zwave “Command sets” and SmartThings does not implement all of them. Some devices will use some. Some devices will use others.
So while it is true that you can pair the GE “remote” to SmartThings, it is not necessarily true that you can get full functionality from them as the manufacturer intended. In particular, SmartThings may not receive individual button presses from a multibutton device.
This is true of the GE remotes whether they are handheld or in the Wall mount format. SmartThings will not see the individual button presses.
Because the GE remotes do use scene replication, it is possible to set them up with a different controller. Which is why people who already have these devices working with Vera or some other controllers can sometimes bring them over to a SmartThings installation and use them to control their other existing Z wave switches.
This tends to completely confuse everybody and a lot of the thread discussions are people trying to figure out why they do exactly the same thing as somebody else but the device doesn’t work for them. And the difference almost always comes down to the person that it does work for initially set the remote up with a different controller. The person that it doesn’t work for brought a brand-new device and tried to set it up with SmartThings.
So…does it “work” was SmartThings? It’s possible to set it up so that a button press on the wall switch will cause a Z wave light in the same room to go on or off. But the hub won’t know that happened. And you won’t be able to have the button change mode or run a routine like you can with devices that can communicate button presses to the hub and consequently can turn a zigbee light on and off or a Wi-Fi light or run a routine.
Does that level of “work” meet your use case? Only you can say that.
Would I buy a brand-new GE remote to use with a SmartThings installation? No. Way too limited in what you can make it do. But there are people who might find it useful. And if you already have one, it might not be worth replacing.
(Note also that all of the previous only applies to GE devices that are called “remotes”. The ones that are just plain wall switches work fine. )
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Great post as always. When I see these kinds of questions, I usually scan down to see if you’ve replied yet and just jump to that.
Thanks for all you do for the community.
Todd
I like seeing how real people have solved real problems. 
I admire quality engineering in consumer products, which is how those solutions get saved and made available for more people to use.
I find the minor differences between designs which in fact represent alternative solutions particularly interesting, even if the point is just that different people have different dollar budgets.
I like seeing that sometime, somewhere, somebody realized that solving a problem for $24 instead of $49 was going to matter to a real person with a real problem, and that design team sat down and worked out what they needed to keep and what they could throw away what they could keep as optional and meet those parameters.
I always read the manual before I buy the product. 
Some people sit on an airplane and think their own thoughts. Or play a game or read a book or watch a movie. I drink my orange juice and look at the rivets and the seams and the seat covers and whether there’s a crossbar in the foot space and think about the hundreds of people and thousands of decisions that went into getting that plane to 30,000 feet. And it fascinates me every time.
So “Will this switch work for this use case?” Is exactly the kind of puzzle I find both entertaining and worthwhile.
We all have our uses. LOL! 
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