How to pair hardwired switches

I’ve looked, but so far can’t find this. How do you folks pair a hardwired switch, such as the GE Z-wave light swtiches? The location of the switch is way beyond 10 feet from the hub. Seems like the only options are:

  1. get a really long cat5 cable so that I can place the hub near the switch during pairing; or
  2. Temporarily wire the switch onto a power cord and plug it in close to the hub, then move it and install it after.

Is this it, or am I missing something?

From my experience, these switches don’t need to be within 10ft of the hub for pairing. For all of my switches, I’ve just installed them where they go, initiate the pairing process on the hub and they all paired fine. Some are two floors away on the other side of the house with no issues. Edited to say: YMMV

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I agree with @obycode here on this one, I have switches more than 90 feet from the hub that pair nicely without issue. Of course I have a switch that I had to move away from the hub for it to pair as well (SMILE)

Assuming these are zwave switches and not zigbee, the Aeon Minimote is perfect for this. It’s a small handheld remote that can include, exclude, or associate two zwave devices on the SmartThings network as long as they don’t require encrypted communication. So light switches, thermostats, relays, motion sensors, all good. But not doorlocks.

There’s an Aeon Minimote included in the ST lighting kit, otherwise you can buy one for about $30. Also makes an excellent “button controller,” and as such can also change modes and toggle zigbee devices (using the hub as an intermediary).

Also, newer zwave devices other than locks can often pair via relay, so as long as there is another repeating device close by, you may be able to pair. This should work for all zwave plus devices, for older ones it just depends on the specific device. Older devices will usually describe this as being “NWI capable.” (Networkwide Inclusion.) Sometimes the pairing method is slightly different, so check the manual.

Here, just as an example, a device that has a different pairing method for pairing directly to a controller (hub or Minimote) or pairing via repeater (NWI):

@johnj, I have well over 70 GE hardwired switches, and I paired each one up after installing it in it’s final location. Some took several seconds, but every one paired the first time.

Perfect - Thanks everyone!

Can you elaborate on this or point me in the right direction? I have one Minimote I use as a Button Controller. Had no idea it had other abilities as well

There are controller buttons for this purpose inside the slider compartment of the Minimote:

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Dang… Well that sure is handy. Thanks for the info :smile: