Legrand Adorne Touch switch with Aeotec Nano-Dimmer smarts

Wiki Projects & Stories
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I had this problem …

… and came up with this solution:

I ended up with an Aeotec Nano-Dimmer in each bedside lamp under the control of their local switches. These, in turn, are under the control of (associated with) another Nano-Dimmer behind my wall switch.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XC4CH98

This post addresses my next problem: How do I make this wall switch look like all the others in my house? For example, like this:

All I need is the look of this switch – not its smarts. I bought one off eBay just for its touch plate and LED assembly. For the touch sensitive smarts, I got this

This can be powered off the “Touch Panel” interface of the Nano-Dimmer. The top pin provides 3.3V and right below it is ground.

The power connection can be made with this

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0738FL793

The dumb touch pad from the Legrand Adorne switch can be used to extend that of the smart touch pad. To do so, I mounted these together with double stick tape and bridged their pad connectors with a short bit of wire.

Unfortunately, the smart touch pad will not integrate directly with the Nano-Dimmer. I used this as an adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FK11HV4

I powered the relay of the adapter separately/directly from the Nano-Dimmer 3.3V supply.

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The COM and NO outputs of the relay are connected to the COM and S1 terminals of the Nano-Dimmer.

The input (IN and GND) of this adapter drives an LED circuit. This is an LED (embedded into an opto-isolator which switches the relay), an indicator LED and a current limiting resistor. This LED circuit is not much different from the LED circuit built-in to the smart touch pad which lights while the pad is being touched. See

In fact, the relay adapter’s LED circuit can be used to replace that of the smart touch pad: Remove R3 and the LED from the smart touch pad. Then bridge over the pads of R3 with a bit of wire and wire the pads of the LED to the IN and GND connectors of the adapter, observing polarity. Use hot glue as a strain relief on the wires so that they don’t rip off the surface mount pads (I ruined one!).

I drilled a hole slightly above the LED (just removed) on the smart touch pad to poke the Legrand Adorne indicator LED through. The rest of the Legrand Adorne 120V AC LED circuit (diode and 820KΩ resistor) was discarded and replaced with a current limiting resistor to achieve the proper dimness when driven by the 3.3V DC Nano-Dimmer supply. I had/chose a 10KΩ resistor but 47KΩ probably would have been better. The LED and resistor were hot-glued in place.

I mounted the touch pad assembly in a Legrand Adorne metal plate and secured it from the back with hot glue. I shortened the relay assembly slightly so that it would fit above the smart touch pad and between the metal tabs on the plate. Like everything else, I hot-glued it in place.

With this Nano-Dimmer’s external switch configured as “momentary”, pressing and holding the touch pad will cause the Nano-Dimmer to alternately brighten and dim its load. Likewise, if the Nano-Dimmer is associated with others (as the one in my wall is associated with those in my lamps), those may be dimmed.

The hard part was stuffing all of this in a one gang electrical box!

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Very nice!

Mike Maxwell has a similar project report also using Legrand switches And the older, larger Aeotec micros. It’s one of my favorite looks. :heart_eyes:

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Yes, Mike’s post was an inspiration to me (I can do it!). Likewise, I hope that this post might inspire others.

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Hi, interesting post.

I have a bunch of legrand adorne non dimmers that I would like to use as z-wave switches but can’t really figure out the wiring.

I have smart bulbs that I want always on, and to have the legrand adorne switches to send z-wave commands for on and off, but not cut power.

Any ideas if that is possibe?

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Yes, it is absolutely possible. In fact, I have gone about doing something very similar in two different ways:

  1. My wall switch looks like a Legrand Adorne switch (non-dimmer) but is just the front plate wired to a Z-Wave device (Nano-Dimmer) as described above. It could, but does not, control a wired load. This Nano-Dimmer can be configured (associated) to control other Z-Wave devices. In my case it controls another (always on) Nano-Dimmer with a dumb bulb but it could just as easily control a Z-Wave smart bulb. If you don’t want dimming control, you could put a Nano-Switch behind the Legrand Adorne switch plate.

  2. I have a Legrand Adorne dimmer controlling under cabinet lighting in my kitchen. I wanted this switch to control the lights in my vent hood but there is no wiring for such. Instead switch events are passed through my Legrand Adorne hub, Samsung ARTIK Cloud and SmartThings to a Smart Lighting SmartApp. When my SmartApp hears that the under cabinet lights have turned on/off, it likewise affects the smart (Philips Hue) lights in my hood (which are always left on).

IMO, the first (direct Z-Wave to Z-Wave device association) is better than the second (hopping through the Legrand Adorne hub, ARTIK Cloud and SmartThings) because there is far less that can go wrong.

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I was wondering if there is a way to use a Legrand Adorne touch switch with the Aeotec Nano (don’t need a dimmer) and have it set up so for example, I can turn the light on via the light switch, then turn it off via Smartthings, then turn it on again via the switch. Is this possible?

TIA!

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Yes, you can do it in the either of the ways I described above (1 or 2). The fact that you are using a switch instead of a dimmer doesn’t matter. 1 (the topic of this thread) requires surgery (discussed in original post). 2 requires only wiring and programming of hardware components.

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Do you know that you can “turn the light on via the light switch, then turn it off via SmartThings, then turn it on again via the switch” with only a Legrand Adorne “wifi ready” switch and SmartThings integration? This requires a Legrand Adorne hub paired with the switch, hub integration with Artik Cloud and Artik Cloud integration with SmartThings.

If you don’t have a “wifi ready” switch and SmartThings integration, you can’t do 2. If you do have it, you don’t need 2.

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Ok, thanks. I didn’t know that. I thought that setting the Aeon Nano to momentary switch mode would give that functionality.

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@rossetyler

Getting direct association working.

Hello, I have done this in the past between zwave devices, in the past with Aeon Minimote and just recently with zwave tweaker.

Is setting up association using the aeon nano dimmer the same? Or where there any tricks to it?

Does the aeon dimmer send dim events reliably to the other zwave device?

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I imagine my Nano-Dimmer & Z-Wave Tweaker experience with direct Z-Wave device association was much like yours with a MiniMote. I have also done such with a WallMote.

In my system, dimming works but is frustrating because of communication lag. On/off is less bothersome.

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@rossetyler

Hey, thanks for responding.

When you say communication lag, are you referring to through the hub? Or time for zwave direct association?

Edit:
If you referring to the direct association, do the 2 devices behave differently? Meaning is the wallmote better than the nano? Or vice versa?

I have tried with 3 different devices as master direct association. I have used 2 different devices for dimming control and it was instant, the third was just on/off, no dimming.

I was thinking of trying something with the aeon micro or nano, your post may inspire me!

But if aeon’s zwave control is problematic I will do something else.

Thanks!

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I suppose YMMV but, in my system, (direct z-wave) wireless dimming performs poorly when compared to conventional wired dimmers. Adding a hop through a ST hub (and, perhaps, the cloud!) would only make it worse. This is because there is a noticeable lag between my action (press & hold) and the system’s reaction (dim up/down). With conventional dimmers, the system’s feedback is instantaneous so I can stop dimming right were I want it. With my wireless lag, I have to anticipate my system’s reaction and stop dimming before it gets to where I want.

I haven’t done any measurements but I think, perhaps, my wall ND to two lamp ND associations might behave better than my two WM to ND associations. This might be due to the difference between the RF obstacles between Z-wave devices.

Because of these problems, I have programmed my four button WallMotes so that button one can be used for direct on/off/dimming and the others are used for indirect (through ST hub) fixed (low, medium and high) lighting levels.

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@rossetyler
Thanks, your response saved me some grief. If I had purchased the wallmote and not been able to control dimming I would have gotten frustrated.

In comparison, I have 3 old school zwave linear Aux dimmer switches. I am using them in virtual 3 ways. Dimming is such that the behavior is the same whether dimming from master or slave switch.

I am also testing a new Ge zwave plus dimmer, 14294.

It seems that it will work as a virtual 3 way using association, but NOT when used through the hub. The status of the dimmer is only sent when the paddle is released. It can be used as a virtual 3 way for on/off, but not dimming through hub.

For zwave association it seems to work. I have it controlling 2 zwave classic plugin dimmers that control lamps but itself is not connected to any physical load. I can dim the lamps to any brightness as I hold the paddle.

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Ross,
Excuse me I am a little slow on this. So please forgive me if this is a repeat question.
Right now I have the Aeotec Nano Switch operating my Adorne Touch Switches.
What I am looking at doing is seeing if there is a way to take a Aeotec Nano Dimmer and use it on the Touch Switch (not a dimmer switch just the touch switch)

Is this possible to do by using the JST ZH 1.5MM 4 Pins pluged into the Nano Dimmer then wired into the switch?

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I don’t know what this means.
An Aeotec nano-switch (or nano-dimmer) can be controlled/operated by conventional external switch.
This topic describes how I replaced that conventional switch using parts from a Legrand Adorne Touch switch (for the looks) and other stuff (to make it work).

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Sorry Ross I must have misunderstood your post. I thought you had found a way to get the Aeotec Nano Dimmer to work with the Legrand Adorne Touch Switch by using the JST Touch Panel slot instead.

As I mentioned currently I can use the actual unmodified Adorne Touch switch work with both the Nano Switch and the Nano Dual Switch.

But I haven’t found a way to get the an unaltered Adorne Touch to work with the Nano dimmer. I thought you had managed this using the JST port.

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Aeotec nano-dimmer documentation suggests external switches should be isolated from AC (dry switches).

Legrand Adorne switches AC so it will not work here.
I used a relay for S1 that is controlled by new touch smarts.
The touch smarts are powered by the nano-dimmer and controlled by the Legrand Adorne’s touch pad.

FYI, the pins on the JST connector, from top to bottom, are
3.3V
GND
TXD
RXD
I have no idea what the protocol is on TXD, RXD but there is nothing on Legrand Adorne switches that speak it.

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I have never used a nano-switch.
Apparently, wiring them is different than my nano-dimmers.

A hot-switching Legrand Adorne switch will work directly with this.

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I believe these have embedded relays:
https://www.legrand.us/adorne/products/wireless-whole-house-lighting-controls/asth155rmw1.aspx.
While the relay contacts are not exposed, perhaps surgery could be done to use them to switch the nano-dimmer.