Leviton DG15S, DG6HD integration

Devices & Integrations
1

I am working on building out smart lighting in my home and Philips Hue bridges are the focal point for most of it. However, I have a couple of circuits where I feel that a smart switch or smart dimmer, with dumb lights, is probably the better way to go. Specifically I am thinking that the closets (including network closet) should use smart dimmers/switches rather than smart Hue-compatible color lights, since on-off is all that is needed, and I am worried that if the Hue Bridge goes down (disconnected from network, power outage to the Hue Bridge, etc.), I should still be able to control these utility lights. For example, it seems very silly to make the network closet light “smart” with Philips Hue (or SmartThings), but then to lose the ability to turn the network closet light on or off because one is doing work on the network closet components.

So I have been experimenting with Leviton DG15S (Zigbee 3.0 switch) and DG6HD (Zigbee 3.0 dimmer). Do these integrate with a Philips Hue Bridge v2? Do they integrate with Samsung SmartThings Hub v3? Are there best practices on how to integrate smart lighting when the lighting devices are partially controlled through Hue Bridges, while others are controlled through SmartThings?

(Note: the Hue Bridges can be paired to SmartThings, so you can control Hue Bridge-connected lights through SmartThings. I do not think it goes the other way around at all, though.)

2

I’m not a Hue user but my understanding is that only Hue devices can connect to their bridge. There are lots of Hue users here so someone should be able to help with suggestions on multi-hub practices.

The description on Amazon for the Leviton DG15S mentions that it works with SmartThings.

I’ve got a few of the new GE/Jasco Zigbee 3.0 dimmers and switches. They work fine with SmartThings but some of them paired with a device type of "Thing"and needed to be adjusted via the IDE.

Don’t know if it’s an option for you but you can also control the Leviton Zigbee devices with certain models of the Amazon Echo.

3

The Phillips hue bridge works with a number of different brands of zigbee 3.0 bulbs and lamp controllers, including Ikea, Gledopto, Innr, GE, RGBGenie, etc although not all models of these brands.

With switches, however, it only works with a few “friends of Hue” brands, including Lutron’s Aurora dimmer (but not other Lutron Switches), Runlesswire, Vimar, Niko, and a few others. And of course their own brand.

I’m not sure what the business model strategy is for that, but I think it’s grown out of the fact that initially the hue bridge only supported Zigbee ZLL profiles, and initially that profile didn’t have switches.

you can set up these switches so that they would work even if the Hue bridge was not working, but I understand your concerns on that score, and there are indeed places where smart switches may make more sense than smart bulbs. I have some of each at my own house, it just depends on the specific use cases for each item.

At the present time, the Leviton models you mentioned do not work with the Hue bridge. It looks like they will work with a SmartThings Hub, the Xfinity home automation system, or one of the echo devices that has a Zigbee Hub built into it like the echo show second or third generation.

As far as best practices, one of the areas where smartthings excels (for good and bad) is to make the specific protocol of any one device pretty much irrelevant when you go to set up your automation rules. So you can combine devices connected through the hue bridge that are visible to smartthings (not all are) and devices connected directly to a smartthings hub in one smartthings rule without any problems. But that’s also true of most multi protocol platforms, including Amazon echo, Apple HomeKit, and most others that work with the hue bridge. :sunglasses: