I have a couple of these Leviton Z-wave switches and haven’t really noticed an issue. However I am about to pick up a bunch more and want to check, especially on the ‘dumb helper’ and the ‘dimmer’ switches.
Do these function as ‘normal’ switches if smart things is down? I understand that there will be no commands sent to the switch from SmartThings or HA (whatever protocol is being used) but if for some reason everything goes down, can the helper switches still work like a normal switch would in the 3-way configuration? Same with dimming? I’d hate for them to just be a controlled remote, have to go to a hub, then back in order to actually make the change.
I’m pretty sure I know the answer but just want to check.
I also have Leviton Z-Wave switches and controllers. I just added the ST this weekend. Prior to that they worked like normal switches in the z-wave network.
If the switches are wired correctly and the controllers are configures correctly they work like a normal switch
Yup perfect thanks. Right now I just use the z-wave switches and have sticky notes and tape that say ‘DO NOT TURN OFF’ or ‘DO NOT TURN ON’ depending on the switch. Haha
So I want to put the buddy switches in, but am still not 100% sold on S.T. as a whole. I am considering moving to H.A. or something else at a later date.
Yes they work fine as dumb switches also and they are supported with local processing so even if smartthings cloud is down they should work as long as you use the default device handler.
You know what, now that you mention it I do remember the latest update it mentioning a bigger rollout of ‘offline’ processing of lighting. Didn’t put 2 and 2 together.
It is one of the reasons I use them over relays tucked in the boxes. If something happens to SmartThings, I can turn on and off lights at the switch…plus, my mother wants something she can figure out when she comes to my house to check on my pets when I am out of town.
Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better about it. I run everything through WebCore so the offline wont work for me anyways, but the idea of a 2 or 3 way switch that won’t function when ST is down would mean my wife would kill me.
I’m sure this is what you meant but just to be clear:
Most of the in wall micros will also function as a nonnetworked master switch even if your hub is completely unavailable. The question is what will happen with any auxiliary switches.
With some models and some setups there is a physical traveler wire from the auxiliary switch to the micro, and in that case, that will still work even if the hub is not working.
In other cases, the auxiliary can be set up with direct association to the micro, and again, then it would still work even if the hub is not available.
So it is only if the auxiliary is set up as a virtual three-way where the message is sent from the auxiliary to the hub and then sent from the hub to the master that there would be an issue if the hub was not available.
Most Leviton switches use physical traveler wires to their own auxiliaries, so they should work fine even if the hub is not available. But a couple of the micro models do as well.
There are other brands/models which allow for direct Z wave association. Lutron Caseta switches also have a similar method with their own pico auxiliaries, so they work just fine if the hub is unavailable.
So this is just something to look into as you are designing your own implementation.
