Looking for device recommendation for light switch solution

[Brad_Langhorst]

Hello all,

I have a room in my home which is basically an enclosed porch. We remodeled the room last year and because of the way it was constructed, it would’ve been very difficult to wire all the lights to one light switch. So currently, I have the following solution:

1. On the exterior wall, I have a Lutron Caseta which controls the two sconces on that wall.
2. On the interior wall, I have a Lutron Caseta which controls the two sconces on that wall.
3. I have both switches connected to Wink. When the interior wall switch turns on, Wink turns the exterior wall switch on.

The problem, as you can imagine, is that there can be a several second delay before the sconces on the exterior wall turn on because Wink doesn’t run the rules locally. I was wondering if there were any switches (or in-wall relays) which would run locally on SmartThings so that I could increase this speed. Any recommendations? I suppose I would favor a relay solution and then I can go back to conventional light switches, but I’ll look at any suggestions.

Thanks

P.S. Yes, I know I could mount a Lutron Pico remote on the interior wall linked to both lights and that would be nearly instantaneous, but I’m not sure the WAF (wife acceptance factor) is high enough to allow it.

[Keo (Joe)]

Do you currently have smartThings? (I don’t believe SmartThings can support Lutron Caseta)
Are you looking to replace these switches?
Have you looked into any smart Bulbs? You can get a wall mountable switch to control those smart Bulbs. You can also use any number of smart apps (ie SmartLighting or CoRe) to control them.

[Brad_Langhorst]

[quote=“Keo, post:2, topic:49167, full:true”]
Do you currently have smartThings? (I don’t believe SmartThings can support Lutron Caseta)[/QUOTE]

Yes, I currently have SmartThings and you’re correct, it doesn’t support Lutron.

Are you looking to replace these switches?
Have you looked into any smart Bulbs? You can get a wall mountable switch to control those smart Bulbs. You can also use any number of smart apps (ie SmartLighting or CoRe) to control them.

I only try to use smart bulbs in lamps, not fixtures. I prefer to replace the Casetas with either a smart switch or a conventional switch with a smart relay. I’m just not sure which (if any) switches or relays would be considered “local” devices.

[JDRoberts]

@slagle has been working on a list of the devices/device handlers that are eligible to run locally, I don’t know if he’s gotten to light switches yet, but he might know of some.

So far the only smartapp which is eligible to run locally is smartlights. It will allow you to have one light switch follow the other for on/off, but not for dimming. So I don’t know if that meets your requirements.

[Brad_Langhorst]

@JDRoberts

@slagle has been working on a list of the devices/device handlers that are eligible to run locally, I don’t know if he’s gotten to light switches yet, but he might know of some.

So far the only smartapp which is eligible to run locally is smartlights. It will allow you to have one light switch follow the other for on/off, but not for dimming. So I don’t know if that meets your requirements.

I think on/off is more important to me, but it brings up another question and this is from my own ignorance since most of my lights are still on my Wink hub. Using Echo, I can say “Alexa, dim lantern 50%” and she will dim the GE Link bulb in the lantern. Would the same apply with smart switches in SmartThings? Can you say “Alexa, dim switch 1 50%” and it will dim the lights?

[JDRoberts]

[quote=“Brad_Langhorst, post:5, topic:49167, full:true”]

@JDRoberts

I think on/off is more important to me, but it brings up another question and this is from my own ignorance since most of my lights are still on my Wink hub. Using Echo, I can say “Alexa, dim lantern 50%” and she will dim the GE Link bulb in the lantern. Would the same apply with smart switches in SmartThings? Can you say “Alexa, dim switch 1 50%” and it will dim the lights?

Yes, as long as the device has dimmer capability, which many switches do.

However, you will have to pick a different name. Echo does not do well with names that have numeric digits in them. You can use “switch one” instead of “switch 1.” That’s an echo quirk, nothing to do with smartthings.

[Automated_House (Jimmy aka SmartThingsBeat)]

My GE z-wave switches run locally. Those combined with a SmartLighting rule to tie the two together should make for 100% local.

[Navat604 (R.)]

I have multiple brands of switches and relays that run locally. All you have to do is pick a genetic ST device handler for that device. Most of my Z-wave switches run on ST Z-Wave switch or dimmer and same as zigbee for ST zigbee. Some with custom device handler because local is not important and add on preferences is better for some of my needs. As for delay between local or cloud. Unless you have really slow Internet otherwise it’s not much of a delay between the two. Try getting Z-WAVE plus if you are going with z-wave. I find they are more responsive possibly because of the range and less hop point?
Picking relay or switch is depending on what you want out of it. Your wiring configuration or the style of the old dumb switch you want to match the room. Then go with relay.
There are way more selection for switches and I find it’s easier for installation depending on the size of your gangbox.

[Brad_Langhorst]

@Navat604

I have multiple brands of switches and relays that run locally. All you have to do is pick a genetic ST device handler for that device. Most of my Z-wave switches run on ST Z-Wave switch or dimmer and same as zigbee for ST zigbee. Some with custom device handler because local is not important and add on preferences is better for some of my needs. As for delay between local or cloud. Unless you have really slow Internet otherwise it’s not much of a delay between the two.[/QUOTE]

It really doesn’t have much to do with Internet connectivity but more due to the backend server load. The traffic from/to the cloud server is pretty trivial. I have 100/10 internet and at least with Wink, there is still a delay of several seconds.

[QUOTE]Try getting Z-WAVE plus if you are going with z-wave. I find they are more responsive possibly because of the range and less hop point?
Picking relay or switch is depending on what you want out of it. Your wiring configuration or the style of the old dumb switch you want to match the room. Then go with relay.
There are way more selection for switches and I find it’s easier for installation depending on the size of your gangbox.

I’ve got a couple of Monoprice dual relays on the way, so I may experiment with them based off your suggestions. I installed one of the single relays to control a ceiling fan over the weekend and am very impressed with how well it works.

[rdelavega (Someday my dog will be automated)]

For this solution you can pretty much go with any smart switch out there, as long as you have a neutral wire in the gang boxes. The relays would work as well.
None of my automations in ST are run locally, due to a specific device list that is allowed to run local v.s. cloud, and the speed is not noticeable than from a regular dumb switch.

[JDRoberts]

The Wink cloud has always been noticeably slower than the SmartThings cloud. Indeed, before Wink added local operations, that last was one of the main reasons people would switch from Wink to SmartThings.

Beyond that, there are some people who have recently reported that the smartthings local operation was running more slowly than the smartthings cloud operation. There are some reasons this could be possible. Just wanted to mention it.

Why latency increases when internet down

So I noticed that there is a significant lag when things run locally. Taking the ethernet out makes lights to come on with motion with 5 to 10 seconds delays. Why would that be, and is everyone else’s experience the same? My thoughts, that even locally processed, Smart Lighting still uses internet to make certain connections. Any thoughts?