New installation - 20 or so micro dimmers - advice needed

Would it be better to use the Aeon Labs dimmers or is it OK to use the Fibero 2.
I ask because the Aeon has official UK support whereas Fibero doesn’t appear to have it…

I’m considering using micro dimmers as opposed to a dedicated lighting controller. I wouldn’t normally consider Smartthings to control anything ‘mission critical’ (certainly NOT my alarm system) but the dimmers still operate from the switch when Smartthings has problems and so are OK for this application.

Any advice appreciated.

Well, if you ask me, I’ll tell you get the fibaros.

It depends on what you want to do to be honest. If you’re happy to install custom code so that the modules work as intended (very simple imo) then they work very well indeed. They are the most highly customisable module on the market once that has been done (and you just need to install one device handler, which will work with all of them).

They’re rock solid reliable, and as you say, work in their basic form without ST being involved.

But you can do so much more with them!

This is coming from someone with around 20 Fibaro Dimmer 2s in his home.

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Just for info, I have the Aeon micro switches and they have been rock solid from day 1!

Only little snag I found is response time in terms of feeding back their on/off status to Smart things when using a manual switch. Not a huge issue in most cases, however if you want to use the manual switch control function on one relay and program ST to then switch on others there is a bit of a lag.

IE I have 2x sets of under counter lights in my kitchen, controlled by 2 separate switches. I wanted to sync these up, so 2 relays installed, one on each side. If I switch one on, it could be up to 5 seconds before the other set switch on.

I am not sure if this is a feature you wanted, or if the Fibaro’s will be any different.

To be fair I think that’s a smartthings cloud delay, which would happen with any module (although 5s seems very long).

That will be part, but its known that the Aeon feed back is slow. There is a custom driver for it which helps to actualy turn on the feed back and reduces the update time. Its the only snag but other than that they have worked flawlessly and its something we don’t even notice/have got used to now!

Thanks John (and all),

Could you link to the Device handler you are using - I think I will go with the fibaros…

F

Here’s the link to @Hajar’s Fibaro Dimmer 2 Device handler (with Scene Control)

Do you know what switches you’ll be using? If it’s a new install, I would recommend momentary switches, as they make much more sense with smart lighting.

Thanks for that. I’ll give them a try.

Yes, I thought I might use Schneider Electric 10AX 2-Way Retractive Switch Modules - Momentary seems to be the way to go!

I must find out more about scene control!

F

An excellent choice, I use them myself (if this is the single push ones rather than the rocker ones).

If you go for Schneider’s ultimate grid, you can give yourself two switches per module, and use the second switch to do something else if you like. For instance, an example I often give is that I have a Z-wave bulb in a lamp in the corner of my lounge. My main light switch has the fibaro wired up to the main light with a single press momentary switch, the second switch is wired up to S2. This sends a signal to ST, which toggles the light on/off. So, effectively I have a main switch for the lamp.

Rather annoyingly, both these device handlers won’t work well to configure Fibero parameters or the smartapps using Android - only on IOS…
Maybe I can use something else to configure the dimmers and then use the smartapps to use the scenes support.

Its an issue Hajar is aware of.

I’ll log a call and see if Smartthings are interested in getting the Android client to the same standard as the IOS client…

Yes, I feel your pain as an android user.

There is a trick though. If you visit the configuration page once (just once ever) on an apple device and make a change/save it, it will then work on android devices.

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Where have people found the best price for these?

The place I found no longer sells them, I got them for around £33/unit. I’m not sure they were supposed to be selling them at that price!

Vesternet seem to do decent bulk discount, Amazon occasionally do 4 for 3.

It’s worth a call to smaller places if you’re buying a few.

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Just ordered 8 from vesternet.

Im sure if I shopped around I may have found a price a couple of quid per unit cheaper, but they seem to crop up a lot on discussions and their wiring diagrams they have freely available have helped me a lot as they are a bit more user friendly than the fibaro ones. For the help those diagrams have provided in my testing and wiring up I thought it fair I place some business with them.

In total I will be doing up to 60 circuits controlled either by relays or dimmers, so if my first round of installation goes OK, I will be back to them for more.

At £33 a unit it sounds like you got a bargain - perhaps you put them under :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

However, if somebody makes a z-wave wall switch and or plug socket that comes in a range that looks like the lightwave RF ones, then they will make a killing from me alone.

These in Z-wave please somebody!!

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