Offline Lighting Control - Turn on Everything

From my understanding, the Smart Lighting app is able to run locally. What I would like to do is have a button (or multiple buttons to control separate areas) that I can place at the entrances to my home to turn on all of my the lights (and turn them off), even if the internet/smartthings service is down.

The devices in my scenario would possibly include a mixture of z-wave and zigbee devices (switches, outlets, and individual Cree Connected bulbs).

I know there is a list of devices that work offline, but I am having a tough time sorting through and finding something that would work for this. I just need something simple to improve my wife’s acceptance of outfitting all lighting in my home with smart devices, any/all ideas are greatly appreciated.

As far as the switch side you can use a GE Z-Wave switch and install it as a “dummy” switch. Then in smart lighting you can say if it turns on turn on all your lights and if it turns off turn them all off.

As for the lights look in your account at whats currently running locally (account.smartthings.com under My Devices) and go from there.

The minimote is supposed to work locally, but unfortunately right now it appears that the stock device handler is broken, and of course only the stock handler can run locally. Hopefully they will get that fixed soon and then it might be one possibility.

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If the Sylvania dimming switch official device type handler runs locally, it might be an even better choice as it looks more natural on the wall. It’s becoming very popular in the community since the price has dropped.

https://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-Smart-Dimming-Switch-Formerly/dp/B0196M620Y

There are also a couple of Z wave battery operated switches which should work with the generic Z wave switch type. You wouldn’t get all the features of the device, but if you just want on/off it should be OK.

The Amazon product description for the following says it say “plug in” but it’s not. It’s battery-operated.

https://www.amazon.com/Ecolink-Z-Wave-Automated-Lighting-TLS-ZWAVE5/dp/B0716YVRCV/

Again, remember that you will have to use the stock device type handlers for these if you want them to run locally, you can’t use any custom code.

Thanks for the info. Is there somewhere that I can search to find if a device is able to use the generic switch type or is it something like using the GE bulb type on a Cree bulb where I can try setting a battery operated, z-wave compatible switch manually to the generic type to make it work offline?

You can just try changing it manually. In most cases, as long as the device supports the commandset for “binary switch” it will work with the generic on/off DTH.

You can see what command sets any certified Z wave device support by checking its entry on Z Wave alliance site:

https://products.z-wavealliance.org

You guys are awesome! Thanks again for the help!

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