Product recommendation needed - Local Knob/Button to control dimming of lights

[timmyt (Tim)]

Looking for a button with a knob that can be used to control lighting brightness. I have this Aeotec button which works great but I wish it rotated as well to control the brightness.

Something like this but SmartThings-compatible locally without having to connect to some cloud service. Haven’t found anything yet.

[JDRoberts]

1. You can get local integration with a hue bridge, and then through that bridge Get local integration with a couple of different buttons if that’s of any interest. Some use rotation, some use press and hold. The official hue integration doesn’t do it, but there is a communitycreated edge Driver which does:

[ST Edge] Philips Hue LAN [BETA]

The driver supports the discovery of Philips Hue Hubs on your local network as well as devices that are connected. Here are the top level features: Features: Import Rooms and Zones defined in the Hue app and allow group level control. No more popcorn effect Import individual lights Import motion sensors along with temperature and illuminance Import switches, buttons and rotary dials Access to scenes defined in the Hue app for use with rooms/zones Access to circadian lighting “smart scenes” from the Hue app Access to lighting effects (candle, fire, etc) for use with individual lights (needs to be enabled in hub settings) Access to alerts/blinking for use in notification automations. This can only run for 15 second intervals due to the design within Hue. Works with rooms/zones/lights (ne…

I’m not sure exactly which models it can bring in through this method. @blueyetisoftware is the author, so should be able to say more.

1a) the new 2022 Philips Hue Tap button offers control by rotation, but again, I don’t know if it works with smartthings integrations or if it just serves as a parallel means of control.

Philips Hue Wall Tap Dial Light Switch, Installation-Free, Smart Home,...

1b);At our house, we use the Lutron Aurora rotating dial buttons with a hue bridge and are really happy with them, but since we don’t have a smartthings hub, we can’t use edge drivers. So for us, they are a parallel means of control for devices connected to the hue bridge, and they also show up in Apple home. Very intuitive for guests. But again, I don’t know if they are included in that particular edge Driver, they don’t show up in the official SmartThings/Hue integration.

Lutron Aurora Smart Bulb Dimmer Switch | for Philips Hue Smart Bulbs |...

2. IKEA used to have a rotating dial button that worked with smartthings, but they discontinued it in favor of a press and hold type. So I don’t know if that works for you or not. It does allow you to control dimming, but it may not be as intuitive for guests.

What country are you in? The device selection does vary somewhat, although a Zigbee Device should work in most regions. But the warranty might not be valid.

[blueyetisoftware]

Thanks @JDRoberts . The driver should support all of the buttons, switches and dials supported by the Hue hub. It also supports the ZGP devices that use kinetic energy.

[blueyetisoftware]

For the rotation piece, you would still need to connect the brightness to the light on the Hue side. ST doesn’t have a way to send incremental dimmer changes to a light in an automation.

[JDRoberts]

@blueyetisoftware

For the rotation piece, you would still need to connect the brightness to the light on the Hue side. ST doesn’t have a way to send incremental dimmer changes to a light in an automation.

I may be mistaken, but is there a way to synchronize two Dimmers? (trendsetter used to let you do this along time ago, but I know it’s not part of the new Architecture.)

Historically, that’s a method which has been used for controlling a dimmer with a rotating button.

Additionally, you definitely used to be able to use the rotating IKEA button to set dim levels, but that might have been a parallel means of control using direct Zigbee binding. @Automated_House might know more, I think he had one of those IKEA devices.

[Automated_House (Jimmy aka SmartThingsBeat)]

@JDRoberts

Additionally, you definitely used to be able to use the rotating IKEA button to set dim levels, but that might have been a parallel means of control using direct Zigbee binding. @Automated_House might know more, I think he had one of those IKEA devices.

The rotating ikea remote showed in SmartThings as a dimmer and then you use Smart Lighting mirroring to control whichever light.

[timmyt (Tim)]

Hmm I’ve avoided the Hue thing for a while because of the need for a hub but it looks like it has some good features and that Wall Tap Dial Switch looks like exactly what I need. And Edge is the new driver format that hasn’t been deprecated right? Thanks everyone, I think I may jump into the Hue system.

[blueyetisoftware]

I’ve been thinking about offering up something like this in the driver. It’s on the list. Probably a setting for the dial device.

[blueyetisoftware]

The main drawback is that you couldn’t set it up in Hue without having the possibility for inconsistent values. The dial doesn’t maintain a “current” value in the Hue api, so there is nothing to sync with. I’d have to maintain one on my own and there is no guarantee it would match the brightness of the associated lights in Hue.