Recommendation for dimmer (Germany)

I am currently searching for a dimmer that is being connected to 230V and can control/dim 3x E27 LED bulbs. The bulbs are dimmable but not smart LED so this is why I need a zigbee dimmer.
The electrical installation including E27 socket has already been finished.
So the dimmer only needs L and N output and should be for LED (=non flickering).
Any ideas?

What country are you in? The device selection does vary.

Also, do you have a SmartThings hub, and if so which one?

What wattage are the bulbs? That is, what is the total load? Often flickering occurs because the total load is too low, in which case you may have to add a bypass device.

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Germany and of course I have a smartthings hub. isn’t this forum the reason for people having questions about smartthings?

Wattage per led is around 3 watts if they are on 100%. so max 9 watts all in all.

This is indeed the forum for people using the Samsung SmartThings home automation platform, but you can do that without having a hub. Since everyone who has a Samsung smart appliance or smart television is using smartthings now, it’s likely that less than 15% of smartthings customers now have a hub.

I myself had a hub up until about 2019, but have been operating in a “hub optional“ mode since then. I do use Smartthings, I don’t have a hub.

There are lots of cloud to cloud integrations and Wi-Fi devices which will work just fine with smartthings without having a hub. For example Sonoff and Meross both have WiFi dimmers that work without a ST hub. So that’s why we need to ask. :sunglasses:

So which model hub do you have?

I will have a look for my model when home again but I would also go for any type of dimmer which works directly via wifi. I am glad if I can solve my problem as long as I can dim my bulbs via phone :slight_smile:

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I’m surprised you haven’t gotten any recommendations yet, but it may be that with the huge architecture transition going on everyone is a bit nervous about recommending specific hardware right now unless it already works with Edge Drivers. But since Edge Drivers are still in beta, they can be glitchy. So there’s nothing that’s really guaranteed to go smoothly right now. :thinking:

I’m going to tag @Mariano_Colmenarejo . He’s in the EU but not Germany, but he’s very familiar with the new architecture and might have a suggestion.

If you’re not aware of the planned architecture changes, here’s the community FAQ, but there’s no specific timeline yet:

FAQ: I have no idea what Edge is. Is that a new developer tool? (2022)

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oh shiat. ok then i will wait :slight_smile:

Hi @BluePicture

I don’t have zigbee or zwave dimmers in use, just smart bulbs.

There are references in the forum and a driver for Moes MS-105Z dimmer zigbee.

In zwave the Fibaro dimmer2, FGD-212, has with good references.
It has official smartthings driver and another that I adapted with more custom settings and buttons for scenes.

FIBARO FGD-212 Dimmer 2, Negro https://amzn.eu/d/cxwTHC9

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Thank you very much!

  1. Sadly I can’t use smart bulbs because I have very special retro edison bulbs in use that don’t exist as smart bulbs. And don’t you need a different app for any type of smart bulb then?

  2. Do I have to do the upgrade to “Edge” with my Smarthub For the MOES dimmer or can I use it without the update? I am scared that nothing will work after that update.

  3. Would you recommend going for zigbee or zwave?

The edge drivers are the ones that we are all going to have to use sooner rather than later.
or use Wi-Fi devices.

It is very easy to install the drivers and they work well, I already have everything with edge drivers.

I personally like zigbee more than zwave.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

Zigbee is easier to install and uninstall with the app and the network is more dynamic, in my opinion

Zwave has more customizable settings, fibaro has many settings

other users may be able to advise better on this

I have become quite disenchanted with the way smartthings implements Z wave, and they have already announced that they are not going to include zwave in the dongles they are going to release for their smart television and smart appliances. Just Zigbee and Wi-Fi. So I am afraid they just don’t have a long-term commitment to doing zwave right. I have documented the gaps I see in the current smartthings Z wave implementation.

Gaps in SmartThings’ Zwave Implementation (2022)

So at this point for anyone interested in getting new devices for smartthings this year, I would also recommend either Zigbee or Wi-Fi. It’s not that I don’t like zwave, I do, I just don’t like this particular implementation of it. The fact that we don’t even have a routing table drives me crazy.

But that’s all just my opinion, I’m sure there are people using all zwave with smartthings who love it. All I can do is ask questions, notice when I don’t get any official answers, and draw my own conclusions. :wink:

The biggest advantage that zwave has over zigbee, and the reason I use some Z wave devices in my own home, is that Wi-Fi interferes with Zigbee but not with zwave. Wi-Fi and Zigbee operate on the same frequency, zwave is a completely different band.

That means that a fixed point device, like a light switch or a doorbell, might be easier for a DIY project with Z wave because you won’t have to worry about Wi-Fi interference. But devices that can be moved around in the room to find a better location, like sensors, might be a better match to Zigbee, in particular because it has better power management.

But all of that is theoretical. The fact is, that in a smartthings set up, I think right now Zigbee or Wi-Fi is a better choice.

my personal favorite WiFi brands are Sonoff and Meross, because both have some models with excellent fire safety certification, and as a wheelchair user, fire safety is a big issue for me.

And as others may be feeling, I’m really hesitant to recommend anything for the SmartThings platform right now until the new architecture becomes more stable.

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OK guys then I would like to go for Edge. How can I update my hub to edge? I can’t find any tutorials on this. Is it already installed automatically?

Here is the smartthings tutorial on edge drivers.

If you have a v2, v3 or aeotec hub with the latest firmware they will work fine.

You just have to enroll in smartthings channel or from other shared Channel and install the driver you are going to use on your hub when you have the device to install it.

Official smartthings drivers will also be installed gradually until the transition is completed as reported in this post. Also here you can follow the discussions on the news of the transition

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As long as you have a V2 or V3 hub with uptodate firmware, it is automatically ready for Edge. The WiFi mesh model “Connect Home” unfortunately doesn’t support edge yet. :disappointed_relieved:

Smartthings Edge and code/hw requirements

After that, see the community FAQ. As. @Mariano_Colmenarejo said, basically you find the forum thread for the driver you want to use, then follow the link there to subscribe to that channel. The FAQ has more details.

FAQ: I have no idea what Edge is. Is that a new developer tool? (2022)

One of the goals for Edge was to make it much simpler for customers to install than DTHs, and I think they succeeded at that. :sunglasses:

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