[OBSOLETE] GE Motion Switch (26931) and Motion Dimmer (26933)

Using the code on my example just fills in the devices (which are unique to my environment) as generics. You first have to add the devices in your SmartThings to WebCore then they can be used in your pistons.

I would do this:

Create a new piston
Create an “IF” condition
Choose a way to determine day from night in your environment (light sensor, mode, etc).
If the “Then” (for Day) area you set the switch to Occupancy
In the “Else” (Night) area you set the switch to Vacant

WebCore is a rather complicated app, but in its simpliest form, it is a simple, IF THEN ELSE set of conditions. If you can say it with word (I want to turn lights on in the day, off at night) then you should be able to translate that to a piston.

I hope that is helpful.

All,

I upgraded the dimmer to 1.0.3. This simple update changes the setLevel option to a ‘boolean’ on/off instead of a pull down. If you upgrade, you will need to toggle then save the settings for this to take affect.

The switch version remains at 1.0.2.

Enjoy!

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This is amazing- thank you MichaelS!!!

I recently purchased a new home, and after having such a good experience with the 1st gen GE/Jasco switches in my prior home, I went all in on these new motion switches and installed 15 of them among ~50 other switches I replaced as part of my project.

Needless to say I jumped in before reading, not realizing how many compatibility issues there were with ST. Long story short after countless hours troubleshooting and trying all the other DTHs out there, I returned all but 4 in hopes that a new one would come out. So from a very frustrated but determined ST things user, thank you (to you and the community) for putting this out.

That said, here is a question: My motion switches in use are in single pole locations. On all the other DTHs I tried, when I attached these to an accessory switch they would lock up. Can anyone verify for me that they have success with use of 1 or more accessory switches? (Same switch locations with any other model works- just not the motion ones).

Sorry for the long post, but I was genuinely excited that these now work. Having these types of switches with motion really help in making it a true smart home as opposed to a remote controlled one. No more battery replacement nonsense or custom wiring.

Thanks. When you say single pole you mean one switch controls one light. Not multiple switches controlling one light (like a long hallway)? Or vise versa?

Either way if you use the GE slave switches (cheaper) these devices work great with the DTH. Ironically the DTH has nothing to do with that…you just have to use the 4th wire on the switch(traveller).

Let me know if I am misunderstanding as I am out and about and doing this on my phone.

Not sure if this is a problem with the DTH or not, but here’s the problem I run into:
I configured the motion diiimmer to Occupancy mode to have it automatically turn the lights on and off when I move through the space. I have also activated the override for double-down to Manual mode, in case I want to temporarily override the mode.

However, as soon as the light automatically turns off due to Occupancy mode, it will switch into Manual mode. I checked the device logs and it seems like that Occupancy mode always sends two button presses (both when turning the light on as well as when turning the light off), causing it to trigger the Manual override.

Am I doing something wrong? Is this a bug in the hardware of the switch? Or is there a bug in the DTH?

@daba

While I know it will sound like ego of the developer to say it isn’t the app, this is the exact way I use it and I don’t see what you are seeing. I just tested it to make sure I exactly duplicated your experience. Here is what I did:

  • Made sure the primary mode was Occupancy
  • I made sure the double tap for “down” was set to manual
  • I entered and left the room multiple times. and cycled the light. The room stayed in occupancy each time
  • I double tapped the bottom button, and it went to manual mode
  • I entered and left the room and it did NOT turn on the light

I did look at the activity log and I didn’t realize that automatic action of the switch was interpreted as a physical push. The WOULD explain that if you light was inadvertently sending the off signal twice it would be interpreted as a double push. However, that IS NOT normal behavior as I have seen in any of my switches. Do you have multiple switches in your house to see if this is normal?

The other thing I have been thinking about is that even a physical push of twice might sometimes be a mistake and I have thought of changing this to a ‘triple push’. However, let me know if this is reproducible every single time and with every switch you have. Of course, make sure you have the latest version of the DTH.

Thanks!

@ MichaelSMICHEALSmartThings Published Contributor

([RELEASE] GE Z-wave Motion Switch (26931) and Motion Dimmer (26933))

I am currently interested in the 26933 and 26931 models both, but I have a strange Room setup and thus several questions about the products would you be willing to advise me?
Either here or via separate messaging service, if so please let me know your preferred method, “of communication service”. I could definitely use some guidance.

Thanks in advance ,
Phatboyj

You should ask the questions here so other community members can benefit. More than likely, your use case will be in someone else’s house as well.

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Hello,

I am having trouble getting the GE Smartswitch Motion dimmer to join my network. I have tried so many different ways in Classic and new smarthings app i forget exactly.

At some point in one of the apps (i think new ST but not sure) it showed up as a Multichannel device. I think I concluded it wasn’t recognized properly and deleted it and have not been able to join it since.

I have airgapped it (pull out, then push in air gap while holding up button for under 4 seconds, i dont see any LED to confirm ready for pairing. Some time later i recall some blue light flashing but this was not right after the air gap.

Clearly i am doing something incorrectly. Any advice? I know there is some work to do after it’s joined but seems i even have trouble with this 1st step.

EDIT: No idea how but frustrated I went to do something else… came back a few hours later and it was sitting there staring at me in ST Classic.

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Are you using my DTH? Either way it should work. Many times the device pairs and it doesn’t show up in the classic app until you add it to the room. I would recommend the following:

Reboot the hub, and reboot your phone to clear everything out. In addition you should reset the switch (Press and release the top button ten times.) before doing any of this.

I have noticed MANY devices (not just these) having difficulty joining. However, many have had good luck rebooting everything and immediately attempting a join.

Honestly i wish i knew what i did to make it work.

Planning to buy a couple more motion dimmers and knowing what i did to make it work and hence having more certainty i can get them to work would be nice.

For the one i have working the DTH is working nicely (in classic ST, not in modern ST), great being able to set the steps/intervals and all the other settings from ST. For some other device i use Z-wave tweaker but requires switching the DTH temporarilly. Yours giving permanent access to the settings is great.

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I’m having the same “double push” issue as the poster above. My logs show that it stopped detecting motion, 5 minutes later, a double off push was triggered, sending the unit to vacancy (my double off event). Is there a way to easily fix this? I haven’t ventured into the dth code but I’m guessing I can just find the double off section and change it to triple push?

What automation do you have that triggers this outside of the switch? You are correct…there is a ‘timing’ piece of the DTH you would have to adjust and build for the triple push. However, if you are not having any sort of automation do the ‘push’ and it appears to be an artifact of just how the switch works, then I can easily make an update to allow for a triple click. However, none of my switches do this, so I am curious if it is a different type of switch, or that something else is causing it.

EDIT: I went through my house and DID find that this does happen on one of my rooms…I am making a modification to the code and should have it published by the end of this week! Thanks for letting me know others are seeing this!

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No other automation set up other than motion detection and auto on/off. I haven’t had much time to fiddle with my St setup.

Ok. Updated the DTH and will be testing tonight. Hopefully release the new version by the end of the week.

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Got it. will be testing it as well. Family are in the room with the 26933 unit so I’ll have to check back later.

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Hi everybody,

Is there a way to use automations/routines to change the mode of a motion switch? e.g. certain times of the day i may want it to work as ‘Occupancy’ but others times as ‘Off (Ignore motion)’.

Yes…I do this with ALL of my switches, making them change modes based on either the mode of the house or time of day. Basically, you could use WebCore where you can change the state of the switch using if/then statements. I also believe Room Manager will give you this same control.

Let me know if that helps…

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I’m having issues getting the DHT to actually control anything thought the ST Classic app. I am able to install the device, then switch from Z-Wave Device Multichannel I’ve added and published from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MichaelStruck/SmartThingsPublic/master/devicetypes/michaelstruck/ge-motion-switch-26931.src/ge-motion-switch-26931.groovy. Once switched i do get the updated panel, but I’m unable to control the device and nothing shows when the device status changes (occupancy, on/off,…). Any help would be appreciated.

Do automatons work with the device? In other words, can it be turned on and off via any of the SmartLighting or WebCore.

I regularly see what you see in all devices…I am able to turn on the lights via the app, but the updating of the interface sometimes doesn’t happen until after I leave the device and then turn it back on. Are you saying it doesn’t change at all, or show motion? The DTH typically isn’t the cause of this, especially if the programming interface (automations) can control the device. Have you cleared the cache of your app on your phone? I have seen weird things happen when you change DTHs and don’t clear the cache, but that really shouldn’t happen. Outside of removing and re-adding the device with the DTH being the initial configuration, I am not sure what to do with this…especially if they other devices work well in your environment. I just tried this with mine and it works well…especially when registering motion in real time.