[OBSOLETE] Synchronized Dimming: a many-to-many Dim With Me

This is a simple app that synchronizes multiple dimmers, such that any one dimmer changing will change all of them. It differs from Dim With Me in that no virtual dimmer device is necessary to tie multiple dimmers together bidirectionally.

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Michael-

I just tried this app. I immediately had the issue of my lights ā€œping-pongingā€ back and forth.

Just wondering if you still had that issue (I did see that you had some code to avoid it). It could certainly be some other part of my overall setup.

Thanks,
Tony

Iā€™m not seeing it myself anymore. Does the code on the experimental branch of that repository solve the problem? If so, Iā€™ll merge it to master.

Thanks,
Michael

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Iā€™ll try it and see. Thanks!

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Iā€™m pretty newb to ST. This was exactly what I was looking for, but doesnā€™t work for me. I have a kitchen light dimmer and a bar light dimmer that I was hoping I could make either dimmer also control the other. When I tried this it was doing all kinds of strange things.

Also Iā€™m guessing itā€™s by design that itā€™s going to dim the light on itā€™s circuit first, then when you let go the other one will be set to the same level. I donā€™t know if thereā€™s a way to make them both dim simultaneously, which is unfortunate because itā€™s a little harder know how dim/bright you want it without them both dimming at the same time.

If youā€™re still looking, can you try the experimental branch in github? There were some issues with lights ping-ponging, but Iā€™ve been running on experimental for a while and itā€™s been working 100% of the time for me. If it also works for you, Iā€™ll merge it into master and declare it not-experimental-anymore.

Iā€™ve been using this app but am running into trouble with the so called ā€˜ping-pongingā€™, Iā€™m using two Homeseer Dimmers WD100ā€™s. Any thoughts on how to reduce this? Thanks.

I was hoping for more feedback on experimental, but Iā€™ve gone ahead and merged it into master. Hopefully it works better for everyone - it does for me! Try reinstalling the smartapp in the SmartThings console with the latest code.

I am new to all of this and github, Etc. I copied your code as raw and pasted it into my smartapps, then published it. I can set it up on my phone but none of the lights dim together but they do turn on and off together. I am using the GE bulbs. I am sure it is an ID10T error on my part so any help is welcome.

@quantiletree - Thank you for sharing your smartapp. I am wondering whether you know why there is a long delay when turning things on and off while dimming is nearly instantaneous. I took a video showing the issue. Also, my intent was to turn the sink light on / off / dim up / dim down the sink light along with the kitchen light however I would like to be able to control the sink light without affecting the kitchen light so that I can have the sink light on by itself. Right now if I turn on the sink light, the kitchen light goes on as well.

Itā€™s possible that your lights are reporting ā€œlevelā€ events only after they finish dimming, while the on/off events are reported instantly. If thatā€™s the case, thereā€™s not much to be done, since the delay is between the device and SmartThings.

This dimming app is many-to-many, meaning that changing any light in the group will change all of the others to match as well. It sounds like youā€™re looking for a one-to-many automation, where your kitchen light controls your sink light, but your sink light doesnā€™t control your kitchen light. For this use case, you may be able to use a standard SmartThings lighting automation instead.

Actually the issue is the other way around. My lights all dim together with little to no delay. When I turn them on or off then there is a 4 or 5 seconds delay.

I tried Dim With Me written by @twack but it only turns the slave light on/off and doesnā€™t dim the slave light at all. The delay using this other smartapp is between 1 and 2 seconds. I did ensure to list my Fibaro Dimmer 2 as a slave dimmer and not switch.

Hi,
I tried both the Main and Experimental branches. Both have the ping ponging effect. I am using WD100+ and a Hue smart bulb. How can we fix?

Iā€™m experiencing the same behavior. Iā€™m using an OSRAM LIGHTIFY A19 bulb and a Linear Z-Wave 3-Way Wall Accessory Switch (WT00Z-1) and would like to keep the switch and bulb in sync with each other. I rarely dim either device; the vast majority of the time Iā€™m only turning the devices on or off.

I get the occasional ping-pong effect pretty regularly. Not every time, but Iā€™d say probably a third of the time. The ping-ponging happens with all of the events (setLevel, on, and off).

There is an easier way to do this if you are using Amazon echo. Within the Alexa application, simply create a group that includes the wall switch and your always on sink light. You can name this group whatever you like, ā€œKitchen Lights.ā€ Eliminate the smart app that links them together. You would want to rename your switch that runs to four can lights to something different than the group name.

Example:

Smarththings -
ā€œSink Lightā€ = Sink light
"Kitchen Cans" = 4 can lights in kitchen

Amazon Alexa App-
Group name - ā€œKitchen Lightsā€ (which includes ā€œSink Lightā€ and ā€œKitchen Cansā€

ā€œAlexa, turn on Kitchen Lightsā€ = They will all turn on

ā€œAlexa, dim Kitchen Lights to 30%ā€ = They will all dim.

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@Varmint - In my automations I try to retain consistecy across methods of doing something so I wanted Alexa, ST app and the physical dimmer switch to all operate the same way. With this smarapp I have achieved this but I still have a couple issues. One consistent issue is that there is a very long delay between the main lights and the sink light and the other is an occasional ping pong where the lights go on and off as they are both chasing each other. I really donā€™t care to turn my main lights on if I turn the sink light on (if anything I would actually prefer it did not so I can still have just the sink light on) and if the smart app was written to control light B based on light A and not vice versa then it would also not ping pong.

I am exploring CoRE now but I canā€™t figure out how to do it. I will research it as soon as I get some time.

I am sorry to report that the smartapp doesnā€™t work for me neither.

When I tried to turn off the lights, they flash like Christmas tree decorations. Didnā€™t know how to stop that, eventually I resorted to rebooting the hub.

Thatā€™s a shame, a feature like this is badly needed.

Its like a dance party in my kitchen right now. :joy: Is there a way to make it so I can set a delay so they donā€™t ping pong so much.

Alright, clearly I need to take a look at this SmartApp and figure out whatā€™s triggering thisā€¦ itā€™s odd that Iā€™m not seeing it in my own home, but that could be because Iā€™m using it to synchronize another device type I wrote (Caseta dimmers), so I donā€™t have to deal with the weirdness some devices have with their level and setLevel events. Iā€™m pretty swamped over the next few days, but hopefully I can revisit this over the next week.

Hi, Iā€™ve been looking for away to control a Hue LightStrip from a wall switch (power on/off and dimming only) and this seemed to be a fantastic option as I could tie the main control to my wall mounted Caseta switch. It works fabulously from within the SmartThings app (virtually) but is unresponsive when controlled directly from the wall switch (physically). Turning the physical switch on/off or dimming has no effect on the Hue controller. Toggling the dimmer and switching virtually from ST itself works everytime with a millisecond delay between the two devices. Am I doing something wrong or is this the wrong application for this? Thanks.