I’m not quite savvy enough but I believe this communicates via the main line rather than another protocol like Zigbee or Z-Wave, right? I’m assuming this is not possible to integrate into SmartThings, but hoping the experts here can confirm.
(Ideally, I’m looking to replace some rocker switches in my house with something that could work with physical lines in the room in addition to automation throughout the house, but something that could still do a little bit of something if the internet or ST hub goes down).
This is similar to a powerline system, it’s sending pulse waves over your existing electrical wires to the receiving device.
The UPB powerline communication method consists of transmitting digitally encoded information over the electrical powerline as a series of precisely timed electrical pulses (called UPB Pulses) that are superimposed on top of the normal AC power waveform (sine wave).
There are lots of ways to do a “little bit of something” if the Internet or the SmartThings hub are not available, it just depends on the details of what you want.
For example, HomeKit operates locally for everything except voice control, and the voice control can be done by cellular if needed. So if you only choose devices which work with both HomeKit and SmartThings, you can still have operation even when smartthings isn’t working. There’s a list of devices that can work with both in the community – created wiki. It’s not a long list, but there are some:
Alternatively, you can do some things with Z wave direct Association, which, once set up, will work even if you get rid of the Hub altogether. It’s a good choice for virtual three-way switches all within one hop of each other. But again it depends on the exact details of what you need.
If you find yourself really attracted to the powerline kind of solutions, you might look into Insteon instead of SmartThings.
There are some other options as well, but again it all comes down to the details.
But there’s a reason that most home automation has moved away from the X 10/Insteon/powerline options to wireless radio frequency instead. The powerline options are not as reliable as they generally claim, and you are really restricted in both coverage and device type. But choice is good. If it works for you, that’s what matters.
Thanks for yet another details thought-provoking response, @JDRoberts.
It’s probably meant for another thread (since I wanted this topic to be about this particular brand in case others happened to need to search for it), but I was mostly curious whether I could replace switches in my house to connect them to my SmartThings hub in order to automate things, though it seems like the ones that were available a year or two ago are no longer produced. I wasn’t sure whether this would have been a solution and if it would have worked had my internet or my ST hub had gone out.
If you are in the US, there are many different networked light switches that you can use with SmartThings. Like most electronics, there is a fairly common evolution with some models being discontinued in other new models being introduced pretty much all the time.
I wonder if perhaps you are referring to the Leviton switches that had two buttons in a single gang format? That particular model is discontinued last year and there really isn’t anything similar on the market. But the current alternative is to instead using in wall micro that can handle two buttons and connect it to a nonnetworked switch to give the same end result.
Those devices will still work for the circuit branch to which they are connected even if the Internet is down.
Another alternative is the Lutron Caseta system with their pico auxiliaries. Those will work locally even if the SmartThings hub is not working.
The only things that stop working altogether without access to the SmartThings cloud are some of the “button controllers” which have multiple buttons but which do require the SmartThings in order to process the messages.
If you could be a little more specific about exactly what the use case is that you are concerned about, perhaps starting that in a new thread under projects, then maybe we can help figure out if there’s a device that would work for you.
I was looking to replace a few single rocker and double rocker switches like this:
With something that can be connected to SmartThings. I can always put a relay behind the switch, but I figured it would be neat to have a single button or double button “switch” which could communicate with my Hub and also still toggle the power to whatever is wired into them from behind. I liked the idea of a connected button instead of a switch so that, if the device is turned on via ST, it doesn’t mismatch the switch.
If I understand this comment correctly, you won’t have an issue as all of the network switches are momentary devices anyway. They don’t lock into up for on and down for off. Instead, you press up for on and then the device returns to the center resting position. Or you press down for off and then the device returns to the center resting position. But it’s always resting in the center, so it doesn’t get out of sync in that sense. Even the toggle switches do that.
I may have to end up using micro relays behind existing switches because going from the rocker to a traditional toggle like that definitely won’t pass the WAF here. Or I just wait it out for a 2-button switch similar to Leviton VRCS2-MRZ (RIP!).
Sorry if that wasn’t clear, the traditional rocker format is actually more popular for zwave switches. Again, the switch rests in the neutral position, but it’s less obvious with the rockers. There are a number of different brand that sells the rocker style.
Or I just wait it out for a 2-button switch similar to Leviton VRCS2-MRZ (RIP!).
