Smooth stepless ZigBee wireless dimmer

Devices & Integrations
1

I’d like to be able to dim bedroom lights with a ZigBee wireless remote.
I have previously experimented with IKEA remotes and various drivers. My last experiment was in a different room and used a group and setting stepped up or down dimming in increments for each keypress. I gave up on this because the lag was terrible, maybe 5 to 10 seconds for each dimming step and not usable.

Are there any devices or driver’s that manage to provide something close to an analog dimmer? Bulbs are likely to be IKEA white spectrum bulbs but I would consider alternatives if that cracked the problem. I have no zwave devices so don’t want to introduce z wave but if there is a matter solution I’d consider that too.

2

I’m not sure if I completely understood your use case, but I think so. I’ve become a huge fan of Inovelli’s Blue Series switches (Zigbee). They can be configured as an on/off switch or a dimmer, and can be used in neutral/non-neutral wiring situations. Their devices are also highly configurable, including dimming preferences. Perhaps being able to adjust the dimming speed and ramp rate will reduce that lag you’re experiencing?

image
image401×566 75.6 KB

I have recently replaced all my old GE/Jasco devices for these, and I’ll soon be replacing my GE/Jasco fan switches with their new Zigbee fan switch. I couldn’t be happier with these devices.

On a side note, we also love the LED bar size and notifications it can be configured to perform (flashing, pulses, colors, etc.). We have a case where one of our parents can’t hear very well, so we configure the LED to pulse green whenever the phone rings so she can be alerted to someone calling, and we also flash it red if a smoke detector triggers.

1 Like
3

There are several twist dial zigbee devices on the market, but most of them don’t work with smartthings.

For example, in my own home, we use a lot of the Lutron Aurora dimmers, which work with a hue bridge to control devices connected to that bridge. These work great, and are very intuitive for visitors, but don’t connect directly to smartthings. :thinking:

image
image1200×800 60.4 KB

Somebody has an edge driver for one of the Tuya devices of this type, called a “smart knob” and sold under multiple brand names, including Moes.

Here’s the link to the edge driver that is working with some of the smart knob models. However, @dennis mentions below that that edge driver does not support the rotational functionality, which is what you would want for this use case. You can get the rotational functionality, but you would have to buy a Tuya hub and connect cloud to cloud.

[ST Edge] Zigbee Driver for MOES 4-Button Scene Switch (TS004F) Plus Some Smart Knob Models

Rotary functions are notoriously difficult to integrate with other platforms, for example, the Hue tap dial switch only integrates the four tap buttons, not the rotating dial, in its integrations, even with HomeKit. Again, you can use it as a parallel means of control with smartthings if you have a hue bridge. But only to control devices connected to that hue bridge.

https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Hue-Switch-Installation-Free-Exclusively/dp/B0B6LLKHTM/

So if you have hue bridge-controlled lights connected to a Hue bridge there are several nice rotary dial devices that give Great dimming Control, including the Lutron Aurora and the Hue tap dial. As I mentioned, I use these in my own home and they work well for visitors.

But if you want to control devices that are not connected to a hue bridge in a smartthings set up, the only one I know of that’s working right now is the Tuya smart knob, and you would need a tuya hub for that. So structurally, it’s similar to the devices that work with the hue bridge, but the advantages that you can bring it into smartthings and use it in smartthings routines.

Hopefully others will post if they know of other similar devices that are working. :thinking:

4

Thanks, as usual I thought I’d made post clear but now realise I could have been clearer, apologies for the confusion
Specifically I’m looking for a wireless dimmer (battery powered) that will control smart bulbs in bedside lamps.
A wall switch dimmer with dumb bulbs won’t work for me because the lamps are plugged into a standard socket and I want the control on my bedside not on the wall.

1 Like
5

No worries, I didn’t pick it up in your first sentence about the wireless part. I think JD’s reply was more appropriate.

2 Likes
6

There currently isn’t a driver for Moes Zigbee knob that supports the stepping rotational turns for proportional light dimming. The only way to get that functionality from the Moes rotary switch is to use the Moes Tuya Zigbee Hub gateway and connect cloud-to-cloud from Tuya to SmartThings. But who would want to buy a hub/bridge gateway for only one device?

1 Like
7

Tuya hubs are very cheap. $10 -15 US with free shipping on AliExpress.

1 Like
8

Very true, those hubs are dirt cheap. :slightly_smiling_face: I guess it comes down to personal preference and if you don’t mind being reliant on the cloud to control your lights. Forgot to mention, that if you’re lucky enough to get a knob with the fingerprint already added to erickv’s driver, then you might be able to use the Smart lighting “Sync with switch” function - which will do exactly what you’re looking for.

9

Thanks jd, the moes controller looks interesting. The photos appear to make it look quite large although the stated diameter is 40mm which seems smaller than it photographs. I’ve read the very long 290+ post thread for the driver and there appears to be some suggestion that it can work in conjunction with the smart lighting app. I wonder how reactive it is and the response time etc. and if it’s truly stepless or does it jump up in bands.

10

The cost of a tuya hub wouldn’t put me off, but I’d hate the nuisance of having to maintain it for basically two bulbs, and the bulbs themselves would have to be on the tuya hub too. I’m kinda keen on the IKEA white spectrum ones as they are fairly bright and you can change the colour temp, and work well with smartthings

11

Tuya hubs work with many non-Tuya Zigbee 3.0 products. I don’t know about Ikea bulbs

1 Like
12

Hi @Declankh

I use a fibaro keyfob and I have button 5 for -15% steps and button 6 for +15% steps, with 3 bulbs in each routine and it works perfectly without any delay.

There is no need to create a group, as smartthings light groups work in the cloud.

If you use zigbee light multifunction Mc driver, you can create a group within the driver and manage the group of lights with a child virtual device locally from the driver.
This is faster than smartthings groups because only one command is generated to activate the routine and the driver manages all the lights in the group directly and everything is local.

3 Likes
13

Thanks @Mariano_Colmenarejo
I have already tried this, a group within the driver
With this method the lag is typically around 4 seconds for each dimming routine to complete on a key press , sometimes longer.
If I wanted to dim 3 steps it could take up to 20 seconds.

14

Hi,

That is not normal, or you have many devices and drivers and the hub and your zigbee network are saturated or I don’t understand it

15

SmartThings web interface list 117 devices but some of these are virtual devices and some are cloud integrated devices like scenes imported from smart life.
There are 4 bulbs in the group, I have a separate IKEA button I have used to switch them on and off. It’s also using to mirror control group to switch the lights on and off. This is also a little laggy but not as much as the dimming routine, maybe a 2 second delay.

I don’t think my hub is overloaded, it’s predominantly lightbulbs with about 6 temp sensors, about 6 or 7 motion sensors, and a few zigbee light switches.

The ikea bulbs were a bit faster prior to migration to edge drivers, which is reverse of what I expected

IMG_0091
IMG_00911334×188 92.6 KB