Wall Keypads?

Is there anything similar to the wall keypads insteon offers:
http://www.insteon.com/wall-keypads

Available for Smartthings?

Not at the present time. Many people have asked for one. Last I heard, @tyler was looking into some possibilities, but nothing specific yet.

What specific use case are you hoping to solve?

This 7 Button Z-Wave scene controller works fine, despite the messages that reflected various past issues.

It is not an “officially supported certified device”… Yet.

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I have two of the Enerwaves, and they work… but I wouldn’t say fine… they have some issues with waking up. Sometimes I need to press the buttons multiple times for them to activate the scene. I do like them-- they look nice and match my Jasco devices perfectly. Maybe it’s just a software thing— as mentioned above, they are not officially supported.
If they were more responsive, I’d probably add 6 more to my system.
Chris

Currently hypothesizing that a “good” Z-Wave network will very likely minimize the observed issues (ie, not a software problem). See the recent new messages in the Enerwave 7 Topic thread.

Terry:
Thanks!
Chris

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I am still planning my install. The room I want to start with is the family room where there are currently 3 different circuits for interior lights, two of which are multiway switches; 1 switch for exterior patio lights, and 1 switch for the fireplace. However, these switches are located all over the room. There is no single location where you can control all of the interior lights.

The idea for one of these keypads is that it could be placed at the entry to the room and ought to be able to accomplish these tasks:
-should be able to provide a way to control each of the 4 lighting circuits and the fireplace
-have an “all off” button that would turn off everything
-have a “TV mode” button that would set the lights on the 4 lighting circuits for TV viewing (porch off, lights over bar off, light at the landing of the stairs off, recessed lights along perimeter of room dimmed down).

I’m getting the impression though, that I’d probably do better to just use some cheap android tablets to do all this since it seems you can get them for $70-$100 vs these keypads for $50?

Or perhaps even iPads. Expensive, but I use them in my business and have 6 iPad minis that I will be replacing with new models when the next mini comes out. So, maybe what I need to be looking for is a nice system to put docks in the walls for a lot of mini iPads or tablets, or just leave mini iPads or tablets all over the house?

If you already have the iPads then reusing them as control centers, probably with the very popular smarttiles would make a lot of sense. Many people really like this option.

http://www.smarttiles.click

There are just a few things to keep in mind.

First, when using a tablet control center, there still has to be some smart device that’s actually controlling each light. This could be a smart switch, or a smart bulb.

Second, the tablet control centers work best for adults. If you have children under eight, even as visitors, then the tablet control centers may not work as well for them.

Third, and this is obviously an edge case, but it happens to be one that affects me: service dogs can’t use tablet control centers. But then, they would have trouble with the insteon type multibutton switch as well.

So as with many things, it just comes down to your particular needs. But the tablet control centers, whether with a cheap android tablet or a repurposed iPad, are a good choice for many people.

There’s even a topic in the forums just for people to discuss the various mounting options they’ve used for tablet control centers. Some very cool ideas. :sunglasses:

Sounds like you have 7 “Scenes” in mind.

So the alternative to a tablet or old phone as touchscreen, you can use any working 7 or 8 Button Controller.

The USB rechargeable Aeon Minimote has 4 Buttons, each has a “held” mode (like shift) giving you 8 scenes. Not bad to velcro to a convenient location. Or get 2, if you label them.

The Enerwave SCN-7 is line powered with no relay, so it fits in a lightswitch box, but you need to bypass the switch and have a Neutral wire at the switch. I use one with Hue and GE Link bulbs. This controller looks nice, but is not yet confirmed stable, and not on SmartThings supported list (but a lot of Devices are not on the list).

If 7 scenes is all you require, that second option is very tempting. Just hard to know if you have the wiring available.

At our house, we find the fact that there are 4 buttons on a Minimote but none of them are labeled make them useful for people who live here, but not helpful for guests and workers. The wallmount tablet seems to work better for guests.

Another option we haven’t mentioned yet is the amazon Echo’s voice control. This has become the primary method for lighting control in our house: everybody likes it. We posted one sign with the various commands, but things like kitchen are pretty intuitive anyway.

More options in the following topic:

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