Hi,
A follow-up question to the above.
Has anyone ever connected a Dimmer 2 so it is only used to control another device via direct association. ie. no load across the output. I can only get it to work when there is also a load connected to the Dimmer 2 and calibration has taken place. I want to just use it as transmitter device and not control anything on the same circuit.
If not possible, how would I get a load on the dimmer 2? Would a Bypass 2 at the transmitting Dimmer 2 help here?
Paging @anon36505037 - any idea on the above. Have you used the Dimmer 2 without a local load?
I’ve a Bypass 2 being delivered today (ordered at 10:30pm last night - Amazon Prime rocks!) in the hope they’ll be the quick fix
I think not having a load will give a challenge as @anon36505037 mentioned, since it is needed for dead-device detection and calibration. If just using it as a remote switch, why not use something from this thread:
Or one of these:
(maybe this but Im not sure about compatibility, though price looks good)
Seems like overkill if you just want a remote zwave switch to associate with another controller… You can always connect the switches on the remote with normal-looking wall switches with a small modification. Even a small Xiaomi button from China would work (though would need CoRE linking rather than pure ZWave…)
Thanks both for your input.
@anon36505037 I’ll see what i can do. One challenge I have is that i actually want to use both S1 and S2 to control two separate ceiling lights via association (i’ve not gotten round to trying this even with a load yet) though worst case i could accept controlling them together with the physical switch and independently via ST.
@cjcharles The issue with that (unless I’m mistaken) is that i need/want my solution to require internet comms - that’s how i ended up with the direct association solution.
I also didn’t want a battery operated solution in order to get the Wife Approval Factor.
Perhaps I should just get someone in to run a wire afterall 
.
A random thought - some light switches have LEDs and don’t work with the Dimmer 2, but could one of these switches be used to take the load from the Dimmer 2? I’m sceptical but…
A second random though - would the Fibaro Relay/Switch rather than the Dimmer 2 work instead here or does it also have the load requirement (yes, i know, i should go read the manual)
The relay model doesnt need a load, but I imagine the switch does (just to be clear that they are different).
Are the association groups on the Fibaro’s two way? I.e. a switch press can be used to trigger another device, AND, a switch press on another device can be used to toggle the Fibaro. Or just the first case… (sorry for undoubtedly incorrect language, not sure what it is called)
That’s funny, I’m just reading- i haven’t quite got the difference yet or which one works best for me.
Luckily i found out this part of my house does have a neutral at the switch (its an extension - the switches in the original house do not)
I presume to do that you just set the appropriate node id’s in each respective association configuration parameters?
I;m not sure the Switch 2 DTH has settings to set the group 2-5 direct associations.
Do you think the Dimmer 2 DTH might do that? Or should I turn to ZWave Tweaker to do that?
Hi, another update. I thought I’d try the bypass module alone and, despite what the manuals say, calibration without any other load was successful and I can now control the remote lights via the second Dimmer 2.
I now have this set up in two places.
I’ve a single wall switch in our bedroom with a Dimmer 2 and Bypass controlling the ceiling light, also with a Dimmer 2 and Bypass on that light circuit.
And I’ve a double wall switch in our open plan living area, with a Dimmer 2 and Bypass, each switch controlling one of two ceiling lights, each with their own Dimmer 2 and Bypass on their circuit.
So, in total - 5 Dimmer 2s and 5 Bypass to control the 3 lights - approaching £300. Not cheap, but cheaper than having to run new wiring and then replastering but with the added benefit that I can now control these lights from wall switches, Alexa and from automations.
Lightning quick in theory, yes, but not in practice - there was still a lag but I ran out of time before getting a chance to investigate - I plan to just turn off the WiFi router to ensure that’s there’s nothing going via the controller, but I can’t see how that would be the case. I also found if flipped both switches in our living area at the same time, sometimes only one light came on. I’m wondering if there’s some interference.
I also didn’t have enough space in the switch backboxes to fit both the Dimmer 2 and Bypass in so had to dismantle what I did yesterday to reduce the risk of killing the family until I get get the larger backbox but it’ll just take me a few minutes to put it back together.
I suspect some confusion over this answer, which is correct, but may not have been answering the question the OP was asking.
While there is some synchronization, the zwave direct association standard was originally Designed around the use case of a motion sensor triggering a light switch.
It was later expanded to control “virtual two ways” (“virtual three ways” using US terminology), where a “remote” auxiliary Switch which didn’t control any fitting directly would be used as a trigger For a master switch.
It was never intended to have two master switches each using direct association on the other. That use case is quite easy to do using the smartthings platform to have each switch follow the other, but not using direct zwave association Where you can get a ping pong effect which confuses everybody.
Since the OP has now run into some unusual symptoms in another thread, I did want to mention this here just for clarity. 
Operating against specs will almost always lead to unexpected results in the future, and is typically a code violation.
Once you get into this area, it becomes very difficult to predict future device behavior.