Z-Wave Controllers

[tgauchat (ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)]

@jimmay3

I’m just not seeing an advantage to the 4 button unit, can you trigger events in ST or?

Yes – the advantage to the Aeotec Aeon Minimote 4-Button, or the Enerwave 7-Button, is that both of these fully register their button press events with SmartThings and both Device Handlers and SmartApps have been published which can tie these events to “any” SmartThings action (i.e., toggle light on/off, lock/unlock, change mode, execute “Hello Home Phrase”, etc.), thus controlling any Thing in your system, not just Z-Wave devices. We can even get “clever” with them and look for sequences of key presses, and so on. This is exactly what many of us wish the GE remotes would do, but there is some non-intuitive, but critical difference.

(I have not even bothered trying to direct associate-connect Z-Wave devices to the Aeon as we must do in the GE remote scenario, because it’s not necessary, and I’m afraid it could confuse the network.)

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I also commented on the GE vs other remotes situation here:

ZWave slaves + "Real" virtual devices

I fear it has nothing to do with effort. For one thing, the GE 9+9 button remotes are being sold very cheaply because they are end-of-life surplus clearance. GE has discontinued them as far as I am aware. This is the similar to why we can find older model Aeon 4-Button Minimote for $25, because Aeon is selling the newer model with a slightly different design and up to date firmware out-of-the-box. Intuitively, it really does seem that the GE remotes should function exactly the same or very similarly to the Aeon or Enerwave, but – and I would love to be proven wrong – to the best of my knowledge there is some critical difference; and, indeed, it could just be licensing related. Do a search across the Community Forum Topics for the GE 45600 and you will find some detailed explanations – …

…CP / Terry.