I just purchased the Eaton 9601 3-way switch and 9617 accessory switch.
I replaced my existing 3-way switches hoping they would work similarly.
The 9601 works great. Turns the light on and off.
What I cannot figure out is how to associate the accessory switch with the master switch.
What do I need to do to make this work properly?
Smartthings doesnât provide an official feature to set up zwave direct associations. However, there is a community created device type handler which will allow you to do this.
You arenât going to change anything about the 9601, itâs fine the way it is.
The 9617 is the âtriggerâ for the association and the 9601 is the âtarget.â So you need to tell the 9617 that it has permission to communicate directly to the 9601 without going through the hub first. (thatâs what âdirect associationâ means.)
In order to do this, you were going to temporarily assign the 9617 to a different device type handler, one called âthe Z wave tweaker.â This DTH will allow you to set up the association. For your device, you will need to do this association in group 2. (I got that information from the user manual)
Once you have set up the association, the information about which switch it is allowed to communicate to will be stored in the firmware of the 9617 itself. Once that is done, you will reassign the 9617 to its original DTH for every day use.
I am tired tonight, and I canât really work very well with code anyway (I am quadriparetic and depend on text to speech software). But you will be able to find the instructions and the code for the tweak or itself in the following thread. Just ask there if you have any questions. The only extra information that you need is that you are going to be using association group 2. 
Oh, and you are going to need the device IDs of the two switches, the people in the other thread can tell you how to find those. (The topic title is a clickable link)
Good luck, let us know how it goes. Eaton devices are usually very well engineered.
I almost forgot, if you read the following FAQ it will give you the general concepts and terminology for what you were going to do. Basically you are going to use a custom DTH, thatâs what the tweaker is. Once you have made the assignment through the web interface, you will be able to go into the smartthings app, go to the device, open its details, and make your changes.
The difference is you are going to go back to using your original DTH once you have the settings saved.
I appreciate you taking the time to help me out.
The first thing I tried was the tweaker. I guess I didnât do it right. Do I need to add both switches to the tweaker or just the master switch?
From the instructions in my post above (emphasis added)
You use the Tweaker only with the accessory switch. You arenât going to do anything with the master.
Thanks for the help. Youâre a life save.
Do you know of a way for the master to update the accessory switch? For instance, if both switches are off and I turn on the master, the accessory is still off. You have to press it twice to turn the light off.
Also, is there a way for Smartthings to see them as one switch?
If you want, you can set an association in the opposite direction, with the master as the trigger and the accessory is the target. I think that will work, although I donât know 100% for sure with this specific models. You can certainly try it and see. The only question is whether youâre going to get a loop, but I donât think so.
If that doesnât work, you can use the âmirrorâ function in the official smartlighting feature in smartthings and have the accessory mirror the master.
FAQ: create a virtual three-way using the âmirrorâ feature of SmartLighting [NEEDS UPDATING]
As far as having them both look like one switch, they are not one switch and they will not look like one switch. They each have a radio, they each have a device ID, they each have routing, and they are not one switch.
You could create a virtual switch and use webcore to tie everything together, but that would be a lot of work and then you would end up with three devices in your device list, instead of two. So Iâm not sure if thatâs what she would want.
Hi Michael, I am using the same Eaton Switches (9601 and 9617) referenced in your post. I canât get the GUI to show up. I have attached a .gif file that shows the code I copied and pasted into the Device Handler. Can you please confirm this is the code you copied and pasted into the Device Handler? When I switch the 9617 Accessory switch over to the Z-Wave Tweaker Device Handler and update then go to the Switch in Smartthings, I donât see the GUI, I see a cloud. One thing I might add is that I donât have the classic app. Any help / recommendations you can provide is appreciated.
