I’m looking for a “fake” in-wall dimmer that can interface with Home Assistant and then be used to control smart lightbulbs.
I can find real smart dimmers that I’d likely be able to use by just grabbing its state and passing it along to the other devices that I’d like to control, but that requires having unused hardware in the walls and the extra cost associated with a real dimmer.
I’d basically like to have a digital “up” and “down” with LED indicators showing what the current setting is. A layout similar to the way the Lutron dimmers is what I’m attempting to describe.
The Inovelli LZW31-SN and Zooz ZEN27 (and probably ZEN22, but I’ve never used that one) are two that market themselves as “smart bulb compatible” because they allow disabling local control, but I’m not 100% sure that they’ll do what you want in that configuration. I can’t remember how the Zooz works—I think it actually might do a bit better here—but the Inovelli in this configuration won’t adjust the LED bar to match the smart bulb levels. It might be different if you’re able to use Z-Wave Association (obviously requires Z-Wave bulbs too), but I haven’t used any in that configuration and can’t speak to that. You could effectively do this with any dimmer, Lutron included, if you hardwire line to load and create some automation on the HASS side that “mirrors” the two, but it sounds like that’s what you’re trying to avoid.
I have multiple Inovelli switches and dimmers (LZW30-SN and LZW31-SN) controlling smart bulbs, but I don’t care about the LED bar reflecting the level; I figure I can see what the lights are with my own eyes and don’t care what the switch thinks. I actually prefer this because I use the LED bar for indicating other things, both via the Z-Wave parameter for the “regular” LED color and with the special “notification” parameter/feature that they advertise. With the scene-capable models, I’m just using the scene events from taps, holds, and releases to manipulate my smart bulbs (Hue); with the non-scene (non-SN) models, you’d only be able to use association or the line/load hardwiring.
Those are just a few I’m aware of. If you don’t care about the LED bar, then there are even more options (and I’m not even sure all of the above would work in all cases, as I mentinoed), like whatever button device (Pico, etc.) you could make work.
I actually prefer this because I use the LED bar for indicating other things, both via the Z-Wave parameter for the “regular” LED color and with the special “notification” parameter/feature that they advertise. With the scene-capable models, I’m just using the scene events from taps, holds, and releases to manipulate my smart bulbs (Hue); with the non-scene (non-SN) models, you’d only be able to use association or the line/load hardwiring.