Newbie HA user - how do I get 2 dimmers to act in sync?

How do I get a pair of Insteon 2477D dimmers that are acting like 3-way switches to both indicate the same brightness (even though only one is the load)? I want to activate the one with the load and have the other one show the same brightness in the led indicator.

Normally with Insteon devices that are correctly linked, brightness level is reflected everywhere when the switch button is pressed. If you send a command to activate a device and the command is sent to the load device, that status is not reflected on the associated linked devices. If you send the command to one of the other associated devices, that device will display the correct level but that command will not affect the load device. So, to resolve this issue to need to send the command to the group for those devices and then everyone will be happy. A group for the linked devices behaves a lot like a scene.

I was just starting to play with Group. I tried group a couple switches for lights that were not linked, but I couldn’t get it to set the brightness I wanted. I’ll look into a group for the linked switches. Thanks.

That mostly worked. When I turn the group on, both switches go on (originally only the load switch turned on the light and moved the status led lights). But the dim levels shown on the switches aren’t exactly the same. I’m guessing that each switch had an on dimmer level set and they are different. How can I have HA turn them on AND set the same dim level on both switches? Can I even SET the default “on” dim level from within HA?

You might have to do a “mirror” type automation. See this post, although it doesn’t include brightness.

I have one for brightness, but it’s resulted in “races” (light repeatedly goes on and off like crazy) when I’ve tried to “mirror” both ways.

This is off

alias: Light Bedroom Mirror Switch Off
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: light.bedroom_wall_switch
    to: 'off'
    from: 'on'
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: >-
      {{  states.light.bedroom_wall_switch.last_updated >
      states.light.bedroom_fan.last_changed }}
action:
  - service: light.turn_off
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id:
        - light.bedroom_fan
mode: single

This is on and match brightness

alias: Light Bedroom Mirror Switch On
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: light.bedroom_wall_switch
condition:
  - condition: template
    value_template: >-
      {{  states.light.bedroom_wall_switch.last_updated >
      states.light.bedroom_fan.last_changed }}
action:
  - service: light.turn_on
    entity_id: light.bedroom_fan
    data_template:
      brightness: >
        {{ state_attr('light.bedroom_wall_switch', 'brightness') | default(0,
        true) }}
mode: single

Currently I think you would need to relink the switches using the buttons with the lights at the desired level. That’s a pain. But it appears work is being done on the HA Insteon plugin so hopefully things will be better soon. I have been using insteon-terminal for some functions but there appears to be a couple of other tools in github that may have more capabilities and may be able to change some of the device settings. I need to try some of that out. But I would rather see the HA Insteon plugin become more robust.

Yes if insteon has a way to “link” the switches to eachother through it’s hub so they match and act like a 3way switch that is ideal versus the automation. Zwave does this with direct association as well (no home assistant automation needed)

It DOES act exactly like a 3-way switch, when operated manually. But not when given commands manually.

I could definitely manually set both switches default dim level to match and that would solve my current problem, but what if I wanted some automation that would trigger them both to some different level?

Hopefully, the Insteon integration will get some more work now that a bunch of us are having to get away from the Insteon app.

Do the switches show up as a dimmer in Home Assistant with a brightness slider?

If so you can create a helper input boolean and do an automation so when you turn the boolean on (which is like a simulated switch) booth switches go to the same brightness.

alias: Dimmer
description: ''
mode: single
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.morning_mode
    to: 'On'
condition: []
action:
  - type: turn_on
    entity_id: light.downstairs_lights
    domain: light
    brightness_pct: 50
  - type: turn_on
    entity_id: light.family_room_lights
    domain: light
    brightness_pct: 50

You also could probably create a template switch

Yes, they are dimmers. I’ll take a look at this tomorrow. Thanks.