Smart module for retractive up and down toggle switch

Hardware
,
1

Hi all,

Complete newbie here! Can someone recommend smart dimmer modules that work with Zigbee and also support a toggle switch with two way (up and down, centre off) retractive operation? My electrician is recommending standard retractive switches but being able to dim up and down seems much more natural.

I’m lost in all the options out there. The only product I’ve found that definitely supports the up/down motion is this very expensive one from Enkin:

I’m not opposed to spending the money, but when we have about 10 lighting circuits to cover it does add a lot of cost. Alternatives are welcome and I would consider other protocols, but prefer to avoid WiFi if possible.

Thanks for all your advice in advance!

Francis

2

Just giving this a bump - sorry if that’s against etiquette here.

Struggling for recommendations on the modules I need. Let me know your thoughts!

3

Hi fizzyjim - I was in the same boat as you and just bought six of the Enkin ZDM150; the electrician has now fitted the first of them and it does work very well.

This first one is controlling an array of GU10 LED bulbs and there’s no buzzing during or after dimming, no flickering that I can perceive (and I’m pretty sensitive to flicker), so, I’m happy.

They work with either single way retractive or ‘two way and off’ retractive, we’ve gone for the latter - which gives the following:

  • press and release up or down: toggles lights on/off (doesn’t matter if you press up or down, it always just toggles the lights)
  • press and hold up: dim up
  • press and hold down: dim down

In HA (via ZHA) I’m able to (from my very initial playing - only installed last night):

  • turn on to a set percentage brightness level
  • change the percentage brightness by issuing another ‘turn on’ to a different brightness level.
  • turn off
  • increase brightness by a step
  • decrease brightness by a step

Note - fitting more than one per (UK, not sure about other countries light switch sizes) single back box or two per double-wide (i.e. a 4-gang sized) backbox would be tricky, they’re slim front to back but you won’t get more than two side by side in a double-wide.

If you’re still in the early wiring stage, they don’t have to go behind the light switches at all, would be far better to site them elsewhere. Unfortunately I didn’t decide to use these until too late in the process.

We’ve also got them wired up with two sets of retractive switches so we have two sets of switches that can fully control the lights. These multiple switches need to be wired in parallel, which my electrician did without blinking.

Happy to answer any other questions you might have!

If you are in the UK, we got ours from Elesi - if you sign up for their newsletter you can save 10% on your first order which saved us a lot as we bought a ton of these and fancy sockets/switches all at the same time - Google ‘elesi mailing list 10%’ to find the sign-up page.

4

Thank you! So pleased someone has had a good experience with them - I’ll definitely be in touch if we need to ask anything.

Your tip on the discount will be very helpful, we need about 15 of the modules so it will save a lot of money!

Also good to know about size. I’d imagine our electrician is going to need to wire them into the various switch boxes on each circuit then.

5

Yeah - if you have very deep back boxes, you might get more in - we have 70mm+ in one of our single ones and I’m going to see if the electrician can get two in there…

I’m now trying to decide whether to get more of them for the other dimmers in the house :face_with_peeking_eye: they are pricey, but good dimmer modules aren’t super-cheap anyway…

Good luck!