Controlling a smart switch status


#1

1) Give a description of the problem
I have a GE smart switch that controls 4 Eaton Halo smart lights in a bedroom. I have a piston that turns all 4 lights on when the switch is turned on, and turns them all off when the switch is turned off. Easy-peasy, no problem there. (We’ll call this “on” condition the “default” state.)

I now have an Aeon WallMote to add into the configuration. Each of the buttons will customize the status of the 4 lights. For example, button 1 will turn off lights A, B, C and will set light D to 2700K and 30%. Subsequent presses of button 1 will effectively toggle light D. Button 2 will turn off A, B, D, and will set light C to 2700K @ 30%; subsequent presses toggle light C. Still no problem (although there was some gnashing of teeth to get that far).

Here’s the challenge. Regardless of what status the individual lights may be in because of buttons pressed on the WallMote, I want to ALWAYS be able to physically switch the GE switch “on” and have all the lights go on to their default state, and be able to physically switch the GE switch “off” to turn them all off. The problem is, if I turn them on at the switch and then change them with button presses on the WallMote, the GE switch still considers itself “on” and won’t respond to the “on” press - I have to press “off” and then “on”. Likewise, if I’ve used the WallMote to turn on some of the lights to a custom setting, the GE switch still considers itself “off” and the only way to actually turn it off is to turn it on first and then off.

2) What is the expected behavior?
a) On the GE switch, pressing ON will always turn on the Halo lights to my default settings; pressing OFF will always turn all 4 lights off.

b)The status indicator on the switch should be in its “on” status (which for me is “offf”) if ANY of the 4 lights are on, and should be in its “off” status (indicator is on) if ALL of the lights are off.

3) What is happening/not happening?
Once the GE switch is turned on, it must be physically turned off before the “on” press will work again. Once it’s turned off, it must be physically turned on before the “off” press will work again.

4) Post a Green Snapshot of the pistonimage
I don’t have any kind of piston to show yet - I’m basically looking for actions I can put into a piston to make the switch behave the way I want. On a possibly related note . . . what’s the difference between TURN ON and SET SWITCH ON, and TURN OFF and SET SWITCH OFF?

5) Attach any logs (From ST IDE and by turning logging level to Full)
(PASTE YOUR LOGS HERE BETWEEN THE MARKS THEN HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THE LOGS SND CLICK ON THE </> ICON TO FORMAT THEM)

REMOVE BELOW AFTER READING
If a solution is found for your question then please mark the post as the solution.


#2

Yep. That’s how they work. Unless you’ve got the potential to use “double-tap” in your switches there’s no getting around this. I have my GE switches setup so that they can respond to a double-tap feature and then that resets them back to a “default” value. But once the switch is ON hitting the ON button again and again isn’t going to do anything. It’s not even going to send the command to the ST hub. So there’s nothing to be done there.

Also, you keep using the word “physically” and I just feel it’s important to point out that even though WC permits you to use “physically” as a condition in a piston, that’s really unreliable with the GE switches. They absolutely do not always accurately report that information. Of course, most switches that I’ve heard of do not accurately report that information. So there’s no moving forward on that one either.

If you have the newer paddle style GE switches, then you can get a DTH that will support double-tap and you’ll be able to get what you want (by using the double-tap not the single tap) otherwise this is not going to work. BTW, the reason double-tap works is that it’s considered a “button” getting pressed. So that always sends to the hub.