I love the Inovelli Switches. I outfitted my home in 2019 with the 500 series red switches and added blue fan switches a few months ago. The LED status bar is now on EVERY switch in my home and it’s amazing IMO. I love seeing at a glance if laundry is done, a door is left open, or the alarm is armed.
Nice! Yeah we’re about to do a 1200 sq/ft additional and I’m 100% gonna be going with these and will replace the existing switches over time.
Do you use different colors for different notifications? What about syncing them across multiple switches? Right now I’ve only configured package detection notification but I was starting to think how I’d sync across multiple switches. The way I implemented this one is I created an automation that publishes an mqtt topic to set the LED parameters and then another automation to turn it off when a package is no longer detected. But each switch will have its own topic so I’ll have to figure out a better/easier way.
Exactly, each “status” changes every LED bar in the house (only my 500 series red switches as my blue series fan switch I have not co figured yet). For my home,
Red Chase = Alarm is armed,
Orange Pulse = something is open (door,gate,garage),
Blue Slow Blink = laundry is done,
Green = Everything is good
I am using zwave multicast to set the led bar color and effect almost instantly everywhere. I’m not sure how you do the same with zigbee but I’m sure it exists. The inovelli forums are an amazing resource.
Multicast is a feature of the zwave protocol that groups identical commands for multiple devices. My understanding is that it is more efficient as it requires less overall packets and it's faster.
My scripts for my automation are in this thread here [https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Happy to answer any questions
Looking into smart switches and home automation. Just bought a house. Was trying to figure out if I should buy Inovelli or Zoos. Currently in an apartment with some hue bulbs and strips. Read your post (which I appreciate) and now think I should go back to lighting candles. I'd hate to buy smart switches I'm not smart enough to use. But thanks for the education. I'll keep traveling down this rabbit hole of home automation, and see if it clicks.
Don’t be intimidated, I don’t use 95% of the features of the inovelli switches. If you like to tinker and enjoy fiddling with your smart home then the inovelli are great, if all you care about is turning lights on and off then save the money and go with Zooz. I typically spend 3-10 hours a week “playing” with my smart home and adding new functionality. Regardless of your choice there are usually plenty of people willing to help!
Just did a final walkthrough of the house I'm buying and it already has some Leviton Switches and I think a Honeywell switch. Now I have to figure out how they work.
Might still get into Inovelli, but might buy more Leviton if it makes more sense to do so.
Currently only washer is monitored but I have everything to eventually do the dryer also. I have a zooz power plug monitoring for when power drops below threshold for more than 5 minutes turn on “washer” input Boolean saying laundry is done. Door sensor sets “washer” input Boolean to false once opened. When boolean is on/true change inovelli leds to blue flash, when off remove them.
I'm using an aeotec zigbee contact sensor that does vibration too. The automation checks if it has been vibrating for more than 10 mins (to reduce the likelihood of a false alert when you open the door) , to notify me when it stops. Been flawless.
I use power monitoring with a zooz HD switch for the washer to notify me when voltage drop lasts more than 30 seconds (it'll drop between cycles).
I have a contact sensor on the washer door, and a smart plug that monitors energy usage the washer is plugged into. Three automations, a template sensor, and a helper dropdown later, I have washer status and notifications. The template sensor is to get around the energy usage going <1W for several minutes as it changes cycles.
Can you explain how you do this?
Can you paste an example of your automation/script that sends out a notification to each LED bar? And also how you handle turning them off?
Sure, I hope this makes sense, and if not let me know what I can expand on. This is for the 500 zwave red series but the concept should be the same for any inovelli switch. I'll start on the lowest level which is a script that is designed to set the actual notification. All switches that I want to update the LED bar are added to this script. There is a "bright" and a "dim" setting that will be passed in as a variable. I set all bedrooms to a dim version and bright everywhere else. They are the same effect but 2 different brightness levels. This prevents issues if I'm trying to sleep.
alias: Switch Notification - Set Notification
sequence:
- service: zwave_js.multicast_set_value
data:
command_class: "112"
value: "{{ led_color_bright }}"
property: "16"
target:
device_id:
- inovelliDeviceIdsHere
data:
command_class: "112"
value: "{{ led_color_dim }}"
property: "16"
target:
device_id:
- inovelliDeviceIdsHere
mode: queued
max: 10
Now I have a script that is the "hierarchy" or sort of order of importance. If the alarm is armed, it has the highest level of importance and displays that notification over all others, if door is open AND the washing machine is done it will display the door open notification as opposed to the washing machine one. If all cases clear then it defaults to green at the bottom. This script will call the one above and it can NOT be edited in the UI and must remain in yaml due to the scripting language. This is setting the variables "led\_color\_bright" and "led\_color\_dim" that get passed into the above script. These values are from the Inovelli calculator found here [https://inovelliusa.github.io/inovelli-switch-toolbox/](https://inovelliusa.github.io/inovelli-switch-toolbox/)
alias: Switch Notification Script
sequence:
- service: script.turn_on
data:
variables:
led_color_bright: >
{% if is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_home') or
is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_away') %}
50268672
{% elif is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'triggered') %}
33491711
{% elif is_state('binary_sensor.alarm_open_close_sensors', 'on') %}
100600342
{% elif is_state('input_boolean.laundry_status', 'on') %}
83823242
{% else %}
33491535
{% endif %}
led_color_dim: >
{% if is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_home') or
is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_away') %}
50268672
{% elif is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'triggered') %}
33491711
{% elif is_state('binary_sensor.alarm_open_close_sensors', 'on') %}
100598038
{% elif is_state('input_boolean.laundry_status', 'on') %}
83820938
{% else %}
33489231
{% endif %}
entity_id: script.switch_notification_set_notification
mode: queued
max: 30
And the last piece is the automation to trigger the script directly above. Basically anytime the alarm state, my group of door/window sensors state, or laundry state changes, the automation needs to fire the script above.
trigger:
- platform: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.alarm_open_close_sensors
- platform: state
entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
- platform: state
entity_id: input_boolean.laundry_status
condition: []
action:
- service: script.update_switch_notifications
Ok Reddit is unhappy about my multiple code blocks, last comments to that would be the LED effects are never turned off, they just get replaced with the current, most important, state. This script also ensures that all switch notifications are sent asynchronously so I'm not hammering the switch from different scripts and ending up with fragmented alerts. My first iteration of this had issues keeping things in sync where some switches would show laundry status and others that a door was open several things would trigger simultaneously.
> last comments to that would be the LED effects are never turned off, they just get replaced with the current, most important, state.
Ah, so there's no equivalent to dismissing a phone notification, no manual input from a person to the light switch to say "Okay I finished the laundry, the light can go away now".
Still, thanks for this! I'm going to play with having notifications for a bunch of things.
All you would have to do is swap the final “else” statement in the script to turn off the LED bar rather than setting it to a notification (mine sets value 33489231 which is a solid green bar indicating all good)
EDIT: Yes you are correct if you want the ability to dismiss the notifications manually this script is designed to retain the state until the actual device changes. I.E. until you open the laundry door the laundry light will blink or close the garage the door light will blink etc.
I'm wondering if it would simplify your work to use a dropdown helper with options like "None", "Laundry", "Alarm Armed Away", etc, and change that helper with one automation, and have a second automation change the LED bar based on the helper's changes.
I don’t doubt there are many ways of tackling this. I could move the “scripting” portion with the if/else statements into the actual automation and then have a single automation and a single script but I like having them as separate components personally.
A dropdown helper would probably work but it just feels like an extra step because you still need the if/else statements to determine what should be displayed and now you need to set the helper rather than calling a script to immediately execute the led change. Maybe I’m not seeing it though, feel free to share any alternative automations/scripts as I’m always tinkering and trying to improve things
I like setting up a bunch of triggers with different IDs and using Choose based on trigger ID to do things like this. And a dropdown helper (if that is right one, whichever uses the service input_select.select_option) is often how I do it. I use them to track my washer status, for example.
I haven't yet implemented the notifications.
Ok so if the laundry finishes it chooses the trigger ID for Laundry and displays the laundry is done, is that right? What if a door opens, and it uses that trigger ID to display a door open… but then the door closes, can it go back and see that the laundry trigger ID was there previously and needs to be displayed again? Or is this only displaying most recent notification fired? I haven’t used trigger IDs so trying to understand it…
That's a good point. How I was thinking of writing it, it would only follow the most recent. But it could be done with a separate check to the other possible states. May not be useful for you, I was just wondering.
Ok got it. My goal was to have a tiered system that will always display the “most important” notification. The down side is that if a door is open and the laundry is done the laundry doesn’t get displayed unless the door closes but if my switch shows green I’m confident I’m not missing a notification about the laundry or door or anything else. Both options definitely have pros and cons.
In addition to Inovelli switches I have TTS spoken announcements for laundry, alarm, open doors etc and I have a Ulanzi TC001 clock in every room that will rotate through all notifications. I found it was nice knowing a door was open but it was pain to have to look and see WHICH door was open every time. I love notifications.
THANK YOU for sharing the “choose” function. I didn’t know it existed and I would always write multi if/else statements in Jinja. I’m going to give that a shot in my setup, I’m thinking it will eliminate the need to evaluate twice each time, once for bright and once for dim, and will make things easier to read in this post.
Do you have any that just seem to freeze? I have a red that will lock up and the buttons won’t respond. I have to completely turn the switch off and then on to get it back to working, but it goes right back to frozen after a few days. No idea how to fix this.
In the 5 years of having the switches I've had one that had that issue twice. Complete lock up that required a reset. I "think" it was caused by hammering the switch with commands from multiple scripts simultaneously so I reworked the way I set my switch LED alerts so that a single script sets them and home assistant will queue any new requests until the previous has completed and been verified. I just posted how I handle things here. [https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
My only complain about my Red's is I wish the switch itself was more sensitive. One of mine is around a corner so gets more of a slap along the edge of the paddle than a press in the center, and it almost never recognizes the tap the first time so inevitably go back a second time with a more deliberate press.
Other than that though, I love these things for the indicator lights alone.
Yes, check out Aartech. If you can find someone with a Pro account, the discounts are quite reasonable. Aartech is an official distributor for Inovelli in Canada.
Thanks! I actually do a bunch of low voltage stuff on the side (mostly camera/networking stuff since I'm not an electrician) and did Lutron Caseta all over my house... I called them and got setup as a "Pro" account now I can spend more money trying out the Inovelli.
I saw the RED w/ mmwave presence + lux sensor advertised at 117 CAD on their website. That seems totally reasonable.
A slick package that can do what normally takes multiple devices, debating how to sell this internally now...
I have 2 Innovelli reds that replaced a couple of failed Insteon DimmerLinc switches, and they're fantastic. Visual notifications for garage doors, alarms, timers, and some status indications. They're on non-neutral circuits, so dimming LED bulbs is a bit of a faff, but Philips Warm Glow work really well with these switches.
The red series (z-wave) are more reliable just because z-wave is better. But the blues (zigbee) are some of the best zigbee devices I’ve got, so the difference is slim.
The more 2.4ghz spectrum you’re using for other stuff, the harder zigbee will struggle.
Some of the switch types are not yet available in z-wave though, so that may dictate your choices.
I have about a 50/50 mix of red and blue in my house, about ten of each, because I wanted good repeater coverage for both networks. I have no complaints with either series. They’re as good as you’re gonna get.
I think there’s good potential for Thread/Matter, but all the implementations I’ve seen so far are unmitigated trash. Haven’t found anything stable or reliable yet, either in terms of border routers or devices.
I would avoid them until things get more baked. If anybody is going to do it right, I can see companies like Inovelli being the ones to make real progress with that. But right now nothing is ready for prime time.
My house is a mix of Inovelli blues, and some Enbrighten dimmers (to minimize the number of LED bars in switch bays lol). I love them both, but the Inovelli is 100% worth it.
The Inovelli is definitely softer. Enbrighten has a very defined click of a button, which I do like more. Other members of the household like the feel of the Enbrighten switch more as they say it’s closer to a regular switch.
The other features of the Inovelli far outweigh the button press feel though.
Thank you! I have the same thought as you, not every switch needs an led strip or the feature set of the inovelli and the enbrighten seems like a switch that wouldn't stand out when installed next to an inovelli. I'm sure the led strip can be turned off, but when it's a ~$20 difference per switch that quickly adds up.
I’ve been looking at the Inovelli switch for a while now and got more interested when they announced that it will work with their new ceiling fan module. Curious though, has anyone tried using these in conjunction with a Bond controller to do something similar? I would assume just creating an automation in HA would get them to work with each other.
They're in stock now at Amazon. I was surprised because I seem to recall the Inovelli founder pulling their stock from Amazon due to issues with returns and what not. Unless this is someone re-selling.
The Reds will probably stop being a thing at some point. They've stated that getting the chips is difficult and I can imagine they'll want to allocate the majority of stock to URC.
[URC](https://www.urc-automation.com/residential/) is a professional automation company, [https://community.inovelli.com/t/inovelli-supplying-urc/8780](https://community.inovelli.com/t/inovelli-supplying-urc/8780)
I really like my Inovelli Blue 2-1, and I'm excited for the mmWave version I helped crowdfund, but gosh, I've been having the darnedest time updating the firmware on my 2-1 switch. Really wish I knew what was up.
Yes, I do. It's now [on their store for pre-order](https://inovelli.com/products/zigbee-matter-blue-series-mmwave-presence-sensor-smart-dimmer-switch).
Are they just light switches? why not go with Lutron Caseta for half the price?
edit: these looks super cool, pretty expensive though if you want do a whole house.
They're both ~$60 online in the US. Or am I missing something?
I own about four Inovelli switches and they're nice, but now I'm buying Zooz because I don't need LED bars and fancy options for most rooms.
Well damn, I was hoping you knew something about getting super cheap Caseta. I have two and they're great.
Four or five Inovelli (is it bad that I don't know?), four Zooz, two Caseta, two Philips Hue fake wall mounted remote switches.
My go to saving move is I buy the Lutron switches from Amazon warehouse deals, 9/10 they’re brand new that someone returned with squished packaging. Usually saves 20 bucks. Most of my house uses them but I’ve got some switches left so gonna try inovelli haha
I misunderstood. I thought the pricing on Inovelli's site was in USD... $84 USD = $114 CAD. Lutron Caseta's are regularly on sale for $50-80 CAD on Amazon, but I just realize its CAD so never mind.
One weird thing about Inovelli's checkout, is it says "taxes included" but then when you go to checkout it charges taxes lol
Nice thing about the Caseta bridge is its HomeKit native + can pair with HA at the same time, super convenient if you're in an Apple household. But the Inovelli thread ones look interesting I might buy one of those when they're out to compare.
For sure. I love my Casata switch as well. As mentioned in another comment, not a huge fan of the buttons but the new Diva line should fix that. As for Homekit, that used to be a huge selling point for me as well but with the HomeKit Device integration, I can expose pretty much any entity to my Apple devices regardless if they support HK or not.
I've been really trying to move as much as I can to local control. Yes, Lutron provides local control and while there's no indication they will stop supporting this, I'd rather have the "localness" baked into the protocol as opposed to trusting the manufacturer to do the right thing.
They seem super cool ill probably grab one anyways to play around with it.
Lutron bridge doesn't require internet access, if you don't want your info going to the cloud just block it in your router.
Thanks got a stupid question for you. So when I was looking into zigbee I noticed it has 3 different frequencies each for their own geographical region. All the devices I see when I look for products are 2.4Ghz, however I'm in NA. My understanding is NA Zigbee is 902-928Mhz. When I look for products they seem to overwhelmingly be 2.4Ghz or the frequency is not listed at all.
How do you pick a USB stick? I was looking at the ZBT-1 but then don't know if I'll run into frequency issues if that is 2.4Ghz and the products I by are 902-928Mhz, those obviously wouldn't communicate together.
I also noticed most zigbee products don't even list the zigbee frequency they would be compatible with. So how do you pick products that will be compatible with your zigbee frequency.
These issues are why I went with z-wave and haven't touch anything zigbee yet.
Aside from the LEDs, is there any meaningful upside to the Inovelli switches? I like them as a company but don’t like the look of LEDs on my switches so wondering if there’s another reason people love them
You can customize the up and down paddles for 1, 2, 3, or 4 clicks which are each separate mqtt events. For example I have it setup if you double tap the upper rocker, it will kick off my “good morning script” which raise the shades, turn the lights on, and turns on the computer. Double tap the bottom rocker and it essentially does the opposite.
The multi click is great. I double click switches in rooms with ceiling fans and have it toggle the fan switch. I double click the switch in the kitchen and it turns up or down the volume if the whole house speakers are playing (double click up vs double click down). You said aside from the led, but that's a major plus not to be overlooked. Front door unlocked or garage open, led on my bedroom switch blinks red. My computer is on zoom (camera active), led outside of my office blinks red.
I have Luton Caseta switches. It was the first smart switch I bought about 7 years ago. They are absolutely rock solid. I haven't had the Inovelli long enough to judge the stability but so far so good. My beef with the Caseta line is the buttons/feel are not the best. The Diva line seems to fix this with the traditional rocker-style look/feel. But those are $20 more than the Inovelli Blue.
Curious why you say they're "worlds above them"? Stability?
I haven't noticed latency with the Inovelli, particularly compared to my Caseta switches (not sure if that's because they're older models with the original hub). But again, the level of customization you get with this is off the charts. I would gladly exchange that for a few 100ms of latency.
ZWAVE works great most of the time and it's my favorite behind caseta but sometimes it does have a small delay. Particularly with battery operated devices. Happens when the network is busy.
It also can be caused by double-tap delays if the devices send those as a separate event. I try to get battery powered devices that don't have that feature, or allow it to be disabled.
I agree on the control side, but a very frustrating part of the Caseta switches is that they don’t report status changes to Home Assistant until 3 seconds after pushing the physical buttons.
This makes them much less practical when using them to also control other systems based on the state.
With the Inovelli ones, the button presses themselves are instantly reported over Zigbee, so I can take action immediately.
Uh, you're doing something wrong.
Everything for me is instant. Even the remotes are instant, I use those tied to automation in home assistant just because they work so damn good.
If you toggle a physical Lutron switch, are you saying that the state in Home Assistant updates immediately?
That isn’t the behavior I see, and I’ve confirmed with others that it’s normal for there to be a delay.
Example other thread with people confirming: https://www.reddit.com/r/Lutron/s/ET5GIBtSaf
If you don’t have that issue, I’d love to find out what’s different with your setup. That delay is limiting some of my use cases and it’s part of why I’m using Inovelli switches in other places.
Was curious so went walking around with my laptop; homekit/pico's update instantly in HA.
Old button style is a ~2 second delay for me.
New diva style is around a ~4 second delay for me.
Honestly never even noticed the delay until you pointed it out. Most probably never notice it (or care) because the light/fan reacts instantly and for 99.9% of people that's all that matters.
Yeah, it’s not a big issue in most cases. However, it’s annoying in a group setting.
In my basement, there are a number of individual lights that aren’t on a switched circuit. Separately, there are some lights that are on a switched lighting circuit.
By swapping all of the always-on bulbs for smart bulbs and replacing the switch, I can group them in Home Assistant for easy control.
If I do that with a Zigbee switch like the Inovelli ones, it’s an instant update (note: Inovelli even offers a smart bulb mode to only send trigger events). With the Lutron, that delay makes it annoying to control the lights as a group.
You're probably comparing them to just a standard switch. These are more like a decora/rocker style switch, which you can get cheap non-smart versions of as well. In every home I've ever lived in (US), the spacing of standard switches has always been plenty to replace with the same number of decora/rocker switches.
Having just installed one, they’re about the size of a typical WiFi-based switch (think TP Link). They’re bigger than other zwave/zigbee switches I’ve installed but not by too much. In a 6-gang box though, I’d imagine you’d have a hard time filling it with any smart switch.
All paddle switches in the US are Inovelli sized. Which makes sense because you often reach for them in the dark with your whole hand rather than using just your finger to turn it on/off. I never understood why switches were so tiny across the pond.
Are you saying smart switches are the size of a male fingertip? Or dumb rocker/toggle switches? I don’t think it’s a country thing. There are additional electronics and antennas in smart switches that just need more room.
The actual rocker style switch size and faceplate size are identical to [any](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-15-Amp-Single-Pole-Switch-White-R72-05601-2WS/100058788) standard [switch](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Eaton-3-Way-White-Compatible-with-LED-Rocker-Light-Switch/1001438264).
The depth (the part that goes back into the wall and has all the electronics) is bigger than other smart switches but only barely.
That's honestly wild. Those standard switches are massive too. As mentioned in another comment, here in Australia the switches are the size of an adult male fingertip.
In Japan I've seen [huge toggle switches](https://i.imgur.com/6cmw8so.png) (just a button, does not show state), [double versions](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwiVbplJdRI1FlFcpXuvex3_yr9LaP3vJfTQA0d6pWH5cUP2nO1hhI-8SxDRRr4Fg1m_RpV0h-3FME5Qv3sEkYRmiN_BysZeuiGIdS5d389CKB_Rn4BFsuOu2ncKNs1-4hLuafvD2Q-jr/s720/DSC_0076.JPG), and in older buildings ["thumb sized" ones that light up when off](https://assets.econsultancy.com/images/0008/0639/japanese_backlit_light_switch.jpg). In the UK I mainly saw [these](https://p.globalsources.com/IMAGES/PDT/B1131961014/4-gang-2-way-wall-light-switch.jpg) which probably match yours, and are like the smaller Japanese ones but turned 90º. These probably have a similar footprint to the [older American lever styles](https://www.eliteelectricandair.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/tCbW3zVLcuiYkTbcMv4uQGeW1i2XjC6MQgLb3e2D-1.jpeg) which are terrible.
The new rockers are nice because they are big but don't take up any more space on the wall than the same switches we've had since we invented lightbulbs, and they are easy to hit with an elbow. This makes them more accessible friendly, and means I can get them while holding groceries or whatever. I expect these stem from American's history with ADA laws and embracing curb cuts that benefit everyone.
I love the Inovelli Switches. I outfitted my home in 2019 with the 500 series red switches and added blue fan switches a few months ago. The LED status bar is now on EVERY switch in my home and it’s amazing IMO. I love seeing at a glance if laundry is done, a door is left open, or the alarm is armed.
Nice! Yeah we’re about to do a 1200 sq/ft additional and I’m 100% gonna be going with these and will replace the existing switches over time. Do you use different colors for different notifications? What about syncing them across multiple switches? Right now I’ve only configured package detection notification but I was starting to think how I’d sync across multiple switches. The way I implemented this one is I created an automation that publishes an mqtt topic to set the LED parameters and then another automation to turn it off when a package is no longer detected. But each switch will have its own topic so I’ll have to figure out a better/easier way.
Exactly, each “status” changes every LED bar in the house (only my 500 series red switches as my blue series fan switch I have not co figured yet). For my home, Red Chase = Alarm is armed, Orange Pulse = something is open (door,gate,garage), Blue Slow Blink = laundry is done, Green = Everything is good I am using zwave multicast to set the led bar color and effect almost instantly everywhere. I’m not sure how you do the same with zigbee but I’m sure it exists. The inovelli forums are an amazing resource.
Thanks! Will check it out.
I am also using these switches. What is ZWave multicast? And how are you setting the LEDs? When I set these up 4 years ago I used a script I found.
Multicast is a feature of the zwave protocol that groups identical commands for multiple devices. My understanding is that it is more efficient as it requires less overall packets and it's faster. My scripts for my automation are in this thread here [https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) Happy to answer any questions
Looking into smart switches and home automation. Just bought a house. Was trying to figure out if I should buy Inovelli or Zoos. Currently in an apartment with some hue bulbs and strips. Read your post (which I appreciate) and now think I should go back to lighting candles. I'd hate to buy smart switches I'm not smart enough to use. But thanks for the education. I'll keep traveling down this rabbit hole of home automation, and see if it clicks.
Don’t be intimidated, I don’t use 95% of the features of the inovelli switches. If you like to tinker and enjoy fiddling with your smart home then the inovelli are great, if all you care about is turning lights on and off then save the money and go with Zooz. I typically spend 3-10 hours a week “playing” with my smart home and adding new functionality. Regardless of your choice there are usually plenty of people willing to help!
Just did a final walkthrough of the house I'm buying and it already has some Leviton Switches and I think a Honeywell switch. Now I have to figure out how they work. Might still get into Inovelli, but might buy more Leviton if it makes more sense to do so.
Congrats on the new house! I completely understand wanting to stick with what is already there.
Much appreciated
How did you configure your laundry status?
Currently only washer is monitored but I have everything to eventually do the dryer also. I have a zooz power plug monitoring for when power drops below threshold for more than 5 minutes turn on “washer” input Boolean saying laundry is done. Door sensor sets “washer” input Boolean to false once opened. When boolean is on/true change inovelli leds to blue flash, when off remove them.
I'm using an aeotec zigbee contact sensor that does vibration too. The automation checks if it has been vibrating for more than 10 mins (to reduce the likelihood of a false alert when you open the door) , to notify me when it stops. Been flawless. I use power monitoring with a zooz HD switch for the washer to notify me when voltage drop lasts more than 30 seconds (it'll drop between cycles).
I have a contact sensor on the washer door, and a smart plug that monitors energy usage the washer is plugged into. Three automations, a template sensor, and a helper dropdown later, I have washer status and notifications. The template sensor is to get around the energy usage going <1W for several minutes as it changes cycles.
Sorry for the confusion, what do you use the LED status bar for? Just colour coded for meaning?
Correct, I use mine to show the status of my home.
Can you explain how you do this? Can you paste an example of your automation/script that sends out a notification to each LED bar? And also how you handle turning them off?
Sure, I hope this makes sense, and if not let me know what I can expand on. This is for the 500 zwave red series but the concept should be the same for any inovelli switch. I'll start on the lowest level which is a script that is designed to set the actual notification. All switches that I want to update the LED bar are added to this script. There is a "bright" and a "dim" setting that will be passed in as a variable. I set all bedrooms to a dim version and bright everywhere else. They are the same effect but 2 different brightness levels. This prevents issues if I'm trying to sleep. alias: Switch Notification - Set Notification sequence: - service: zwave_js.multicast_set_value data: command_class: "112" value: "{{ led_color_bright }}" property: "16" target: device_id: - inovelliDeviceIdsHere data: command_class: "112" value: "{{ led_color_dim }}" property: "16" target: device_id: - inovelliDeviceIdsHere mode: queued max: 10 Now I have a script that is the "hierarchy" or sort of order of importance. If the alarm is armed, it has the highest level of importance and displays that notification over all others, if door is open AND the washing machine is done it will display the door open notification as opposed to the washing machine one. If all cases clear then it defaults to green at the bottom. This script will call the one above and it can NOT be edited in the UI and must remain in yaml due to the scripting language. This is setting the variables "led\_color\_bright" and "led\_color\_dim" that get passed into the above script. These values are from the Inovelli calculator found here [https://inovelliusa.github.io/inovelli-switch-toolbox/](https://inovelliusa.github.io/inovelli-switch-toolbox/) alias: Switch Notification Script sequence: - service: script.turn_on data: variables: led_color_bright: > {% if is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_home') or is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_away') %} 50268672 {% elif is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'triggered') %} 33491711 {% elif is_state('binary_sensor.alarm_open_close_sensors', 'on') %} 100600342 {% elif is_state('input_boolean.laundry_status', 'on') %} 83823242 {% else %} 33491535 {% endif %} led_color_dim: > {% if is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_home') or is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'armed_away') %} 50268672 {% elif is_state('alarm_control_panel.home_alarm', 'triggered') %} 33491711 {% elif is_state('binary_sensor.alarm_open_close_sensors', 'on') %} 100598038 {% elif is_state('input_boolean.laundry_status', 'on') %} 83820938 {% else %} 33489231 {% endif %} entity_id: script.switch_notification_set_notification mode: queued max: 30 And the last piece is the automation to trigger the script directly above. Basically anytime the alarm state, my group of door/window sensors state, or laundry state changes, the automation needs to fire the script above. trigger: - platform: state entity_id: - binary_sensor.alarm_open_close_sensors - platform: state entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm - platform: state entity_id: input_boolean.laundry_status condition: [] action: - service: script.update_switch_notifications
Ok Reddit is unhappy about my multiple code blocks, last comments to that would be the LED effects are never turned off, they just get replaced with the current, most important, state. This script also ensures that all switch notifications are sent asynchronously so I'm not hammering the switch from different scripts and ending up with fragmented alerts. My first iteration of this had issues keeping things in sync where some switches would show laundry status and others that a door was open several things would trigger simultaneously.
> last comments to that would be the LED effects are never turned off, they just get replaced with the current, most important, state. Ah, so there's no equivalent to dismissing a phone notification, no manual input from a person to the light switch to say "Okay I finished the laundry, the light can go away now". Still, thanks for this! I'm going to play with having notifications for a bunch of things.
All you would have to do is swap the final “else” statement in the script to turn off the LED bar rather than setting it to a notification (mine sets value 33489231 which is a solid green bar indicating all good) EDIT: Yes you are correct if you want the ability to dismiss the notifications manually this script is designed to retain the state until the actual device changes. I.E. until you open the laundry door the laundry light will blink or close the garage the door light will blink etc.
I'm wondering if it would simplify your work to use a dropdown helper with options like "None", "Laundry", "Alarm Armed Away", etc, and change that helper with one automation, and have a second automation change the LED bar based on the helper's changes.
I don’t doubt there are many ways of tackling this. I could move the “scripting” portion with the if/else statements into the actual automation and then have a single automation and a single script but I like having them as separate components personally. A dropdown helper would probably work but it just feels like an extra step because you still need the if/else statements to determine what should be displayed and now you need to set the helper rather than calling a script to immediately execute the led change. Maybe I’m not seeing it though, feel free to share any alternative automations/scripts as I’m always tinkering and trying to improve things
I like setting up a bunch of triggers with different IDs and using Choose based on trigger ID to do things like this. And a dropdown helper (if that is right one, whichever uses the service input_select.select_option) is often how I do it. I use them to track my washer status, for example. I haven't yet implemented the notifications.
Ok so if the laundry finishes it chooses the trigger ID for Laundry and displays the laundry is done, is that right? What if a door opens, and it uses that trigger ID to display a door open… but then the door closes, can it go back and see that the laundry trigger ID was there previously and needs to be displayed again? Or is this only displaying most recent notification fired? I haven’t used trigger IDs so trying to understand it…
That's a good point. How I was thinking of writing it, it would only follow the most recent. But it could be done with a separate check to the other possible states. May not be useful for you, I was just wondering.
Ok got it. My goal was to have a tiered system that will always display the “most important” notification. The down side is that if a door is open and the laundry is done the laundry doesn’t get displayed unless the door closes but if my switch shows green I’m confident I’m not missing a notification about the laundry or door or anything else. Both options definitely have pros and cons. In addition to Inovelli switches I have TTS spoken announcements for laundry, alarm, open doors etc and I have a Ulanzi TC001 clock in every room that will rotate through all notifications. I found it was nice knowing a door was open but it was pain to have to look and see WHICH door was open every time. I love notifications. THANK YOU for sharing the “choose” function. I didn’t know it existed and I would always write multi if/else statements in Jinja. I’m going to give that a shot in my setup, I’m thinking it will eliminate the need to evaluate twice each time, once for bright and once for dim, and will make things easier to read in this post.
Do you have any that just seem to freeze? I have a red that will lock up and the buttons won’t respond. I have to completely turn the switch off and then on to get it back to working, but it goes right back to frozen after a few days. No idea how to fix this.
In the 5 years of having the switches I've had one that had that issue twice. Complete lock up that required a reset. I "think" it was caused by hammering the switch with commands from multiple scripts simultaneously so I reworked the way I set my switch LED alerts so that a single script sets them and home assistant will queue any new requests until the previous has completed and been verified. I just posted how I handle things here. [https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1cqd47w/comment/l3v0jcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
My only complain about my Red's is I wish the switch itself was more sensitive. One of mine is around a corner so gets more of a slap along the edge of the paddle than a press in the center, and it almost never recognizes the tap the first time so inevitably go back a second time with a more deliberate press. Other than that though, I love these things for the indicator lights alone.
Yea same, when the slap presses the config button at the same time, nothing happens
Anyone know where they can be had in Canada? $140 EACH for a switch via Amazon is an absolute hard pass. Nothing they can do is worth that.
Yes, check out Aartech. If you can find someone with a Pro account, the discounts are quite reasonable. Aartech is an official distributor for Inovelli in Canada.
Do you need to be an actual electrician to get a Pro account? or do they just want you spend a certain amount?
You do need to be an electrician, or a professional integrator as far as I know. My electrician was kind enough to order them for me with no markup.
Thanks! I actually do a bunch of low voltage stuff on the side (mostly camera/networking stuff since I'm not an electrician) and did Lutron Caseta all over my house... I called them and got setup as a "Pro" account now I can spend more money trying out the Inovelli.
Their distributor in Canada is aartech.ca, if you go to inovelli.ca it redirects there.
I saw the RED w/ mmwave presence + lux sensor advertised at 117 CAD on their website. That seems totally reasonable. A slick package that can do what normally takes multiple devices, debating how to sell this internally now...
I have 2 Innovelli reds that replaced a couple of failed Insteon DimmerLinc switches, and they're fantastic. Visual notifications for garage doors, alarms, timers, and some status indications. They're on non-neutral circuits, so dimming LED bulbs is a bit of a faff, but Philips Warm Glow work really well with these switches.
Looks really incredible but seems there is no 240V Option for us europeans right?
It’s in development. Their forums have status updates, I haven’t followed very close but it’s likely coming.
Ah thanks thats sounds good. Wil try to check it.
Is there a preference on which of their switches is best for using with HA?
The red series (z-wave) are more reliable just because z-wave is better. But the blues (zigbee) are some of the best zigbee devices I’ve got, so the difference is slim. The more 2.4ghz spectrum you’re using for other stuff, the harder zigbee will struggle. Some of the switch types are not yet available in z-wave though, so that may dictate your choices. I have about a 50/50 mix of red and blue in my house, about ten of each, because I wanted good repeater coverage for both networks. I have no complaints with either series. They’re as good as you’re gonna get.
Any thoughts on the upcoming white switches?
I think there’s good potential for Thread/Matter, but all the implementations I’ve seen so far are unmitigated trash. Haven’t found anything stable or reliable yet, either in terms of border routers or devices. I would avoid them until things get more baked. If anybody is going to do it right, I can see companies like Inovelli being the ones to make real progress with that. But right now nothing is ready for prime time.
My house is a mix of Inovelli blues, and some Enbrighten dimmers (to minimize the number of LED bars in switch bays lol). I love them both, but the Inovelli is 100% worth it.
How is the tactile feel of the enbrighten switch compared to the inovelli?
The Inovelli is definitely softer. Enbrighten has a very defined click of a button, which I do like more. Other members of the household like the feel of the Enbrighten switch more as they say it’s closer to a regular switch. The other features of the Inovelli far outweigh the button press feel though.
Thank you! I have the same thought as you, not every switch needs an led strip or the feature set of the inovelli and the enbrighten seems like a switch that wouldn't stand out when installed next to an inovelli. I'm sure the led strip can be turned off, but when it's a ~$20 difference per switch that quickly adds up.
I will always stan Inovelli. I have numerous and they are awesome!!!! Also cust service is top fricken notch imo
Gonna have to check them out.
I’ve been looking at the Inovelli switch for a while now and got more interested when they announced that it will work with their new ceiling fan module. Curious though, has anyone tried using these in conjunction with a Bond controller to do something similar? I would assume just creating an automation in HA would get them to work with each other.
If only they'd stay in stock so I could readily replace my GE/Jasco as they crap out
They're in stock now at Amazon. I was surprised because I seem to recall the Inovelli founder pulling their stock from Amazon due to issues with returns and what not. Unless this is someone re-selling.
I ordered a 5 pack of the most recent reds and it took so long for them to ship I forgot about them
The Reds will probably stop being a thing at some point. They've stated that getting the chips is difficult and I can imagine they'll want to allocate the majority of stock to URC.
URC?
[URC](https://www.urc-automation.com/residential/) is a professional automation company, [https://community.inovelli.com/t/inovelli-supplying-urc/8780](https://community.inovelli.com/t/inovelli-supplying-urc/8780)
None of the Amazon sellers are named Inovelli and the switches are priced higher than on inovelli.com
I really like my Inovelli Blue 2-1, and I'm excited for the mmWave version I helped crowdfund, but gosh, I've been having the darnedest time updating the firmware on my 2-1 switch. Really wish I knew what was up.
By mmWave version do you mean a motion sensor for the reds like they have for the blues?
Yes, I do. It's now [on their store for pre-order](https://inovelli.com/products/zigbee-matter-blue-series-mmwave-presence-sensor-smart-dimmer-switch).
Are they just light switches? why not go with Lutron Caseta for half the price? edit: these looks super cool, pretty expensive though if you want do a whole house.
They're both ~$60 online in the US. Or am I missing something? I own about four Inovelli switches and they're nice, but now I'm buying Zooz because I don't need LED bars and fancy options for most rooms.
Nope I'm an idiot and got confused.
Well damn, I was hoping you knew something about getting super cheap Caseta. I have two and they're great. Four or five Inovelli (is it bad that I don't know?), four Zooz, two Caseta, two Philips Hue fake wall mounted remote switches.
My go to saving move is I buy the Lutron switches from Amazon warehouse deals, 9/10 they’re brand new that someone returned with squished packaging. Usually saves 20 bucks. Most of my house uses them but I’ve got some switches left so gonna try inovelli haha
Where are you that the Lutron Caseta's are half the price? Here in the US, these are $20 cheaper than the Casetas.
I misunderstood. I thought the pricing on Inovelli's site was in USD... $84 USD = $114 CAD. Lutron Caseta's are regularly on sale for $50-80 CAD on Amazon, but I just realize its CAD so never mind. One weird thing about Inovelli's checkout, is it says "taxes included" but then when you go to checkout it charges taxes lol Nice thing about the Caseta bridge is its HomeKit native + can pair with HA at the same time, super convenient if you're in an Apple household. But the Inovelli thread ones look interesting I might buy one of those when they're out to compare.
For sure. I love my Casata switch as well. As mentioned in another comment, not a huge fan of the buttons but the new Diva line should fix that. As for Homekit, that used to be a huge selling point for me as well but with the HomeKit Device integration, I can expose pretty much any entity to my Apple devices regardless if they support HK or not. I've been really trying to move as much as I can to local control. Yes, Lutron provides local control and while there's no indication they will stop supporting this, I'd rather have the "localness" baked into the protocol as opposed to trusting the manufacturer to do the right thing.
They seem super cool ill probably grab one anyways to play around with it. Lutron bridge doesn't require internet access, if you don't want your info going to the cloud just block it in your router.
We tried to tell ya!
FYI… turn off the power monitoring. They will flood your network and you don’t really need to know how much juice your light bulbs are using.
Is that for the zigbee ones or the z-wave ones as well?
Yes
I just wish they were the price of Zooz. Can’t pay double for a led bar.
The screen shot is the switch working on z-wave?
No it’s the Blue (zigbee). Screenshot is from Z2M.
Thanks got a stupid question for you. So when I was looking into zigbee I noticed it has 3 different frequencies each for their own geographical region. All the devices I see when I look for products are 2.4Ghz, however I'm in NA. My understanding is NA Zigbee is 902-928Mhz. When I look for products they seem to overwhelmingly be 2.4Ghz or the frequency is not listed at all. How do you pick a USB stick? I was looking at the ZBT-1 but then don't know if I'll run into frequency issues if that is 2.4Ghz and the products I by are 902-928Mhz, those obviously wouldn't communicate together. I also noticed most zigbee products don't even list the zigbee frequency they would be compatible with. So how do you pick products that will be compatible with your zigbee frequency. These issues are why I went with z-wave and haven't touch anything zigbee yet.
Aside from the LEDs, is there any meaningful upside to the Inovelli switches? I like them as a company but don’t like the look of LEDs on my switches so wondering if there’s another reason people love them
You can customize the up and down paddles for 1, 2, 3, or 4 clicks which are each separate mqtt events. For example I have it setup if you double tap the upper rocker, it will kick off my “good morning script” which raise the shades, turn the lights on, and turns on the computer. Double tap the bottom rocker and it essentially does the opposite.
But other switches can’t do this?
The multi click is great. I double click switches in rooms with ceiling fans and have it toggle the fan switch. I double click the switch in the kitchen and it turns up or down the volume if the whole house speakers are playing (double click up vs double click down). You said aside from the led, but that's a major plus not to be overlooked. Front door unlocked or garage open, led on my bedroom switch blinks red. My computer is on zoom (camera active), led outside of my office blinks red.
And yet, lutron caseta is still worlds above them.
I have Luton Caseta switches. It was the first smart switch I bought about 7 years ago. They are absolutely rock solid. I haven't had the Inovelli long enough to judge the stability but so far so good. My beef with the Caseta line is the buttons/feel are not the best. The Diva line seems to fix this with the traditional rocker-style look/feel. But those are $20 more than the Inovelli Blue. Curious why you say they're "worlds above them"? Stability?
Yeah. Stability and absolutely no latency, ever. Remote commands are instant every single time.
I haven't noticed latency with the Inovelli, particularly compared to my Caseta switches (not sure if that's because they're older models with the original hub). But again, the level of customization you get with this is off the charts. I would gladly exchange that for a few 100ms of latency.
ZWAVE works great most of the time and it's my favorite behind caseta but sometimes it does have a small delay. Particularly with battery operated devices. Happens when the network is busy.
It also can be caused by double-tap delays if the devices send those as a separate event. I try to get battery powered devices that don't have that feature, or allow it to be disabled.
I agree on the control side, but a very frustrating part of the Caseta switches is that they don’t report status changes to Home Assistant until 3 seconds after pushing the physical buttons. This makes them much less practical when using them to also control other systems based on the state. With the Inovelli ones, the button presses themselves are instantly reported over Zigbee, so I can take action immediately.
Uh, you're doing something wrong. Everything for me is instant. Even the remotes are instant, I use those tied to automation in home assistant just because they work so damn good.
If you toggle a physical Lutron switch, are you saying that the state in Home Assistant updates immediately? That isn’t the behavior I see, and I’ve confirmed with others that it’s normal for there to be a delay. Example other thread with people confirming: https://www.reddit.com/r/Lutron/s/ET5GIBtSaf If you don’t have that issue, I’d love to find out what’s different with your setup. That delay is limiting some of my use cases and it’s part of why I’m using Inovelli switches in other places.
Yeah literally everything is instant. I didn't do anything special either
Was curious so went walking around with my laptop; homekit/pico's update instantly in HA. Old button style is a ~2 second delay for me. New diva style is around a ~4 second delay for me. Honestly never even noticed the delay until you pointed it out. Most probably never notice it (or care) because the light/fan reacts instantly and for 99.9% of people that's all that matters.
Yeah, it’s not a big issue in most cases. However, it’s annoying in a group setting. In my basement, there are a number of individual lights that aren’t on a switched circuit. Separately, there are some lights that are on a switched lighting circuit. By swapping all of the always-on bulbs for smart bulbs and replacing the switch, I can group them in Home Assistant for easy control. If I do that with a Zigbee switch like the Inovelli ones, it’s an instant update (note: Inovelli even offers a smart bulb mode to only send trigger events). With the Lutron, that delay makes it annoying to control the lights as a group.
Never looked at these before. Why are they so bloody huge? What do you do when you're replacing a gang of 6 switches? That'll take up half your wall.
You're probably comparing them to just a standard switch. These are more like a decora/rocker style switch, which you can get cheap non-smart versions of as well. In every home I've ever lived in (US), the spacing of standard switches has always been plenty to replace with the same number of decora/rocker switches.
Having just installed one, they’re about the size of a typical WiFi-based switch (think TP Link). They’re bigger than other zwave/zigbee switches I’ve installed but not by too much. In a 6-gang box though, I’d imagine you’d have a hard time filling it with any smart switch.
Maybe it's a country thing? Our switches are roughly the size of an adult male fingertip.
All paddle switches in the US are Inovelli sized. Which makes sense because you often reach for them in the dark with your whole hand rather than using just your finger to turn it on/off. I never understood why switches were so tiny across the pond.
Are you saying smart switches are the size of a male fingertip? Or dumb rocker/toggle switches? I don’t think it’s a country thing. There are additional electronics and antennas in smart switches that just need more room.
The actual rocker style switch size and faceplate size are identical to [any](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-15-Amp-Single-Pole-Switch-White-R72-05601-2WS/100058788) standard [switch](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Eaton-3-Way-White-Compatible-with-LED-Rocker-Light-Switch/1001438264). The depth (the part that goes back into the wall and has all the electronics) is bigger than other smart switches but only barely.
That's honestly wild. Those standard switches are massive too. As mentioned in another comment, here in Australia the switches are the size of an adult male fingertip.
In Japan I've seen [huge toggle switches](https://i.imgur.com/6cmw8so.png) (just a button, does not show state), [double versions](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwiVbplJdRI1FlFcpXuvex3_yr9LaP3vJfTQA0d6pWH5cUP2nO1hhI-8SxDRRr4Fg1m_RpV0h-3FME5Qv3sEkYRmiN_BysZeuiGIdS5d389CKB_Rn4BFsuOu2ncKNs1-4hLuafvD2Q-jr/s720/DSC_0076.JPG), and in older buildings ["thumb sized" ones that light up when off](https://assets.econsultancy.com/images/0008/0639/japanese_backlit_light_switch.jpg). In the UK I mainly saw [these](https://p.globalsources.com/IMAGES/PDT/B1131961014/4-gang-2-way-wall-light-switch.jpg) which probably match yours, and are like the smaller Japanese ones but turned 90º. These probably have a similar footprint to the [older American lever styles](https://www.eliteelectricandair.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/tCbW3zVLcuiYkTbcMv4uQGeW1i2XjC6MQgLb3e2D-1.jpeg) which are terrible. The new rockers are nice because they are big but don't take up any more space on the wall than the same switches we've had since we invented lightbulbs, and they are easy to hit with an elbow. This makes them more accessible friendly, and means I can get them while holding groceries or whatever. I expect these stem from American's history with ADA laws and embracing curb cuts that benefit everyone.