Virtual dimmer / dimmer group

Maybe a very basic question...
Is there a way to create a virtual dimmer device to control a group of Z-wave dimmers with the possibility to set the virtual device dim level which is then set on all group members?

Thanks!

Off the top of my head, I'm trying to think if you could do this with triggers and actions.

Choose your 'main' dimmer that you will set dimmer level on.

Create a trigger on 'device state changes' with an action 'device > match dimmer state to this other device'

I'm making up the wording, but I'm sure I've seen each of those options available individually...?


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You can't do that with a virtual group as we know them in Indigo right now, but you can do it in a few different ways. One way would be to use one of the devices as a "master device" that then controls the others (or may conditionally controls the others, depending on how creative you get with triggers). You would simply create a triggers that fires when the brightness level changes on the "master" device and the action would be (expanding on what Howard said):

Screen Shot 2016-08-22 at 8.26.15 AM.png (165.57 KiB) Viewed 4586 times

You could also use Scene Toggle to achieve that as well since it can dynamically adjust the scene lighting. I would have to think about how to do this more dynamically in Scene Toggle but I'm sure it's doable.

Those are a couple ways, if I understand what you are asking, that you could get there.

Hm...okay, but that would mean that I can't control them individually? Well the slave could be controlled individually but not the master, right?

Hm...okay, but that would mean that I can't control them individually? Well the slave could be controlled individually but not the master, right?

Like I said, you might have to get creative with triggers to dial it in the way you want it. You could have a trigger only conditionally match brightness if certain other things are in place like variables, enabled/disabled devices, etc.

Without knowing the full extent of what you are trying to achieve it's hard to give you a good example.

[jay (support)]

Hm...okay, but that would mean that I can't control them individually? Well the slave could be controlled individually but not the master, right?

I'm not following either actually. I don't believe you can have it both ways: either the group of devices are controlled together (or following one "master" device) or they are separate. When would your scenario know when they're all supposed to match and when they're not?

I have two dimmer lights which can be turned on/off and dimmed individually as different devices, but I would also be able to turn them on/off and dim with one button on a control page. Pretty much what you can do with "virtual devices -> device group" but for dimmers.

Then it sounds like my screenshot is what you want to do. If it's from a control page then you don't have to worry about the physical device controlling the "slaves", but rather you can have a button to match brightness and another button to control only that one device.

So I would set the on/off/dimmer state on one device and then have another button to "copy" the state to the other? Not exactly what I was after, but may be a work-around. What I'd like is a "group" device that acts exactly as a single dimmable device like the devices group with virtual devices.

I guess one solution would be to have a third physical device which would act as a group "master" for the two lights...

[jay (support)]

The device group concept wouldn't really work well for dimmers (which is why there isn't a virtual dimmer device group - it's actually a big conceptual and complex task to get dimmers to do it).

What would the button on your control page do exactly?

The button would open the UI Control for setting dimmer level which would dim the two lights simultaneously and to the same level.

EDIT: But the two lights should be controllable separately too, why the master/slave setup might not work.

[jay (support)]

OK, so what I'd do is create an X10 device (doesn't matter if you actually have any X10 devices or even an X10 interface) and use that as the "master". Then whenever there's any change in it's brightness, use the match brightness action for your other dimmers.

Alright, I will try that! Thanks!

Oh yeah, work exactly like I wanted
Thanks again

Jay, the X10 dimmer is disabled in Indigo Touch though, since I don't have a X10 interface. Is there a work-around for that? It works fine in Indigo on my Mac and on the control pages.