Brand of dimmers and switches to choose? (Alexa+Indigo)

Posted on
Mon Nov 02, 2020 2:41 pm
eullman offline
Posts: 12
Joined: Dec 12, 2012

Brand of dimmers and switches to choose? (Alexa+Indigo)

Hi all,

I’ve been an Indigo enthusiast for some nine years now, and in that time my collection of dimmers and switches has grown to include Insteon, Lutron Caseta, and TPLink devices. Caseta because Indigo dimmers don’t support the new lighting in the kitchen, and TPLink because Alexa voice control of Insteon switches has been hit or miss. (I also have some Hue bulbs for the same reason.)

I am about to purchase some new dimmers, and I’d love to ask the collective wisdom of the group here: Which brand should I get? Things that are important are: Alexa voice support, Harmony Hub compatibility, and reliable Indigo control.

Which brand of dimmer would you choose and why?

Thanks in advance!

Eric

Posted on
Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:17 pm
whmoorejr offline
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Posts: 762
Joined: Jan 15, 2013
Location: Houston, TX

Re: Brand of dimmers and switches to choose? (Alexa+Indigo)

I've been replacing my switches with Jasco (Z-Wave). Not positive, but I think they are the main manufacture for other brands like GE and Honeywell. https://byjasco.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=z-wave. My favorite is the GE Motion Switch. (I only use the motion part for lighting in the garage.... elsewhere it's for presence detection stuff.). https://www.amazon.com/GE-Occupancy-Required-SmartThings-26931/dp/B07226MG2T/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-drs1_0?. Sometimes its cheeper on Amazon, sometimes cheeper on byjasco. I've had intermittent luck with zooz products. Lots of features, but indigo may or may not support it. I've had no indigo issues with the jasco stuff.

As for the Alexa integration.... I couldn't really say. Until Indigo has a fully supported plugin for it, I run a separate node-red server that exposes my indigo stuff to Alexa.

Bill
My Plugin: My People

Posted on
Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:48 pm
eullman offline
Posts: 12
Joined: Dec 12, 2012

Re: Brand of dimmers and switches to choose? (Alexa+Indigo)

Thanks, Bill. I had no idea about node-red. I'm going to install it on my Mac server or Raspberry Pi pi-hole this week and check it out. Much appreciated!

Posted on
Mon Dec 21, 2020 9:29 pm
whmoorejr offline
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Posts: 762
Joined: Jan 15, 2013
Location: Houston, TX

Re: Brand of dimmers and switches to choose? (Alexa+Indigo)

Sure thing... Node-red is addictive. I like that there are formulas out there (I might be messing up the term), but basically someone else can figure out a way of doing something and save it as a template. You just install the template and load your devices/setting into it. All drag/drop.... there was a slight learning curve for me, but it was fun. Search around on this forum with keyword "Node-red" and you'll find a few write-ups of guys here doing stuff with it.

Bill
My Plugin: My People

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