ZWave or Zigbee Decora Style Keypad

[upstatemike]

One thing that will be key if I ever want to migrate away from Insteon is an alternative to the Insteon Keypad.

https://www.amazon.com/INSTEON-2334-...112985&sr=8-21

I have found plenty of oddball looking battery powered button controllers for ZWave and Zigbee but nothing that can be installed in a standard multi-gang wallplate with other switches and nothing that is line powered rather than battery. Lutron Radio RA2 has a functional equivalent but I can't find anything in the entire Zigbee and ZWave universe that would be a reasonable substitute for the Insteon keypad. Does such a thing exist? Is there really no demand for such a product? (They are heavily used in the Insteon and Radio RA2 worlds). Maybe this is a product Homeseer should add to their product development roadmap?

[TC1]

https://www.gordonelectricsupply.com...gaAgxyEALw_wcB

[upstatemike]

https://www.gordonelectricsupply.com...gaAgxyEALw_wcB

Do these work as generic button controllers recognized by Homeseer? I am concerned by this line in the brochure:

"Provides remote ON/OFF/DIM/BRIGHT of four zones/ares of selected Vizia RF+ switches...

This suggests it is not a standard Z-Wave device that I can use to trigger Homeseer events. Is anybody using these with Homeseer?

[TC1]

A quick Google revealed this:
https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...=48#post967142

[upstatemike]

A quick Google revealed this:
https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...=48#post967142

Yikes! It's threads like this that keep me from going too deep with ZWave. Probably stick with Insteaon for a while longer.

[Krumpy]

Hopefully your keypads will live for a while. Mine are dying left and right...

[upstatemike]

Hopefully your keypads will live for a while. Mine are dying left and right...

I lose one about every 2 years. I have 10 in use and 4 spares so I'll be OK for awhile. What kind of failures are you seeing?

[jmaddox]

I have a couple of the cooper/eaton 5 button zwave controllers that I'm happy with.

https://www.amazon.com/Eaton-RFWC5AW.../dp/B0053ZIRWK

[upstatemike]

I have a couple of the cooper/eaton 5 button zwave controllers that I'm happy with.

https://www.amazon.com/Eaton-RFWC5AW.../dp/B0053ZIRWK

I forgot about the Cooper ZWave stuff. Is there anyplace still selling new ones?

[jmaddox]

I hope they don't stop manufacturing these, I've been meaning to buy at least 1 more

this site indicates they are in stock... not sure if that's true or not
https://www.ktool.net/eaton-rfwc5aw-...0aAk_CEALw_wcB

Gordon electric also indicates they have them in stock, but the price is nearly double the above link. they also have other colors and button shapes available
https://www.gordonelectricsupply.com...kaAgJPEALw_wcB

I also came across this unit from Leviton, higher than the Gordon Electric site but full width rectangular buttons. No idea if it's supported by HS
https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-VRCZ4...04KN87OE&psc=1

[upstatemike]

I hope they don't stop manufacturing these, I've been meaning to buy at least 1 more

this site indicates they are in stock... not sure if that's true or not
https://www.ktool.net/eaton-rfwc5aw-...0aAk_CEALw_wcB

Gordon electric also indicates they have them in stock, but the price is nearly double the above link. they also have other colors and button shapes available
https://www.gordonelectricsupply.com...kaAgJPEALw_wcB

I also came across this unit from Leviton, higher than the Gordon Electric site but full width rectangular buttons. No idea if it's supported by HS
https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-VRCZ4...04KN87OE&psc=1

I saw a thread where folks had scary bad issues trying to get the Vizio keypad working. I assume Cooper just worked when you added it to Stargate? Can you use the buttons to kick off Homeseer events?

[jmaddox]

I saw a thread where folks had scary bad issues trying to get the Vizio keypad working. I assume Cooper just worked when you added it to Stargate? Can you use the buttons to kick off Homeseer events?

I had no trouble adding the cooper/eaton controller to HS. Yes you can have an event trigger on a button press. You can either control devices using events that trigger on button presses, or you can build/deploy scenes to the controller and it will control devices directly. HS can also turn the button LED on or off via events. If you deploy a scene the controller will work even if HS is down.

If you deploy a scene; 1 button press activates the associated device(s). press-hold then dims down, a 2nd press-hold dims back up. Press-hold the button on the right middle for 3 sec turns off all scenes.

[upstatemike]

I had no trouble adding the cooper/eaton controller to HS. Yes you can have an event trigger on a button press. You can either control devices using events that trigger on button presses, or you can build/deploy scenes to the controller and it will control devices directly. HS can also turn the button LED on or off via events. If you deploy a scene the controller will work even if HS is down.

If you deploy a scene; 1 button press activates the associated device(s). press-hold then dims down, a 2nd press-hold dims back up. Press-hold the button on the right middle for 3 sec turns off all scenes.

Sounds like just the thing. I wonder why there isn't more demand/competition for ZWave products like this?

[fresnoboy]

Sounds like just the thing. I wonder why there isn't more demand/competition for ZWave products like this?

Lutron's Caseta and RadioRA2 devices cost about the same and are very functional without needing someone to program zwave routines etc... These systems are rock solid and interface to Alexa and Google devices pretty easily, as well as all the usual suspects in home automation. Lighting systems have to be bulletproof, and change much more slowly than automation systems do. So when looking at whole home or remodel applications, Lutron does much better than Zwave etc... solutions. This is the route I went and have never had issues with lutron gear compared to my Zwave devices...

Zwave was also a one semiconductor company technology, and that meant it had limited appeal. This is changing slowly, but will likely be overtaken by the new zigbee spec that amazon/google/apple are backing anyway. It's found a nice niche in the DIY market, but it's just not that big.

[upstatemike]

Lutron's Caseta and RadioRA2 devices cost about the same and are very functional without needing someone to program zwave routines etc... These systems are rock solid and interface to Alexa and Google devices pretty easily, as well as all the usual suspects in home automation. Lighting systems have to be bulletproof, and change much more slowly than automation systems do. So when looking at whole home or remodel applications, Lutron does much better than Zwave etc... solutions. This is the route I went and have never had issues with lutron gear compared to my Zwave devices...

Zwave was also a one semiconductor company technology, and that meant it had limited appeal. This is changing slowly, but will likely be overtaken by the new zigbee spec that amazon/google/apple are backing anyway. It's found a nice niche in the DIY market, but it's just not that big.

Is there a keypad that works with Caseta? I've only seen the ones for RadioRA2.