How to Use Your ZEN34 Remote Switch With Smart Bulbs On Home Assistant

No convenient wiring? No problem! If you're looking for a battery powered wall remote and you don't want to worry about wiring, the ZEN34 Remote Switch is a handy choice. It fits in any standard electrical box or can be fixed to a wall or any flat surface for easy installation. Program the paddle on this device according to the standard scene control / central scene event or direct association instructions provided below and control your smart bulbs with a single / held / or multi-tap trigger. Here is a quick guide on how to program the device to get the most out of your smart lighting experience. If you'd like to learn more about using this and other Zooz switches with smart bulbs, read this overview article first.

INCLUDE THE ZEN34 TO HOME ASSISTANT

Simply follow these steps to include the ZEN34 Remote Switch to Home Assistant and access all of the control options in the Home Assistant user interface. Zooz products are now officially integrated with the new ZWaveJS integration of Home Assistant. If you're experiencing issues with accessing the advanced settings of your ZEN34 we would recommend first updating to the JS integration then excluding and re-including your device to your network in order for it to be recognized correctly.

LINK THE REMOTE SWITCH TO YOUR SMART BULBS

There are a few different ways to program the ZEN34 to control your smart bulbs. Scene control is the recommended method, as most smart bulbs on the market are currently Zigbee or Wi-Fi, but if you have Z-Wave bulbs you can scroll down for the direct association instructions.

SCENE CONTROL This is the recommended method, which will allow you to use the triggers from the upper or lower paddle on your Remote Switch to be assigned a different action to trigger your smart bulbs.

Check out the handy instructions below for more details on how to program scene control on the ZEN34 with Home Assistant:

Here is how to program your Remote Switch on Home Assistant.

We've included a few simple examples on how you can use the device to activate your favorite settings instantly:

If the upper paddle is tapped once, toggle the state of my smart bulbs (turn them on if they're off or turn them off if they're on).
If the upper paddle is double tapped, set my smart bulbs to bed time scene (lights dimmed, set to warm yellow).
If the lower paddle is tapped once, set my smart bulbs to focus mode (full brightness, cool white).

Each paddle can be programmed for single tap, double tap, held, released, or multi-tap triggers so you have endless possibilities with creative ways to use this device as a smart bulb remote control.

If you are looking to dim your smart bulb with the ZEN34 on Home Assistant via scene control, you can accomplish this by using "held" and "released" button triggers and "start level change" / "stop level change" on the action side for the lights on most hubs.

However, please note that virtual/wireless dimming where you press the paddles and it sends a signal to the bulbs to start changing brightness via Z-Wave commands is never as smooth as we're used to for regular bulbs.

We actually recommend utilizing scene control over attempting to "live" dim the smart bulbs since you won't be able to electrically dim the bulbs (they have built-in dimmers) and instead programming the different buttons/actions to trigger your favorite brightness and color settings so you can trigger them with a single (or double) click. This ends up a much more user friendly experience than trying to "find" the right brightness by holding the paddles manually like we're used to with non-smart dimmers.

DIRECT ASSOCIATION You can utilize this method only if you have Z-Wave smart bulbs and they're added to your Home Assistant hub with the same level of security as the Remote Switch. The official Home Assistant Z-Wave add-on does not have association support at the moment; in order to use Direct Association you need to install the Z-Wave JS UI add-on, which supports direct association.

If you have the Z-Wave JS UI add-on, you can manage the associations under each node, in the groups tab. You can follow the Direct Association programming instructions here: ZEN34 Direct Association on Home Assistant.

Scroll down to Direct Association and type in the device ID's of the smart bulbs under the appropriate association group that corresponds to the button and functionality you want to accomplish:
- Group 2: Basic for on (top paddle) and off (bottom paddle)
- Group 3: Multilevel start level change (held) and stop level change (released)
Always wake the device up after you're done programming it: just tap the upper paddle 7 times very quickly.

If you have any questions about using your ZEN34 Remote Switch with smart bulbs on Home Assistant, just ask!