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Belkin's Wemo Brand Launches New Smart Dimmer With Thread Support

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Wemo, Belkin's smart home accessory brand, today announced the launch of the HomeKit-enabled Wemo Smart Dimmer with Thread support. As with the prior Wemo Smart Dimmer, the updated version is designed to allow users to control their lights using the Home app, Wemo Stage app, or Siri voice commands.

belkin-wemo-dimmer.jpg

The Wemo Smart Dimmer is Thread certified, which means it offers a faster and more reliable connection when used with other Thread devices. For those unfamiliar with Thread, it is a low-latency mesh network for smart home devices that improves interoperability, range, and reliability.

Lights can be dimmed, turned on, or turned off from anywhere with the Smart Dimmer, and it works with neutral or no neutral wiring so it is able to be installed in most homes, though it won't work with three-way switches. The dimmer is exclusive to HomeKit, and in addition to Thread, it also connects to devices using Bluetooth.

The Wemo Smart Dimmer with Thread can be purchased for $60 from the Belkin website, and it is coming soon to Amazon.

Article Link: Belkin's Wemo Brand Launches New Smart Dimmer With Thread Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/08/03/belkin-wemo-dimmer-thread/
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This looks nice.

Side note: I've seen some newer smart switches like this one where they don't need neutral. How do work without one?

Edit, found the answer:

The key to creating a smart switch that works without the neutral loop is to make R1 the perfect resistance. R1 needs to restrict the current enough so that the light bulb doesn’t turn on when the switch is off. At the same time, it needs to let enough current through so that the switch can power itself.
Click to expand...
 
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I just ripped out every single Wemo outlet in my house. 25% of the time Google Assistant can't talk to Wemo. 10% of the time, neither Siri or Google can get a hold of Wemo. Nothing more annoying than going to bed and as the goodnight routine runs, "Sorry, Wemo is unavailable" is the answer forcing a manual shutdown of 8 outlets in the house. They will not be on my list of Thread/Matter vendors to use with Home/Siri or Google Assistant again.
 
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xDENTALPLANx said:
Why is this $60 when the Philips Hue dimmer switch is £16?
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Philips hue dimmer is only a remote to control a Hue bulb or light, so you need to buy these lights on top of the switch and the bridge. This dimmer is meant to be used with "dumb" bulbs and light, so you don’t need any other purchase to make it work. All in all, a dimmer is probably cheaper than a smart bulb+bridge+dimmer remote control
 
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xDENTALPLANx said:
Why is this $60 when the Philips Hue dimmer switch is £16?
Click to expand...
Hue dimmer switches don’t wire into electrical circuits and only control Hue lights. But, I’m trying to figure out why this matter-enabled summer costs twice as much as my Siri-enabled Wemo dimmer switch.
 
Arislan said:
I just ripped out every single Wemo outlet in my house. 25% of the time Google Assistant can't talk to Wemo. 10% of the time, neither Siri or Google can get a hold of Wemo. Nothing more annoying than going to bed and as the goodnight routine runs, "Sorry, Wemo is unavailable" is the answer forcing a manual shutdown of 8 outlets in the house. They will not be on my list of Thread/Matter vendors to use with Home/Siri or Google Assistant again.
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Me to. Got rid of all my wemo & tp link devices so Unreliable. Moved to hue. And just buy there stuff when on good offers to keep the price down. It’s been fast and just works also it’s a mesh system so every device communicate with each other.
 
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Sooo… Thread is here with a new radio frequency because Zwave and Zigbee and Bluetooth and WiFi are all too unreliable.

“You’re 10 years late to the party,” exclaimed Lutron.
 
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I have Kasa switches throughout my house. They're great, although I obviously wish homekit was a thing. Praying that Matter is somehow backwards compatible with this stuff and can solve things...
 
ChromeAce said:
Sooo… Thread is here with a new radio frequency because Zwave and Zigbee and Bluetooth and WiFi are all too unreliable.

“You’re 10 years late to the party,” exclaimed Lutron.
Click to expand...

that's not how that works. furthermore, thread is on the same frequency as zigbee.

thread is necessary for a device to have in order to take advantage of matter, the benefit being some major things:

-much of the tech world has come together and agreed to adopt it as a standard.
-thread devices just need something else in the house that can be a border router in order to communicate with the network efficiently, rather than needing a hub (like Hue) or its own proprietary networking tech
-current examples of a border router for Apple people include Apple TV, HomePod, HomePod mini. in my case, my Nanoleafs also can operate as a border router
-non-border router thread devices can communicate through border routers that may be closer to them than the nearest wifi broadcasting device

it's hardly 10 years late. it's the culmination of various different techs finally coming together to agree on something.
 
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I’m OK with Hue lights being controlled by a hub. I got my first lights before HomeKit was a thing. I bought an updated hub and now all my Hue lights are HomeKit compatible.

Sounds like I may need a new hub if Thread becomes a thing. If so, I’ll get a new hub +3 bulbs when they’re on sale during the holidays.
 
I was very excited for this product to come, but according to The Verge: “As of right now, the Dimmer with Thread will not be upgradable to Matter via firmware update when the new standard launches later this year,” Cassie Pineda, a spokesperson for Belkin, told The Verge in an email. “When Matter launches later this year, we will bring to market new switches/dimmers that support Matter over Thread.”

This is weird, and a bummer. I'll wait for the Matter over Thread version I guess
 
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fwmireault said:
Philips hue dimmer is only a remote to control a Hue bulb or light, so you need to buy these lights on top of the switch and the bridge. This dimmer is meant to be used with "dumb" bulbs and light, so you don’t need any other purchase to make it work. All in all, a dimmer is probably cheaper than a smart bulb+bridge+dimmer remote control
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Ok. It is an in placed wired dimmer, dimming everything wired directly to the dimmer with the opportunity to be controlled remotely. Otherwise it would not make sense.
 
I really wish that someone would make a reasonably priced smart switch that works with an adjustable speed ceiling fan. None of the "dimming" switches I've seen are compatible.
 
fwmireault said:
Philips hue dimmer is only a remote to control a Hue bulb or light, so you need to buy these lights on top of the switch and the bridge. This dimmer is meant to be used with "dumb" bulbs and light, so you don’t need any other purchase to make it work. All in all, a dimmer is probably cheaper than a smart bulb+bridge+dimmer remote control
Click to expand...
Relative to a smart bulb:

- You don't get color (probably no big deal, I've found zero real use for color)
- You don't get whitepoint variation. I actually like this in the form of Apple's automatic varying the white point from blue during the day to yellow at night. Others may not care.
- You don't get an easi*er* way to fix the damn thing when it inevitably hangs (as they all do, sigh). For smart bulbs you can just flick the power or unplug them, for this you probably have to flip the breaker which is more of a hassle.

These things do have a use if you have a light that, for whatever reason, cannot be a smart bulb, but you want it to be smart (eg automatically switch on based on sunset and switch off when you go to sleep). I use one (the Eve version, which is non-dimming) for a stair light in my house that's a can rather than a standards socket.
To be fair I have never had to reset the Eve version, but I'd be less optimistic about most brands.

(I also use this Eve switch-replacement as the switch to control an extractor fan, for the same reason, that it allows home automation, so the fan automatically runs for a few hours late every night, both to flush out the house and to swap the hotter inside air with cooler outside air. [An extractor fan will do this, an AC fan will not since a decent AC system tries to keep the air in the house, not to replace it with wrong-temperature air from outside the house.])
 
Arislan said:
I just ripped out every single Wemo outlet in my house. 25% of the time Google Assistant can't talk to Wemo. 10% of the time, neither Siri or Google can get a hold of Wemo. Nothing more annoying than going to bed and as the goodnight routine runs, "Sorry, Wemo is unavailable" is the answer forcing a manual shutdown of 8 outlets in the house. They will not be on my list of Thread/Matter vendors to use with Home/Siri or Google Assistant again.
Click to expand...
Its because you use Google
 
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