GE45600 Z-Wave Basic Handheld Remote (not compatible with the IRIS HUB)

I got a Z-Wave light switch around Christmas in anticipation of the SmartThings kickstarted project that I backed. Once I receive my SmartThings kit, I should be able to give internet connectivity to the switch and control it from my iPhone, but in the meantime I got this remote. It's a bit large and clunky, but it fits in my coat pocket and works to turn on my outside light. I suppose the range is decent... maybe as good as my cheap garage door opener, but it does not work from inside a car.

I bought several of these so I can turn my lights on and off from the couch. Read the other reviews for instructions on setting it up with Vera. It's not complicated, but there are a lot of steps. When you have several, setting them up can be tedious, there isn't any way of copying a config from one remote to the other in VERA. You can do it if the remote is the master, but not if using it as a scene control in vera.Some of the information on the internet is wrong about the VERA / Remote combination. Some say it can't turn off lights, only activate scenes. In VERA if you select the proper button number and then select "a scene is deactivated", it will execute that scene when you push the button off.For simplicity think of it this way: Set up two scenes in VERA. Scene A turns the lights on. Scene B turns them off.Set the remote so that button on "Scene Activation" is tied to Scene A. (turning the lights ON)Set the remote so that button on "Scene Deactivation" is tied to Scene B. (turns lights off).Pressing button 1 on - activates scene A (lights on)Pressing button 1 off - activates scene B (lights off)

I tested and installed the AAA Batteries and paired this to 4 outdoor modules that I was going to use to control my Christmas lights. It worked perfectly the first time. An hour later, it stopped working. When I pressed and held the setup button to pair the modules again, the green and red LED's did not come on at all as if the batteries were dead. I tested and tried another set of batteries and the LED's on the unit lit once then stopped working. I called the customer service number (quite an experience) and was told that there must be interference caused by motors (such as a refigerator) in the area that is causing interference. I only have on refigerator and it is 30' away. I have no other Z-wave items and I live in a rural area with no close neighbors. I was informed that the Z Wave system was not going to work for me. I think that it must be a bad remote since while I agree that interference may stop good operation, I find it hard to believe that that it will stop the LED's from lighting up on the remote. I have to decide if I am going to try another one or give up on this project. Anyone else have this experience?

It's a great remote for the price BUT if you're thinking about using this with a SmartThings hub there are a lot of hoops to jump through to make it work. Check the SmartThings user forums first.

"Some people just can't tell a joke" translates here to "some people just can't write instructions". They seem well-written, but aren't. Leaving (happily!) the X10 world, my immediate goal was to simply add an appliance controller (called "light" here) to a control switch.For this simple step, the instructions say:1. Press and hold...until...2. Press ... once (LED blinks once)3. Press ... once (LED blinks once)4. Press a digit for the device location ... (LED blinks rapidly)5. Press the button on the device...6. When the green LED blinks... [success]Note: If the red LED emits one long steady blink [failure]Quibble: "Press a digit for the device location" means "Press the switch you want to control the device you're adding". (Actually each of them is two switches - ON and OFF; I always pressed the ON side, and don't know if OFF would have worked as well.)Curse: "Press a digit ..." actually does nothing more than frustrate the installer (you). Assign the job to your precocious 3-year-old for hours of amusement.Empirically, it appears that the instructions must be4. "Press AND HOLD...5. "WHILE CONTINUING TO HOLD...press the button on the device you're adding...6. "...until the green LED blinks twice" [or you get tired of holding the switch]The instructions as written (without specifying HOLD) do cause the green LED to blink rapidly until it times out after about 30 seconds (followed by two red blinks) but it was completely oblivious to button-presses on the device I was adding (GE 45603). The instructions as written may work fine for a different device. (Yes, I followed the "be within two feet" instruction.)More quibbles:If you simply want a switch to control a device as I did and you follow the instructions in order, you'll find that you've wasted your time - the first set of instructions adds the device "to the network" but not to a switch. Skip to the block titled "Adding ...to your remote".The only error code I noted in the instruction pamphlet was the long red; the only error code I saw was the two short reds.Proper operation of a device requires a quick press of the ON or OFF switch; holding it as you might have learned to do in the X10 world annoys it and it flashes several greens instead of doing what you want. When you get it right, you see a relatively faint green flash, followed by a brighter green flash indicating that the device received and responded properly to your command. None of this was discussed (nor the flashes that occur if you hold the button too long, or if the command didn't work, or ...)After initially installing new alkaline batteries (properly) this remote was inoperative. After reseating them it worked for a while but then stopped; rolling the batteries in-place fixed the contact problem again and it seems okay now. The batteries were a name brand I keep on hand that hasn't exhibited such a problem in the past. The construction of the remote seems honorable - a decent-sized spiral spring is involved - so I expect that the remote won't have continueing problems.