Wall controller?

Hi all, I have a great setup so far. I have a rooted Wink Hub that I use to control Zigbee lights. I have a Zwave usb controller (likely move the zwave to the Wink hub), Mosquitto connection to arduino sensors and garage door controller that I built.
The question I have, is in my main hallway I have 3 zigbee light bulbs configured and working from Openhab but what can I use as a wall controller that will do the same thing and from 2 different locations?
I thought about buying a cheap android tablet, but I would need power routed to it, etc. which wouldn’t be easy with my current house set up. I have a GE wall zwave wall controller with scenes but I can’t get it to work unless its paired up with zwave devices so that isn’t going to work. Suggestions?

Any traditional switch connected to any zwave actor (or two of those, in 2 locations) should do, what’s the problem in doing so ? Do you want to color control your bulbs ?

The Zwave controller I have I can only associate with zwave devices from
what I can see. Perhaps I don’t know enough on how to manage this
controller. I want to be able to push a button on a controller, which
triggers an event on Openhab, which will control the lights or any other
series of events I choose.

ZWave controllers are USB sticks that you plug into the server that you run openhab on.
You can associate any ZWave controller with any zwave device. Get a zwave relay such as a Fibaro FGS-222, include it with the controller, and electrically connect a switch to the relay. I don’t understand you, what’s the problem in doing that?
Are you confusing the ‘controller’ with a remote, such as a keyfob ? What device is it, what’s your server ?

Ok as per my first post. I have a PC running Openhab, it has an Aeonlabs
Zwave controller on it as primary. I have a Keypad Controller (
http://www.amazon.com/GE-45631-Z-Wave-Wireless-Controller/dp/B003OUWABU)
on my hallway wall. Works fine to turn on and off the zwave devices I
have.

This Keypad Controller sets up as a secondary zwave controller and I must
associate zwave devices to the buttons in order to control them.

How do I use this device to turn other non-zwave lights on or off? If that
is not possible, what are my options for a Keypad Controller like the one
above to be able to effectively trigger events in Openhab with?

Sorry if I haven’t been clear… I’m trying to be!

Well, you didn’t say you wanted to use that specific Keypad controller to trigger OpenHAB events.
You need to associate your GE thing with the Aeonlabs controller (which usually has ZWave ID 1), so any command will (also) be sent to openHAB. Then you need to implement rules to explicitly send commands to the zwave devices that used to be triggered by your keypad (unless your GE thing can be associated with both in parallel, Aeonlabs controller AND zwave devices). If that doesn’t work, my proposal is an alternative option. Of course I mean(t) you to associate the ZWave relay device with your real controller, i.e. the Aeonlabs one, and not with that GE thing (I assume your PC runs all day long, if it does not, you should have mentioned that).

PC runs all day. Doesn’t have to be this device, this is what I have now.
It has already been added to the zwave network as a secondary controller.

I will take another look at this device to see how to configure it and see
if I can trigger an openhab event with it.

Thanks
Norm

Ok this GE device does not allow me to do much if its not specifically a
zwave device. Even the scene buttons and other buttons are inactive until
I add a Zwave device to them, which I don’t want to do.

Is there a Keypad Controller LIKE the one I showed above that can be used
to send a command to Openhab? I have different technologies here - Zwave,
Zigbee, Arduino net, etc. Openhab does a great job blending the
technologies seamlessly but what about a simple controller?

On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 12:16 PM, Norm Dressler norm.dressler@gmail.com
wrote:

Well, zwave associations aren’t exclusive, i.e. you can have an association from your GE keypad to one or more zwave devices additionally, i.e. while still controlling those devices from your Aeonlabs controller.
Also, have you tried to associate your GE device with the Aeonlabs controller? It won’t result in any switching action except for those you program in openHAB.

If you really don’t want to send zwave commands (but all through openHAB), you’re obviously free in choosing the right keypad. There’s zwave keyfobs from Aeon, Duewi, and I’ve seen two or three wall ‘controllers’ like yours.
But I’d recommend to select a nice traditional (multi-)switch to match your house look 'n feel and connect it to a non-visibly installed zwave actor such as the FGS-222 I mentioned.

The issue isn’t controlling zwave devices. I go through the process of
copying the zwave data from the swim labs controller to the switch, then
can add any zwave device and control it from either Openhab or switch.

The issue is my non-zwave items and needing to control them from a keypad
controller.

On Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:59 AM Markus Storm bot@community.openhab.org
wrote:

To follow up on this, I have found a couple of 7" tablets, new, for about $50 a piece. Using the post from here: Dashboard UI suitable for tablets I have been able to set up a really nice looking dashboard that does everything I want.