Continuing to expand its award-winning Internet of Things ecosystem, Wemo®, the smart home brand from Belkin International, today announced it is shipping the new Wemo Wi-Fi Smart Dimmer Light Switch. A 2017 CES Innovations Award Honoree and Best of CES winner from 9to5toys, TalkAndroid and Twice, the Wemo Dimmer is an elegant wall switch that embeds smart lighting technology with dimming functionality and more, to be controlled at the wall, by a mobile device or by voice with Amazon Alexa® or Google Assistant. Leveraging our installed base in more than a million homes, Wemo customers are asking for dimming capabilities along with other features such as night mode and long press functions to control all Wemo connected devices in the home. Other features were also added, including bulb calibration for better lighting and a responsive LED light bar to visually determine status of light controls from across the room.
“We asked our Wemo users what feature they wanted most for their smart lighting and a Dimmer Light Switch rated as the top request,” said Kara Alexander, senior product manager, Wemo. “Our Wemo customers want dimming so we built it into an elegant wall switch that provides a simple touch dimmer (or via the Wemo app or voice control) to control the mood while also adding features such as randomized lighting schedules to make it look like users are at home when they’re not, or setting the lights to turn on when the sun goes down.”
Night Mode and Custom Bulb Calibration
Wemo Dimmer includes all of the features of the original Wemo Light Switch, plus advanced updates such as Night Mode to prevent harsh lights at night and customized bulb calibration. Current dimmer products have rudimentary dimming settings, which tend to create annoying flickering and buzzing noise issues, but Wemo Dimmer uses the Wemo app to custom calibrate for any bulb type including incandescent lights (up to 400 watts), CFLs or LEDs, to eliminate those annoyances. In addition, Dimmer’s Night Mode feature enables users to set a specific level of brightness during a set period of time, which is ideal for midnight snack runs or checking on the kids when they are asleep.
Touch-Capacitive Dimmer Control
With a touch-capacitive dimmer control instead of a mechanical lever and a responsive light bar to indicate status, Wemo Dimmer is as smart looking on the outside as it is on the inside. The light bar uses movement, full RGB color and brightness as a language to provide contextual information. For example, Wemo rules are always signified by green light, third party actions like Amazon Alexa are aqua, a radar “pinging” animation indicates that it is searching for a Wi-Fi signal, and a left-to-right “sending” animation is used with Long Press activation of other Wemo devices. These light bar colors, when illuminated, help customers know what is happening with their lights just by glancing at the wall switch. This helps confirm commands are being executed or if there are issues with the connection.
Long Press
Wemo also recently launched a new long press feature for both the current Wemo Light Switch and the new Wemo Dimmer, which allows for additional controls from the hardware itself. Pressing and holding the switch for more than two seconds will trigger a second action involving other Wemo devices. For example, long pressing a Wemo Light Switch or Dimmer upon leaving the house could turn off all Wemo-connected lights or appliances in the home, or even trigger an away mode setting to randomize lights while away. Wemo Dimmer also works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for dimming and on/off control with simple voice commands, as well as the Nest Learning Thermostat’s Home and Away modes.
Additional Features:
- Adjustable light levels with convenient control from the app, switch or voice
- Smart timer rules to set schedules or turn devices on or off via sunrise or sunset
- Night Mode scheduling– predetermined lower light level at specified times of the night, minimizing bright-light blinding
- Works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT and the Nest Learning Thermostat
- Universal dimmer – works with any incandescent, CFL, LED dimmable light bulb
- Custom calibration provides the best light level range possible (based on individual bulb spec)• Custom Long Press – Control additional Wemo devices with a single, two-second press
- Custom Long Press – Control additional Wemo devices with a single, two-second press
- Away Mode scheduling – automatically randomize lighting so it looks like someone is home
- Convenient Wi-Fi technology, no hub required
- LED Light Bar communication to indicate activity
Availability and Pricing
The Wemo Dimmer Light Switch is immediately available at Amazon, Belkin.com and Bestbuy.com and coming later this week to Best Buy stores for an estimated street price of $79.99.
