If you already have a Shelly Dimmer Gen3 running your lights, the BLU Remote Control ZB adds something the app cannot: a physical remote with a wheel, so you can take the brightness up and down with your thumb. And it does work — Shelly names the Dimmer Gen3 explicitly among the devices that support default command mapping.
No separate gateway, and no dependence on the internet
The remote broadcasts over Bluetooth. The Dimmer Gen3 has a Bluetooth gateway built in, so it receives the remote itself: no BLU Gateway needed.
And because the link is Bluetooth, direct, it carries on when the wifi drops. The only constraint is range, around 10 metres indoors.
How the controls land on a dimmer
On pairing, Default Command Mapping assigns the controls for you:
- Left button: switches the light off.
- Right button: switches it on.
- Wheel up: raises the brightness smoothly.
- Wheel down: lowers it.
This is not a promise for later. Shelly confirms default mapping is already available for relays, covers and dimmers; what is still outstanding, in version 1.8.0, is mapping with the plugs. To switch on, off and dim, there is no scene to build.
The step nearly everyone skips
Here is why people report that it does not work: as well as pairing, you have to confirm the mapping in the dimmer’s own web interface. Trying to do it from the app alone is precisely where people get stuck.
- Enable Bluetooth on the Dimmer Gen3 and check it is in your account.
- Pair the BLU Remote Control ZB as a Bluetooth device from the Shelly Smart Control app, phone held close.
- Open the dimmer’s web interface — at its IP on your network — and confirm the remote’s mapping there.
- Try the wheel. If brightness rises and falls smoothly, you are done.
If the remote pairs but the wheel does nothing, go back to step 3 before looking anywhere else. It is the most repeated cause with this pair of devices.
What not to expect from it
This is a brightness remote, not a colour one. For a dimmable white light it does everything you need. If what you have is an RGBW controller, the behaviour is different and rather more limited — that has an article of its own.