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Intro

Some wall panels have physical buttons that you can configure to do something:
  • At home, the panel by the front door can have one button that turns on the hallway and porch lights, and another that starts your “I’m Leaving” routine.
  • At a commercial property, the panel at reception can open up the building in the morning and close it down at night, and the panel in a meeting room can set the room up for a presentation.
Each button’s label and icon show on the screen beside it, so everyone can see what the button does before they press it.
“Configure Buttons” is available if an installer set up Zendo at your property.

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What a button can do

A button can do anything a shortcut can, and you set it up the same way:
  • Describe it to the AI assistant, such as “turn on the hallway and porch lights”, and Zendo builds it from the accessories in your property.
  • Apply a scene from Home Assistant/Homey.
  • Start an automation (or a flow on Homey).
You choose each button’s label and icon, so they say what the button does in the words people at your property use. If an accessory a button uses is deleted, the button still does the rest of what it was set up to do. If nothing is left, pressing it shows “One or more settings failed to apply”. Set the button up again.

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Give limited control of an accessory

A button can let people at a panel do one thing with an accessory, such as turning it on and off, without giving them full control of it. A button does what you set it up to do, even if the accessory is hidden from the panel’s device group. The device group chooses which accessories the panel shows, not what its buttons do. To set it up:
  1. Hide the accessory from the panel’s device group: in the accessory’s Family Sharing (Access Control) settings, select the device group under Hide from
  2. Set up a button that does only what people at the panel need.

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Which wall panels have buttons

“Configure Buttons” shows for a wall panel in a device group, if Zendo knows the panel’s buttons. Phones, tablets and wall panels without buttons don’t show it. Each wall panel has its own buttons, so set up each panel separately.

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Set up a button

On your phone or tablet:
  1. Tap
  2. Tap “Settings”
  3. Tap “Control Panels”
  4. Under its device group, tap the wall panel
  5. Tap “Configure Buttons”
  6. Tap the row under the button you want to set up, such as “Button 1”
  7. Enter a Label and choose an icon
  8. Under Action, choose what the button does: describe it in “AI Assistant”, or choose a scene or an automation
  9. Tap “Save”.
Zendo goes back to the list of buttons, where the button shows its label and icon. Then publish your changes, so the panel shows them.

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Find the right button

At the top of “Configure Buttons”, a drawing of the panel shows each button’s number. The drawing shows the panel in its standard orientation. Each number stays with its physical button, whichever way the panel is mounted.

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Change or clear a button

To change a button, tap its row, make your changes, then tap “Save”. To clear a button, tap its row, tap “Delete”, then confirm. The row shows “None”, and the button is disabled.

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Publish your changes

“Configure Buttons” uses the same editing as “Add or Change Accessories” (or “Edit Floorplan”). Your changes are saved as a draft, and the panel shows them once you publish them:
  1. Go back to your floorplan or the Tiles view
  2. Tap “Done” in the top-right corner.

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Replace a wall panel with buttons

When you replace a wall panel, its buttons move to the new panel in the “Configuration” step, if the new panel has the same buttons. If the new device has different buttons, or none, such as a tablet, neither device keeps the old buttons. Set up the new panel’s buttons again. See Configuration.

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If a button doesn’t work

  • The panel shows no label for it: check that you’ve published your changes, and that “Configure Buttons” shows the button’s label and icon.
  • Tapping the label works, but pressing the button doesn’t: update Zendo on the panel.
  • It shows “One or more settings failed to apply”: check that the accessories it uses are online, and that the panel is connected to Home Assistant/Homey, then try again. If an accessory it used was deleted, set the button up again.