I am fairly new to home automation and I am looking to add a few physical wall switches to devices that don’t have a specific wall switch of their own. I have a couple rooms where I want to put a light on a smart bulb/plug/relay but want to be able to turn the light on/off via a physical interaction at the door, like a normal light switch.
The only solution I see right now is to expand the hole for the existing light (ceiling fan actually) switch, add another smart switch that doesn’t actually have a load, and then set it up so if that switch is turned “on/off” then I have a automation that triggers the smart relay.
But that seems like gross overkill. I honestly don’t care about cutting holes or wiring stuff up, but somehow paying full price for a smart switch and then using it as nothing more than an alternative user interface for yet another smart device seems really wrong.
Currently I have several kaso/tapo switches installed and have been looking at some smart relays/plugs/bulbs to turn on a lamp, or trigger the light on the fan separately from the fan itself.
If you already have a light switch there for other reasons you could use something like the zoo zen32 scene controller switch. It is a z-wave switch for the circuit you install it on but adds 4 additional buttons. You would use those buttons to trigger automation or set a scene.
That sounds like it might be better than what I was originally thinking.
I have moved all my switches to Inovelli. The recently came out with light switches with mmwave imbedded that automatically run my kitchen dinning dimmable lights. They work with dumb/smart lights ceiling fans. They have signed and zwave. They are made in USA so if you are against that then I would recommend Shelly they are pretty solid devices too.
Hmmm yes… I know some of those words… Looks like I have a lot of web searches in my future.
I just took some Zigbee buttons and stuck em on the wall. I rent though, so I can’t mess with the wiring. Works well. I have Zigbee bulbs so I just put little 3D printed covers on the real switches to keep the power going to the smart bulbs.
But can’t you get a smart switch with physical controls? What tech do you use to control your lights/switches/relays? Zigbee? WiFi? Matter/Thread?
I’d do something like this: https://a.co/d/022pOcJo if I could. (Not recommending this brand… Didn’t research it.)
WiFi ones exist too but I wouldn’t want to permanently install WiFi smart home stuff. If you’re going this far invest into a Zigbee or Matter over Thread radio. It works great with Homeassistant.
I also just want to add the batteries in most of those zigbee buttons last on the order of years
I haven’t had a single zigbee button need a battery replacement yet.
That’s great news. One of my fans came with a remote years ago. The remote uses this special little 12v battery that is both expensive and incredibly short lived.
There are Zigbee buttons that don’t even need batteries. They produce the necessary energy to send a signal from the energy you put into clicking them. Incredible stuff out there.
Yeah I got the Third Reality ones, they take AAA batteries instead of the coin cells that most take.
Just a basic wifi setup so far. I was thinking I would need to rewire the original switch to hardwired and skip the switch part. But, I really like your idea of a 3D printed cover, that way I can still kill the power if needed. And depending upon the control I end up going with I might even be able to integrate it into that cover… That’s awesome.
That switch you linked me to is pretty sweet also. Not only would it eliminate the need to change or charge batteries for remote type devices, but I also would not have to cut into the wall or do anything drastic to add switches to the current single gang switch.The existing switches operator fans with a light. The fan may be on but the light off, so you currently have to cross the room to get to the pull switch to turn the light on. And in my bedroom, if my wife is asleep with the fan on, I would like to turn on a small lamp that won’t wake her up. It’s easy enough if I have my phone on me, but otherwise I’m trying to make it across the room without tripping on the dog.
I have a button on my bedroom wall and two others one on each nightstand.
Pressing the one on the wall once turns on the main lights. Double press controls the lamps.
On the nightstands it’s opposite. One press for lamp, two for main light. Long press any of them to turn everything off.
My living room has a similar setup, but like you I have a dual light/fan. I keep the fan controlled by the pull chain and the lights are smart bulbs that are controlled by the wall button.
I’ll throw in another vouch for simple Zigbee buttons, if you don’t want to mess with rewiring or installing new light switches. The Thirdreality buttons work great and are super affordable.
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
you could look at wifi/zigbee buttons, Shelly have wifi buttons.
Thanks. I had searched for something but I never thought to look for a “button”. It’s kind of obvious now that you’ve pointed it out.
Ikea recently released some matter over thread smart buttons that are ~$3 each
Cool, I will check it out, thanks.
I had a similar situation with a cabin with terrible switch placement and maybe a single switched outlet for a lamp that just wasn’t positioned very well.
I used the wall switch to turn on the switched outlet and that triggered three other lamps to turn on. I also configured it to dim them all from that same switch, a Tapo S505D. It worked well until someone else plugged a space heater into the outlet and killed the dimmer.
I also put a ZBT-2 to add ZigBee to the system, as I had a bunch of IKEA smart, wireless remotes that just didn’t work well through their hub and matter integration. With the ZBT-2, I added the remotes directly and had full control over the triggers, so I created an automation to act as a light switch that could be mounted anywhere and control anything.
When said person killed the dimmer, they just grabbed a wireless switch and stuck it on the wall above the switch and now the lights can be controlled while I order a replacement. I’ve got a bunch more remotes coming this week to add switches to every entrance to the room that previously had nothing.
Interesting, that sounds a lot like what I’m trying to do. I will look into that thanks.
The Signify (hue) zigbee based dimmer switches or regular switches would work for this, right?
I don’t know… I had thought they were specifically remotes for the Philips switches. But now I will take a better look, thanks.
I have HA yellow here connected to about 10 of these (RWL-021) switches. Only quirk I found is that with a smaller network, if they become unavailable through bad connection, you have to really delete the device from the ZHA list to get it to recouple. Im no home automation pro, but it felt like I had to delete it twice before they would pair again. Now my network is fully on, they don’t lose connection anymore so it’s no longer an issue.
Look up dimmer switch automation blueprints on the HA forum and spare yourself the time to make your own. After that you can change the settings in the HA ui, no yaml required.
You had me at dimmer switch automation blueprints. I’m not sure what that means but I feel like it’s going to be the reason I am up all night.
What are you using, Zigbee or ZWave? Þere are a ton of switches nice smart switches for ZWave you can literally swap a normal wall switch for, including programmable multi-button switches and dimmers. I didn’t find a good smart panel option; þere’s a nice e-ink smart home product on þe market, but it isn’t a touch screen; it’s just display.
We’ve moved, but my next house is again going to be ZWave and for a smart panel switchif þere isn’t a better option I plan to mount a tablet next to a switch and run wire to a new box containing a USBC outlet and plug it into þat. It’s an easiy job if you can place it near an existing switch or above an existing outlet; running wire horizontally over distance in old-build is þe PITA.
So far it is just basic wifi switches (tplink). I have been trying to figure out how I am going to handle these weird edge case switches situations before I get too deep and discover I went the wrong way. I gave a little bit more detail in an answer to another user.
I’ve been thinking about what to do for a master control station. I like the idea of a dedicated tablet mounted and powered right next to the master bedroom switches.
