I am searching for a switch device with a visible state. Problem is, I want to arm my alarm scene with it, so I need to know if its currently on or off by just looking at it when I leave the house (like a flip switch/toggle switch).
It should either be wireless or just plugged in to a power outlet.
I am thankful for any recommendation or even alternatives on how you arm your alarm in a quick and easy way (switching it from a phone is kind of annoying when you need to leave quickly to catch a train for example).
I am from Europe (Germany). So only-US home automation hardware might not be available here.
Thanks for answering Tom. An ESP with a LED and NFC scanner sounds really like a good solution but kind of a overengineered in a sense. I’d really just like to buy something thats displaying on/off state over MQTT or something else right out of the box. But I’ll check that out. I am from Germany by the way.
An ESP with all of the stuff needed would cost me around 30€, am I right?
I’d also need a soldering iron, case, LED, etc. right? Crazy that theres no pre-built switch/button from something like Aqara or so. They all just have buttons with no physical indication of the current state.
Lightwave smart sockets have LEDs showing whether they are on or off - is that what you mean?
I personally have a Nuki lock (German, I think?). Their “Lock ‘n’ Go” feature allows you to tap a single HA button as you go out: the door locks behind you and this can trigger any other security automations you like.
My config in ESPHome sets that led based on the button press… but maybe you can tweak that config so that you can set that led based on some event in Home Assistant? ( just thinking out loud )
THIS. I use leftover food containers (washed, of course) for a lot of my rPi projects. These things are fantastic as cases (provided you put heatsinks/fans on your rPis). I’ve even made use of them for some outdoor projects like my LightShowPi boxes.
Damn, thats like perfect… If I can tell correctly, that slim blue round bezel around the button is indicating different statuses? That might also work if I can just press it to see whether it blinks red (alarm armed) or if I press it and it turns white (alarm disarmed). Also I am a big fan of Shelly since I am already using like 8 of the "Door window 2"s.
I am still really eager to dive into that ESPhome world. However I don’t want to use recycled food boxes since it will sit right in my freshly built apartment hallway and the ESP and its case should look rather “manufactured” as if it is something you can buy in your big local electronics store. Or maybe I just shove it all into a wall mount and hide the router, RPi and ESP.
I don’t have one yet but I would be surprised if that ring LED light was not controllable over mqtt or the rest API. Maybe ask on their support forum or facebook page to be sure.
If you just renovated then you have some left over wall paper or paint?
If you just sand paper the the box smooth then you can make it almost disappear on the wall.
If you get a membrane button then you can even put wallpaper/paint over it to make it really slick!
I’m quite sure I read that on the page you linked too. Not interested enough to read it again but I believe it said something like that
