I’m looking for hardware that I can use to control HA-connected entities. Some way to control whatever smart appliances or lights are in the room.
Must have requirements:
- Wireless - I want to put at least one of these in each room, in convenient locations, and I don’t want to have to plug them in or always replace existing wall switches.
- Multiple buttons or dials or whatever. I want flexible options so I can to tailor the controls for the multiple devices in each room. For instance, in the kitchen I’d like to be able to swap between lighting modes, choose white temperature or color, etc. In the garage, I want to be able to unlock the car, open the trunk, open/close the garage door, etc.
- Affordable (sub-$100 per remote, probably sub-$40)
- Battery life at least 1 year
- Any RF protocol is fine as long as it’s reliable. Zigbee, Z-Wave, LoRa, even Wi-Fi (though I expect battery life to be a nonstarter there).
- Consistently available - I want to get a few of these but add more of them to my home as time goes on.
Nice to have requirements:
- Not ugly (helps with SOAF)
- Buttons or controls have some kind of intuitive layout that makes it easy to tell them apart and build a mental model around them. I’ll probably use a label maker to label each button, but I find that a layout that is not quite symmetric is helpful. ie. not all buttons look exactly the same.
- Rechargeable
- Open, secure, local communications protocol. I don’t love the idea of stuff like eWeLink but maybe it’s a good option?
- Dockable - has a consistent place that it can “live” but can also be removed to temporarily use the control elsewhere.
Options I’ve tried so far:
Aqara Wireless Mini Switch
$15
My Rating: 3 stars
These are fine. Reliable with decently long battery life, but they’re only one button with three actions (single press, double press, long press). Also not dockable. I want more!
Minoston Z-Wave 800 Series 4 Button Remote
https://minoston.com/products/minoston-z-wave-smart-switch-scene-controller-mr40z
$30
My Rating: 4 stars
These are my favorite so far. Dockable, with 4 buttons that somehow lend themselves to intuitive layouts. The two big buttons can be up/down or can address two different entities. The little ones are logically more “auxiliary” buttons for special actions. Battery life is great.
Downsides: Intangibly, these don’t quite feel like the ultimate switch. Beyond that, they are currently out of stock which is why I’m here begging you all for recommendations!
Tuya (/ Moes?) 4 Way ZigBee Scene Switch
$26
My Rating: 1 star
I’d love to hear from you if you’ve had a good experience with these.
Maybe I got a bad batch, but I tried 2 of these back in 2022 and they were very unreliable. They felt cheap, sounded cheap when you clicked them, and the square layout doesn’t lend itself to intuitive scene layouts. The thing is also unnecessarily big. Of course none of this matters* because I could only get one of them to pair, and even then only one of the four buttons worked.
*pun intended
Conclusion
So, what do you use? What option should I try? Or should I just be patient and hope the Minoston switch gets back in stock some day?