we live here with 3 people. but i still find no need to have wall switches.
just make sure light is on when the wive and kids want light, so they dont have the need to turn it on
using motion detectors can help a lot with that.
in the implementing period, make sure that you keep the lighting on a bit more then is needed.
just do everything that takes away the need to use a wallswitch and after a few months they are used to not using it.
the livingroomligths turn on short before sunset. turning them of is done with mobile, tablet, PC or Alexa.
so why should i need a wallswitch?
It’s my approach for the moment. If I have integrated movement sensors in every room and it’s working well it could be that I agree to your approach. For now I decided to support the hardware switches.
I’ve started using xiaomi push switches to augment (read gradually replace the usage of) wall switches.
These switches are about £5 each from china and work with xiaomi gateway (zigbee). The xiaomi component is in beta but works great.
they have three click modes (click, double click, long hold and release).
Based on these its possible to have:
on- click
off - double click
ramp up brightness from low to max - hold and release at desired brightness.
Can control a group not just one lamp.
Also can control a scene not simply on/off/
e.g. I have one at top of stairs on first floor of home with:
click - all downstairs lights and switches off
double click - few downstairs lights on low brightness for nighttime emergency
etc
Love these things.
but downside is the switches are still there
But, perhaps not the best to use as a light switch but still useable and for very cheap are the amazon dash buttons using dasher. You can pick up the dash buttons for $1 if you sort by cheapest on amazon. Install dasher and you can use them to control home assistant.
For example I put one on my apartment door as a little doorbell just for fun which plays a small ring on my chromecast audio when someone presses it. $1 to set it up, not super useful but whatever.
I used dash buttons also via dasher.
I bought 5 on prime day in UK for £1 each.
The only issues are:
It takes ~5 seconds for the dash to wake up, connect to wifi (quicker with DHCP with static allocated IP)
Sometimes dasher seems to not catch the arp packets from the dash
Requires more router config if you want to properly intercept the dash call back to amazon and turn LED green on success (I never bothered with this, so my dash buttons LED turns red on all presses)
Dash are good and super cheap, but I def prefer the Xiaomis now due to responsiveness and three click modes.
Not sure if you have “prime day” in USA?
In the UK last prime day Amazon ran a promotion for any dash button for £1.
Maybe set up a camelcamelcamel price watch?
I.e. I can see on this one that sometime in julyt last year they were on $1 promotion:
Maybe be wary of 2nd hand dash as you never know how many presses they have already had.
Since the battery is non-replaceable you might find they have a lower life expectancy.
I had assumed they just had some for $1 as normal since I bought quite a few a couple weeks ago, there wasn’t any special sales. But yeah there is prime day in the US too.
I’m facing the same problem with choosing the right switch with feedback.
The sonoff touch seems like a very good candidate (maybe the only one )
Do you mean, that sometimes the switch doesn’t toggle from the first touch ?
Is it hard to hit pricesly the touch circle ? (it’s too small, maybe no sensetive enough ?)
It’s almost a month since you installed it (I guess), how whould you describe your experience with it ? (pros/cons ?)
To keep it short:
Livolo Switches --> Perfect recognition, but no feedback to HA.
SonOff Switches --> Bad recognition. Very cheap. Very easy to modify due to ESP8266 logic board.
With bad recognition I mean with my switches it’s not enough just to touch them. You need a bit pressure that they will work. With the Livolos you need just to touch them.
You don’t need to hit the circle precisely. You just need to touch it. Just put your whole hand on the switch and it will work.
As a resume I would say they are ok if you are just using them in cases when your automation is not working they are OK. If you don’t use automation (no motion sensors, etc.) and you put your lights on manually everytime I think it’s very annoying.
Do Livolo switches use different RF codes for On/Off ?
If the switch (lights) is On and HA sends command switch->“turn On”, will the switch stay in On state, or will it toggle (turn Off) ?
Do Livolo switches use different RF codes for On/Off ?
If the switch (lights) is On and HA sends command switch->“turn On”, will the switch stay in On state, or will it toggle (turn Off) ?
To be honest for me that didn’t work reliable at all, but maybe it was due to my RF sender or a software issue. I switched to SonOff switches, because in my use-case it doesn’t make sense without feedback channel. (See my other answers in this thread)
If you turn them on manually every time, why waste your money on remote switches?
Absolutely right As I mentioned I would not use SonOff switches if you want to use the switch more manually as by automation. In my case I can live with them, because I only need the hardware switch from time to time if my automation is not covering the situation.
Yesterday I just realized that in most automation cases there’s no need in any feedback for a wall switch.
Since the lights are turned on/off according to different inputs (motion, time/sunset, light level), so in case the switch state is not one of those inputs - it’s feedback is not really needed
(If the switch is manually turned on and according to the automation rule the lights should be also turned on (according to a motion sensor) - the lights will remain on)
)
As I mentioned I would not use SonOff switches if you want to use the switch more manually as by automation. In my case I can live with them, because I only need the hardware switch from time to time if my automation is not covering the situation.