Indicator light

Hardware
1

I’ve found 2 posts on this from last year but no answers that work for me. Seems simple, but I just want a light of some sort that can visually indicate something in HA.

I plan to use it to indicate the the alarm is armed so you don’t try and walk out the door without disarming first.

LED has to be able to show colors (specifically red, but preferably any color and customizable with HA)

I’m open to connecting to HA in any way.

First choice would be something that’s low profile and plugs in, like a night light.

Also workable would be battery powered, but in that case I would keep the light off most of the time and only turn it on when motion is detected nearby to conserve battery.

Has anyone found anything like this?

1 Like
2

I have something similar using a NodeMCU, RGB LED and running ESPHome

3

I’m building up my alarm system as we speak so this is on my mind too. I was thinking about just getting a zigbee rgb strip and putting it under a cabinet or over the door. Over the door sounds fun but getting power there won’t be pretty.

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4

I’m picturing the LED connecting directly to the nodemcu, which then gets into how you would wrap it in a case so that it doesn’t stick out. I’d imagine if you’re into 3D printing you could make this work somewhat cleanly, but probably a bit beyond what I’m looking to do. Thanks.

5

I was considering the same thing but ran into the same issue. Let me know if you work anything out.

Also wondering if I could just put a color led bulb into the closest ceiling light and set up an automation. Can’t decide if that would do it or not.

6

I was going to suggest that as well. I plan on making my house lights do some weird shit when the alarm goes off so doing this seems like a quick and easy solution.

7

Likewise, I use it to backlight my doorbell button.

8

I just used a suitable ready made white project case and ran a usb cable to it for power.

9

I made something similar to this.
Our alarm panel has a tiny tiny LED that blinks every 3-4 seconds if the alarm is armed (great idea huh?).
So I bought a clear plastic tubing. Apparently the type used for water cooling computers is good fit and cheap.
In this tube I placed a LED strip that is then fitted by the door handle.
So when the alarm is armed about 50 cm of tubing illuminates the door red.

It’s in my pile of “almost done projects” in case anyone want to see images :-/
I just haven’t had time to finnish it.

10

I settled on the DMEX1 Z-wave repeater with LED for $25. It doesn’t have a colored LED, but it’s relatively cheap, runs on a system I already use (Z-wave), and is very clean looking. Set up an automation to turn on the light when the alarm is armed_home so we remember to disarm when we see it in the morning.