Hey, new to the whole HA thing but so far loving it and find myself constantly looking at to what I can do next.
I want to add a panel, ideally LCD as I find it should be more customisable? But to turn on and off lights, different presets etc. It wouldn’t be wired into the exact light fittings.
Context: in our front room, we have ceiling lights that we don’t use. Instead we’ve 4 hue play lights. I’d imagine that, since our light circuits don’t have neutral (a quick check just live and earth) I may have to manually wire and then plug in to a socket to get power?
Using our phone to operate the lights is a bit of a drag.
We have mainly hue and just 1 kasa lights.
We live in the UK if that helps.
I just don’t know what I’m looking for and the only thing I seem to find requires the lights to be directly wired or just a simple button.
If I can get 1 working I can then expand throughout the house as we need.
Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
You certainly have options. One route would be to use something like an Amazon FireHD tablet plus Fully Kiosk (which is what I do) to create your own dashboard and set it up how you like. Another route, if you do have a spare switch where you can use the wires, is to get a Sonoff NSPanel that is a much smaller version of a tablet for all intents and purposes. Or you could totally geek out and build up an ESP device with a custom screen and do your own thing.
The easiest of these options is getting a cheap tablet and using it as your panel.
Nice, thanks!
And going slightly more simple (sorry, should have included in my original post). Is there any AIO that would work without a screen and just a simple button?
Something like this: CNBINGO Touch Light Switch, Grey Double Light Switch, Tempered Glass Panel with LED Backlight, No Neutral Wire Required, 2-Gang 1-Way, AC 240V 500W/Gang https://amzn.eu/d/dorH3H4
But didn’t have to wired directly to the lights? Like I’d be able to configure the buttons to say when pressed turn on if off and off if on for specific devices?
Nothing has to be wired directly if you use a smart switch, necessarily. However, if you want just a simple but effective battery operated device that works pretty well, I like the Aeotec Wallmote for that, it has four big buttons and if you want you can set up swipe controls, double taps, long presses and all of that for more advanced use.
You will need Z-Wave for that Wallmote and there is one minor annoyance with the Quad in that it does not report battery status properly back to HA, but the battery lasts for ages and when it goes orange I know it wants a recharge soon so it’s not been a big deal.