I’ve been using 433 MHz for some of my lights (dumb lamps connected to Telldus plugs) and it’s been working fairly well. In particular me and my girlfriend enjoy having a physical remote with ability to control multiple devices and turn on/off each one of them individually.
Small, simple and to the point. No need to fiddle with apps or yell at Google Homes. But because of changes to the Telldus API now requiring paid subscriptions, and the fact that this technology is really old and well due for an upgrade, I feel now is the time to move on. The plugs will likely get replaced by Zigbee or WiFi smart plugs connected to my Home Assistant.
But the remote…? Is there any good more modern alternative that’s as simple but still offering individual control of devices…? I have a SkyConnect so any remote that supports Zigbee or Thread should probably work fine. WiFi too perhaps if there’s any remote that does that…?
I had a couple of remotes laying around, and they always did their work perfectly fine. I only used 1 swich on it to turn the lights on of off.
after moving houses, I dedicated to some standards… Google home, philips hue and shelly devices.
and let the automation do the work for me where it can.
example:
at sunset, turn the lights on at a prefered state.
When I (or the “boss”) is coocking, just a double press on the four-way hue button, it turns on the cooking scene.
When we are at the table, another button on the four way button at the wall enables the brigther light at the dining table. AND i have sticked some NFC tags at the bottom of the table to brighten the lights for that particular setting.
When my android tv starts playing on the app netflix or prime, it sets the movie scene automaticly. and if it pauses or stops playing, it returns slowly to the “normal” scene.
Now i have introduced a old tablet in the kitchen with the most usefull information by default and most used scene’s.
For in depth control, i’ve seperated them in some additional tabs within the dashboard.
It doesn’t apply for everyone of course, and again it is personal preference.
But this is now also accepted at home and even she is excited about and showing it off to others, which was very different a year ago
But if you are into trying some stuff, take a look at
The Aqara Cube.
Website states that it requires a hub… but it is zigbee…
I have a Tasmota RF bridge, which can both send and receive…
So I can still use my remote, and assign any function to it using HA automation.
Also I can control any device in a similar way…
So I use my RF433 remote to control some zigbee lights
I use 'm through the hub. Just for the reason, if ha is down for what ever reason I will still be able to control at least the lights.
I have no experience directly attached to ha. But using it through the hub is’t giving me any headache so far.
It reads short presses and long presses as well.
ZigBee have the advantage of multiple types of actions per button and maybe also linking the remote to a device in a group, so it will work independently of HA.
This come as a cost of a more complicated communication that cost battery life and also range, compared to a standard RF remote.
The price of the ZigBee remotes are also often many times higher than the RF remote, but still in the low end compared to other things in the IoT section.
When you say Tasmota RF Bridge, am I understanding you right that it’s a Sonoff RF Bridge flashed with Tasmota firmware? Is it possible to buy pre-fladhed or do you need to go down the flashing route…?
My 433MHz devices have been the most reliable in my house. I use a Sonoff RF Bridge flashed with Tasmota firmware. Every 433MHz button or switch causes the raw code to be published over MQTT. How you handle the MQTT message is up to you. In my case I use Node Red for that but others may be more comfortable writing an automation.
If you want to replace the remotes, Zigbee is probably the most battery-friendly, and WiFi the worst because the processor inside has to be always running.
