Options for in-wall battery remotes?

I have a Ring Floodlight Cam that is currently controlled by a normal switch. If you accidentally leave that switch off, the Ring Cam has no power. If I installed a smart switch, the same thing would happen (although I could manually turn it on eventually thru an app). The best solution is to wire the floodlight to be always on. However, I would like to install a remote in place of the current switch so I can turn the light on/off still.

  • The Hue Dimmer would be great, but it doesn’t mount in the wall nicely near other switches, which is the case here (3 switches are in the panel)
  • The Lutron Pico remote is an option, but requires the pro bridge, which is another $125.

Are there any other options here? I basically just need a smart battery powered remote that will fit nicely into a light switch that I can control with Home Assistant.

With Zigbee, there is the Eria Dimmer that is a 4-button remote that can mount in a Decora faceplate like a Pico can. There is also the RGBGenie 5122 that looks similar to Pico.

If you want to go wired and Z-Wave I just got a few Zooz Zen 32 Scene Controllers. It has 5 buttons and you can disable the relay so it won’t cut power to your Ring Cam.

Thanks for all of the info here. Does the Eria Dimmer need a hub for Home Assistant to control it? I’m curious how I would mount it in a 3 switch panel, I imagine I would just install the Pico mounting bracket and use this remote instead.

Unfortunately I don’t have a neutral wire so it seems in terms of wired in switches, it’s mainly just Casetas and that is what I’m using around the house currently.

You would need one of the Zigbee dongles and then use one of the Zigbee Integrations to use the Eria Dimmer. I use mine with a Hubitat hub so I am not much help there.

The Eria has a magnetic bracket that screws in behind Decora faceplate that then holds remote in place but remote is easily removable when wanted. The RGBGenie works same way.

It’s worth getting the Caseta Pro bridge. I use Picos all over the place to trigger several non-Caseta devices using HA. And the Picos will match your existing switches, so it won’t look like patchwork.

1 Like