Switchmate Switch Covers

Feature Requests
35

@clemon79
I use one on a low voltage fireplace switch which is also the only option If I want to control the fireplace. So I’m in the same boat as you. Yeah, I think they keep blaming everyone but themselves and so I’m not too hopeful it will be a long term product I want to use.

Have you thought of using Hue lightbulbs instead of a switch?

36

That would certainly make the most sense since I’ve transitioned to Hue for my living room lights. Problem is that my kitchen lights are five BR30 cans. If you can find me BR30 Hue-compatible bulbs for less than $10 per I’m all ears. :slight_smile:

37

Yeah, that’s one thing I hate about Hue is the price. Especially if you have multiple bulbs. It ain’t cheap

38

Good news, everyone! I applied 2.9.15 tonight (what the hell, right? Wasn’t working for me before, and in fact there was a new issue where the thing was freezing up and wouldn’t even work with the physical button unless I pulled the battery and reset it), and everything works again, the toggle bit can once again be written to and I can talk to it directy over BTLE. So I’m back in business!

1 Like
39

I noticed that you were able to control a HomeBrite bulb through Home Assistant. Could you tell me how you did it? I have 2 bulbs I would like to control and I’m not a good programmer. Thanks.

40

Well, ultimately I threw them over my shoulder and jumped on one of the Philips Hue starter set sales because the HomeBrite bulbs are garbage quality, an incredible pain in the butt to work with, and Feit Electric support (even for warranty replacements) is utterly horrible, but if you really want to tussle with it you can look in this thread for more information. I’m pretty sure I found an article someplace explaining how the CSRMesh implementation came about but I can’t remember where right now.

41

Thank you for your prompt reply.

42

How well does this product work I have basement lights that are not standard light bulbs so smart bulbs are out of question and I do not want to change fixtures. Also I have no common wires so smart switches are out of question. I came accross these and looks like a good solution but don’t want to move fwd if they do not work well with HA.

43

In my experience, I’d pass on these. They aren’t very reliable in HA. I have mine set up with a Wink hub, but Wink no longer supports them due to some misunderstandings between the two companies and from my dealings with Switchmate, they aren’t doing much if anything to integrate with other products. It’s too bad, because if they really wanted to, it could be a decent product.

46

Do you mind making a simple guide how to get this working with Hass on a pi3 for a noob? Thanks

47

I think I got this going so I want to share this with all the users of this product

Step 1: Make sure you install Home Assistant on top of something like Raspbian. Don’t use Hass.io(as cool as it is) The manual install procedure worked for me on my Raspberry Pi 3 :
https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/installation/raspberry-pi/

Step 2: Install the modules needed in the python virtual enviorment where Home Assistant is installed.
The steps are as follows:

sudo su -s /bin/bash homeassistant
cd /srv/homeassistant
python3 -m venv .
source bin/activate
pip3 install tabulate
pip3 install bluepy
pip3 install docopt

Step 3:
Install switchmate.py via git - git clone git://github.com/brianpeiris/switchmate.git

Step 4:
Install the latest firmware update from SwitchMate on the device to allow the script to work. Version 2.99.18 appears to work for me.

Step 5:
Use the switchmate.py script to find the mac address of the device

sudo python3 switchmate.py scan

Step 6: Add the following to your configuration.yaml file.

switch:

  • platform: command_line
    switches:
    light:
    command_on: /switchmate/switchmate.py yourmacaddress none switch off
    command_off: /switchmate/switchmate.py yourmacaddress none switch on

I think my switch was on backwards but it works.

This appears to fix the issue for me. Hope it helps

48

Hey Dwanelarose, thanks for posting these instructions. I was doing great until step 5, where I couldn’t sudo in the python venv. I have no idea what the password is for sudo in the venv, after having followed the manual install procedure.

That, and the location for configuration.yaml in the manual install, and I almost have this working. I have 4x switchmate that I used to have working in homebridge, but that plugin no longer works for homebridge, so my plan is to get them working in HA, and then run the HA->homebridge plugin.

49

Looks like is not going to be an issue anymore!

50

Does anyone have the new platform working? I have a switch that appears in overview after editing configuration.yaml, but it doesn’t actually cause the switch to toggle physically.

Also, any idea how to use that to add multiple switches? I’m not sure of the configuration.yaml syntax to add more than one…

EDIT: firmware update got 1x switchmate working. Still no idea how to add more than one.

EDIT 2: I got mine working. Yes, I am a newb at HASS. I’m going to leave this here for other people to find. I wish the page at https://www.home-assistant.io/components/switch.switchmate/ had showed how to add multiples.

# Switchmate
switch:
  - platform: switchmate
    switches:
    mac: 'db:1c:7e:........'
    name: 'Front Door'
  - platform: switchmate
    switches:
    mac: 'f3:1a:3e........'
    name: 'Top of Stairs'
  - platform: switchmate
    switches:
    mac: 'f8:f0:e5.......'
    name: 'Living Room'
  - platform: switchmate
    switches:
    mac: 'f1:10:58.......'
    name: 'Kitchen'

Note that the platform lines need to be indented with only 2 spaces.

51

@vmarks

Works perfectly, Thanks!

52

I got my switches to show but not sure how to control them. Do I need to do anything other than add the commands to my config.yaml file? Meaning, do I need to go through all the previous steps with bluepy and docopt?

Thanks

53

Nevermind lol. I just did as you suggested and upgraded the firmware. Then removed the light from the app. Then reloaded home assistant server and it works fine.

Thanks

1 Like
54

Awesome. I’m so glad you got it working.

Mine… I came back to my house after being away for a day, and the HASS had forgotten one of the switchmates. I had to reboot the Pi to get it to come back. Weird, because all the others worked.

This is so unreliable. When I rebooted, it picked up the missing Switchmate, but has now forgotten the WeMo Mini I have.

55

Hey, if anyone knows how to make these show up as lamps instead of switches, that would be awesome.

56

Turns out mine is doing the same thing. It only remembers one of my switchmate switches. I’ve tried time and again but after each reboot it only picks up one. I wonder if the switch is the culprit?

Did you ever get yours to consistently show both switches simultaneously?