Whats a good smart button to get?

Hardware
#1

Got 2 lamps in the living room with smart bulbs in them. Wife keeps turning them off via the lamp and thus killing the smart aspect of it because now they can’t be turned back via a scene.

I want to get a button she can hit (that I can place near one of the lamps) that will turn the smart bulbs ON/OFF so that she will press the button instead of actually killing power to the light.

I looked into Flic button and got some, but cant seem to get that integrated with HA (running on virtual machine). Are there any other options (wifi, z wave, zigbee, anything) out there?

#2

Xiaomi makes zigbee buttons that work fine (zigbee2mqtt in my case)

#3

@nickrout

Do I need hub or not? Description here says I do.

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#4

You need a zigbee coordinator, that can be a xiaomi hub or home assistant with one of the 3 zigbee integrations.

I do not recommend the xiaomi hub.

Also I have only used the round buttons. https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/WXKG01LM.html

#5

@nickrout

Recommendation on who to order from? Seems like I got a lot of options (but all unknown companies to me)

#6

Yeah it is a lottery. Aliexpress…wait…pandemic…wait.

If there is somewhere local, you’ll get it quicker.

1 Like
#7

I realize this doesn’t answer your question but don’t overlook possible multiple use of existing switches. Not sure what you have for room light control but I control lamps that have smart bulbs from my Zwave wall switches. For example, double tapping the bedroom light switch controls my nightstand lamp. Our nightstand lamps stayed dumb for a long time because I couldn’t come up with an elegant switch/button solution until someone pointed this out to me.

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#8

Shelly Button is wifi, and if it has constant 5v power it is VERY responsive, has single, double, and triple taps, as well as long press so you can have it do several things. I have 2

Works great with MQTT or can control other Shelly or direct HTTP URL controlled devices natively

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#9

I am using energy harvesting zigbee switches. Those don’t need any battery/wire and have a really nice haptic feel to them.
They are extremely pricey but they work like a charm since the first second and are well worth it.
Those kind of switches are offered from different manufacturers and for different protocols, I had a hard time finding one that is actually available and not using the enocean protocol, though.

If you’re going the zigbee route: you need at least one wired Philips hue device (plug, bulb, doesn’t matter) in reach to translate the green power signal to a “normal” one.

Google keywords (combine them!): enocean, green power, energy harvesting, ptm 216z, batteryless, friends of hue

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#10

+1 for ZigBee buttons.

I attached a Philios Hue Dimmer Switch next to each light switch and ‘educated’ my wife to use thrse instead of the switch. Works perfectly fine for more than 3 years now. We only used the light switch once, when I moved the installation from a Pi to a NUC.
For some types if switches there are also covers to put the Hue Dimmer Switch on top of the normal switch.

#11

Yes, works fine with the wife. But as we still had guests over (anyone remember that time?) they always would use the actual switches and destroy the smart aspect of our home.
They wouldn’t even listen to my short introduction; not everyone is nerdy enough for that…

#12

Guests? What’s that? :rofl:
The cover over the normal switch also works in this scenario. I can’t use smart switches directly in the wall as I’m living for rent.

#13

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have inovelli dimmers with scenes available, but I am looking for something i can place right next to the lamps.

#14

Any of the ZigBee wireless buttons will be fine.