I have a more general question because the whole topic of home automation is so big and there are so many different technologies. I’m writing to the OpenHAB community because this project looks pretty cool and promising.
What I try to achieve:
In one room, there is a wall switch which controls a normal light bulb. I want that if I press this switch then the normal light should switch on and another light as well which is just a normal floor lamp.
My idea how to solve this problem:
If I press the wall switch, the normal light is switched on. Additionally, a signal should be sent to the OpenHAB and then OpenHAB sends a signal to the floor lamp to switch it on.
Which hardware do I have:
A RaspberryPi (I think I’m getting it managed to install OpenHAB)
I ordererd a Yeelight (Gen2) to play around
My open questions:
Any recommendations for a protocol / technology? Zigbee, Zwave or other stuff? Are some components cheaper or better for one specific technology?
A dongle or sth. for my RaspberryPi to use this technology?
Where do I get some transmitter (for the wall switch) that sends the ON/OFF signal to the RaspberryPi/OpenHAB.
I hope that someone can help me and if you have some questions or something sounds weird, just ask
Thanks for your answers
Zigbee is generally cheaper (not always). Zwave is more likely to be supported. Zwave is a stronger steadfast so if it says zwave, it will work with all other zwave devices. You can’t say that for zigbee. Wifi can be cheap (e.g. Sonoff) but it often takes more work to integrate with oh.
Any radio based technology besides wifi will require a dongle. I believe all USB and some RPi HATs for zwave are supported. See the Zigbee binding readme for there ones that are supported.
It depends on the technology but generally you will need to replace your switch.
Thanks for your answer.
Let’s assume that I will use Z-Wave.
Can you recommend some Z-Wwave dongle?
It depends on the technology but generally you will need to replace your switch
Replacing the switch wouldn’t be the problem, but I don’t know what to choose. The most things that I could find are smart switches that just can be controlled through Z-Wave but I think I need some transmitter that extends the wall switch to just send the state of the wall switch. I found something like this (Z-Wave Everspring In-Wall Remote Insert) but I’m not sure if this is what I need (and this thing is hard to find in my region (Germany)),
Almost all of them use the same chip, so they are basically the same device. The Aeon Labs Zstick Gen5 is popular.
The device you linked to looks like it would work, but you might prefer a full switch/dimmer. You can look through here to see the currently supported devices (but new ones are easily added). I have Leviton dimmers and switches and they’ve been solid (I think they are available in Germany?).
Hi I use Aeon labs gen 5 usb stick and that works just fine. If you just gonna have a celing light and a floor light you probably will have usb stick close to switches. My memory tells me that z wave works better and better the more unkts yoi add due to mesh network. I prefer fibaro switch units and use nod on as wall switch. You could also program the nodon as lifeline to receiving unit then that light works even without controller.
I think this is my last question and then I’m ready to order my stuff
If I buy something like this Qubino Flush 1D then I’m putting this behind my wall switch and then I can control my light through OpenHAB. But if I press the wall switch and turn on/off the light manually, is OpenHAB getting this status as well?
