I just installed four hue smart bulbs in my dining room. Of course I can just switch them on and off with the regular light switch, but that would make them just normal bulbs.
So I searched for a replacement for regular switches to control the smart bulbs, but I did not find what I was searching for.
I found smart actuators which can be controlled like bulb, to be used together with normal bulbs. Devices like the hue dimming switch/remote, which would not replace the regular switch, but instead add another switch to the wall. And also the Aquara zigbee switches to be installed into the wall, which sadly don’t fit into regular German mount boxes.
I guess the Aquara switches would fulfil my requirements, if they would fit into the switch mount box, but they don’t.
Can anyone recommend me a smart switch? It should:
Not control the power supply the bulbs, or at least it is optional.
My solution is pushbutton plus local russian-made Modbus RTU hardware. Pushbuttons, mountable in standard european boxes, are available from premium class wall gear manufacturers, like TEM, Btichino, Vimar…
I recommend going with Shelly devices as they are easier to work with (installing in tight spaces) and I beleive they are also UL rated. Alos, If you prefer not to reflash the firmware to something like tasmota the Shelly app is not to bad.
The Shelly devices are very interesting and I have read about the Sonoff devices, too.
But I still don’t understand how this devices exactly work. You obviously connect the power cord, a switch input and the output circuit.
The problem is, I don’t want to control the power supply to the output circuit. I just want to get the event that the normal switch has been pushed and then set the brightness of the hue bulbs accordingly.
The device I mentioned doesn’t go into a mount box, you attach it to the wall and you can set OH to take different actions based on touch, long touch, and slide up/down. I use it to control the dim levels in my bedroom.
https://inovelli.com/ has a new line and one of the great features is that you can disable the relay on them. This allows you to control smart bulbs like you want with multi tap support you can set your rules to make the bulbs do whatever. I’m currently using one on a philips hue bulb and it is working great!!!
You would keep the HUE lights powered permanently. Just power the e.g. sonoff or shelly switch without having it connected to the lights circuit (just mains powered). Through openhab you can code up some rules that will make the SONOFF or Shelly switch act as a switch for your HUE lights.
I have SONOFF TX Touch installed throughout my entire house, and use HUE lights for ALL my lighting applications. This is the exact setup i use.
My SONOFF TX Touches are running Tasmota firmware to give these puppies even more functionality like multi button press, button hold etc. This gives me the ability to select HUE scenes from the same button i use to turn them on/off, but also allows me to do other things like open the gate, close my blinds all using the same buttons that control my lighting.
You can see them likle they are “in the middle” between the physical button and the Hue Device.
So your physical button will keep on working normal, if switched off it will turn off your hue and the shelly will know that is off… the advantage is that you can have also the “virtual part” to turn on/off the hue without touching the wall button.
