Loving my new home automation, the Tradfri range from IKEA is great. But where are the lightswitches?
It's good having the indivdual bulbs controllable, especially if you are in a rented property. It's easier to replace them and it's easier to get started with home automation and remote controlled lights without having to do any wiring. But what happens when someone comes into the room and automatically reaches for the old light switch? When the original light switch is turned off the automation just stops; no power, no control. Also it's confusing for the person clicking the switch. Probably the switch was already on and the bulbs were off. If they click a few times they are back on track but it's not a good user experience.
What we need is a light switch that is also using the same protocol as the remote controls that come with the bulbs. So the bulbs are permanently live, but click the switch and it sends a remote controlled signal to the bulb and everything stays in sync.
This ought to work1 but it's no good for normal UK wiring, as it needs a neutral wire at the light switch, which we certainly don't have in our house.
This is where Lightwaverf was always good, the switches work as norml controlling the bulbs, and the remote control sends a signal to the switch, not the bulb. And they look good. Those are the last two things that are still good about them I'd say.
So where are the Zigbee light switches? Come on!
My solution for now is to permanently connect the wires where the light switch was, behind a blanking plate. Then mount a remote control on top of that. It's ok but not as good looking as a dedicated switch, and there is no way Clare is going to like this when she spots it...
Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town, Kent. Wed to Clare + father to 2, I am a full-stack web engineer, + I do javascript / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation + other diy stuff, history, family tree stuff, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.