this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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Smart light switch with a good tactile UX (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by witten@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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Hey all! I'm looking for a mythical local-only (Wifi, Z-Wave, or Zigbee) smart light switch that has a good feel and user experience when manually switching on/off. What I mean by that: I think my ideal UX is some sort of hard rocker switch like the very much not smart Leviton Decora switches. You hit the top of the rocker for on or hit the bottom of it for off, and it has a good, solid feel with each state change.

The problem comes when making one of these switches "smart," e.g. stuffing a Shelly or something behind it. The up/down directions won't correspond to on/off anymore, because the smart switch can turn the light on/off without affecting the rocker direction. Maybe this is okay and I just need to deal with it? Does anyone with a similar setup find this annoying? I guess it's no different than a traditional three-way switch.

Another option is to take out the dumb switches and replaces them entirely with smart ones. Almost all smart switches are single on/off toggle buttons (some have two buttons), sidestepping the up/down state problem described above. But I'm not sure I'd like the feel of a squishing a button into the wall instead of a tilting a rocker. I do have a few of an older model of this Eva Logik switch, which has two buttons and kinda sorta mimics the look of the Decoras—but it doesn't actually rock like traditional switches. The up/down buttons are more like clicky mouse buttons, and not the best tactile experience IMO. Plus, newer models apparently are no longer Tuya-convertible to Tasmota...

So am I just being too picky here? Does anyone else experience similar issues?

EDIT: Here's a TL;DR of the suggestions below, for anyone also looking to solve a similar probem:

  • Use a Jasco/GE Enbrighten series smart switch (Z-Wave, Zigbee, or Wifi)
  • Use a TPLink Kasa switch (Wifi via HA tplink integration)
  • Try an Innovelli Blue switch (Zigbee; there's also a Z-Wave variant)
  • Open your wallet for a Lutron Caséta Diva/Claro (proprietary, but local only)
  • Use a SONOFF SwitchMan M5 smart switch (Wifi?)
  • Just deal with your OCD and put a Shelly behind a dumb switch
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[–] freeskier@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

TPLink Kasa switches look like decora switches and have a tactile click when toggling them.

Edit: I have about 15 Kasa switches, including 3 way dimmer, great switches. Couldn't be easier to use, like them way more than traditional decora rocker (especially for 3 way).

[–] kn33@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The up/down directions won’t correspond to on/off anymore, because the smart switch can turn the light on/off without affecting the rocker direction.

I think it's worth trying this. You can set the shelly to toggle the light every time the switch is changed. While up/down won't necessarily correspond to on/off anymore, it's certainly the most convenient. I think it's worth trying it and seeing if you get used to it.

Edit: used wrong words

[–] witten@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're probably right. I am interested though in hearing from folks who have Shelly's (or similar) paired with dumb switches to see if this is a non-issue for them.

[–] gerco@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have 6 Shelly's installed like this and it really is a non-issue. If the light isn't in the state I want, I flip the switch. I have no idea what orientation it's in and I couldn't care less. The same applies to my Wife and kids, nobody cares which direction is "on" and which is "off". It's pretty obvious if the light is on or off and if you want to change it, just flip it.

[–] witten@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Awesome, that's good to hear. Do you use the Shelly's with their stock firmware or have you flashed them with something? And do you find that their Wifi signal is strong enough?

[–] gerco@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've had them for longer than the Shelly integration in hass existed so I'm using stock firmware and connect them to my MQTT server to avoid a cloud dependency. I haven't tried the hass integration or flashing them, this is working fine for me.

The WiFi signal is mostly fine. There are cases where it takes a second or two to update on hass, but that could also be the MQTT server being slow. It doesn't affect the operation of the lights since the Shelly's are configured to switch the light themselves and not depend on hass to give them the command, that way the light still work normally if hass is down.

[–] witten@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Cool, thanks for the details. Avoiding both a cloud dependency and an HA dependency to switch lights on/off makes sense.