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Ikea Tradfri buttons/switches have been a gamechanger for me. They're zigbee, very well built, well supported and cheap. Have a nice solid feel with proper moun

by srmarm 4y ago

Ikea Tradfri buttons/switches have been a gamechanger for me. They're zigbee, very well built, well supported and cheap. Have a nice solid feel with proper mounts that are magnetic, Have mounted them in place of regular switches around the house and they just work, no user training required (although I use with homeassistnat which is still very hobbish on the setup side) but my wife can use it all without needing to know whats going on in the background. Can do smart stuff in addition, i.e press the on button multiple times to cycle between scenes. The other thing is automations, I've got a bunch of timed automations, certain lights come on at dusk, heating comes on half an hour before the alarm goes off in the morning and heats only the rooms I tend to use at the correct times, so office is heated during work hours and living room comes on for the evening/weekends - all can be overridden from my phone or voice or whatever but ideally that's the exception as I find voice clunky and phone takes quite a few steps. If my phone was able to display the controls for the room I'm in without requiring an unlock that'd be good but for now but generally I find tactile buttons much nicer to interact with.

ontarionick 4y ago
I use the Phillips Hue Button, which I quite like! It has 4 buttons on it and doesn’t require external power or batteries to function. The button communicates with the bridge over Zigbee, which is then connected to my Home Assistant instance, so I can control more than just other Hue devices. I put them on the bedside tables, and in living areas near where I have any smart bulbs in dumb lamps. Main button usually toggles the light, other buttons do things like turn on a favourite radio station, toggle other lights, and toggle gas fireplace thermostats. Downside is you need to know what the buttons do (guests usually take a bit of instruction to get used to it), but it works fairly well otherwise. The automations are a real game changer! Some of my favourites that you didn’t mention in your comment: - UniFi external cameras detecting people / vehicles turn on corresponding lights or making voice announcements in the house - motion lighting in closets / pantry - motion lighting in under cabinet lighting at night for night lighting - good night routines that shut off the lights, arm the alarm, tell me the weather for tomorrow, and play white noise - good morning routines paired with an alarm that disarm the alarm, play the morning radio (station depending on weekday vs weekend), turn on the gas fireplace in the bedroom and a space heater in the bathroom - voice announcement / phone notifications triggered by a power usage monitor to tell me when my laundry has finished - auto off timers for light switches / fireplaces that reset the countdown when motion is detected in that area Any time I need to use the voice assistant or my phone is an anti pattern as far as I’m concerned! Phone more than voice assistant, but neither is as nice as a simple button. One thing I do find helpful is some Amazon FireHD tablets mounted on the walls in most rooms. They are powered by a PoE charger, and the screens unlock when motion is detected. I find this to be way better UX then pulling out a phone, unlocking, finding the app, then trying to remember why I pulled out my phone in the first place lol. The FireHD tablets are setup with a dashboard specific for that room (with tabs for controlling other parts of the house too), and are fairly UX-friendly for guests. I run "Fully Kiosk Browser" on the tablets, and that handles the autounlock / displaying the Home Assistant dashboard.
deanc 4y ago
I have the opposite experience. I also run home assistant, and have added the Tradfri hub to my "Home" on iOS. I can count on one hand the amount of times I adjust the one Tradfri bulb I own in the Home app - and it has actually done anything. The only way I have consistently managed to change the bulb's brightness or on/off state is through the official Ikea app - which makes it entirely useless - as I can't automate it. I do not have this issue with my Hue bulbs, which are running an out of date v1 hub.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  Another option I've had good luck with is Sengled bulbs. They're not super cheap, but they're zigbee and I've found them to be reliable.
- srmarm 4y ago
  I've only used the switches so, but also I connect them directly to the Home Assistant box which I've got a zigbee dongle attached to (using the ZHA zigbee integration) rather than via the ikea hub. Might be something to consider?
rootusrootus 4y ago
I forgot about Tradfri. I should check that out again, at least for switches. I'm not a fan of their light bulbs, though. I had a few for testing, and found that they'd often turn on for a few seconds and then back off after an automatic firmware update. My wife wasn't terribly amused since that tended to be in the middle of the night.

by srmarm 4y ago

ontarionick 4y ago

I use the Phillips Hue Button, which I quite like! It has 4 buttons on it and doesn’t require external power or batteries to function. The button communicates with the bridge over Zigbee, which is then connected to my Home Assistant instance, so I can control more than just other Hue devices. I put them on the bedside tables, and in living areas near where I have any smart bulbs in dumb lamps. Main button usually toggles the light, other buttons do things like turn on a favourite radio station, toggle other lights, and toggle gas fireplace thermostats. Downside is you need to know what the buttons do (guests usually take a bit of instruction to get used to it), but it works fairly well otherwise. The automations are a real game changer! Some of my favourites that you didn’t mention in your comment: - UniFi external cameras detecting people / vehicles turn on corresponding lights or making voice announcements in the house - motion lighting in closets / pantry - motion lighting in under cabinet lighting at night for night lighting - good night routines that shut off the lights, arm the alarm, tell me the weather for tomorrow, and play white noise - good morning routines paired with an alarm that disarm the alarm, play the morning radio (station depending on weekday vs weekend), turn on the gas fireplace in the bedroom and a space heater in the bathroom - voice announcement / phone notifications triggered by a power usage monitor to tell me when my laundry has finished - auto off timers for light switches / fireplaces that reset the countdown when motion is detected in that area Any time I need to use the voice assistant or my phone is an anti pattern as far as I’m concerned! Phone more than voice assistant, but neither is as nice as a simple button. One thing I do find helpful is some Amazon FireHD tablets mounted on the walls in most rooms. They are powered by a PoE charger, and the screens unlock when motion is detected. I find this to be way better UX then pulling out a phone, unlocking, finding the app, then trying to remember why I pulled out my phone in the first place lol. The FireHD tablets are setup with a dashboard specific for that room (with tabs for controlling other parts of the house too), and are fairly UX-friendly for guests. I run "Fully Kiosk Browser" on the tablets, and that handles the autounlock / displaying the Home Assistant dashboard.

deanc 4y ago

I have the opposite experience. I also run home assistant, and have added the Tradfri hub to my "Home" on iOS. I can count on one hand the amount of times I adjust the one Tradfri bulb I own in the Home app - and it has actually done anything. The only way I have consistently managed to change the bulb's brightness or on/off state is through the official Ikea app - which makes it entirely useless - as I can't automate it. I do not have this issue with my Hue bulbs, which are running an out of date v1 hub.

rootusrootus 4y ago
Another option I've had good luck with is Sengled bulbs. They're not super cheap, but they're zigbee and I've found them to be reliable.
srmarm 4y ago
I've only used the switches so, but also I connect them directly to the Home Assistant box which I've got a zigbee dongle attached to (using the ZHA zigbee integration) rather than via the ikea hub. Might be something to consider?

rootusrootus 4y ago

I forgot about Tradfri. I should check that out again, at least for switches. I'm not a fan of their light bulbs, though. I had a few for testing, and found that they'd often turn on for a few seconds and then back off after an automatic firmware update. My wife wasn't terribly amused since that tended to be in the middle of the night.