Skip to content
  • MySensors
  • OpenHardware.io
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
Skins
  • Light
  • Brite
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo
  1. Home
  2. Hardware
  3. "on top" light switches and cheap IOT hardware

"on top" light switches and cheap IOT hardware

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
10 Posts 4 Posters 2.9k Views 4 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • L Offline
    L Offline
    LastSamurai
    Hardware Contributor
    wrote on last edited by LastSamurai
    #1

    Hi guys,

    while "googling" around I just found some company producing lightswitches for the US that can be put on top of existing light switches so that they also relay the commands via bluetooth (do you want a link or would that just be advertisement?). I really like the idea because I don't really want to and perhaps aren't even allowed to change the light switches in my apartment, but I would really like to integrate them into my "smart home".
    Do you guys know any similar product available for europe too? Or has anyone tried to build somethink like that?
    I mean the "cheap" version can't be that hard to build. The main problem would be to get the housing for the switch and make the mysensor pcb small enough.

    Can you guys recommend any other (cheaper) hardware that works well with domoticz and has the necessary certificates (or whatever needed) to be used in europe/germany without loosing insurance? The IOT/smarthome field is so crowded atm it's hard to find something via google ;)

    AWIA 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • hekH Offline
      hekH Offline
      hek
      Admin
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Long time members of the community can post links to products, no problem.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • L Offline
        L Offline
        LastSamurai
        Hardware Contributor
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Ok the product I found is called switchmate. Looking forward to your ideas :)

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • hekH Offline
          hekH Offline
          hek
          Admin
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Oh my.. that's probably one of the weirdest solutions I've seen. Putting a big chunky thing on top of the light switch wouldn't get any approval in my house. Do they run on batteries? For how long?

          Can't you just put a z-wave puck behind the switch? Not sure about your budget, but they got all the necessary certifications and cost about $40-50.

          L 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • hekH hek

            Oh my.. that's probably one of the weirdest solutions I've seen. Putting a big chunky thing on top of the light switch wouldn't get any approval in my house. Do they run on batteries? For how long?

            Can't you just put a z-wave puck behind the switch? Not sure about your budget, but they got all the necessary certifications and cost about $40-50.

            L Offline
            L Offline
            LastSamurai
            Hardware Contributor
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            @hek said:

            Oh my.. that's probably one of the weirdest solutions I've seen. Putting a big chunky thing on top of the light switch wouldn't get any approval in my house. Do they run on batteries? For how long?

            Can't you just put a z-wave puck behind the switch? Not sure about your budget, but they got all the necessary certifications and cost about $40-50.

            Well I liked the idea that you keep your normal switches. Batteries last for about a year (at least they say so).
            Can you recommend any switches? 40$ a piece is already kinda expensive (altough I understand why)..

            AWIA 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • mrwombleM Offline
              mrwombleM Offline
              mrwomble
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              A little off topic for this forum perhaps, but I've been eyeing out the Livolo range of switches. They're quite smart looking and can work with Domoticz over 433Mhz using Rflink or equivalent. The only problem is that it is not a mesh system like mysensors or zwave and there is no acknowledgement of command received. But on the plus side, they're much cheaper and seem to be capable of dimming LEDs too.

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • L LastSamurai

                @hek said:

                Oh my.. that's probably one of the weirdest solutions I've seen. Putting a big chunky thing on top of the light switch wouldn't get any approval in my house. Do they run on batteries? For how long?

                Can't you just put a z-wave puck behind the switch? Not sure about your budget, but they got all the necessary certifications and cost about $40-50.

                Well I liked the idea that you keep your normal switches. Batteries last for about a year (at least they say so).
                Can you recommend any switches? 40$ a piece is already kinda expensive (altough I understand why)..

                AWIA Offline
                AWIA Offline
                AWI
                Hero Member
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                @LastSamurai Domoticz is started around an 433MHz module called RFXcom. this works with a wide range of 433Mhz devices which with EU certiication. Names are HomeEasy, KaKu (NL) which have small modules which can be built in. Also works with the livolo range of products as a fancy and cheap replacement. The protocol can also be implemented with an arduino an 433Mhz send module and used in conjunction with MySensors.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • L Offline
                  L Offline
                  LastSamurai
                  Hardware Contributor
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  @AWI Thanks, but I couldn't find too much on them, and what I found was still ~40€ per piece which is way too much for me. I guess I will have to keep building my own hardware and only automate the sub 230V stuff.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • L LastSamurai

                    Hi guys,

                    while "googling" around I just found some company producing lightswitches for the US that can be put on top of existing light switches so that they also relay the commands via bluetooth (do you want a link or would that just be advertisement?). I really like the idea because I don't really want to and perhaps aren't even allowed to change the light switches in my apartment, but I would really like to integrate them into my "smart home".
                    Do you guys know any similar product available for europe too? Or has anyone tried to build somethink like that?
                    I mean the "cheap" version can't be that hard to build. The main problem would be to get the housing for the switch and make the mysensor pcb small enough.

                    Can you guys recommend any other (cheaper) hardware that works well with domoticz and has the necessary certificates (or whatever needed) to be used in europe/germany without loosing insurance? The IOT/smarthome field is so crowded atm it's hard to find something via google ;)

                    AWIA Offline
                    AWIA Offline
                    AWI
                    Hero Member
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    @LastSamurai I can find a lot of these even on main stream sites

                    L 1 Reply Last reply
                    1
                    • AWIA AWI

                      @LastSamurai I can find a lot of these even on main stream sites

                      L Offline
                      L Offline
                      LastSamurai
                      Hardware Contributor
                      wrote on last edited by LastSamurai
                      #10

                      @AWI said:

                      @LastSamurai I can find a lot of these even on main stream sites

                      Thanks a lot! My bad, I did look for KaKu (and overlooked the NL part ;) ).

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      Reply
                      • Reply as topic
                      Log in to reply
                      • Oldest to Newest
                      • Newest to Oldest
                      • Most Votes


                      28

                      Online

                      11.7k

                      Users

                      11.2k

                      Topics

                      113.1k

                      Posts


                      Copyright 2025 TBD   |   Forum Guidelines   |   Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Service
                      • Login

                      • Don't have an account? Register

                      • Login or register to search.
                      • First post
                        Last post
                      0
                      • MySensors
                      • OpenHardware.io
                      • Categories
                      • Recent
                      • Tags
                      • Popular