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[Solved] How to detect the position of a dumb wall switch? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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My nightstand lights are connected to a surge protector plugged into a Zigbee smart plug plugged into a dumb wall outlet controlled by a single dumb wall switch.

I have the smart plug set to default=On, so the wall switch works fine, and I can also turn the lights off from my phone or via an automation. All good so far.

What I WANT is to be able to turn the lights ON without getting out of bed, and irrespective of the position of the switch.

I tried putting a second smart plug in the switch-controlled outlet and making an automation to toggle the surge protector's smart plug when the switch's empty smart plug powers off/on via the wall switch, but it looks like it's not simple to detect a Zigbee device "disappearing". I found some integrations that detect zigbee devices disappearing, but those seemed more for running health checks to detect and repair moved devices than for live detection.

Any suggestions?

Edit:

Looks like a relay behind the switch will be my best bet. Thank you all!

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[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I never really understood the use case for those relays. While I also thought they were a cool idea, the more I thought about it, they just weren’t. You’re leaving the switch in a weird state that won’t be useful to most people

A smart switch should be the same wiring as the relay and take care of the entire problem in a much more straightforward way. You can even get them in toggle or paddle to be similar to whatever else you have.

Most importantly smart switch means the switch keeps operating like everyone expects, PLUS automation.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago

We don't usually toggle this switch by itself; normally we hit the first three at the same time in either direction. (4th is a ceiling fan)

When I turn the lights on from HA it's to read in bed, so the lights do end up matching the switch position when I'm done. Heck, maybe I'll use a script to turn the lights on for x minutes at a time if the switch is off.