Home Automation

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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.

It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.

Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

Warning: Working with electricity can result in injury, property damage, or even death if it is not done properly. Please keep this in mind while assisting others. If you are not sure about what you are doing, hire a licensed professional.

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Wifi plug with physical backup switch on a cord (alien.top)

submitted 2 years ago by theshoeshiner84@alien.top to c/homeautomation@selfhosted.forum

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I have Kasa wifi plugs that I use in many places in my home. I also have plugs with a "remote" button that sits on a 6ft cord, used mostly for lamps. I'm looking for something that's a combination of these. The reason being that 1) I obviously like to have the wifi capability, and 2) I need a convenient physical backup button, and by convenient I mean convenient for a toddler or an adult in a hurry. The button on the 6ft cord is perfect, but cant be controlled remotely or automated. The button on the Kasa plug is tiny and on the plug itself, which is directly on the outlet, so not very convenient.

I've seen handheld wifi "switches" that can be used to turn off other devices, but those are not a suitable backup because they require wifi to work at all (whereas a physical button does not).

Right now the only semi-workable setup is to have the corded button plug plugged into the wifi plug, and then into the outlet. This is not really ideal because then both of them must be on for the lamp to work. Unfortuntely the room in question does not have a switched outlet (Massive fail on my part since we built the house ourselves and had the opportunity to add one).

This may be such a specific use case that a device does not exist.

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[–] Silent-Piccolo@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You have a couple options here. As another user suggested, you could put relays in the bases of the lamps and have the pool chains/switches of the lamps control them. You could also use low-voltage relays and set them up so that they quickly turn on and off, Mimicking a button press, then wire them up to the buttons on the cords. However, this method would only work if the buttons on the cords use a low-voltage signal and not a full 120 V. They do make 120 V relays however.

[–] theshoeshiner84@alien.top 1 points 2 years ago

How does that maintain wifi capability?