this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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I just want my damn blinds to open in the morning and close at night automatically, without needing a goddamn proprietary "app," or a "cloud" connection, or a bunch of batteries I have to change (i.e., I want it wired to either 120VAC or PoE). Is that really too much to ask‽
No. The lack of variety in options is honestly astonishing. I'm looking for a cheap zigbee button that is wall powered. They don't really seem to exist. Who the fuck wants to be constantly replacing batteries in smart things? Probably the same people who don't want wires running everywhere, but their priorities are in the wrong place imo.
I'm also kinda shocked that a product doesn't exist that's just a AA or AAA fake battery with wires hanging off of it that you could plug into the wall. Probably a safety hazard or something.
The battery life of a typical switch can easily be like 5 years though.
Still something I'd have to think about in 5 years. Also, if I use rechargeables, which I would, it'll potentially be less.
I don't want to have to think about it. Ever.
Also, if you have a bunch of switches in your house, even at 5 years you could be replacing batteries in one switch or another every few months.
At 10 battery operated smart things in the house, thats - on average - swapping batteries every 6 months. As you add more smart things, that frequency goes up. I don't want to be doing that, ever.
One of the first automations I installed in my Home Assistant, was a community contribution to show a table of devices by battery level, and alert when low. You shouldn’t have to think about replacing the batteries.
Of course, I immediately found out the remote sensors for my Ecobee don’t seem to report battery level …. Or maybe the integration is incomplete: my thermostat also doesn’t report battery level but was able to notify when low
Installing an automation and checking battery level manually, or even having an automation tell me to replace the batteries in devices means I'm thinking about it... Not to mention that I still have to replace the batteries which, shockingly, involved thinking about replacing the batteries.
Your wall outlet is AC but a battery is DC, so a pure wire setup is not so much a safety thing as it is just incompatible. A good fire starter.
So you'll have to convert it, which makes for a big, bulky plug.
On top of that, you'll need prior knowledge of the battery layout, including whether they're parallel or serial. Usually parallel, but not a guarantee.
All of this isn't insurmountable, but is enough to make it not the norm. They do, in fact, already exist
That's awesome. I will order one now for my wireless mouse.
Holy crap, I'll be purchasing that ASAP, guess I just wasn't able to find them, thank you!
And yes, I was aware that simply wiring the device directly into the wall wouldn't work.
There are better ones out there, that one in particular had some iffy reviews about voltages, but yeah they definitely exist.
I usually see them labeled as "power supply adapter for [AA,AAA,etc]".
I'll have to do some research... Wild that I wasn't able to find them previously.
Some standard wall switches can also do multiple functions and may work for yours.
For example, I’m a fan of Innovelli switches where you can configure actions like double-clicks and more, to act as a “Zigbee button”
I can't replace the wall switches, as I'm renting a manufactured home, which has some really wackily wired light switches, likely to save money. If I owned a home I'd definitely install some smart switches and utilize those.
You may want to look into Shelly relays. You wire them to the physical switch in the wall and can control them locally with Home Assistant or just individually via WiFi. Only downside for most folks (especially in the US it seems) is that they generally require a neutral wire to work.
I just built my own, it was easy and fun..I recommend doing the same
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