Silent pull cord switch?

[T i m]

<snip>

;-)

But that's part of the fun eh?

Cheers, T i m

[RJH]

Yes, sorry, light.

Yes, I'm looking for a quiet 6A switch - or whatever for the LED ceiling array.

[RJH]

Not yet convinced by a PIR - it'd all be a bit bright should anyone need a middle of night visit. I've got a few battery powered PIRs in there that do nicely for that. But it's an idea, thanks.

Then there's that :-)

[ARW]

Legrand 6A pull cords were the quietest a few years ago. I have not fitted one for a while but I presume they have not altered their design.

[PeterC]

Also on breaking: slightest pull and the load goes off then there's a CLONK that does noting for the switching. I replaced a CLONK-CLONK DP switch with a Crabtree illuminated one as the new fan has 3 lights, only one illuminated but shines through the others so no way to tell if it's on timer, on or the switch is off. The irony is that the Crabtree goes Clon-click on and click-click off, so I can tell which way it's switching. Rather a waste of about 3 - 4x the price of an unilluminated one.

[T i m]

<snip>

New Automation > Ignore kitchen PIR between 01:00 and 06:00. ;-)

You can still use the switches if you do actually want light between those times.

Encouraged by a few here, I gave it a go (the whole Home Automation thing), mainly 'because' but also to deal with a few things that needed another solution. Since then, I have pulled all sorts of things into the system and now take what they do for granted.

Ok, in many cases it's nothing that you couldn't do with timers and thermo/humidi- stats but you can't tell how long they were on, or when say the dehumidifier is full (or washing machine / dishwasher finished).

Or pop the kettle on before you go to the kitchen (assuming you remember to keep sufficient water in it etc). ;-)

Plus if 'electrics / building' are your job, I think it's going to be part of the future for more people and it might be handy to be ready for it (assuming you aren't etc).

I was lucky to 'be there' with data comms (when people were going online with dial-up), then home computers in general, laptops, WiFi and Smartphones / Tablets etc.

Cheers, T i m

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

How about some kind of infra red beam which you interrupt and it toggles the light on and off? Many years ago there was a project for something like this in practical electronics. Bit of an issue in a bathroom though, due to steam.. Brian

[RJH]

Thanks - I'll give that a go first, and do some background thinking on the automation idea (I have some of the kit anyway).

[RJH]

Interesting, thanks. I've got a number of automation things - remote sockets, temperature/humidity/motion sensors, bulbs and c/h thermostat. Predictably (for me) from various makers. The Samsung hub (the only one I have) was very good at supporting 3rd party hardware - or rather their community was - but that has barely worked for a few months now, and I've not got round to looking at it. Next on the list, after sorting out the hifi and c/h :-)

[Chris J Dixon]

Like I said last time this was asked, this is actually a dimmer, which I know you didn't specify

It has a really quiet click, and does what it says on the box.

Chris

[Robin]

But note manufacturer states "minimum 50 watts" and "not suitable for ... LED loads".

Though I suppose it might be OK with dimmable LEDs it is a leading edge dimmer. And AFAICS an "always on" dimmer given "Due to the safety circuitry built into this dimmer full brightness of all types of lamps used with the dimmer will only be illuminated to approximately 80% of their optimum full brightness"

[T i m]

<snip>

Ah, so you are already 'there'. ;-)

I have a couple of outliers as well that I could probably integrate but don't want to (part of the 'thing' with the Home Assistant solution is that it doesn't rely on (or expose you to) the cloud).

Ah, well the good news is that I think that uses the ZigBee 'std' (along with the Lidl and Ikea stuff I have here) and so you could use something like a RPi or even an old PC or laptop and a cheap Zigbee dongle and re-gain and extend the control of your existing gadgets. ;-)

I found the Smart apps that came with each of the product brands worked ok, just they were fairly limited re what they could do, plus the reliance of the cloud to work.

It's the same thing with Home Assistant, plus there is *loads* of other / individual support to be gained via the likes of Youtube (and the other HA users here). ;-)

If you think you like the whole concept and don't mind spending a little bit on a good starting platform, the ODROID-N2+.

(No experience personally but seems to be a good fit).

I think the good thing about the Home Automation thing is that it's something that you can do / use / expand as_you_go, so outside installing the HA server box/hub and adding a suitable coordinator (USB dongle thing to suit your existing system(s), about 20 minutes), you can work with / on it as you go. ;-)

I happened to have a spare Raspberry Pi3B and now have ~40 nodes on it but happen to also have a slimline Shuttle PC (fanless) that I have also installed Home Assistant on (on top of Ubuntu Server) that is probably what I will use longterm as it doesn't have the limitations as the RPi (uSD writes) but take a bit more to install.

If didn't have that I'd probably buy an Odroid (as you can download an image for it, you don't have to configure stuff etc).

Cheers, T i m

[nightjar]

I have always assumed that it was so you knew the switch had operated, even if the light didn't come on. Otherwise, you wouldn't know which one had failed.