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Hello,
I have a kitchen light that can be controlled by two switches, using either to turn it off or on. I have been slowly changing things over to be a smart home but this is the first switch I am attempting to install.
I am in a double wide modular home (mobile) that was built in 1994.
At first I thought I would need a 3 way switch but when taking the normal switches apart I realized that was incorrect because the wiring on my switches are different than anything I could find online.
For one a 3 way smart switch requires 5 wires and there are only 2 wires going into the primary switch with 3 wires going into the secondary switch from the primary switch (at least I think the 3 wires connect the two switches together). Images will be attached of the wiring.
There are two wires (one black and one white) going into the first switch and 3 wires (black, white, and red) going out of that and into the second switch (I assume). The odd thing is the red wire going to the second switch is connected to the white wire going into the first switch and the white wire going into the second switch seems to be a bridge wire or a traveler wire. Not exactly sure. You will see what I mean in the images.
I need to know what kind of smart switch I can use in this set up with one remaining a normal switch.
Note that for some reason the images got switched around when uploading them. The image with 2 wires on one side and 3 on the other is what I think is the primary and the image with just 3 wires is the secondary.
Primary.jpg Secondary.jpg -
Hi,
I am a student and recently i am working on smart home project and writing a seminar paper about the way users handle and manage IoT devices. I you have 3 min, please fill below survey. Its really short.
Thank you in advance, I really appreciate everyone's help. -
You lot are more likely to have a view than most I know. Our much used Logitech Harmony is (not so) slowly dying.
And Logitech have discontinued the entire line.
And no one else appears to be making something similar.
Was going for a Sofabaton X1, but no numeric keypad. Sofabaton U1, but no favourites.
Anyone got suggestions?
Needs to have those features, oh and not be only a phone app.....C
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Since one member asked at one point about the "front end" and "back end", I drew this showing the controller from the base to the tip along with what I have found to be the best options from my testing. Almost every controller will try to integrate all elements, especially commercial ones but... they all have strengths and weaknesses so if one can have a medley of the best ones...
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I was just going to add my support for a Update Button for the bare bones version of MSR and find the thread has been removed.
I'm wondering what was so provocative that required it's removal?
Have we become as paranoid as an owner of another forum?Anyway +1 for an Update Button.
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So, I think I'm in a bit of an unusual situation. I work at a camp & retreat center that has wifi throughout. I want to put a few switches in the office that can control outdoor lighting throughout the camp. We currently have switches in each of the buildings, but it is a particularly frustrating job to get all the lights on in the evening when it is brutally cold out or we are short staffed.
Most of our staff is not very tech savvy (my boss literally has his wife print out his emails for him each day!!!) so, I'd love to avoid having to set up any sort of raspberry pi or new phone app.
Is there type of 3-way switch that can connect to the wifi, turn on a light in another building AND turn on an indicator light in the office, without having any sort of wire running between the buildings? Hopefully looking for a simple solution without breaking the bank too.
I greatly appreciate any input that you can give. Thank you!
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I have a X10 wall switch system and I want to get rid of it. What would be the easiest transition to something more modern and easy to use with either wifi/homekit capabilities? My current X10 controls 3 zones in my bedroom. All zones are dimmable.
Zone 1 is 4 canister ceiling lights. LED bulbs
Zone 2 is 1 canister ceiling lights. Halogen Bulb
Zone 3 is 1 canister ceiling lights. Halogen Bulb
I have an old plug-in remote from Radio Shack and a wall switch with 3 buttons, each controlling one zone. (images attached)
My wall switch has one two wires from the wall. One black, one white.Is there any solution easy to install without the need of an electrician? Thanks for any feedback.
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Good morning all,
I'm working on weaning myself off of being totally Vera dependent. I've installed MSR on my Fedora home server, and I've been migrating luup Reactor rules over little by little. My hope is to use Vera as a bare bones z-wave hub, until I replace it either with Ezlo (not so sure about), or perhaps Hubitat. I'm just tired of zero new development in Vera, empty promises of native device integration, and cloud services that go down and leave my automation hanging.In any case, I digress. I've attempted to use Gcal3 on Vera to integrate Public calendars, such as Federal Holidays, School Calendars, etc. It use to somewhat work, but more often than not, all I get from Gcal3 is "token error code: HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request". The developer no longer is active, and it's effectively not working anymore.
I'd like to use these public calendars as Entity Attributes or Constraints in MSR. For instance, if it's a Federal Holiday, I don't have to work, and I may want to sleep in, which means lights may not come on as early, window coverings in the bedrooms may open later in the day, etc. Similar idea with a school calendar. If "closed" is in the event, my daughter may want to sleep in, and not want the window coverings opened as early.
I'm aware that Ezlo has integration through NuCal to all sorts of web based services, including Google Calendar, but as I stated earlier, I'm undecided on going down that path. Is there anyway to do this on MSR through any of it's abilities, such as HTTP calls or MQTT ( not experienced in MQTT, so I don't know now it works really).
Has anybody already done this?
Thanks for any advice in advance.
Solved OT: Universal Remote
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You lot are more likely to have a view than most I know. Our much used Logitech Harmony is (not so) slowly dying.
And Logitech have discontinued the entire line.
And no one else appears to be making something similar.
Was going for a Sofabaton X1, but no numeric keypad. Sofabaton U1, but no favourites.
Anyone got suggestions?
Needs to have those features, oh and not be only a phone app.....C
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This may not be super helpful… but to avoid this exact situation I am stocking up on Logitech harmony devices that are being sold second hand. I haven’t found a single universal remote that comes close to Logitech Harmony line up. Maybe try your local marketplace?
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@Pabla No it's not a bad idea. Just not keen on buying one that might be in the same condition. Prices have gone bonkers as well
There's the other issue that Logitech will eventually stop making the software, and then your stock may well be little more than paperweights
C
The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....
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@CatmanV2 said in OT: Universal Remote:
There's the other issue that Logitech will eventually stop making the software, and then your stock may well be little more than paperweights
C
I don't use their cloud thankfully and have them locally connected with HA so I hope they don't completely brick these devices
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That's interesting. I thought the cloud was the only way to program them now? Or are you using the Elite or something?
C
The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....
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@CatmanV2 Hmm on second thought programming new devices will be interesting without the cloud. Maybe they'll just shutdown cloud access for controlling your hub when your not home?
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@Pabla no idea. I know that my IR ones can't be updated without the cloud. Always the way. Bring back the Pronto!
C
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Since I have a bunch of Logitechs as well, I backed this on kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flirc/the-skip-1s-universal-remote-control-by-flirc/description Should be shipping soon I think. This is their commercial webpage: https://flirc.tv/products/skip1s-remote?variant=43489094729960
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@RogerO this actually looks promising. Only issue I see is that the remote is what communicates to the devices not a hub. I enjoy having all my devices hidden in a cabinet since the harmony hub is sending the IR signals.
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@CatmanV2 said in OT: Universal Remote:
Bring back the Pronto!
Probably not quite what you're after but there is a Vera-virtual-pronto-remote plugin.
Just need some sort of IR transmitter(s).
I use a couple of minimotes to turn on/off the source equipment, operate volume, pause, mute etc. You can use luup code to set up complex sequences.
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@a-lurker Thanks, no. Not fast enough IMHO
C
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I'm mainly using my Harmony Remote via the hub (so, voice commands via Alexa and scene) and the remote is in fact in a drawer since we moved to the new house (5 year and a half). Since I've added the SkyQ box in my setup, the SkyQ remote is enough (they have apps directly integrated into the box, so no need to use the TV remote anyway and no need to switch outputs). In other rooms we have Fire TVs, so we're already covered. Today I'm just using the hub when we (rarely) watch live TV on Sky in other rooms (thanks to a distribution system mapping HDMI outputs to DVB-T channels) and to automatically turn off TV when leaving the house (ie: kids stopped playing at xbox seconds before we're heading out and forgetting to turn off TV - I have TV on when turning on xbox, but I prefer to turn if off). I have spare IR emitters that someday I'll repurpose. I'm just using command from MSR to home assistant to send codes and I'm not using presets anyway.
I guess the future is in no-remotes setups - even TV manufacturers have started to remove buttons from their remotes
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Yeah. Being old we tend to watch live TV. So we actually control the cable box more than the TV
The Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....
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@CatmanV2 I'm not that old
but yes, kids (well, I'm still calling them kids even if they are 23 and 15 ) are watching TV with me just for football (and there I mean the real football played with foot 
) and the trend is probably more about casting to your TV and using your devices as the remote than needing a remote.Looking at my previous setup (and the one I started in this house), I have completely removed scene controllers (I still have one and that's used only by my wife) and remotes and have more automations/voice commands in place.
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On a mission to automate everything. -
@therealdb we are that old
Why one earth would I want to cast from my Tivo to my TV when there is already a perfectly good cable? And why would I want to open an app to chose channel on Tivo?
Have exactly this issue with my Streamer (until I got it upgraded to take a remote)
Listening to music
Phone rings
Can't hear caller because of music
Need to come out of call, open app, turn down volume, return to call.
Just (and I will sound like a luddite) cannot see this is as a great experience
CThe Ex-Vera abuser know as CatmanV2.....
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@CatmanV2 oh, we're definitely not automated/integrated everything, and things are a little bit weird ATM. that's why I told my wife we will build a new house in 10 years, so I could start from scratch and really choose the best tech after all these esperiments (LOL) and I hope than in 10 years (I'm looking at your, matter) interoperability will definitely improve things like the one you mentioned.
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Topic has been marked as solved CatmanV2
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Just to close this off, I managed to get a Harmony Elite and Hub from ebay. Lightly used at a reasonable price.
God knows why they are pulling out of the market. First impressions is it's an ace bit of gear. Didn't realise quite what the hub could do and am thinking of getting another to replace my Broadlink in the cinema.Thanks, all
C
