Cheap Button Recommendations?

Hey folks, I'm looking for a cheap single button. Protocol agnostic, just has to work (well) with HE. Any recommendations?

I use Smartthings Buttons and they work great for me :slight_smile:

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Samsung Buttons are great...I have 10 of them now and they never have any issues.

Samsung get much praise as you've seen. Xiaomi Mijia and Aqara buttons are even cheaper and work well too, but you need to have Xiaomi compatible repeaters and you cannot have any mains powered Zigbee devices on your network that are not Xiaomi compatible or they will drop off.

Here's one of the lowest prices for Xiaomi Mijia buttons I've come across

But, here's a SmartThings button for $12 US. Pretty hard to beat.

The only problem I've noticed with the SmartThings buttons is that sometimes they take a few seconds to respond if you haven't used them in a while. I've noticed the same with the Eria Dimmer, also a decent device if you need multiple buttons. (This delay may be tied to hub reboots or specific repeaters, but it hasn't bothered me enough to check.)

If you need a lot of buttons, Lutron Pico remotes are cheap but require a not-so-cheap Smart Bridge Pro (you do need the Pro, or any higher-end Lutron system like RA2). However, if you get a lot, the cost may balance out.

That's good to know. Sounds like they decided it needs to sleep when not in use. Odd choice for a button. No such issue with the Xiaomi Mijia buttons I have. Instant response.

And I agree whole heartedly with the Pico suggestion, but it certainly doesn't fit the "cheap" request when you're starting.

Picos, picos and more picos. They are flexible and basically rock solid. Plus, if you're just starting to build your system and are planning to have a lot of them, they are actually a lot cheaper than Hue Dimmer switches. I have about a dozen picos now and I paid on average around $13 for them. Plus $40 that I spent upgrading my non-pro to a pro bridge. So, that's $200. But even if you were buying one new, that's $250. To do the same thing with hue dimmers I'd have to have probably 18. At $25 a pop that works out to $450. The pro bridge doesn't look at that pricy now when it's spread out over the savings for every button controller.

I recommend check against the compatible devices list. That gives you Hubitat response if there is a problem. Link:
https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=List_of_Compatible_Devices
Sort by DeviceType and look for Button Controller

You never stated if you wanted a wall installation, Key Fob, Hand-held, or desktop. You can get some ideas on Amazon using the below links.

Do not automatically rule out multi-button - think of future uses. But if you are set on single button, Samsung is a good brand.

This was the case with the first ST button I had, then they did a firmware update for them and it responds instantly ever since then.

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It still sends temperature reports (so probably not sleeping, but then I guess there was that "single press registers as double press" problem people noticed on older ones when they had been dormant for while, so maybe...) and I haven't figured out exactly when this happens--maybe it's after a hub reboot or something else that might make it or one of its routers re-evaluate its life choices and take a few seconds to figure things out. Not as bad as the Eria, which does seem to go to sleep and can take several seconds to respond with the first press after that (but I think Mike or Bruce said there are some repeaters they route through where they haven't noticed this problem).

I should also note that I've actually noticed the same thing with Pico remotes the first time I use them after a hub reboot. I don't mean right away after a hub reboot (when it might still be performing background tasks) but literally any time after that--I've noticed it at least hours later. The first Pico press on any Pico takes a few seconds to register, then all of them are fine after that. I used to think this was a telnet issue, like with maybe the connection not getting restarted until needed, but that's when I was on Caséta (and a manual initialize() after boot didn't help, either). I'm on RA2 now and still have the same problem, and I know it's not telnet because my occupancy/motion sensors are sending events before this. This is not nearly as bad since it's just once per entire system, not once per device.

Before I used Hubitat and before the SmartThings button was released, I considered the Fibaro button, but it's probably the farthest thing from what the OP wanted: expensive, poorly reviewed, and barely looks like a press-able button. :slight_smile: (But maybe it wouldn't suffer from the initial delays that occasionally plague button users?)

I put all of mine on ST before I paired them to Hubitat just to get the updated firmware (never heard of that particular problem but did hear of the "double press" problem I mentioned above). The newer ones already shipped with it. I'm still not sure what's going on, but it's usually not bad enough for me to care.