Do you all have any suggestions for adding an on off button for my jenky system? I am using one of those light socket to plug converters to add a plug outside for a camera. I setup Alexa to control the lights that were formerly attached to the wall switch.
My mom would like a physical button because "reasons".
Is there a physical button I can buy and program to not turn on/off the wall switch, but instead to turn on/off a smart plug?
The plug is connected to Alexa (I also have a GE Sync plug that I could use) I want to keep the switch on all the time for the camera, but have a physical switch to control the lights on the smart plug. The biggest issue I am running into is where do I get a physical button that I can just program to do whatever.
I tried to attach a diagram, but I guess I am too new.
If I understand correctly, you want a switch that has a "smart bulb mode." In this type of device, the load is always powered and the "switch" is really treated like a button controller. Tapping or toggling the switch does nothing to turn the power on or off, but can be programmed to trigger any other automation.
Once you have the switch installed, you could replace the bulbs with smart bulbs and eliminate the plug. Either way should work fine.
Do you want a battery powerd button or a hard-wired one?
I like dylan's plan for a switch with SBM -- then you just program the switch up/down taps to turn the plug on/off. That asuumes the plug is compatible with Hubitat (not wifi/cloud).
Yes, "smart bulb mode" is exactly what I was looking for, but I don't have Hue lights. If you know of one that will work with Hubitat directly please recommend or link.
You don't need smart bulbs to use Smart Bulb Mode. SBM programatically decouples the load power from the switch, so that full load power is always being passed to the fixture. It doesn't matter if the fixture is powering bulbs or a plug.
Then you program the switch paddles to do whatver you want to the fixture's bulbs/plug/whatever, and anything else you want to do from that switch.
I'd recommend a Zooz switch - they're a good balance of price and features (incl SBM), and are well-supported in Hubitat. For the plug, any basic zigbee or z-wave plug should be fine.