Let's talk Design.... Switches

Yes, you can find Legrand here, just not the smart stuff. For example they have nice looking zigbee switches but they are nowhere to be found, just by catalogue order at a steeper price.

Also is there an integration for Legrand? I might go to another store as i need to pick an order circa 200km away and maybe (seriously doubt)they have something.

You can't find Legrand 'smart' stuff in the US either. It is mail order only, and hard to find even then.

Talking to people I know at Lowes, the demand for the non-smart Legrand Adorne devices is extremely low (relative to traditional switches)... And there is essentially zero interest/requests for them to carry the smart devices.

Yes, if you use one of their dumb switches (which is about all I can find in stores) and couple it with a Qubino Flush or an Aeon Nano. :smiley:

I saw one of the smart devices in my local Lowes, but it was more than the cost of a dumb Adorne and a Qubino combined. I left it on the shelf. :smiley:

Their SofTap and Wave switches contain electronics that is pretty much identical to the components of a ZWave/Zigbee switch.. a chip to detect, and a relay to energize... just without the radio. Don't use the SofTap or Wave with Aeon Nano. The back-to-back electronics won't work without opening the Adorne and permanently modifying it.

Comparing the amount of travel in the SofTap vs Push switches, the SofTap requires perhaps 1mm of travel while their mechanical (dumb) Push switch requires 3mm. The price is double, so I stuck with the (relatively) low cost of the Push series.

https://www.scolmore.com/products/deco/

theses are the switches i use, the reason why is with Click it has a "mini grid" you can mix and match any type of switch onto any of their range of plates. These switches have both centre off retractive (connected to blinds) and push to make switches (connected to smart switchs) on some of my others have push to make and 2 way latching switches on (smart contacts controlling stuff).

I'm hoping for some interesting things in the future with Legrand, they recently brought us and i'm hoping to push our wireless products to have a z-wave /zigbee versions for a start. But with their size and our knowledge i'm hoping for some interesting stuff in the future.

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They purchased Netatmo recently too, so they should be able to enter the 21st century with spectacular HomeAutomation devices, a decade late, right? :slight_smile:

Although push buttons are "classic" too in some older US homes. I think they were associated with having the problematic "knob & tube" wiring so fell out of favor.

Wow!! That is going back some years.

I'm in the US and have seen a few nonstandard "system" installations. Two that I recall relied on low voltage wiring to all switches with some of "relay" type of device for controlling power to the load fixture.

In both cases they were installed when the home was built and constituted a completely custom system. One of the homes was built in the 1960's, I'm not sure of the other.

If I had to guess, I think the status quo will remain until "smart" systems get so widespread that they become the standard in home building. I can see the save a lot of copper wire if all the switched in an new home could be replaced by smart switches powered by Class 2 power.

On a side note, my pet peeve is Ugly thermostats. Here the designers have nearly complete flexibility and most of the designs are IMHO "gaudy". The nest and ecobee seem nice, the Pearl is ok but large ( I know there is the c wire thing). The Honeywell's are all pretty poor in the physical design.

Yea I grew up with those weird toggle buttons.
They would crackle and get stuck.
Probably because my Great Great Grandfather built the house.
What a shame it fell out of the family as the taxes got too high...

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In my corner of Florida you can't use Decora on a garbage disposal, so the old fashioned toggle for garbage and Decora for lights. The light is only for a spot over the sink so I let people figure it out.

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There's always Fibaro's big red button. :clown_face:

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Code requires a toggle switch? Interesting, never heard of such a thing.

GIRA makes some nice stuff. It's not cheap. i only know of one Zigbee controller from them though. They support KNX, but that doesn't help with HE

You're best bet is indeed going to be putting in new boxes deep enough to support a micro dimmer or on/off module. Lowest price, and it offers the best choices of switch design. I don't have experience with the Z-Wave versions, but the Insteon micro modules do not need the hub to continue working for basic on/off functionality. You can use Insteon dimmers, outlets, lamp modules, I/O Linc and on/off modules with HE locally, but you need an Insteon hub and a RPi to run a simple Node.js application. Once running, it's very stable.

Me either, but that's what the electrician told me when I remodeled my Kitchen. He said I was welcome to switch to Decora after the inspection. I like it, makes telling what's what simple.

I can speak for Aeon mini, Aeon Nano, and Qubino Flush series... dimmer or switch, they all work fine without a hub. The wall switch directly controls the relay without a care as to the ZWave status.

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Thanks but no thanks.... :smiley:
Too many hubs already...

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Understood. Doesn't bother me, but I get it. It's IoT. Translation is still needed, and I don't mind if it's worthwhile.

I guess there is a theoretical limit to too much tech. But I don't expect to get close to that line before I die :smiley:

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My bar for this is - my wife has to be able to restart it if it breaks when I'm not home. If it isn't as easy to recover as 'press power button on this box', then it is not user friendly enough for general consumption.

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Mine is that it was to work in a hub "disconnected" state. A smart home and home automation are great but ultimately, both should be transparent. My lights shouldn't rely on my hub being present or my router, network switches, and internet access being up. Light switches should work like, um, light switches.

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Amen. I agree 100.0+% on that.

I have something like this one for the disposal.. works well.

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