Curious what people have done to solve this? Does anyone have a favorite small plug-in night light that they are using? What I want is something that looks like a smart plug so I do not lose the outlet. In fact I thought I could use a wifi smart plug with the Tasmota firmware to roll my own at some level. But I could not find one (in the US) that included a good enough light source. I have considered completely rolling my own with an ESP32, some LEDs, etc. but I don't have any time to go down that road right now.
Could be Z-Wave, WiFi, or even ZigBee. I have all three running here and each are strong. Any ideas or favorites?
If you roll your own, I will be happy to help. I have not run into a great one myself. A combination of this Monoprice Outlet and Centralite Nightlight 3420 would be really awesome.
The Monoprice has color ring, outlet, plus USB, but the ring is not controllable if I recall and regardless it is dim and lacks a battety. The Centralite is controllable (somewhat), has battery backup, and is a repeater. But the color cannot be controlled (only on/off) remotely (you can change it by pressing the button on the device). It is decently bright (and dimmable). But it has no outlet pass through and is fairly large.
My goal is a nightlight with color control and dimming. Plusses for me (in order of preference):
Repeater (if ZigBee or Z-Wave)
Battery backup
Light sensor
Motion sensor
Temp sensor
Humidity sensor
Outlet
Speaker (for TTS)
I agree. Peppering it with a few sensors would be great too and like you said repeater functionality would be a must. Something that looks like a mini Amazon Echo Flex would be great. Small, low power, ZWave repeating, a light source that is down-firing so it only lights the path below, etc. I just don't want to join the Alexa ecosystem right now nor do I want any reliance on the cloud.
This. I would love to have some notification lights in various places around the house. The Homeseer Z-Wave Multi-Sensor is also a great form factor, has sensors, has repeater, has the RGB. No white light, and a staggering $60 puts it right out of the running. Not having a light sensor, even if it was for internal night light use, also a bit of a bummer.
The Aeotec Smart Switch 6 has the option to use the LED ring in "night light" mode, which basically just means that the LED ring will stay always on with the color that you choose (instead of. changing to indicating power status). It's not a particularly bright light, though.
@r.p.ulivella: The Amazon Echo Flex you pointed out is interesting. Now if only they did not have separate motion/night light modules and of course it is an "Alexa" only thing. Not sure I would want to scatter them all over my whole house as nightlights. $40 would be the top end in my book, for something that did most of the features, and this is something different that only gets a couple. But the form factor is good!
@neonturbo: The Homeseer you mentioned does have a light sensor, but I bet like most of the rest the light might be a little weak for a nightlight. Plus it fails @r.p.ulivella's request for it to keep the outlet. You are also right about the price. Ouch. The look is also not great with that bulging motion sensor that is the part that lights up... WAF in my household would be low.
@jason-lane: That is pretty close, except for being too dim I bet. The ring is basically the same style as the one on the Monoprice, but they have better control. Looking at their site, I think for my purpose (without the outlet) the MultiSensor 6 would be an awesome form factor... just put a few RGB (or RGBW) LEDs under the sensor dome. Does not need the UV or vibration. But they would have to get the price down... $60 also.
