Making your lights Smart.
By making your lights smarts in your home means that you can switch it ON or OFF with your phone, control it via a voice assistance like Alexa or Google Home or even a home automation hub like Home Assistant. This also means you can control it from anywhere, even if you are not at home.
Apart from that you can create Automations for it. This can include things the following:
- Automatically switching the light on at sunset and switching it on in the morning.
- Automatically switching on a light at night and when you open a door
- Automatically switching on a light at night when your kid is going to the bathroom at night.
- Automatically dim the lights when you switch your home entertainment to movie mode.
The possibilities of use cases for lighting is endless BUT first you will need to ensure you lights are smart.
There are different ways that you can make your light at home smart and this blog is going to explain to you the different ways using different devices from RoboFactory.
- Option 1 - Using Sonoff T2/3 device ranges (this is the best straight forward option)
- Option 2 - Using Sonoff Basic Switches Or Sonoff Mini
- Option 3 - Using Sonoff Slampher
- Option 4 - Using Sonoff RF Switches with a 8 key remote (recommend option if you dont have a neutral wire)
- Option 5 - Using any Sonoff smart switch with a 8 key remote and RF Bridge (best option if you dont have a neutral wire)
Option 1 - Using Sonoff T2/3 Range of devices
Sonoff has a great range of T2/3 devices that replaces your standard home light switches. The are installed directly into the standard South African light switch housing.
In order to install these light switches you need to ensure that you light switch connection point has a neutral wire. Not all households have this so its best you check. If you dont have a neutral at the connection point then you can get electrician to wire this for you or you can consider another option below.
The Sonoff T2/3 ranges come in 1,2,3 gangs. The gangs means how many lights you can connect to it.
The Sonoff T2 range is white and can be viewed with the links below:
The Sonoff T3 range is white and can be viewed with the links below:
This is the best and preferred option.
The downside to Option 1 is that you need a neutral wire at you light connection box. This is one of the biggest reason why people dont want to make their lights smart, the hassle of changing your wiring is too daunting BUT there are other ways doing this.
You can use a Sonoff Basic smart switch or Sonoff Mini
Connect the Sonoff Basic smart switch OR Sonoff Mini to your light directly. If you light is on the ceiling or on a wall the Sonoff Mini is small enough to be connect behind many modern light fittings.
Once connected you can control your light from you smart device, voice assistant or hub.
Please ensure you set the "Power On State" on the eWelink App to ON. This will ensure that you can correctly control the light from the light switch. If this setting is OFF then sometimes you will only be able to turn the light back on from the app.
The downside to this is that when the standard light switch is OFF, the device is off and no automations will work on it.
To overcome using the standard light switch, you can go with Option 4 Or Option 5. This makes use of the 8 Key remote that you can stick on your wall next to your light switch. So instead of using the light switch you use the new remote.
Option 3 - Using Sonoff Slampher (coming soon)
This is the recommend option if you dont have a neutral wire and dont want to fiddle with your wiring. This option uses the Sonoff RF switch range and the 8 Key Remote. You will connect the RF switches to you lights and pair them to the 8 Key remote. You can then stick the 8 key remote next to your existing light switch and use it to turn the light on or off instead of the light switch. With the remote you can pair it and control a number of different RF devices.
The only downside to the option is that you will only be able to control Sonoff RF devices with this remote. To overcome this check out Option 5.
Please read through Option 4 first.
Option 4 ties you into only using Sonoff RF devices. If you want to control any Sonoff devices in your home from the 8 Key Remote then you will been to install and Sonoff RF Bridge. This device will allow you to pair the 8 Key remote and control any Sonoff device.
Firstly, you will need to pair the 8 Key Remote to the Sonoff RF Bridge. When you add a new remote on the RF Bridge ensure you select an Alarm remote type. Once you have paired the button on your remote to the Alarm type on the RF Bridge you will then need to create a new scene.
Create a scene and as the Trigger select Smart Device, then select your RF Bridge and then the Alarm Type remote you just created. Then under the Actions sections, select the smart device you want to turn on. You will need to do the same to turn the switch off.
If you press the button on the remote, you will see that the switch turns on, then press the other button you paired and the device will turn off.
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