Corded devices to ST (Finland)

Also, if by chance I have guessed correctly and you meant “wired” rather than “corded,” then re-reading your first post I wonder if you were asking something similar to the following question. I’m feeling quite tired right now and may not be on much for the rest of the day so I’m going to go ahead and answer that. If this is totally off topic to what you were asking, please forgive me.

If you were asking if you need to do special wiring in order to set up a SmartThings system, most people find that they do not.

I think it’s obvious that there will be many battery operated devices that can communicate with a smartthings hub.

In addition, if we look at a typical wired device like a ceiling light with a wall switch there are three separate ways to add devices which can allow that Light to communicate with a smartthings hub.

(by the way, if you ask questions on any other threads in the forum, make sure that you specify that you are in Europe, as the device selection is quite different from the US.)

In all these cases, the device will communicate with the SmartThings hub and the SmartThings hub will communicate with any other devices that it controls, so unlike some other systems you can mix-and-match devices from any protocol that smartthings supports.

That is, every wall switch that works with SmartThings can be used to control every light bulb that works with SmartThings. And every sensor that works with SmartThings can be used to trigger every wall switch or sensor that works with SmartThings. :sunglasses:

This is one of the best features of the SmartThings platform. As long as an individual device will work with SmartThings, you can then set it up with rules to interact with any of the other devices on your SmartThings account.

Now back to the three ways in which we might set up SmartThings to control a light on the ceiling.

  1. First, you can simply use a smartbulb. These come in many different formats these days, including the downlights that I linked to in a previous post.

Anything which connects to a Philips hue bridge, including some of the IKEA lightbulbs, can then be used with SmartThings. There are a number of different brands that can work in this way.

In addition, some bulbs can talk to SmartThings without needing an additional bridge device. This would include LIFX and Sengled, among others available in the UK.

When you use a smartbulb, you just replace the old bulb with the new, so this is the simplest option.

By the way, if you want a battery operated wall switch, something similar to the hue tap, to work with your smartbulbs, there are several choices in Europe that will work with SmartThings. See the following thread (this is a clickable link)

  1. Second, you may be able to replace the wall switch with a wall switch that can communicate with SmartThings. This is often more challenging in Europe than in the US because almost all mains-powered wall switches that work with SmartThings will require that there be a neutral wire at the switchbox, and many homes in Europe do not have this.

But if your home does have neutral wires at the switch boxes, there are some choices that work with 230 V current. You won’t have to replace all the wires in between the switch and the ceiling fitting. You just have to replace the switch itself.

Vesternet has a good selection of smart switches, but only the ones which use zwave or zwave plus Will work directly with SmartThings.

They also have a very good article describing typical UK wiring that might make this clearer.

IMG_4394

  1. if you don’t want to use smartbulbs and you don’t have neutral wires at your light switch boxes, you can still add smartthings control of a ceiling light without having to rewire everything. You do this by using an in wall micro, typically installed in the Ceiling rose.

These are quite small, typically about a centimeter square, and are spliced into the wiring. There are several brands available in Europe. I think the most popular in the community is probably Fibaro, but Aeotec, Qubino, and a couple of other brands are also used by many community members.

there are several different types of days. Some are dimmers. Some can be installed on DIN rails. Some can handle two branches of the wiring.

IMG_4392

Some of the micros, specifically the Fibaro, can even be used without a neutral wire in some circumstances, so you may be able to put them behind the light switch rather than at the ceiling rose. :sunglasses::level_slider::bulb:

If you have any questions about any specific micros there are a number of European community members who have a lot of experience with them. @anon36505037 , for example, has done his whole house with Fibaro modules.

So those are three different ways that you can add smartthings control to a ceiling light without having to add new wires. Again, I’m just guessing that that might be relevant to your first post, if it’s not, my apologies for going off on such a long tangent.

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