I hope this is in the right section. I must preface that our daughter is autistic and I’m looking for a solution that will allow us to give her use of her bedroom light switch during the day but disable it at night.
I currently have a ST button and Sengled light bulb paired and working. I have the button turn on and disable the bulb for manual operation. I have an automation to disable the bulb each night at 7pm and enable at 7am. At this point I bet experienced smartthings users know what I discovered after setting all of this up. The light switch can still be turned on using the switch if disabled in the app.
Is there anything I’m overlooking here? Is this possible with the devices I have or is it possible with another set of devices? Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.
There’s an easy solution to this, fortunately. You just have to take the switch that controls the current out of the picture and only use the button or another switch that works by talking to the hub which then sends a message to the Bulb…
There are two ways to do that.
First, depending on how determined your daughter is, you can just put a childproof lock on the switch. I understand that she might be able to remove it or might feel too frustrated by it, so that might not work for you, but if it does work for you, it’s an easy option.
The second is to replace that switch with something that looks like a switch but does not turn the current on and off. Instead, it works exactly the same way that the button does, by sending a message to the hub. Because the message is sent to the hub, you can put your time parameters on it.
Take a look at the FAQ for what kinds of switches to use with smart bulbs. (This is a clickable link) it’s the same solution, but for a different reason, people want to maintain constant current to the smart bulb so it can be turned on with the next network request. But there are a number of options.
Thank you. It’s nice to know that it can be done. We do have a physical childproof lock that we have used for years but she is getting older and we would like to give her more freedom during the day.
If I understand correctly I think what would work best is using a smart wall switch (I had no idea existed). My only concern is do these wall switches allow the physical switch to be disabled overnight? I’m sorry for the followup question but disabling the physical switch isn’t something I have seen covered in reviews of these switches. Do you happen to know?
That is indeed discussed in detail in the existing FAQs.
So I don’t want to just repeat everything again here because then that sort of defeats the purpose of having an FAQ, but basically there are three types.
A) fits over the top of the existing switch
B) replaces the existing switch completely, so that that switch no longer actually controls the current to the fixture
C) you put a box or blanking plate over the existing switch and then mount the battery operated switch on the top of that.
