Quick & dirty three-way switch w/two iris buttons & a bulb. Why not?

Recently I picked up four of the Iris buttons at Lowes (Gen 2) that have been on sale for in various locations for $10. Iā€™ve got a handle on the quirks and tweaking required, and they have actually been working very reliably and Iā€™m growing unexpectedly fond of them. But I really only had clear plans for two of them. However, I believe I have come up with a good use for the other two in one of our kidā€™s room.

The bedroom has a light attached to the wall above the bed (directly wired, no plug) that serves as the primary room light - controlled by a switch at the doorway. The light has a switch on it as well, but itā€™s inconvenient to use it both physically (itā€™s mounted several feet above the bed) and logistically - once itā€™s off at the lamp, the switch at the door wonā€™t turn it on.

So Iā€™m thinking Iā€™ll put a connected bulb in the fixture, mount one Iris button above the dumb wall switch, and put the second one on the side table next to the bed. Boom - Iā€™ve got a three-way switch on the lamp for just $35 ($15 bulb, $10x2 for buttons) and no wiring required (no neutrals in this part of the house, so would have been a PITA).

:smiley:

A quick and dirty upgrade that will make good use of my button surplus, and will take all of about maybe ten minutes to complete. I canā€™t think of any downsides, aside from potential reliability issues w/the Iris buttons, and itā€™s easy to reverse this setup if that issue does arise.

Anyone else whoā€™s done this or similar and have tales of woe (or valor) to share before I embark?

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Lots of people do something like this. :sunglasses: It should work fine with the one caveat that the iris buttons are known for going to sleep if they arenā€™t used frequently, which means you may have to tap it twice every once in a while to get the light to turn on.

And of course thereā€™s always the issue of how do you get people to not turn it off with the regular switch.

More discussion in the following threads:

Good point JD - Iā€™d forgotten the sleep issue. The good news is this is for one of my kids, not my wife, so I will only have to tell them about the sleep issue once and theyā€™ll remember. :smiley:

I plan to put a small bit of clear packing tape to hold the switch on - maybe a little tacky, but effective and doesnā€™t require me to do any additional work. Captain Lazy reporting for very limited duty, sir! :wink:

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Mine have been asleep for over a month. I finally just gave up on them when tapping repeatedly did nothing. And the battery drain is quite ridiculous.

Thanks for the input. Iā€™ll have to see how ours go. I think weā€™ll be using them (at least where they are now, and in the bedroom) pretty frequently.

Right now Iā€™ve got the four set up in the family room and our master bedroom attached to lights that we use. Weā€™ll give them a try for a while and see how they behave.

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I have considered doing the same thing with the same buttons, but I wouldnā€™t call it the ā€œlazyā€ route. For me itā€™s the ā€œaffordableā€ route. I have a circuit with three switches, and converting them all to compatible Z-wave switches would be much more expensive than using the buttons that I plan on getting at a discount. Although since theyā€™re discontinued, Iā€™m waiting until they drop to $5 each before executing my plan.

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Thanks for the suggestions, Robin, but key points of this exercise were to leverage ā€œextraā€ materials on-hand and have a little fun w/the buttons. My son is all in - heā€™s been carrying one of the buttons around like it is a light saber since I suggested we do this. Youā€™re talking a kid who if left alone would have a pile of mixed dirty and clean laundry on his floor three feet high. He is not going to mind a little piece of clear tape on a switch. :slight_smile:

And I sort of feel like buying a bunch of switches and micro modules would be cheating, and not how MacGyver would have wanted it. :smiley:

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Yanno, you might be able to MacGyver it up a bit more, and fill his life with buttons. Iā€™m not sure how much more responsive and reliable these are, but Iā€™ve seen articles and Youtube vids about people getting fairly creative with these, and theyā€™re only $5 each (free if you use the button to order the product it was initially programmed for).

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Oh myā€¦Iā€™m thinking a button suit he can wear at home that would have buttons across his chest and on each hip. :smiley:

Thanks, I saw the activity on the Amazon buttons a while back but forgot about it. Button mania here we comeā€¦

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