The ones I use now and others on the market are not battery operated. To keep power to the smart parts when the switch and fixture is off (since there is no neutral to route constant power for the smarts) the trick is to perfectly regulate the resistance to allow just enough power to flow thru for the smart bits without enough power to turn on the fixture.
Mine are standalone WiFi with no hub. One drawback of this design is their WiFi signal strength is very temperamental and they do go offline if too far from the WiFi and someone walks in front of them blocking the signal. Some on the market use a hub to overcome the weak WiFi issues.
If Wyze can overcome this, they will have a significant advantage. If they go the hub route, not so much as it will limit application to only those with a Sense Hub which is an added investment they do not offer for individual purchase.
That would be even better. I have not looked at a lot of options for non-neutral wiring switches. I am guessing though, that Wyze wouldnât have it connect to the HMS Sense Hub anyway. If they had it connect to anything besides direct WiFi, it would probably be that new âUniversal Chimeâ thing the VP of Product told us about.
He did say that it would serve lots of products. In that case, it would probably be available for individual purchase.
I have heard that a lot of the ones that stay on all the time arenât compatible with LED bulbs though because any current at all decides if theyâre on or not, so even keeping it low keeps them turned on, so you have to use incandescent lights with them instead of smart bulbs. That would be slightly disappointing. Hopefully Wyze has some kind of solution to that so we can use smart bulbs with them too.
Do the options you have experience with allow you to use smart LED bulbs with them?
Of course, all of this is just speculation for now until they give us more info officially. I am just happy there is something coming. Most of the options I looked at 2 years ago were really expensive or didnât work very well.
Now if we can finally get something that will automate the lighting effectively in a large room.
I havenât found anything yet that works well for automated lighting of a large room where people will sometimes be sitting down, etc. (motion sensors donât cover the whole room and definitely canât tell when someone is sitting down watching TV, Cameras COULD do this, but they arenât enabled to be able to do this to decide when to shut off the lights). Some day I hope that gets resolved.
The switches I bought come with a bulb adapter if the LED bulb is incompatible. I have mine running direct LED bulbs without the adapter and havenât had any issues yet. I havenât tried the smart bulbs in them because that would be redundant and would force the smart bulb offline when the Smart switch is off. The switch is the smarts for the dumb bulb to allow the Alexa integration and scheduling and all.
The ones I got do not have the dimmer option although they are available. At nearly $40 each just for the basic WiFi ones, I wasnât really liking the $70 one. I think they also have them with fan controllers, but my fans are direct power without a wall switch.
I think the other big advantage of using the bulb adapters is the smart switch stays powered even when the lightbulb dies or is removed. (I havenât had to use one of these neutral-less systems yet, although I could use a C-wire-less thermostat.)
Oh, well, I know hardly anything about HVAC, I just followed the instructionsâŚwell, more accurately, I followed the instructions the second time after my first guess didnât work I donât know whatâs normal or not.
I just use clear packing tape on the top of the switch, (I have the large rectangle ones). Otherwise someone might turn off the side flood light, that originally was not smart, and the switch is a normal rocker switch. If they try to turn the switch off it wonât budge.
Yes, I enjoyed reviewing the schematics. Up until Wyze came out with their long requested light switch, I was still using a bunch of X-10 devices (formerly BSR). I had alarm systems in a couple of friends/families houses. When they move out, I reclaimed the equipment. I also stocked up on a bunch of most everything as spares, because I felt X-10 was soon to disappear. I still have most of it stored in my seldom used electronic shop. Such is life.
I havenât heard anything in months, but I feel a little reassured that it is still listed as âIn Progress - Developmentâ and hasnât been updated to âMaybe Laterâ yet.
I would not be surprised if They finish development this year and launch this new switch at the beginning of 2024 though, then it would not be part of the âYear of the Cameraâ stuff, but theyâd have something ready for the start of the next year.
We should try to ask about this in the next AMA, and see if anyone is willing to comment on it.