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Re:Lights have been on at this school for a year because no ... by throwaway4aday on Friday January 20, 2023 @08:55AM (#34453136)
This seems to reveal that the problem with automated lights, etc. is that we no longer have a single source of truth for the state of the light or other device. I think the problem is that we are updating the state of the light but not updating the state of the UI i.e. the switch. The solution would seem to be that the automated system should be moving the switch in order to turn the light on or off instead of adding another point of control like a relay that changes the meaning of the switch position. I'm sure this would add cost to the system but I think the benefit in usability would outweigh it. The perfect system for me would be a smart switch that is electromechanically actuated by the smart system but also has an override switch that you can toggle in order to prevent the automated system from moving the switch. That way you can still maintain full control, the switch always indicates the correct state and you have all the benefits of the smart system.
Re:Lights have been on at this school for a year because no ... by argiopetech on Friday January 20, 2023 @11:21AM (#34455291)
FWIW, this is also the case with traditionally-wired 3-way switches (i.e., two switches that both toggle a single fixture).
Re:Lights have been on at this school for a year because no ... by roxgib on Friday January 20, 2023 @05:56PM (#34461287)
But that adds yet another point of failure, and something with mechanical parts is probably going to wear out much quicker. And if it fails can I still flick the switch, or do I need to replace it?
Re:Lights have been on at this school for a year because no ... by throwaway4aday on Saturday January 21, 2023 @08:28AM (#34466284)
The manual override switch I mentioned should disable the smart control completely. The switch would have to be designed to work without the smart control in the first place which would mean it would still work when the smart control was disabled or malfunctioning.