Cheap switches with two-way communication

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Do you guys know of any switches and dimmers that have two-way communication, like zwave ones, but cheaper? I mean, have support for querying their state (On/Off, Dimm level, etc).

maybe this one based on esp8266 and communicate over wlan

https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/1257/wifi-switch-to-integrate-in-wall

or the intetechno its-2000 on 433mhz with homeduino

or this one…
definitely cheap and seems to be working very well (haven’t tried myself)

https://www.itead.cc/wireless/gsm-gprs-and-wifi/sonoff-wifi-wireless-switch.html

@abmantis Check this out:https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/1421/5-channel-led-dimmer-with-esp8266.
If you do not want to wireless, write, I will try to advise something else.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I don’t really like Wifi for switches and such. I was more into some retail outlets and switches like the 433mhz ones (from Chacon/DIO and Intertechno), but with state reporting.

as far as i am into it, the “common” 433mhz switches do not report back any states.
868mhz components for z-wave / homegear etc should be able to.
but its all a matter of costs, since this hardware is more expensive.

for cheap switches you can use the already mentioned esp8266 solution with attached relay.
you can use espimatic or espeasy for that. you will find more information here
https://forum.pimatic.org/category/24/esp8266
the diy solution will not be more than 10 euro for one switch and you are able to do more then just switching and report back states. and i would say wifi is more reliable than rf.

Not very cheap but it’s very reliable: Philips Hue. Base station is around 60 euro and dimmable white bulbs around 20 euro. Socket switches around 30 euro (lightify plug).

And if pimatic is crashed, you can still control the lights.

Replaced almost all my 433mhz devices with hue. Best decision I ever made (besides choosing for pimatic haha).

I’m not a big fan of Hue because it requires an extra hub, is proprietary and is not cheap Oh, and pimatic does not crash!!!

What do you guys think about ESP vs. NRF24L01+ vs RFM69 in terms of reliability? What about distance?

I guess I’m going a bit off-topic.

I have great experience with mysensors (nrf24/rfm69). Easier to setup than an esp and for battery sensors way better. But you still need an extra hub

And like hue they work like a mesh network. Got a node to far away? Just place one between it and it will act as a repeater (if not battery powered).

Yea pimatic only crashed one time maybe in more than 1 year time. But my whole(!) house depends on it, so I always want a quick backup. Btw hue is cheaper than z-wave and real 433mhz brands like kaku.

The mysensors hub is just like the homeduino hub right? An arduino and the transceiver?
It is much more reliable than 433? What about collisions? Like having a sensor emiting and turning a light on at the same time? With 433 that doesn’t work very well if the sensor won’t stop.

Hue is cheaper than zwave but is also more limited in terms of sensors and actuators…

Its like homeduino Yes, a arduino nano with nrf.

433mhz is very slow. Nrf on 2.4ghz is so fast that collision would be very rare. I have around 15 mysensors nodes and everything feels ‘direct’.

A message is max 32 bytes. By default the nrf is set to 250KB/s so a Single message takes 0,125 ms.

1MB/s and 2MB/s is also possible. But 250KB is more than enough and better range. I can promise that collision will never happen.

Sensors/actuators also ask for a ack message. So if a collision happens or the sensor can’t reach the gateway, the sensor sends it again a little later.

Nice to hear! The ACK control is nice.
I’ve been reading and I found that a lot of people are switching from the NRF to the RFM69 868Mhz. I guess I’ll just order some RFM69 and start trying to make some sensors and maybe switches later!

Thanks for your help.

@abmantis Yes the RFM69 is better, but also more expensive. Got some RFM69HW 433MHz for a long range project and the range of them is incredible (not to confuse with the regular 433mhz).

https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/1732/new-plugin-pimatic-orvibo

You can also use these. 20€ on ebay but I would only use them on low loads which require no protective ground. Also make sure to make it stop talking to china via your firewall after setup.

I also suggest beeing careful with firmware updates. A very similar outlet I wanted to write a plugin for will after firmware update only communicate via the webservers of the company

But hey it’s 10€ cheaper

Just stubled upon this device, looks quite nice. Has anyone around here already tried it?
http://www.esp8266-projects.com/2016/04/mpdmv4-mains-dimmerswitch.html