Recommendation for hardware (Wifi/DECT) button or switch for pimatic?

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Hi there,

I attached my PC to the back of my monitor and I can power it on via wake-on-lan and pimatic. Now I am looking for a button or a hardware switch supported by pimatic, which allows me to power on my PC once the button is pressed. Unfortunately, amazon just stopped selling their dash buttons and - as far as I can see - the AVM Fritz!Dect 400 Button is not (yet?) supported by pimatic-fritz.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a button supported by pimatic? Or if someone does not need an amazon dash button any longer, drop me a note!

I am looking forward to your ideas,

Arthur

Which form-factor do you need?

• mobile (e.g. pocket-switch) versus fixed (e.g. wall-mounted)
• battery-powered versus external power-supply (e.g. PSU, or 220V socket)

One possibility is to use a SmartPlug which typically has a push-button to manually switch the plug. Generally, the switch state can be detected by pimatic. It might be interesting to have a look at the range of SonOff products.

Anothert possibility is to roll your own with ESP-8266, for example. There are plenty of projects on github and elsewhere.

Hi mwittig,

thanks for your reply. Basically I have not yet thought about the form factor - but I will have a look at the SonOff products. Thanks for the hint!

I use multiple Aqara Buttons.
https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32964048334.html

Booting the PC is possible via bash script with WOL and shutting down with RPC.

On:

when button is pressed then execute "/usr/bin/sudo wakeonlan D0:50:99:xx:xx:xx"

Off:

when button is pressed then execute "/usr/bin/sudo net rpc -S 192.168.x.x -U usr%pass shutdown -t 1 -f"

@saxnpaule I also thought about this as Aqara Buttons cheap to have. However, this is ZigBee and you will also need an Aqara Hub (or RaspBee, ConBee, or similar)

Yes, that’s right. But with a Conbee you have so much more (cheap) possibilities.
It’s worth it.

Those Aqara Buttons really look promising, many thanks for the idea. I already ordered a Zigbee-Stick based on the CC2531, but as I learned in the meantime it is unfortunately not supported by pimatic. Raspbee seems to be a worthy alternative, which may allow me to ditch my Tradfri gateway.

@SaxnPaule: Before I place my order for the Aquara buttons at AliExpress, can you recommend other Zigbee compatible devices worth ordering? I am interested in a temperature and motion sensor…

I have the motion sensors, the humidity/temp sensors, buttons, wall switches and window contacts in use. All from Aqara.

Which gateway? ConBee?

Yes, I have a Conbee in use.

I can also highly recommend ConBee or RaspBee. I first tried the RaspBee and then switched to ConBee. I needed the GPIO pins.
The Phoscon GUI (DresdenElektronic) is clearly arranged and constantly updated. And again and again new devices are added.
I can also recommend Aqara devices. And also Ikea Tradfri bulbs and switches of the Tradfri system.
The ZigBee system also has a very good radio connection as ZigBee uses mesh.