Smart options for dumb LED lights

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Lizard1977

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#319995 24-Jun-2025 13:10

I've been gradually re-activating some smart lighting in the rental I've recently moved into. In most cases it's re-using existing smart LED bulbs in ordinary fittings (ES or bayonet fittings) and using zigbee battery powered switches. It's not the most elegant solution but it is rental friendly.

However there are some fixed lights that I'm not sure I can do anything with. I've been ignoring them for now, but if there is a solution I haven't thought of then it would be great to have everything under some kind of smart control.

The lights in question are what I would describe as "dome" lights. They're not recessed units; they're about 35-40cm in diameter, surface mounted onto the ceiling and hardwired (of course). I took one off the ceiling and they seem to be a sealed unit - meaning that if they failed you would have to replace the whole unit, not just a bulb inside the fixture. There are three of these in the lounge, and one in the kitchen, along with a strange pendant-style LED fitting in the dining room. Everything else in the rental is a bulb in a socket.

How would I make these lights smart? Replacing the units themselves is out of the question. Similarly, installing a Shelley relay isn't something I wouldn't be comfortable getting an electrician to do, given it's a rental. I wondered about a "fingerbot" but they seem quite clunky and a bit ugly, and I think it would be awkward to manually override. Is there something else I haven't thought of?

davidcole

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#3386646 24-Jun-2025 14:39

you might be out of luck. One option, might be to invest in lamps.....and put those on smart plugs. So while you wouldn't have control of the overhead lights you'd have control over any smart bulbs or lamps.

I've added smart plugs to most of our lamps, and there's only some occasions in these rooms we use the overhead lights (manually - like cavemen).

Even though I do own my own house, I haven't gone through and shelly-ified all the internal lights. All the externals yes, but internals - I use lamps as mentioned.

Previously known as psycik

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CokemonZ

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#3386654 24-Jun-2025 14:51

I have one fingerbot.

It's pretty fun. The one I have has a button on it that you push and it manually activates the fingerbot.

Edit: It's a tuya based model. Can't see the exact one, but there are a fair few that look like it on Ali: No Wiring Smart Button Pusher Wireless Smart Fingerbot Switch Fingerbot Button Pusher Remote Control Smart Home Punch Free - AliExpress

fe31nz

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#3386888 24-Jun-2025 23:24

I have a couple of zigbee fingerbots. I like them, but they have some significant limitations. You have to be able to mount them over the switch solidly, otherwise the pusher arm just pushes the fingerbot instead of the switch. The stiffer the button or switch, the more solid a mount is required. And because they are battery operated, you need to be able to change the battery, which can mean that you have to be able to unmount them to get the cover off to do that. So you have a conflict between getting a solid mount and being able to then unmount them, or at least be able to get the cover off while they are in place. And the batteries do not last as long as you would hope. The one I use every day to switch my DAC/headphone amp on and off gets used typically for four pushes a day and the battery lasts about 8-9 months I think. There are now rechargable battery fingerbots, but only WiFi ones. I would expect those batteries to last worse, because rechargables are generally smaller capacity than non-rechargables and WiFi connections take significantly more power than zigbee connections. But if you can get a USB-C cable to the fingerbot, you can just recharge them in place, which would be much better.