Smart Switch

In fact, the most commonly used lighting control panel in your home is a switch panel, which used to be a mechanical switch panel. If another local control is required, dual control and other functions need to be performed. No controlled light source or lamp is required. Whether you install a chandelier, spotlight, light bar, or wall lamp in your home, you can control it at will.

Smart Switch Highfive

Now, the smart switch panel used in the smart home is connected to the control network through the IoT chip of the internal circuit board and uses a relay to control the lighting circuit, which is equivalent to adding a network control function to the traditional switch panel. We need to pay attention to several hardware parameters:

Voltage

All products used in China are 220V. If products sold in China meet the voltage requirements, especially electrical products sold in the United States, you should pay attention to the use of 110V in the United States. Unless all products are used in China, many products can only be used at 110V, otherwise, they will not be used in China. If sold in the spherical area, it will use the universal 110-220V voltage product.

Power Supply

These smart switches use solid-state relays as switches, so there are power limitations. Usually, they will be identified in the product specification. For example, the maximum load of each circuit is 800W, so you need to calculate whether the currently connected lighting circuit is greater than 800W.

Now LED lighting has been widely used, so the power is relatively small, usually does not exceed the maximum load. If traditional incandescent light sources are used in some places or large buildings, they need to be connected after calculation and connection. Confirm, otherwise, if the power is too high, the relay will burn out.

Wireless Communication Protocols

The wireless smart switch panel uses wireless communication protocols for data communication exchange. Some use the ZigBee protocol, and some smart switches use the 433 communication protocol (433MHz RF technology). According to different purposes, such smart switches need to be equipped with another smart gateway as a communication center.

The wireless communication distance between each panel is different. If you are a small and medium-sized house, you can use a wireless panel. If you are a duplex or villa, it is easy to block the wireless signal. You need to match multiple gateways, and the number of wireless panels is too large, which will cause instability.

Therefore, it is not recommended to use the wireless switch panel of the villa, it is best to use a professional bus intelligent panel for control.

However, many US switch products that support homekit use WiFi networks directly, such as koogeek’s smart switch.

The smart switch is directly connected to the home WiFi network. The advantage is that it is very convenient, no need to purchase other equipment (such as a gateway). The problem is that the home wireless network should be well established.

There should be no WiFi dead ends or weak router performance. So many wireless switches communicate through WiFi networks. If the wireless signal is poor, there will be control delays and other problems.

Zero Live Wire Switch

This problem is very common because the traditional mechanical switch bottom box does not require a neutral wire. Therefore, for such an old house decoration, the manufacturer made a fireproof smart switch, that is, when there is no neutral wire in the switch bottom box, the smart switch can make the power supply work normally.

The smart switch with light requires a capacitor to be connected to the lamp head and requires minimum lighting power. Otherwise, problems often occur, such as the inability to turn off the LED lights or keep flashing, which is very inconvenient to use anyway.

Embedded Decorative Wiring Skills

If you are decorating a new house, it is strongly recommended that you ask an electrician to keep the neutral wire in the bottom box of the switch to facilitate the upgrade of the smart switch in the future.

The bottom box of the switch retains the live wire (red), the neutral wire (blue), and the light control wire (yellow). After finishing the final decoration, the electrician can install the smart switch panel. It should also be noted that the smart switch you plan to purchase supports at most one panel, which contains multiple switches.

Usually, there are more 1, 2-position switches and 3-position switches, which determines the maximum number of light control lines in the bottom frame when you embed the bottom frame of the switch. For example, if your living room has 4 lights, you can put 2 bottom boxes in the living room. Each bottom box is equipped with a 2-position (two-way) smart switch.

Smart switch panel function

Intelligent scene linkage: For example, scene combination of multiple lights, or matching with sensors to control lights.

Set schedule and time: For example, let the light automatically turn on and off according to the set time or schedule.

Voice or remote control: For example, use Siri or other smart speaker voice to control lights.

Power monitoring: Some brands of smart switches support lighting and power monitoring functions.

a. Lighting control includes not only switches but also dimming control. Many brands have smart dimmer switches with dimming function:

Dimmer switches usually need to be matched with dimmable LED lamps. Nowadays, the common LED lamps on the market can no longer be dimming. Therefore, if dimming is needed, you need to purchase dimmable lamps for coordinated use. Traditional incandescent or halogen lamps can be dimmed directly.

b. We can also use a smart socket to control floor lamps, desk lamps, night lights, and other external light sources. We can also use this smart socket to control various household appliances, such as electric fans, rice cookers, toasters, etc.

c. The latest smart light panel with the voice function, the latest switch panel at the entrance of the room, with voice services and smart sensors. After people enter the sensor range, they can automatically turn on the lights in the hall. They can directly control any scene function through voice without using smart speakers at home. The sensor on the switch can also be used as a safety alarm function.

d. With sensor control light.

Pleasecontact us for more detail about smart switch solutions or visit HIFIVEE for some creative and innovative products.