I use alarms sent to every light switch for open garage door (red flashing) and any water leak sensor triggered (Blue flashing). I don’t like to overdo the alarms since I don’t want them to become something to ignore. The garage one has been very useful when someone forgets to close the door. Water leak I hope I never need to worry about.
I have a chase alarm on my garage light switch so when I hit the config button, it goes red indicates the automaton is turning off and green indicates turning on. I use this to toggle a light timer automaton (garage light turns on when garage door opens and turns off after 15 minutes). I hit the config button to turn off the automaton when I’m working in garage for longer than 15 minutes so the light doesn’t turn off on me. I also have the light timer set to dim transition for two minutes so I don’t get caught in the dark.
I change the LED default color based on my town’s garbage/recycle schedule which alternates weeks for recycling. Example, blue for no pickup/normal, yellow for cans (bin is yellow), green for paper and purple for garbage.
Using mine with Home Assistant. Tied together some automation to set the color for Weather statements, watches and warnings for my area from Environment Canada.
Blue = all clear
White = Weather Statement or Advisory
Yellow = Weather Watch
Red = Weather Warning
Gives us a visual alert for when storm warnings are issued or when there is bad weather happening.
I don’t use actual notifications but I change the LED color with webcore.
I have a “color when on” that I change based on season / mood (it’s currently orange for Halloween). If the front door is unlocked all of my switches will change to yellow. I can then press the config button to lock the door. This will change to green for 5 seconds if successful or change to red for 5 seconds if it couldn’t lock the door.
I have a new one for the list that the wife loves.
We just put two of these in the master bathroom. Our master bathroom has the toilet in a separate little area with a door, ceiling light, and a fan with Inovelli switches on both.
I set it so that if the light switch is off and someone pushes down on the switch (off), a 60-second solid white notification is sent to the switchs.
It makes a perfect little night light! It’s not a ton of light but enough to make sure everyone hits their mark for the late-night bathroom breaks without being blinded by the overhead light. I could have set it red for better night vision but the wife thought that was a little too military for us.
My house has red lights on in the living room, kitchen and hallways at night. I was in the Navy when I was younger and we always had red lights everywhere at night.
I have mine pulse green on the mornings the robot vacuums are going to run. It reminds us to pick things off the floor before leaving. With 3 cats and all their toys, Sabatage can happen at times lol. I also have them pulse blue when I set the hvac fan to manual on to remind me that it’s set that way.
In addition to most of them being used for the house alarm status, I also have a hubitat/rule machine that manages my hall light brightness level. it makes sure the light is on at 70% near sundown, 10% at 8pm, 5% at 10pm, then 1% at midnight-sunrise. it allows overrides to make brighter and then resets back to preset after 5 minutes. anyway, i created an override rule (triggered by 3x down-presses) that keeps it set at whatever manual level for 1 hour. then i slow blink green on the hall light LEDs to indicate it’s in override.
I have the LED color change to green on switches that are running an active automation to let everyone know that the light is supposed to be on and that it will turn off on its own. The LED turns back to the normal blue when the automation is finished. Green for good to go…aka leave it alone
A lot of good ideas. Here are a couple of the more unique uses I have for the indicators:
SCROLL BULB COLORS Double-tapping a switch lets you cycle through 5 pre-set choices of bulb colors. Indicator on the switch matches color of the lighting while you cycle through choices.
TOGGLE AUTOMATION Operating a switch locally temporarily changes that area to “manual mode” (no automation). The indicator changes from normal to chase while the switch is in manual mode to let everyone know the automation is off. Once automation comes back (after another tap or timer expires), indicator returns to normal.
My wife would forget to take her meds before bed. I have a chase pattern go on a couple hours before bed. When she takes her meds, she presses the config button and turns off the notification. If she still forgets them, she’ll see the notification in the morning so she can take them in the morning. The notification automatically resets mid morning if it’s still running. No more: Did I take my meds last night?
We have two fans with lights in our rear patio. There are three doors that open up to the patio; each has a switch to control the fan lights. Originally a dumb 4-way setup, now three 2-1’s bound together.
Naturally, there is only one switch to control the fans (a GE, waiting on my Blue fan switches) and of course, that switch is by the door we never use. A first world problem for sure, but it’s a bit of a pain to go all the way back inside the house to where the fan switch is if you’re already outside and want the fans on.
I have a rule set up on the config button push on the 2-1 near the door we use most often to cycle the fans through all the speeds and off. I use the notification leds on that switch to confirm the operation and briefly indicate the new fan speed.
All of mine do the same thing and are used to indicate if a window or outside door is open.
FLASHING RED - if garage door and any other door or downstairs window is open OR flash for 5 minutes if any door or window opens during Sleep mode
RED - if any door is open
YELLOW - if any window downstairs is open
GREEN - if any window upstairs is open, during sleep mode this dims down to 10%
If I’m lazy and I need to know which ones are open, I’ve set up a virtual switch which I use a voice command “turn on door check” which will send me a notification of all of the open doors and windows.
I have mine set up to light up red on any switch for an outside light when the alarm system is armed.
Also have it set so when a weather warning is issued by the National Weather Service certain switches around the house will slow blink red until the warning expires.
Previously had a temp sensor in the attic that would turn on the LED notifications when the temp got below freezing (blue falling) or above 120 degrees (red rising) (I’m in Texas, this is common in the summer). The temp sensor failed so it’s not working at the moment.
after 5 minutes, if either the front door is left unlocked, the garage door has been left open, the attic light has been left on, or the back gate has been left open then all the switches in the house will pulse purple letting everyone know that there’s a potential issue to look out for.
Otherwise I have them all turn solid red when the alarm is set for the night or when someone is home and blink fast red when the alarm is set to away just to warn anyone still home that any door opening will set off the sirens.
Also helps that I have one in my garage to know if the alarm is on before I walk in the house.
Set up a short series of paddle taps on one of them that lets me disarm the alarm without walking to the main panel or having my phone with me.
