How to use Smart Bulbs with a Smart Switch?
Hello, about a year ago I installed a TP Link Smart light switch to control normal dumb lights and it worked great! I recently upgraded the bulbs to smart bulbs, but having both bulbs and a switch has caused some issues. There is no way to turn off the lights from the switch without cutting the power, causing the lights to not turn on without the switch. Is there any way to basically disconnect the switch from the actual wiring, or should I manually disconnect it?
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You wouldn't want both the switch and bulb to be smart as it's a bit redudant. I would recommend moving those smart bulbs to another socket so you will have 4 different smart devices.
Both can be placed together, but like you mentioned, turning off the smart switch kills the smart bulb or if you turn off the bulb the switch needs to stay on doing what a dumb switch can do by just staying on.
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@Tony I have both because I want to be able to also turn off the lights from a physical switch, I'm trying to find a solution.
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@DBKAsa I did manage to solve it, but my solution is complicated and difficult to setup. I wrote some software to constantly check the switch's state and update the lights accordingly. It seems to work well, but I would much rather TP-Link add an actual solution.
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Mathew the issue is that its not really a soultion we can add. The point of a Smart bulb is that the power is controlled at the bulb not the switch or phyically on the lamp. This is becuase the bulb still needs to receive power to keep the WiFi module running so that the bulb can be controlled through the app or voice. If you turn off the power to the lamp or the switch the bulb will be completely cut from the power and would be unresponsive in the app or to voice commands.
This is why Tony stated that you can but its not recommended.
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@Carl I understand, my proposed solution would be a way to put the switch in a special mode through Kasa that would not actually cut power and instead toggle the on/off state of the smart bulbs. I have managed to accomplish this by creating a custom app that will watch for switch events and update the lights and switch automatically.
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Is there any update on this? This seems like it should be pretty simple to implement.
When I press the smart light switch, toggle my smart lightbulb without actually cutting power to the lightbulb.
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I have the same question as ian1.
Matthew_Cash wrote
Hello, about a year ago I installed a TP Link Smart light switch to control normal dumb lights and it worked great! I recently upgraded the bulbs to smart bulbs, but having both bulbs and a switch has caused some issues. There is no way to turn off the lights from the switch without cutting the power, causing the lights to not turn on without the switch. Is there any way to basically disconnect the switch from the actual wiring, or should I manually disconnect it?
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Replies: 8