Future Consideration Set Brightness Independently
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Requesting a feature to set brightness indepenently (without turning on the switch). Use case is Home Assistant issuing brightness commands based on time of day, but without turning on the light.
For example, Home Assistant would set brightness to 50% after 9 PM, but return it to 100% after sunrise, but without turning on the switch.
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Thanks for the feedback. I can definitely see how this could be useful when making more complex smart actions and automations. I will pass your feedback along to the team.
IIRC the devices that do this in Home Assistant tend to use a completely different set of commands to control the bulb in this way. This makes me think that implementing a change such as this may be more technically challenging that it initially appears. I'm looking forward to hearing back from our engineering team about the feasibility of this.
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@Riley_S Any update on adding the requested feature?
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I have wanted this feature since the first dimmable switches hit the market. No manufacturers seem to get this very basic concept. What's interesting about the KASA switches is that they are perfectly capable of performing this action manually:
With the light off, press the dimmer buttons. The pre-set brightness can be set to your desired level before turning on the light.
What I think @ TheRealGlenn is asking is for the above to be performed via the API which would be fantastic. I don't think the TP-Link app allows it either.
A couple use-cases:
It's 4am and I crawl out of bed to use the bathroom. I hit the bedroom switch and the lights come on to 70%, since that's how they were when we went to bed last night.
Normally if a light is switched on at 4am, I need it to start dim.
After lunch I realize I forgot to let the dog out of the basement. I rush downstairs and hit the switch, and it comes on at 5% dimness since I was watching a movie last night and I trip down the stairs.
Under normal conditions, I want lights to come on brightly during the day.
You get the idea. It'd be really nice to be able to have a "preset" dimness that can be over-ridden manually.
If you want to get fancy you could advertise it with "Artificial Intellegence" if you are able to collect enough data about the user's preferences and use a prediction algorithm to adjust the presets as it "learns" what the user expects during different times of day (hours to/from sunset/rise)
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It has been extremely busy around here with everything that is coming in the next month or two, so we have not heard back directly, I will reach out next week after CES. Right now, the team is kind of waiting to see what updates will be coming with the addition of new features such as the Matter Protocol. However, now that they app's launch has stabilised the team is now looking for recommendations of all types.
I have seen only a few devices that offer this, even though it is something that is highly requested. I have suspicions that this requires a special set of coded instructions for the device. I remember reading that LIFX did this by implementing their own command structure in the device's firmware, but this often causes issues with group commands or templated commands.
For your case, you could create a stopgap solution by creating a scene for the switch with the specified brightness, then triggering that scene from a smart action based on a time condition, and then flipping the light off. This would at least allow you to reset the light switch to a normal brightness each morning.
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can we have the "Smart Control" feature (pictured) like the ES20M has on the regular dimmers (HS220) 
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@Riley_S Hey Riley, any update on this? It would be an incredibly awesome feature to have with the Tp-link switches. Thanks!
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