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rhombocombus | 2 years ago

The fact that my cheap-o air purifier has soft buttons and no way to turn it on autonomously (I.e. on an automated outlet) is infuriating. What value do membrane switches add?

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userbinator|2 years ago

What value do membrane switches add?

"sleek" "modern" "futuristic" "design"

lloeki|2 years ago

Sounds like a call for a steady soldering hand.

I'm that close to do the same for my child's nightlight: just shunt power around whatever is opening the circuit and drive it with a Shelly plug.

(Okay the grand idea would be to ultimately put an ESP32 between the control unit and the three buttons, so that I can both operate it manually yet have full control of the thing; not the least because if you cut power it resets its state to a static white light. Never done that so that'd be nice way to acquire the skill without much risk to that super cheap device)

ClumsyPilot|2 years ago

It’s antithesis of ‘sweet spot’ between dumb and smart.

Thing should either be dumb and do everything you want with a button, or smart and then at least you get programmability.

For simple things like lights it’s usually better use of time to buy Yeelight nightlight and then you get to control it through HomeKit:home assistant/their app.

sokoloff|2 years ago

Cheap and quite amenable to automated assembly.

longtimelistnr|2 years ago

membrane switches add value for the manufacturer, not the consumer. considerably cheaper than other solutions.