There are lots of cheap Zigbee (multi) buttons available. If you want something a little bit fancier I can 100% recommend Home Buttons. You can either build it yourself (3D printed enclosure, custom PCB) or buy one already built for you. They each fancy an e-ink display you can configure with Material Design Icons (or even custom text in case of the bigger one). They integrate into Home Assistant via MQTT and can be fully used for any automation you would like. You can even change the 4 or 6 button labels using Home Assistant.
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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From Zigbee devices I’d highly recommend the ones from Ikea (Somrig, Styrbar, Symfonisk - depending on what you’re going to use it for), and there are a lot more on AliExpress.
Another route might be using ESPHome and program something like Cheap Yellow Display (5-10$ on AliExpress) with LVGL.
That's correct, they are pretty cheap too. It's a shame that they don't sell anymore the rotary volume control that I use as dimmer
They’re pretty cheap for something you’re not ordering from China too. If not reliable they’re from Ikea, so good customer service and they’ll replace them if something breaks (had it happen with Somrig).
As for a rotary I’ve ordered and I’m going to try this one.
ESPHome is a really good thing to look into if you’re a bit more advanced user, and CYD is a steal for what it is (even with the resistive touch screen it has).
I've bought a couple of the same rotary button today! 😄 About Esp home, I've abandoned building my own staff, there's not time for everything.
Some of the stuff doesn’t need that much building, and some of it makes your life better (and there’s no alternative available in the market), that it makes it worthwhile.
The Aqara Cube looks interesting—it uses gestures instead of buttons.
I've had the opposite experience with the cube, but I use Zigbee2MQTT so I'm maybe that made the difference.
It's a fantastic concept and I think everyone should buy one just because it's so cool and so fucking useless at the same time.
So you have turn like a knob function, then changing sides, a knock knock, a slide and a drop sensor.
I programmed the drop sensor to toggle my room lights then showed a bunch of 40+ year old kids, who had great fun for a full 5 minutes playing epileptic catch.
The problem is that it has all these functions, but you only know what they are because you spent the time programming them. So it's fucking useless to anyone else, and by the time you've set the thing down you've forgotten what you set it to do yourself.
I've had the turn like a knob set to brighten and dim my lights, then decided it should control the volume on the speaker when it's playing music too, which lead to a little project in node red. But nobody else in the house even knows that's what it does.
I should stop this wall of text, get one, it's useless!