I need some quick advice for a teenager’s room that is currently being renovated. I want to keep the budget reasonable, and it definitely needs to be fast and responsive otherwise, I will never hear the end of it if something feels laggy or annoying to use.
Current setup:
2 Aqara roller blind motors, controlled by a 2-button Aqara wireless remote switch H1. This works great.
New addition:
Two mirror lights above a desk (total 10 E14 LED bulbs). They need to turn on/off together, separately from the main ceiling light. Buying 10 smart bulbs is too expensive. The light fixtures are plastic, so wireless signals are not blocked.
I want to control these mirror lights locally from the desk area.
The problem & options:
Wireless remote limit: Aqara doesn’t make a 3-gang Remote Switch H1 (it only comes in single or double rocker), so I don’t have a free button on my current wall remote. I also don’t want to add a second wireless switch, because that would make the control scheme confusing and messy.
Option 1 (Relay inside the light): Since the lights are plastic, I could put an Aqara T1 relay directly inside the fixture, but I still need a clean, budget-friendly, and fast way to trigger it from the desk without adding annoying extra switches.
Option 2 (Aqara Touchscreen Dial V1): Since we are renovating, I could cut a new wall box near the desk and run cables. It has two physical relays, so it can switch the lights directly. But is it actually fast and reliable for daily use, or is it a sluggish gimmick?
My question:
What is the best, budget-friendly, and snappy way to control these desk lights separately, without adding messy extra switches or messing with the main room switch? Are there better alternatives or other brands that solve this better?
In Multi-Function Mode, you can theoretically trigger 7 different states across various devices by single pressing, double pressing, long pressing, or pressing both buttons at the same time.
For example, I use it like this:
Single press left button → turns hallway light on/off
Single press right button → turns kitchen light on/off
Double press left button → opens blinds completely
Double press right button → closes blinds completely
Long press left button → triggers evening scene (switches multiple lights and blinds)
Long press right button → triggers night scene (turns off lights, locks door, activates alarm…)
Press both buttons → turns display cabinet light on/off
The fact that switching the lights takes longer in Multi-Function Mode than in High-Speed Click Mode doesn’t bother me; I can easily wait a second.
You’re welcome. If 7 options aren’t enough: I believe the H2 switch is also available with 4 buttons, meaning 4x single press, double press, long press = 12 options, right? However, you would have to replace the switch then.
Otherwise, you could also change “Single click opens one blind, double click closes it” so that a single press opens the blinds if they are closed, and a single press likewise triggers them to close if they are open.
That is so true, I have no idea why I didn’t think of that four years ago either! It’s almost embarrassing.
Since we are on an educational roll here, I wonder: is it possible to configure a button so that the blind keeps running as long as you hold the button down (hold-to-run)?
Unfortunately not. That would be a great feature, but it’s simply not possible. I’ve actually tried to set this up via Matter in Home Assistant before, but without success. The issue is that holding the button only triggers a single signal once a certain amount of time has elapsed (to register the long press), rather than sending a continuous signal while it is being held down.
I haven’t tested this myself yet, but give this a try in Aqara Home under Automations:
@ott_silver Are there actually any specific situations when you use this 60% setting for the blinds? For instance, at a certain brightness level or at specific times? Because theoretically, you could trigger something like that automatically, right?
I only use this setting for about 4 months a year, and only when the sun is actually shining though that doesn’t happen very often up north. 60% is a good empirical value that keeps the room bright while preventing the sun from shining directly into your eyes.
It could definitely be automated. The question is how? Configuring lumen thresholds takes a ridiculous amount of time, and time-based automation doesn’t make sense either because the sun is so unpredictable here Any thoughts on how to automate it?
Why would setting the lumen thresholds take so much time? All you really need to do is check the current lux value on your sensor at the exact moment you feel the need to set the blinds to 60%. You can then just use that specific value as your trigger. I would just recommend adding a time delay to your automation (for example, “if the lux value is exceeded for 5 minutes”). This prevents the blinds from nervously going up and down every time a cloud passes by.
The only important thing is that you use a light sensor that doesn’t stop measuring at 1,500 lux, but can actually measure the sunlight, meaning around 80,000-100,000 lux.
Alternatively, you could do some crazy local sun position calculations in Home Assistant using Azimuth (sun direction) and Elevation (sun height). This allows for extreme precision, so the blinds only close when the sun hits your window at a very specific angle. Though to be fair, if you only use the sun’s calculated position, the blinds would also close on a completely cloudy or rainy day. So even with that setup, you would still need to combine it with a local weather integration (like cloud coverage percentage) or an actual outdoor lux sensor to make it truly smart. You could then pass that state over to Aqara, but I think that might be a bit overkill
As I mentioned, “hold-to-run” unfortunately doesn’t work. But I remembered that with my Aqara Shutter Switch H2, you can press a button once to move the blinds up or down, and press it again to stop them right there. You can easily recreate this behavior in the Aqara Home app.
Just set up the two automations for opening and closing like before. Then, add two conditions: “The curtain is opening” and “The curtain is closing”. Select “Not met” for both (it’s hidden behind the 3 dots next to the condition) and make sure “All conditions are met” is selected.
Finally, create a third automation for stopping. Use the exact same trigger under WHEN (like pressing the left button, pressing both, or whatever you use). Under AND, add those two conditions again (“The curtain is opening” and “The curtain is closing”) and make sure to select “Any condition is met”. Then under THEN, set the blinds to “Stop”.
Any thoughts on how to automate it?
