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Bypassing a smart home device

schuh8

Oct 6, 2017
3
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Oct 6, 2017
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I have several mini smart wifi plugs made by Dekinmax. You plug it into a wall outlet and plug a lamp or other device into them to control it. They can be turned on or off by smartphone or by Amazon Alexa. Great fun to have guests over and say "Alexa turn on the living room light !"

But now to the question........ I have a small train set that is currently turned on for one minute every hour on the hour via an arduino with a relay. The SPST relay completes a 120v ac circuit to the train transformer. But I would like to ask Alexa to "turn on the train" when I want.

Does anyone see a problem with using the arduino relay to simply short across the smart plug from the "hot" input to the "hot" output of the switch ? I have taken apart a lot of the old x10 modules and the neutral input was simply carried directly to the neutral output, so a switch across the hot side would override the x10 plug'

I would take the Dekinmax smart switch apart, but it is well sealed - no screws. Anyone care to share their opinion?

Thanks in advance.
 

Bluejets

Oct 5, 2014
6,901
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Oct 5, 2014
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I'd say the Dekinmax is sealed expressly to stop being sued by people who fiddle with mains gear such as yourself when things go wrong.
Not being nasty here, just pointing out the possibility of the manufactures reasoning.
 

schuh8

Oct 6, 2017
3
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Oct 6, 2017
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I doubt that or every device hooked to the mains would be glued shut .... most are not. The reality is that the several drops of super glue needed to seal the enclosure are cheaper than the 4 screws that would otherwise be used.
 

Tha fios agaibh

Aug 11, 2014
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I don't see a problem as long as connections are done safety, the relay contacts can handle the load and the neutral (grounded) is not switched.
 

garublador

Oct 14, 2014
111
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Oct 14, 2014
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111
Another option might be to plug a wall wart into the smart home device and send it to an input on the Arduino. Then you can program the Arduino to do whatever you want when the wall wart/smart home device is on. You could even use multiple smart home/wall wart combos to tell the Arduino to do different things.
 

schuh8

Oct 6, 2017
3
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Oct 6, 2017
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Tha Fios: Thank you for your comment, problem is I'm not sure whether the neutral is switched or not or even if a relay is used ... could be a triac. But you comment was helpful

Garublador: An excellent idea. I can use the wall wart to raise one of the input pins on the arduino and detect the hi pin in the software. Thank you!
 
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