SwitchMote++

[Witace12]

I have had an uncannily similar project to SwitchMote brewing in my mind for a while now, and finding SwitchMote is a big inspiration. My project basically replaces the 3 pushbuttons with a motorized fader, and the solid state relay with a triac-based dimmer.

I would love to beta test SwitchMote, and either way I will probably still be buying a few of your SwitchMote kits. I'm an Android developer and look forward to designing a SwitchMote app too.

[Felix]

To make a dimmer you need a really really good triac that won't heat up fast. I used a triac based SSR for the first version of SwitchMote which could drive 100W without a heatsink and getting warm.
But I needed a bit more than 100W. In fact for all intents and purposes I wanted to drive 1200-1500W for my small reflow oven, without the worry that the SSR will heat up and burn (my house).

So those are the 2 big reasons I designed SwitchMote R2 with a mechanical relay and a certified PSU. No heating issues, large load capacity. Motorized fader? You're up for a big challenge. My buttons are plain and simple. I had big dreams of habing RGB led backed buttons. But the dreams died when I discovered the cheapest (and still nice) types of those buttons were in the range of $15-20. And they were still not the low profile I needed. So with off the shelf components it's really hard to make something very compact. Hence I just went with tactile buttons and LEDs for status, the most cost effective solution I could come up with.