Software "Magic switch mode"

“Legacy switches” allow you to set the power-on state, but they only allow on/off/last state. If the software would support “toggle last state”, one could have the equivalent of “Magic switch” without hardware modification (except of course needing to bridge the rocker switch).

It is not for nothing that when it is set to magic mode the last state is disabled. I guess there is no way for the device to remember the state because it actually turns off for a fraction of a second. Maybe it will do with an extra battery in the device.

I have thought about this and the only thing I can think of is an additional device to follow basicR4

If the device can know/remember its last state, surely it can know its “not(last state)”, no matter how long it was off. So all devices that already support “last state” at power-on, could support “magic switch”. Obviously, when the switch is bridged, the device is never really off (except for a few milliseconds), so “Last state” with a bridged switch doesn’t make much sense: flipping the switch wouldn’t change the state.

ok then we need to figure out why the last state function is turned off when turning on the magic switch. I don’t think anyone can explain. But like I said it’s something to do with that magic switch, otherwise they would have made it work like the others.
As for the other device, I mentioned it without thinking about it, but it can be done if there is a seeded phase for the other device with which the other device follows the basicR4 with a scene and the output of the other device is connected to the output of the basicR4. In fact it may not need constant phase because for example basicR2 may not affect it for that millisecond off. But in this case, if the scene doesn’t work, then it won’t turn off. Must be tested.

As I said, you need to bridge the physical switch to use “magic switch” mode. When the physical switch is bridged, then “last state” does not make sense, as flipping the switch would have no effect. There is no power-off state for the device, in order to have a power-on feature.

It apparently makes sense to have it in order to restore the state after a power cut, but there is really no way for the device to tell between a true power cut and the flipping of the physical switch.

On the other hand, something that is actually possible with legacy devices, by just modifying the software, they now market as a “new feature”.

Then, there is always the possibility that the older devices are not fast(?) enough to pick the momentary on-off-on event, in order to trigger the state toggle. Who knows?

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You’re right the way I made it up it won’t work. I need to think more! :slight_smile: