When you replace a plate with iotty Smart Switch and connect a button, there are 2 main “Types” of button that can be set using the iotty app:
• Switch
• Pushbutton
If you set the button as a switch, when you press the icon it stays on, coloured blue. When you press the icon again it turns grey and this means that the button, and therefore the power source, is off.
If, on the other hand, you have replaced pushbuttons and from the device settings you have therefore set "pushbutton" under "button type", these are situations in which iotty is not able to know the exact status of the light, meaning that the icon only lights up blue when pressed. This is because the pushbutton sends a short impulse to change the state of something. Let’s look at two examples:
• gate: in this case, a short impulse is enough to allow the gate to open. The status does not remain fixed as it may do for the light, once opened the gate closes again by itself or manually without sending any further pulses. This prevents the iotty device from being able to keep track of the status of the gate.
• external relay: when there are many buttons controlling the same light, as can happen on a staircase or in a long corridor, there is an external relay between the pushbutton and the source. The function of the pushbutton is to change the state of the external relay so that the light is switched on or off. The real device controlling the light is therefore the external relay, which unlike iotty is not a smart device and therefore has no way of letting the iotty plate know what its current state is.
Therefore, in the case of pushbuttons there are usually external factors or devices involved that prevent iotty from keeping track of the state of the load.
In the case of the gate there is no solution but in the case of the external relay if all the points from which that load is controlled have been replaced with a iotty plate then the external relay can be removed and the load physically connected to a single button. This will then be connected via Wi-Fi creating a wireless Diversion which allows the button to remain set as a switch, and therefore with two distinct states: on and off.