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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and Chris discuss Epic Games vs Google Play and Google’s alleged profits, Amazon’s Black Friday, Google Drive’s chemical hazard folders and lost flies, Walmart’s answer to Amazon’s FireTV, Samsung’s rumored XR headset, the internet’s positive effect on health, and more.
John in Bridgewater, New Jersey is participating with the App asked: “Looking for a little help with some Alexa-controlled light switches. I’ve done most of the ones in my house and it’s usually just a single switch controlling a light or a fixture. I’ve done one that is a 3-way, which is two switches that control one light. But I’m having trouble finding switches that say they’ll work with a 4-way, which is a fixture that can be controlled by three different switches. I’ve been looking for a while. So I figured I’d ask you guys because you’re sometimes, most of the time, smarter than me. So if you can help out with this, I’d appreciate it.”
John, the only 4-way smart switch weve seen advertised is a Lutron Caseta offering. Lutron has been around for a long time and their products tend to work well, unfortunately they dont work on their own.
For the Lutron Caseta 4-way switch to work, and specifically for it to work with Alexa you will need to use Lutrons Caseta Home Switch as well.
There may be another solution to your problem, though. If all you really want is to turn a light on and off you can just use smart light bulbs instead. Then any regular smart switch will do, since theyll be turning them on and off wireless anyway, so no special wiring is needed, and Alexa will be able to control them directly as well.
There are tons and tons of smart light bulbs in any of the colors, brightness, and warmth available from any other modern lightbulb so finding one that fits your needs would be trivial and they have the added benefit of lasting a very long time.
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