I have an air filter hooked up to an appliance module. All works fine when I turn the appliance module off, but when I turn it back on, the air filter doesn’t turn on automatically–I have to physically press the button. Are there some appliances which just don’t work with an appliance module? If so, any way to get around this?
If the appliance has an electronic switch that defaults to off when power comes on, you won’t be able to use it with any module. Some electronics are like that unfortunately. Unlike appliances with mechanical on/off switches.
If you want to use it with a module and are electrically savvy enough you could bypass that switch to make the appliance always on if power is supplied and use the module as the on/off switch.
[quote=“BOFH, post:2, topic:182030”]If the appliance has an electronic switch that defaults to off when power comes on, you won’t be able to use it with any module. Some electronics are like that unfortunately. Unlike appliances with mechanical on/off switches.
If you want to use it with a module and are electrically savvy enough you could bypass that switch to make the appliance always on if power is supplied and use the module as the on/off switch.[/quote]
Thanks! I thought there may be something like this happening. I’m not electronically savvy enough to do that yet, but I have every intention of learning how! 
My Holmes air purifier is like that. I have to push the button to switch it on. Just plugging it in won’t do. It’s an electronic momentary switch so it would take an automotive relay and a z-wave module to bypass that. Too much hassle as it’s mostly on 24/7 anyway.
If you do decide to do this, then have a go with using an arduino to “push the button” for you… it would be a very simple mod and you will enter a wonderful world of electronics hacking.
Basically… you would have a program on your arduino, which when the purifyer gets power, the arduino would begin a timer say 10s , then trigger a relay or optocoupler to “press” for you. Quite easy to achieve and less than $10.
(Yes you could do this with even less electronics, but you wont learn as much )
Or better still, look at mysensors.org and just use arduino to hack the pushbutton ( no z-wave needed )
[quote=“gregl, post:5, topic:182030”]If you do decide to do this, then have a go with using an arduino to “push the button” for you… it would be a very simple mod and you will enter a wonderful world of electronics hacking.
Basically… you would have a program on your arduino, which when the purifyer gets power, the arduino would begin a timer say 10s , then trigger a relay or optocoupler to “press” for you. Quite easy to achieve and less than $10.
(Yes you could do this with even less electronics, but you wont learn as much )
Or better still, look at mysensors.org and just use arduino to hack the pushbutton ( no z-wave needed )[/quote]
Thanks gregl! I figured there must be a way to do this electronically, but I’m totally new to this. I’ve been looking through the my sensors.org site and already ordered a bunch of things to start tinkering–so cool! Glad to know this will be doable, once I have a bit more expertise. Now I just have to find the time to do it…