I've got an antique lamp that needs a new switch knob, but then scope-creep happened and now I want to "smartify" it. I started off thinking that, since it has a metal body, I'd install a capacitive touch switch, but now it's escalated to wanting to put an ESP8266 or ESP32 in it to handle the capacitive sensing, Home Assistant connectivity/control, and maybe even switching to some kind of low-voltage RGBW LED instead of a 120VAC Edison-base bulb (especially since I suspect I'd need some kind of antenna sticking out the top, since the metal lamp body would presumably otherwise block the ESP32's signal).
The lamp, BTW:
(Apparently it's a Genie lamp by Laurel Lamp Company, in case anybody cares. Also, the lamp shown is the same model, but it's not my picture.)
I'm aware that the "easy" way would probably be to just screw a smart light bulb into the socket and wiring I already have, but (a) I'm picky about both avoiding "clouds" and using FOSS firmware, and I don't feel like sorting through the junk on Amazon to figure out which ones can be flashed with ESPHome, and more practically (b) that wouldn't let me turn it on and off just by touching the lamp body, which is what sent me down this rabbit-hole in the first place.
Anyway, I know this sort of thing can be done, but I'm not completely sure how. I know I could figure it out myself eventually, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask for advice in case somebody happens to be able to rattle off part numbers for the whole BOM off the top of their head, or knows exactly the right ESPHome howto to point me towards, or something like that. Any advice is welcome!
(In case it's relevant: my level of experience is that I programmed an Arduino to run neopixels (WS2812 RGB addressable LEDs) once, I've flashed ESPHome on some Sonoff S31 smart switches, and I'm a software engineer by trade but have never worked on anything IoT related professionally.)
Yes, the base is hollow.
Is there a reason I should use Zigbee instead of wifi? I don't currently have a Zigbee Coordinator and it isn't immediately apparent that there are any Arduino-type microcontroller boards that come with it built in (as opposed to needing a daughter board), so it seems like it'd be more trouble and expense.
One of the bigger reasons is ZigBee is capable of mesh network forming, which is useful if you want more devices to be smart. It's also low power. And the devices are in their private network isolated from the internet, which is also a desirable quality. In summary, ZigBee is built for smart devices, whereas wifi not so much.
But:
It plugs in to the wall anyway (it has to, to power the light).
I don't have any immediate plans to get anything that wouldn't be like that (I hate the idea of relying on batteries).
I already have wifi, but not zigbee.
I trust devices flashed with third-party firmware not to be calling out to the Internet nefariously (and also know how to subnet & firewall them off).
Yes, for one device, I'd do wifi too. ZigBee does add complexity, but it also adds many possibilities. Esphome is a good solution, I use it also. In fact it seemlessly integrates with HA, so it doesn't matter
I started off WiFi and ended up on zigbee for the most part. The major downside of wifi is how many devices are cloud/proprietary but it sounds like you're using esphome so that's not an issue. I definitely like my zigbee devices as they also tend to be slightly cheaper, but starting with WiFi is an easy progression definitely.
Getting a USB zigbee device is about all you need to get up and running and adding to your mesh, which I definitely recommend eventually.
Many reason to prefer ZigBee, can handle more devices than WiFi, better security as it is separated from WiFi devices, mesh system, response quicker than WiFi, low energy, built for smart home (unlike wifi), and a few other reasons I don't have in mind at the moment.