Home Automation Wall Switch Cover Plate System

This is a wall plate system that lets you keep your hard wired switches available, but hidden behind the home automation controls. This means that you have an easily accessible ‘escape hatch’ to the manual control, but they're not obviously accessible for confusing other people in your home (ie guests).

Its designed to look nice and flat and aesthetic. The mounting screw locations match standard switch plates, and the cutout it requires is smaller than a plate, so you can install and reverse it easily if needbe. The size is made big to fit 3x IKEA shortcut buttons, and the overall dimensions are just the golden ratio from that minimum size. It just gives space to not only have the remote (or two), but labels and other things.

Print everything face down on a textured pei sheet for great results. I like to use a white PLA. The tolerances are fairly accurate so if you print in a filament that shrinks you will need to scale accordingly.

You will need a metal plate of 1.2mm or so thickness. In some places you can buy plate that is prepainted white which is super convenient. Just angle grind out a rectangle that fits inside the cover plate and superglue in place. This gives the magnetic backing so remotes stick to the Cover Plate and the plate sticks to the wall plate.

Just a quick disclaimer, while this shouldnt require you to rewire anything electrical:

FOLLOW ALL LAWS IN YOUR AREA REGARDING ELECTRICAL WORKS. DO NOT WORK ON LIVE CIRCUITS.

Theres a lot of models in this, lets break it down:

• SwitchClip: Clipsal style 4x gang. Fits into the wall plate, give a touch of superglue to secure it.
• WallPlate: The plate that you screw to the wall. Use countersunk M4's or 4-6g countersunk screws. The SwitchClip fits into this. Has spaces for 4x magnets, 1.5mm thick discs of either 6/8/10mm. I reccommend 10mm.
• CoverPlates:
  • Blank: For people to remix
  • 3x IKEA Shortcut: Fits IKEA shortcut buttons
  • IKEA Styrbar: Fits the IKEA Styrbar remote control
  • Phillips Hue Dial: Fits the Phillips hue dial
• Spacer: Lets you offset from the wall. You can use your slicer to scale the height and to take chunks out of it if you need to get around trim, your wall is too thin or you have other restrictions. Theres two parts, an inner and outer, so you can change slice settings for each part as needed, like no top/bottom layers on the inner since its not needed. If you want to use mounting tape for the spacer, scale the inner height down by the thickness of your tape.
  • Loose: A slot that shouldnt interfere with the screw
  • Tight: A hole thats tight and the screw will bite into, where the spacer might be glued or otherwise mounted.