What’s the canonical way to handle trippable switches?

[graceful crater]

I am designing something using virtual switches where it would be handy for the object under control to “trip” the switch — to not just turn the switch to “off”, but also indicate a state that requires additional attention before simply flipping the switch back to “on”.

Is there a canonical way to handle switches that work like circuit breakers with three states — on, off, and tripped? https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/switch/ describes a switch as having on and off states, and most of my searches have come up with “Do not attempt to control circuit breakers with HA” — some very solid advice, but not applicable when I’m dealing with a virtual switch that controls a software component and not something that could burn down my house.

One option I’m considering is a separate trip switch that is set to on when the primary switch is set to off in a tripped condition. The trip switch would need to be reset before the primary switch could be turned on again, but that seems a little clumsy. Are there better alternatives? Thanks!

[tardy bramble]

so you do seem to get why this doesnt (and probably shouldn't) exist. as people would think its a safety device when its not.

however for your case needing a workaround to act like this for non safety purposes:
a 2nd "trip" switch is probably the best option

however you could also use a input_select helper with 3 options. then use switching between options as your 3 state switch.
i use this method for garage light to have off/on-auto/on-manual
with manual-on meaning it doesnt auto off when empty

[graceful crater]

Oh yeah I’m 100% on board with why actually controlling circuit breakers themselves is a really bad idea, but I had hoped that perhaps there were other similar designs that folks might control like this. In my specific case, I have a piece of hardware that will only work on Bluetooth if a button is pressed, but once there is a connection it stays up indefinitely — if the Bluetooth connection fails, I can’t fix it unless I’m in front of the device ready to push the Bluetooth button again. I’ll noodle around with the design a bit, but I think I’ll at least start with a two-switch solution.

[tardy bramble]

get a button pressing robot to press it

"finger bot" i think is the generic term

then you could automate bringing it back up

[graceful crater]

That’s simultaneously hilarious and terrifying

It’s like a useful useless machine

[tardy bramble]

people use them on various old dumb equipment where alot of interaction is not needed but just need to press a button every now and then