I suppose you could use one switch that control the power and the second would be simply used as a remote, triggering home-assistant to command the first one.
@touliloup’s suggestion would be the simplest but with a bit of DIY involved but you could use a Sonoff Basic running Tasmota in the ceiling at the light fitting with the existing switch wiring connected to the gpio. This would give you the previous normal two way switching using the existing switches as well as control by HA.
Think there’s a guide on here doing exactly this but it’s easy enough to work out if you’re that way inclined
Do you have a neutral line at the switch?
Some UK houses do and some do not.
Assuming you have L+N lines in the switch you can use one of these: https://www.itead.cc/smart-home/sonoff-t1.html
1, 2 and 3 gang available.
They can also be flashed with other firmware (Tasmota etc)
You can also DIY up some solutions - e.g. dimmer switch that I created:
If you only have L line in the switch box then your options are limited.
Probably only RF switches like lightwaverf will be possible, or placing sonoff by the ceiling rose as @Bobby_Nobble mentioned.
The sonoff T1 would also have to be used as master+remote, they don’t support 2 way switch functionality.
And I use some, I found the absence of physical switch to be somewhat problematic, you always have to stare ate the switch to see which one you’re about to press. Also very easy to press 2 by accident.
Thanks for all the replys, I guess they don’t make what I’m looking for. Some interesting suggestions though, I had considered RF but would want HA to know the state as if I automated to switch all the lights off and this particular light was already off then I’m assuming it toggle it on. Having a wireless slave switch is a nice idea but I would need 100% reliability (from the switch) and problems with HA or the battery might scupper this.
Sonoff in the ceiling is winning at the moment if it would work the way I need, there are actually three switches toggling 9 kitchen spotlights, I’ve read about wiring GPIO 14 to a switch to control the sonoff before but would it work in this scenario?
I need all the switches to do as they currently do but also be able to have control from HA. Time to do a bit more reading on the sonoff.
I do use the hue system literally everywhere else (there are hue lamps and lightstrips in the kitchen already) but changing up 9 LEDs and 3 switches is something I’m trying to avoid, these spotlights are rarely used because I have all the other lighting in the room so simple on/off control from HA while still being able to use the current switches (or at least 2 of them) is what I’m really after.
I guess what I really want is something that would still work correctly even if the network was down but allows automation.
You can do two way with sonoff/espeasy firmware.
There are a couple of ways to get the two (or more) sonoffs talking to each other described in the vid and comment (but still need a network running)
If you have L&N AND enough room behind the switch in the back box to fit a sonoff.
You only need one Sonoff, all two-way and three-way circuits are just like points on a train track that switch the route and make or break the circuit with the power fed in at one point. the wiring at the light fitting will be the same whatever number of ways it is, the extra is just more wiring looping from switch to switch.
In this two-way diagram, you’d remove 2 & 3 and attach them to gpio 14 and gnd on the Sonoff. Remove 1 & 8 and attach to the output of the Sonoff. Then attach a wire from the block with 4 & 5 and another from 6 & 7 to the input on the Sonoff.
Would this still be possible with the sonoff t1 Wi-Fi light switches? I need a 2 gang and 3 gang 2 way switch for the ground, first and second story landing?
I ended up using the Sonoff Touch on all the upstairs lights - It was relatively easy to add the neutral as you have access to the loft. Downstairs is a different thing though…I have bought some Sonoff Basics and am going to put in the ceiling rose as per @Bobby_Nobble
Came across this thread while looking into this issue myself of a 2 way for the landing light.
I bought some unbranded (sonoff knock-offs maybe) WiFi switches, no neutral or hub required that only do one way sadly.
But using the app required, eWelink a “scene” can be set up to emulate a 2 way, 1 gang connected to the light as usual and the other not connected but still powered. The scene allows for a rule to turn on the light from the disconnected switch through the connected switch, thus changing the status both in parallel.
Hope this helps anyone else that comes here
I have just done a similar thing with a couple of sonoff basics.
the new basics dont seem to have an exposed GPIO14 so i used RX (GPIO3 if memory serves)
tasmotised them both, followed the detail in this vid and it all worked great.
the only stumbling point i found was the swapping of prefix and topic when the sonoffs are exposed to (setoption19) home assistant. if it all stops working after setoption19 swap the prefix and topic in the rule you setup to originally to make it work.
on a side note you could (i havnt tried this but it should work… ) remove the power from the ‘feed’ ‘hot’ side of the switches and cap the hot wire then earth the connector in the switch where the hot wire used to live.
take the wire that used to go straight to the light fitting and with a pull up resistor connect it to your GPIO.
if the sonoff 0V is also connected to earth you should be able to use your existing switches real easy.
you’d have to find a neutral that is on the lighting circuit.
if you grab a neutral from another circuit it will cause random breakers to pop in your fuseboard due to stray neutral current.
easiest way to usually fit a sonoff is to put it in the light fitting. all light fittings have a neutral, very few switches do.
sometimes luck may be on your side and there may be a spare cable from fitting to switch, if the sparky pulled a twin&earth instead of a single. but it is rare.
Yep what i did - as it was for upstairs and had access to the loft it was quite easy to fine the neutral on the light and then feed to the switch. Downstairs would be a bit more problematic as would need to pull up carpets and floorboards upstairs
I’m looking to do the same thing with a 2-way switch. I want to use a 1-gang upstairs for the landing light and a 2-gang downstairs (one wired up to the downstairs lights, the other purely as the second half of the 2-way for the landing light). I’m hoping the 2-gang can power both switches even though it’s only on one ‘loop’ and pressing the disconnected button will still fire a message to HA so I can use it to control the upstairs switch.
Does that set-up make sense or even work the way I expect?
) remove the power from the ‘feed’ ‘hot’ side of the switches and cap the hot wire then earth the connector in the switch where the hot wire used to live.