Aqara H2 (KD-R01D, no-neutral) + 6x IKEA GU10 (Z2M group): want stateless “decoupled” control, but tap cuts power and kills the switch

Configuration Zigbee
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Setup / Goal

  • Switch: Aqara Light Switch H2 EU KD-R01D (dimmer), paired to Zigbee2MQTT as mihai-light-switch.
  • Wiring at the wall box: only L and L1 available (no neutral). (I’m ignoring the second channel to keep things simple.)
  • Bulbs: 6 × IKEA TRÅDFRI GU10 WS 345 lm (tunable white), joined to Z2M and grouped as mihai_ceiling (Z2M group → HA entity light.mihai_ceiling).
  • Coordinator: Zigbee 3.0 USB dongle (EFR32MG21).
  • Software: Zigbee2MQTT with zigbee-herdsman 6.1.5, herdsman-converters 25.35.1; Home Assistant.

I want the H2 to be fully decoupled/stateless: pressing/rotating the wall control should only send Zigbee events, and I’ll route those to the Z2M light group (zigbee2mqtt/mihai_ceiling/set) so the bulbs stay permanently powered. No physical cutting of power.

What works

  • If I publish directly to the group topic (zigbee2mqtt/mihai_ceiling/set) the bulbs respond perfectly (ON/OFF/brightness).
  • If I disable all automations and just watch MQTT, I see all action events from the H2 (single, double, rotation, stop_rotating, etc.).

Problem

  • As soon as I actually use the wall control to run an automation (map events → group commands), a tap on the H2 cuts power on L→L1 (the small LED on the H2 goes off), the bulbs lose power, and the H2 disappears briefly from the Zigbee network (can’t react to the next press).
  • Logs at that moment show things like:
Failed to configure 'mihai-light-switch': Bind genOnOff ... failed (Delivery failed)
... Command failed with status: BUSY (groupId=1) ...
  • In Exposes for the H2 I do not see any “decoupled/detached/wireless” option. I only see state, brightness, power_on_behavior, etc. This makes me think that in no-neutral the H2 is acting as an inline load dimmer (always switching the load on tap), not a stateless button.

What I tried

  • “Router” style automations that never publish to .../mihai-light-switch/set (only to the group).
  • Dimming by:
    • brightness_move/brightness_stop → Z2M logs: “No converter available for ‘brightness_stop’ on ‘mihai_ceiling’”, so I switched to low-rate brightness steps via light.turn_on to avoid flooding.
  • Avoiding single tap entirely (mapped nothing on single); tried double tap for toggle, but on this H2 both single/double appear to physically toggle the load → same issue (power cut).

Extra noise in logs (likely unrelated)

genAnalogInput.configReport ... failed (Status 'UNSUPPORTED_ATTRIBUTE')

This appears when I click “Reconfigure” in Z2M; seems harmless, just the converter trying to configure a non-existent attribute.

Questions

  1. Is there any way to make Aqara H2 KD-R01D (no-neutral) truly decoupled/stateless in Z2M (firmware option, expose, converter flag, CLI command)?
  2. Is cutting the load on tap simply by design for the no-neutral H2, meaning decoupling isn’t supported in this wiring mode?
  3. Would adding a bypass/bleeder (e.g., Shelly Bypass 2) at the fixture between L (to the bulbs) and N keep the H2 powered when the load is OFF and prevent it from dropping off the network? (I only have L and L1 at the switch.)
  4. If true decoupling isn’t possible: recommended approach for stateless wall control with smart bulbs given I only have L and L1 in the box?
  • Replace the H2 with a battery Zigbee button (Aqara H1/E1 wireless) and permanently tie L↔L1 so bulbs always have power?
  • Or bring neutral to the box and use a device that supports decoupled mode with N?

Snippets from logs

  • When the issue occurs:
... zigbee2mqtt/mihai-light-switch/action payload 'single' or 'double'
... zigbee2mqtt/mihai_ceiling/set ...
z2m: Failed to configure ... Bind genOnOff ... Delivery failed
  • When I tried move/stop:
No converter available for 'brightness_stop' on 'mihai_ceiling' (true)

Any confirmations or pointers appreciated—especially from anyone running KD-R01D (no-neutral) in decoupled mode under Z2M, or who solved this with a bypass vs. switching to a wireless button. Thanks!

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Did you set the operation mode to decoupled in Z2M? Aqara KD-R01D control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT

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Yes, I’m using the operation mode in decoupled. But the issue seems to be related to the infrastructure. Since there’s no N, H2 is powered through L and L1. If I turn off the lights that are on L1, H2 doesn’t get enough current to operate, and with any interaction it shuts down (and enters a sort of protection mode), requiring a hardware restart.

4

Yeah, that’s a common(ish) issue with no-neutral switches and decoupled mode unfortunately.
What’s strange about your situation is that you’re saying that even without any automations and with decoupled mode, your switch is still toggling the bulbs - it really shouldn’t be doing that.
Do you hear the relay click when you press the switch? If so, then decoupled mode might not have been applied at all.

If I were in your shoes, I’d try the options you mentioned in the following order, going from least effort to most effort:

  1. Get a bypass and wire it in at the first light from the switch. Shelly bypass will do, but if it’s unavailable, other online sellers have bypasses for sale on Amazon etc. Just make sure it’s something reputable.
  2. Replace the H2 knob with the wireless H1 version. Looks mostly identical to the H2 and all you’d need to do is permanently join L to L1.
  3. Call an electrician and pull a neutral to your H2 from the first bulb location. I did this myself last year and it’s honestly not hard. Just use the old L1 cable to pull 2 new L1 + N cables. Ease of this depends on the distance from switch to first light and the number of turns - for me it was a 5 minute job.