I am doing some renos and have ordered a few Shellys from SmartHome and I had also been researching how to control my two (2) remote controlled Fanaway fans and had seen the Bond Bridge Pro.
Got it today and after a moment or two with a small hiccup with the initial config I got it setup and connected to my network. Go through the process of getting it to recognise the buttons, took a few goes with some of the buttons, but got there. Added to HA and working wonderfully.
The only drawback is that there is no “feedback”, i.e. the light switch is a toggle, so you have to know the state of the light to know what it is going to do when you press the button. Otherwise very happy.
When I showed the wife the set up in HA, her first question was what about the fan in this other room? That fan is currently controlled with a wall switch, so happy to take suggestions. I know I can use a Shelly for the light switch, but not sure how to replace the fan speed dial on the wall.
Love this group, thanks everyone for your participation.
Is your switch a momentary push button (spring loaded) or is it a normal toggle up/down?
If it’s a toggle, then you can set the Shelly to change state on each toggle (“edge switch” as I’ve set in the screen shot below), or set it to follow the state of the toggle (“Toggle switch - flip switch”).
I did look at these when I did a google search, but I am not a fan of the look. However it may come down to this being my only option.
Also looking, there is no native Integration and from what I found the Wifi one’s use Tuya, so I can get away with using LocalTuya from what I understand.
I noticed they state in the description that this fan controller is also available in ZigBee. That would definitely be the better option given that the Wifi one is almost certainly Tuya based. Saves having to de-chinese-cloud it.
Hey everyone, I finally bit the bullet and got a zigbee coordinator (sky connect), which is super exciting! I want to get some door sensors at least (probably battery powered aqara ones from Ali express?) but based on what I’m reading, I think I’ll probably also need some routers?
What routers do people use and recommend? I found these Ikea ones that seem like they could be good, and are cheap enough? link 1 and link 2. Are there any other routers that’s recommended around here these days instead?
Also, now that I have access to zigbee, what are some other cool sensors other than door sensors that I should get?
You can use HUE lights as zigbee routers back to the skyconnect if you have locations where you want to plug the in or use the strip lights as night lights, generally you would only need router when you have lower signals for the placement of the main devices from where you have your HA install hosted in the home based on the size of the home.
I also use aeotec motion sensors atm to trigger my switch bot in the kitchen, the led strip in the bathroom and the hue lights in my bedroom, I also pull in the temperature data from all three into a medial temp entity for my AC unit.
Ah, sorry, I should have mentioned but I don’t need any bulbs or strip lights. We’re pretty good on lighting at the moment so would need a different router option
Those ikea options are a good price so should work well and if you use the smart switch option then double win. I also have zigbee temp sensors which I use to automate fans. Then there are the zigbee buttons which cover my normal switches. Flood sensor for the laundry and motion sensors to automate lights.
Zigbee temp sensors could be cool, though I don’t have a way to automate my fans yet. I like the idea of having a handy zigbee button but I can’t see why you’d have it instead of just using your phone? Would there be much that you use it for specifically instead of your phone?
My wife requires physical buttons to be retained. As a practical example, in my WIR the light automation checks for the existing light level as a condition and does not turn the light on when sensing movement if the light level is above a certain level. However, sometimes we might want a bit more light, the button provides the easy override. Having to find a phone when moving around the kitchen to turn lights on and off would also be unacceptable
Ah, that’s a very good point. We’ve got Shelly relays behind our walls because we want physical back up as a just in case, so I definitely get that! Also, I never thought of having an area handled by automation but having a separate button to make things brighter! It’s genius and I might have to think of how to do that with some of our stuff!
Basically how you want to set things up is have scenes control area’s that control the devices in those areas or groups of the devices in area’s then you can setup specific automation on a per device level after that if you want to do something specific with them.
I decided to adopt zigbee for future devices, and added a few temp and motion sensors, and a button. I am renting so shelly units in the permanent wall wiring of light switches is out for me Following advice i added some routers - these IKEA models - and my comments are that
they all seem to work well with my Sonoff USB Dongle-P coordinator - so A+ for compatibility
the Tradfri Repeaters take up a wall socket where I’m not actually needing a USB charger
the Tradfri Power outlet doesn’t have a physical on/off switch, so not as useful as the wi-fi switches I already have
I also bought one of their light bulbs (since I can’t change the wall switches)
But they are fairly cheap and easily available in Australia
Adding routers didn’t immediately improve my zigbee network. Like others, I needed to delete my zigbee network, start again by adding routers first and then adding end devices. Now it is all good.
I have Home Assistant app on my phone, but find it’s too much trouble to take the phone out, turn on and log in, start the app … just to press a button. I added Automations (like close the blind at sunset, or turn TV on in time for the news), and voice assistant for most of the other stuff. I have setup a tablet as a control panel, but don’t use it much.
Incidentally I found the voice assistant was getting false positives from the TV, so disable the voice satellite in living room as part of turning TV on automation. I have also placed a zigbee button on the coffee table and automated one tap to pause and mute the TV and activate voice assistant; double tap to unpause and disable voice assistant; and long tap to start the time-for-bed automation which turns off TV and lights.
Renting really does limit home automation options … knowing that everything has to be temporary
Following advice i added some routers - these IKEA models - and my comments are that