Built in Zigbee Switch to make the setup more "wife friendly"

Hardware
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1

Hi!
I have a light in my hallway with a ZigBee managed lamp. My wife have a tendency to flick the switch in the hallway to turn on/off the light. Unfortunately the lamp acts as a zigbee bridge while powered on (but turned off) and this causes my mesh network to be interrupted. I know i can buy bridges etc, but i would like some input on what HW is used by the community to solved this and make the wife be able to turn on/off the lights without actually turning the power OFF to the device.

I see two options:

Option 1: Change wall switch to a ZigBee switch that turns on/off the lights. What to you recommend?

Option 2: Put a switch behind the cover to turn on/off the lights without actually powering it off and KEEP the current wall switch.

What is recommended?
What HW is recommended?

Thanks for all input! “A happy wife is a happy life” :slight_smile:

2

Either will work, but have you asked your wife?

You wouldn’t want to go with option 1 if you can’t find a matching zigbee switch and your wife ends up complaining it doesn’t match. :wink:

Similarly, you might not be able to go with option 2 if the backbox is too shallow and you need to make a mess to make it deeper.

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3

@ShadowFist has the answer. ^

FYI, I have two SONOFF 01MINIZB devices which work well behind existing switches, as in your option 2. Depending on the materials used in your walls and electrical boxes, it’s possible that the Zigbee range will be less inside the box. In that case you can always add a Zigbee smart plug somewhere nearby.

4

I had the same issue and my boxes behind the switches are too small to fit a Sonoff mini. Because of that I decided to use a Philips hue in wall switch. They work quite well with ZHA for me.

5

There’s aqara T2 with a decoupled feature so you can always keep the light powered. You might need a spacer to install it and a neutral wire

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