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Unlikely. If the device fails it has no way to control the light. You do still have physical control if the zigbee network is down for whatever reason though.
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You really don’t need a hub. Zigbee2MQTT works perfectly with a Tubes PoE coordinator (ZHA probably too, but I have not tried it). OTA updates for the devices work. You can make very simple HA dashboards for your family.
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May not be needed, depending on how many switches you replace. The switches/dimmers are repeaters. If you have a lot of them they will create a well meshed network. None come with external antennas as far as I know. I have a large two story house and other than a stuff up (by me) initially choosing a zigbee channel that interfered with my wifi have had no connection issues.
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Don’t get the dimmer pucks. Get the mechanisms. The dimmer pucks are 2-wire (no neutral) and flash/pulse randomly 3-4 times when dimmed to any level. I tried all sorts of things to solve this. I used Clipsal branded downlights - so should be no compatibility issues. I tried their load correction device, it did not help. Replacing the no neutral pucks with mechanisms that have a neutral worked perfectly. Non-dimming switch only pucks do have a neutral and work fine.
Thanks Tom for quick response…
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Apologies, I must have not worded my question correctly…I was looking for the ability to physically turn the lights on/off in the event the modules fail via the physical switch. Can I still do that if Zigbee network or the module’s Zigbee breaks for some reason?
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Noted thanks…was not sure if Clipsal mandated it for support/warranty but being able to update firmware via Z2M is compelling…
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Noted…thanks. Noob question - I do have smart Zigbee downlights throughout as well. So if I went with their standard Wiser switch mechs, assume I can control dimming at the lights itself?
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New question - The Shelly’s used to be able to operate in a ‘detached’ mode allowing for more automation/scene control. Assume Wiser support this as well?
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I still don’t understand what you mean by this. If the device fails how can it do anything?
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(no comment required, just to get the list auto numbering right)
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No you don’t control smart lights with these. They are for control of dumb lights. Your smart lights will go mental if you try to dim them by altering the mains power…
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Though I suppose you might be able to permanently wire power to the smart light, not wire the dimmer output to anything and bind the dimmer to the smart light. I’ve never done zigbee binding though so can’t advise you about this.
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The electrician said contactors (as present in the wiser mechs) work differently to relays, so in the event the Zigbee radio/smart features go bust, you can still turn on/off the lights via the physical switch. I came here to validate that information as I’m not sure how the internals of the mech works.
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Ok, will see if others can chime in. FWIW, the Shelly had a toggle within the app to change the relay into detached mode (I.e continuous provide power to the light, whilst still being able to pass the toggle event eg to a MQTT queue). I’ll investigate how Zigbee binding works
If the smarts die it should still work normally, but that would be a partial failure rather than a full failure. The likihood of this…? Who knows. Odd’s are the whole thing would fail.
You previously mentioned the switch part failing… do you mean the bit you turn to adjust the brightness? If that fails then you are obviously going to have the rely on the Zigbee side of things to control the light.
I was actually referring to the Mech part which houses the Zigbee and the smarts. The electrician mentioned that it maintains a seperate physical connection to the load so it should continue to perform as a regular dumb switch. So based on your response above I hope that is true?
I completely acknowledge that the physical mechanism (I think they are called Dolly’s?) are subject to wear and tear (I’m replacing a whole bunch of Clipsal Saturn Zens as they are mushy and don’t work reliably for this reason) & could also fail in which case they would need to be replaced as well, but hopefully that’s just a DIY job/cheaper thing to do…
Correct, as long as any failure isn’t so catastrophic that it also destroys that part of the electronics as well.
Thanks @sparkydave …
Do you know if the Wiser Switches can be setup in ‘detached’ mode? I.e providing continuous power to the loads, but sending Zigbee signals to the co-ordinator to get the smart lights to turn on/off?
There is no such mode. As I said above:
For 2 - Just got this up and running with ZHA, no external hub, just into zigbee stick on HA server box. Doesn’t seem to be a way to set the button LED color, but can see status and control the on/off which is all I need. So far so good.
Getting these in a new house build, what mechs are people using
I want some
- normal on/off mechs
- Dimmer Mechs
- 2 way switching mechs (if they make them)
- Smoke Alarms
Is it best to lash out on the Clipsal Zigbee Hub (i plan to run other zigbee devices later too) or just use something like tubez zigbee hub?
Any gotchyas?
thanks
Download the catalogue: https://www.se.com/au/en/download/document/JYT1306800/
2AX Switch: 41E2PBSWMZ-VW for up to 2A loads,
10AX Switch: 41E10PBSWMZ-VW for 10A loads.
Dimmer: 41EPBDWCLMZ-VW
Two way can be accomplished with 41EPBM-VW control link mechanisms for all but the 2AX switch.
Don’t get the hub. A Tubes coordinator will be cheaper and better. The Wiser hub will be retired in a year or so to make way for a matter/thread hub anyway.
Do not buy the two wire (no neutral) puck dimmers. Only buy the mechs that do have a neutral. Otherwise you will have issues with randomly flickering lights.
There are smoke alarms in the catalogue. I do not know if they work with Z2M or ZHA. They are not listed here Database of Zigbee devices compatible with ZHA, Tasmota, Zigbee2MQTT, deCONZ, ZiGate and ioBroker (under Schnider USA, not Clipsal AU, they are the same). Though it would be a simple matter to add it to Z2M.
Hi Tom, Thanks for that, great info! going to order the mechs myself and get my own sparky to swap them out, builder wants to charge too much, and strangely they have quoted XX amount of bluetooth wiser mechs, then next line item, same amount of wiser zigbee mechs as an upgrade, so its a 3 stage “upgrade” bit strange
Potentially found an issue with The Clipsal dimmer (41EPBDWCLMZ-VW). Bought one and am trying to get it to turn on at say 1%. No matter what setting I’ve tried it will always turn on at ~43% (or higher) and then dim itself down to 1%. This happens no matter what brightness I have it at before turning it off.
Has anyone else experienced this? Or has the dimmer but doesn’t have this issue?
Yeah there was a guy in this discord group that had similar issues with an older model of the dimmer, Wiser Z2MQTT chat
Do the smoke detectors support remote snooze/silence commands? I’m looking for something which can have a physical button to silence the alarm because of high ceiling in the kitchen and having it screaming because someone burnt the toast isn’t a great start to the morning.
Could you please invite me to the discord channel. Would like to join the discussion
are you still using them as smart switch? is it just neutral and active connected? did you run into that noise issue with the replacement unit?