I dont think there is an alternative HW. I went with shellies in the end although I would have preferred a zigbee device but sadly I could find one that would allow for esphome etc. to flash to the device
I purchased the ZBMINI hoping to use a zigbee device with ESPHome for a smart bulb. Just like the OP, I wanted to configure a fallback in case HA couldn’t be reached. Oh well, probably going to grab a few of the newer Shelly Plus 1PMs now
Variation on this topic - I’m adding the zbMinis to the HUE BRIDGE and then have Hue added to HA. My goal is similar - i want light control to work even if HA is down (clearly it won’t work if the Hue network is down, but I mess around much less with that one). I know this is a year old but i will update soon if this works well and if the zbmini button switch presses are exposed to HA via Hue Bridge Integration.
For those who don’t like the click: I contacted SONOFF support if they would be open to add the “detach relais” feature like Shelly it has… or if they even are open to create a new, smaller product without the relais. So… if you’re interested in that, please write to the SONOFF support as well to create some more requests about that and raise the awareness. Thanks!
I dont think OTA is possible. Since this topic is almost two years old … does anybody know of new devices that allow a detached mode and are zigbee based? (i want to get rid of my shellies and ideally the zigbee device would support binding :-))
I’ve done this with an automation in HA that toggles the power back when the switch is flicked and gives a helper with the switch position to control the smart bulb. The only downside is that if you toggle the physical switch the light flashes on or off while HA reasserts the desired state. If HA is offline or the automation is disabled the switch just works as a normal dumb switch.
Create two toggle helpers (Settings > Devices & Services > Helpers > Create Helper > Toggle), I named these “MyLight Isolator” and “MyLight Position”, the ZBMini itself I’ve named “MyLight ZBMini”. I put all three on a dashboard while I was debugging.
Create an automation, I’ve called it “MyLight decouple switch and relay”. Add a “State” trigger and add the “MyLight Isolator” and “MyLight ZBMini” entities.
We need to run the actions if the ZBMini doesn’t match the Isolator state, this would be a great use for an XOR condition but we don’t have one. Add an “Or” condition, then add two “And” conditions to it. Then add the Device “MyLight ZBMini” is “On” and the State “MyLight Isolator” is “Off” to one. Then add the same to the other “And” condition but swap over the On and Off. i.e. (ZBMini is On AND Isolator is Off) OR (ZBMini is Off AND Isolator is On)
Next we add actions to toggle the Device “MyLight ZBMini” and call the service “Input Boolean: Toggle” on “MyLight Position”. The first undoes the change in state of the physical device, i.e. the hardwired change in state on the device itself. The second just flips the helper, because it isn’t undoing anything it keeps track of the state the user is requesting.
Now you just trigger your own automation off “MyLight Position” to control the smart bulb. Or flick the “MyLight Isolator” switch to control the power. The “MyLight Position” also changes state when “MyLight Isolator” is changed so you might want to check the bulb is switched on before trying to set its state.
I found only one solution for this. Some ZBMINI had CC2652. It can be flushed with PTVO firmware. Then it will have detached mode and binding to bulb. But unfortunately, Sonoff using different chips and it hard to find ZBMINI with CC2652.