Is there a way to have HA change the state of the lights if the light were turned off physically on the wall which is a dumb wall switch? I think I’ve read a post saying it can’t be done. However, Phillp Hue bridge by default can as I started using Phillp hue bridge to control my lights, but latter changed over to a zigbee coordinator. There is a few seconds delay when the state changes to off, but it does change. Thinking of switching back to Phillp Hue bridge for my lights if it can’t be done.
Not clear what you’re after… What do you want HA to show them as, and where?
Presumably, when the dumb wall switch is turned off, the lights are powered off, so they are “unavailable” in HA? A template sensor could change that to “off” for dashboard purposes, but their real state will remain “unavailable” because without power that’s what they are.
As far as I remember (it’s a long time ago), the Hue bridge was the same.
Not clear what you’re after… What do you want HA to show them as, and where?
Most of my lights are turn on/off via pir sensors. However, some members of the house when leaving a room they would physically turn off the light using the dumb wall switch. zigbee coordinator does not registered the lights as been turned off and ha will show the state as on even though the lights visually as been off.
Is there a way to have HA changed this state. Though it may not be possible since HA does not know the lights was turn off with a dumb switch.
As far as I remember (it’s a long time ago), the Hue bridge was the same.
You maybe correct as I started out using the Phillp hue bridge about 4 years ago. It maybe switching to off state because the pir sensor has detected no one is in the room for xx mins via an automation and HA turn it off and Phillp hue sees this.
What I am guess is that the zigbee coordinator does not register HA turn off the lights if the lights were turned off manually at the wall. I noticed this when the lights are turn off at the wall manually and I am in the z2m gui. I would get these errors message of certain lights not detected. Phillps hue bridge does not show this affect or maybe it does in the log.
There is a delay before mains-powered devices are registered as “unavailable” by HA when power is turned off. By default in ZHA it’s two hours and I believe it’s something similar in Z2M, but anyway you should be able to change it in the GUI settings.
In a similar situation I have Hue RWL022 switches bound to the bulbs. In the UK you can get mountings for them that fit over the old dumb switches, so that they can stay permanently on.
I would not know what to look for in the gui. Maybe I will test a light out with the Phillip hue. As I remembered it, pairing a non phillip hue light to the bridge can be a tedious task.
As for exactly this kind of scenario I have added SONOFF ZBMINI Extreme Zigbee Smart Switches behind the dumb switches.
With this HA will always and instantly know the actual state of the wall switches. No matter whether the lights were turned on/off physically on the wall. Furthermore the switching of the lights connected can be overridden by Zigbee/HA ignoring the physical position of the switch rocker.
Default in Z2M is 10 minutes for mains devices and 25 hours for battery devices, but you have to enable availability.
For the devices to show their correct state (unavailable) after the 10 minute timeout, you will need to enable advanced availability in Z2M. This thread contains pretty much all the info you need.
TLDR: Open Z2M frontend > Settings cog > Settings > Availability > Select Availability (advanced). You might need to untick the Availability (simple) checkbox first.
Remember to hit Submit at the bottom when you’re done - I’ve missed that step more times than I’d like to admit!
Hello. Thanks for pointing it out. It seems you can manually select individual devices ,in my case lights, I tested one room out by adding to the device.yaml. It does ‘change the state to off’, but it also grey out the button. Not exactly what I like it to happen that is just change the state to off (switch toggle to off) but still have the switch function able even though it does not really turn on the lights. I have thought about adding a smart switches, but that will drive up the cost not too mention hiring an electrician.
availability:
timeout: 3
By adding the availability config, its now detected your device is offline.
It could be because it was switched off at the wall, or because theres a power issue, or the device itself could be misbehaving, there is no way for your zigbee controller to know – it just knows it cant connect to the device.
you could create a template light, and have the state set to off if its either off or unknown/unavailable, which would do what you want.
Turning these off at the wall is more than likely messing with your zigbee mesh too, likely other devices will also go offline if they are using those lights as a router.
You are using those devices wrong, that is not how Zigbee Router devices are meant to work or be used. As started many times by many people in many threads in this forum. If it dumb to connect a smart light to a dumb switch, and that hold true if that light is a Zigbee Router device. If it is a Zigbee Router device it should always have power and should never be powered off on purpose. Zigbee Router devices work as repeaters and other devices will be connected via them so unplanned powering off them will cause problems for those other devices. The reason the Philips Hue Bridge works better in those scenarios is that they implemented workarounds to hide the users bad behaviour instead of informing users how Zigbee Router devices are meant to work. If you want to have lightbulbs connected to a dumb switch then you should buy those from Sengled or similar that are Zigbee End Devices instead. Read and follow the tips:
And
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If you’re replying to me, I think I made it pretty clear in my first sentence. Availability will show the CORRECT state of the lights, which is “unavailable”, not “off”.
Why you would want to show an incorrect state is beyond me. If a light is unavailable for any reason besides the switch being off, I would like to know its not possible to switch it from the dashboard.
Imagine if the light is broken but the switch is on. With your thinking, you’d see it as off and keep trying to turn it on from the dashboard.
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