You either need a zigbee stick (according to other users) or a philips hue bridge (part of my setup). Zigbee devices always need a coordinator (bridge) in the mesh network. Most devices (switches, lights) are also routers at the same time.
Zigbee network image
When you connect the Niko switch with a Hue Bridge you can control scenes in Home assistant using the “Hue sensor custom component” mentioned above. However you will need 2 buttons to controle the light (on/of) and only have 2 buttons left on the right side of the switch.
using the deconz app with a conbee , I was able to toggle light on/of & dim up/down with only 1 of the 4 switches and connect the other 3 with other scenes or automations in Home Assistant after tracing what every switch would trigger in het HA.
For example a trigger for an automation using the left upper button:
event_data:
event: 1000
id: friends_of_hue_switch
unique_id: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
event_type: deconz_event
platform: event
depending on the unique_id of your switch
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My setup turns the light on or off depending on its current state.
Button one turns on or off my main bedroom light. Button two turns on or off bedside lights and button three plays or pauses sonos.
how did you connect fohswitch to conbee ? which button did you press?
Depends on your zigbee channel. Check the Deconz faq on how to configurate. For channel 15 it is the top left ( hold it for 10sec), and then press lower left and top right together once.
Tip for anybody who is interested. I came upon this message looking for a method to make an existing “dumb” Niko wall Switch smart. Because of the limitations of the Niko friends of hue switch I ended up buying the Shelly 1 WiFi Switch for € 15. This is a relay that can be mounted behind your existing Niko Switch. Installation was fast and simple.
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I can highly recommend the deconz setup. I bought a conbee II stick on Amazon and paired my Niko friends of hue switch to it. Some essential info to support the pairing process can be found here:Switch orientation info provided by dresden elektronik and here: Phoscon app zigbee channels. What you need to do is press the right button on the FOH switch that matches your zigbee channel. To confirm this channel you need to briefly press two other FOH buttons simultaneously. If you omit this last step the deconz_event will not show up in HA. It took me a while before I got my head around this one (first tested a regular battery powered HUE dimmer which works really well). Main advantage compared to a regular hue bridge is that HA polls the hue bridge (slow-ish) and the conbee solution is event based (much faster). I am planning to do double clicks etc.
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Hello SarumaN,
Thx for your tips about the Niko friends of hue. I follow every steps :
-
check the channel : ok (it s 15 for me)
-
i push the button 1 (pairing-friends-of-hue-switch)(i ll do in Other --> Add switch in Phoscon integreted in HA by Deconz add-on (new switch is active for 3 minutes).
-
i push briefly buttons 2 and 3 simultaneously. (i ll do in Other --> Add switch in Phoscon integreted in HA by Deconz add-on (new switch is active for 3 minutes).
I can see my switch in Deconz , the integration seems to be ok in HA (i can see the switch in HA but impossible to make an automation and i don t see the deconz_events… I m a little confused.
Any idea ?
Thank you and take care !
Alex
Hello, I myself have only been using Deconz for a short time and two days ago I bought a Friends of Hue Switch from SENIC.
The connection with Deconz/Phoscon worked without problems and the switch entity is displayed in Home Assistant too.
The deconz events can be found in the developer tools under the events tab. Just enter “deconz_event” into the “Listen to events” field and start listening. Afterwards the events should be displayed when you press a key.
Thats my automations I made so far with it:
#########################################################
# #
# FRIENDS OF HUE SWITCH OVER deCONZ #
# #
#########################################################
- id: 'a_sw_1_1'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Deckenlampe toggle'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 3002
action:
service: light.toggle
entity_id: light.buro_deckenlampe
- id: 'a_sw_1_2'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Deckenlampe start dimming up'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 3001
action:
- service: script.buero_schalter_deckenlampe_dimm_up
- id: 'a_sw_1_3'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Deckenlampe stop dimming up'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 3003
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 3002
action:
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_deckenlampe_dimm_up
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_deckenlampe_dimm_up_loop
- id: 'a_sw_1_4'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Deckenlampe start dimming down'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 4001
action:
- service: script.buero_schalter_deckenlampe_dimm_down
- id: 'a_sw_1_5'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Deckenlampe stop dimming down'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 4003
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 3002
action:
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_deckenlampe_dimm_down
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_deckenlampe_dimm_down_loop
- id: 'a_sw_1_6'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Deckenlampe Lichtstimmung wechseln'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 4002
action:
- service: input_select.select_next
data:
entity_id: input_select.buero_deckenlampe_lichtstimmung
- id: 'a_sw_2_1'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Schreibtischlampe toggle'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 1002
action:
service: light.toggle
entity_id: light.buro_schreibtisch
- id: 'a_sw_2_2'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Schreibtischlampe start dimming up'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 1001
action:
- service: script.buero_schalter_schreibtischlampe_dimm_up
- id: 'a_sw_2_3'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Schreibtischlampe stop dimming up'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 1003
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 1002
action:
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_schreibtischlampe_dimm_up
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_schreibtischlampe_dimm_up_loop
- id: 'a_sw_2_4'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Schreibtischlampe start dimming down'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 2001
action:
- service: script.buero_schalter_schreibtischlampe_dimm_down
- id: 'a_sw_2_5'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Schreibtischlampe stop dimming down'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 2003
- platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 1002
action:
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_schreibtischlampe_dimm_down
- service: script.turn_off
data:
entity_id: script.buero_schalter_schreibtischlampe_dimm_down_loop
- id: 'a_sw_2_6'
alias: 'Schalter - Büro - Schreibtischlampe Lichtstimmung wechseln'
initial_state: 'on'
trigger:
platform: event
event_type: deconz_event
event_data:
id: buro_schalter
event: 2002
action:
- service: input_select.select_next
data:
entity_id: input_select.buero_schreibtischlampe_lichtstimmung
########################################################
# #
# END OF CONFIGURATION FILE #
# #
#########################################################
Maybe this helps you a little bit with your configuration @Snex33 ?
It should be the same procedure whether the switch is from Niko or SENIC.
Greetings
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Hi @Snex33,
The following mistake is easy to make and causes the pairing to fail: if the switch is upside down when performing the pairing process. Please open the cover of your FOH switch and look for the 0 and 1 (hard to find) and make sure that the 0 is at the top. Repeat the pairing process and check if this helps.
Image: Check correct orientation of 0 and 1 on enocean module
I’ve succesfully paired a Niko FOH switch with Deconz, but I seem to have another issue that it won’t connect to any other routers.
When I go outside of the range of my conbee stick, it just stops working although I’m in range of several tradfri bulbs.
Anyone have an idea how I might fix this? I’ve already tried pairing it out of range of the conbee but from within range of the bulbs, but then it’s not picked up.
As far as I know, currently only Hue bulbs can act as routers (green power proxy) for FOH switches.
I recently saw a comment on this in the z2m repo. But for deconz the same applies.:
Your Tradfri lamps will probably not pass the signal to the Zigbee coordinator.
That fully explains the issue, thanks! Seems I’ll be getting at least one hue bulb soon.
Hello SarumaN and Simon,
It’s works now ! Thank you so much… The solution was just Listen to event . Thx
Alex
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from a technical point of view.
the friends of hue switch doesn’t use batteries and is not wired.
where does it get its power from?
It uses kinetic energy
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This is an interesting document with all the technical details of the module which is used in all these Friends of Hue switches.
Hi, I was able create an automation for my Feller FoH switch based on the Hue integration, which is working as expected. I tried the same approach for a deCONZ integration, so fare without success. Pushing the corresponding button on FoH switch does not result in any action, i.e. either automation nor my input Boolean is triggered. Any idea what I missed for the deCONZ integration?
I created both automations initially with the UI.
# Hue
- id: '1607100344599'
alias: Switch Kitchen Hue
description: ''
trigger:
- device_id: 1e34eea808404de3bf7f531108115d62
domain: hue
platform: device
type: remote_button_short_press
subtype: button_1
condition: []
action:
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
data: {}
entity_id: input_boolean.switch_kitchen1
- delay: '30'
- service: input_boolean.turn_off
data: {}
entity_id: input_boolean.switch_kitchen1
mode: single
# deCONZ
- id: '1607162867469'
alias: deCONZ
description: ''
trigger:
- device_id: 6814ecf9c38ba4f1fe0d29d2d9d3a313
domain: deconz
platform: device
type: remote_button_short_press
subtype: button_1
condition: []
action:
- service: input_boolean.turn_on
data: {}
entity_id: input_boolean.switch_kitchen1
- delay: '30'
- service: input_boolean.turn_off
data: {}
entity_id: input_boolean.switch_kitchen1
mode: single
In hassio go to developer tools then events now type deconz_event and click start listening. If you now push one of your FOH buttons you should be able to see the event pass by on the screen. Let me know if this works. No events = No automation.