Could someone with hands-on experience with these modules explain a little bit more how they work?
From the marketing materials I gather that the load (e.g., light) connected to the module is continuously supplied with power?
Therefore one can use this module to turn a dumb-switch into a smart-switch, but since it has no internal relay, the load must also be “smart” (or else it will be always powered).
This means in the event of Hue Bridge/Home Assistant/Z2M/ZHA downtime, the switch will do nothing. Is this correct?
If that’s all correct, this module seems quite nice and really bypasses the “smart light or smart switch” conundrum. It allows you to have your smart RGB/CCT bulbs while still using normal wall switches.
The biggest downside for me is not the battery, but the fact there is no manual override.
Well the Load is permanent. Therefore the lights have to be smart and be Controlled somehow, otherwise they would be at 100% the whole time. Lights can be Controlled by the electricity amount (like using a shelly relay) or smart Lamps with hue / whatever.
In downtime the switch will do nothing correct.
I like it because it makes it really flexible in your switch layout.
I’m just annoyed that Hue is the only provider of these Products and I cannot understand that no one came up with something like this before (I mean whoever made all the switches should have also thought about this product, because it’s essentially the same product).
Biggest downside in my opinion is the high cost. If I want to do a room like this I’d have to buy multiple modules. Single module being 40€ quickly makes cost rise and I don’t like spending 100+€ to make a room use smart bulbs (even though I could then use the lights in more ways, like with the alarm).
If you find a cheap alternative I would be very glad if you can link it
You’re totally right. And I wish Hue had provided a battery-less option for more reliability.
I think my cheap alternative is going to be mix wifi and zigbee.
The Shelly 1 and Shelly 2.5 can be flashed with esphome and configured in “detached” switch mode, where the switch is detached from the relay. This lets you use the wall switch to power HA automations, while ensuring the load is continuously powered by mains.
Now the really cool thing: with esphome you can configure a fallback such that if HA is unavailable the switch is returned to “attached” mode, thereby causing the switch to control the relay. So when HA is down, the switch will control the lights like a normal dumb switch.
A Shelly 1 is 10 bucks!
So my plan now is to abandon the zigbee-only setup, which I was trying really hard to maintain. Haven’t tested this fully yet, but I’ve got a couple Shelly 1s on the way, and I decided not to order the Hue module
Well I’m not sure if battery less is possible to do in all types of switches as the switch is used to create the electricity (and maybe not all switches can create enough/any electricity but im not sure how they work exactly).
Shelly is problematic because they are pretty big, they won’t fit in my outlets because the switch and the cables for the light take up too much space
Hello go to supervisor and listen for “deconz_event” I think you put that text into the text field. then start listening. then press buttons and you will see the events listings
I’m not sure I’m at the right place to ask this.
I’m trying to plug the Hue Wall Switch to my switch, and I can’t have it working.
It is a 2-way switch, below the picture :
but I can’t have both button working at the same time.
I’ve plugged the set of wire in position 2 everywhere, I’ve tried all combination (I missed one obviously), I’m becoming mad
You might want to check if you configured the module as a double rocker in the Philips Hue app.
Next to that I noticed that in my setup I have the white wires in the L although I don’t see how swapping white/yellow would make a difference electrically.
Otherwise maybe try to contact Philips Hue support.
At the moment I think it’s the only way. May take some time, but it’s very flexible and you just copy the automations for other switches you have. Mostly one time job.
As Michel said, you will find this setting in deconz properties of the switch. Also, I am not sure but maybe 2 way switch can’t work the way you expect and it is designed. I recommend buying push button switch which always comes back to original position. should not be too expensive (5 eur?). I use push button and standard switch, both works fine with both rockers.
I was able to include the switch via Conbee II in my Docker installation (2021.10.4) and I also only see only the battery. When I listen in the developer tools, no event is shown to me - when I connect the switch to Hue, everything works. So it is already not because of my wiring. Also other events from my devices are not shown to me with deconz_event.
The following message appears in my log:
Logger: zigpy.zcl
Source: /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/zigpy/zcl/__init__.py:114
First occurred: 17:56:09 (38 occurrences)
Last logged: 17:56:19
[0xecef:1:0xfc00] Unknown cluster-specific command 0
Do you have any ideas to get the switch working? Thanks!
Well I have no idea what that means but, has your switch “loaded completely” into deconz? It happened to me few time I had to wait a while for a new device to load all available clusters etc.
If you can’t listen to other devices, try a new topic as “listening to deconz events doesnt work”?
Sorry I don’t understand mechanics behind this yet.
I learned that I use ZHA. And according to @aleex1848 and also after my try, there are still unfortunately no events triggered. Does anyone here have any idea how and if there is anything planned via ZHA?
Sorry to be of no help, however it again seems to me like a best bet to ask in other topic, maybe like here for example:
I never used ZHA, I wonder if it’s better than deconz but since deconz supports all my devices, does not have many issues and the team is very prompt, I am not going to try switching
Sorry to hijack, but one question about these modules: does this module work if HA is down, at least partially? E.g. in Zwave networks, the controller runs to some extent without power even, so lights that are associated to switches can be turned on/off, even if more complicated scenarios cannot be executed.
Is something like this possible with Zigbee? I know that the Conbee does not have a battery, but what would happen if ZHA/Deconz is unavailable but the Conbee is powered – would the lights grouped to the wall switch module turn on, or they would not at all. My Ikea light/remote seemed to be paired successfully before I got a Conbee, but maybe it’s different if you pair them to a Conbee coordinator first?
I know this is an old post, but i stumbled upon this conversation, searching for a similar topic.
I need to know if anyone of you have figured out yet that you could totally just have a shelly relay with no output, and simply use its switched state to trigger automations?
