I would like to have a solution where light switches for my zigbee smart lights work as ‘normal’ (flipping the switch turns of the lights) in a way that:
My smart lights are not cut off from electricity (so that automations still continue to work)
I have an option to actually break the electrical circuit if I want to (e.g. by double-pressing the light switch or from HA).
Ideally, there is a (programmable) Zigbee relay (placed behind the light switch) that can do this. However, it seems that all the zigbee relays I can find simply break the electrical circuit when the lightswitch is pressed.
Use hardware you can own completely which means having full control not only over the hardware part but also the firm/software. As to my knowledge z-technolgy doesn’t offer this and the firmware is always a black box.
Every device which supports esphome (e.g. espressif, realtek, beken based hardware) can do what you want - as it allows full (local) control including the right/possiblity to extend/modify/repair
We are using a lot of this 3-gang wall switches for example
but every compatible switch like a shelly for example can achieve the same with esphome
