Recommendation for non-Tuya ZigBee 3.0 wall switch UK

Configuration Zigbee
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Hi All,

Having just purchased a SkyConnect, I’m trying to de-Tuya-ise my HA based smarthome, swapping out WiFi wall light switches for ZigBee 3.0.

I’m also wanting to ditch Tuya for a completely in-house system, since the cloud seems a) unnecessarily complex, and b) insecure. I also need a system that will work with physical switches for use if the server goes down, or if I move house. Here in the UK this does not seem easy - nothing in the UK ever is!

The Iollio dimmer switch I purchased seems good, and works fine both via the physical dimming knob and via HA. However, I can’t find a straight switch solution for a couple of non-dimmed lights that does not involve proprietary ZigBee coordinators (eg Aqara or the over-pervasive Tuya Smart Life).

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good 2-gang physical/SkyConnect-compatible light switch that will fit into a standard patress box in the wall? Surely not technically impossible?

Cheers,

Chris

2

Aqara devices work fine with the SkyConnect (well, ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT).

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Thanks! I take it you don’t need a proprietary app to get them started? Just a case of press-and-hold the switch, or somesuch?

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All you need - for any Zigbee device - is to have:

  1. A Zigbee coordinator - the radio that allows you to speak to the Zigbee devices
  2. Some Zigbee routers - to extend the mesh and increase the number of devices that can be in the mesh
  3. To know how to put the device into pairing mode

Zigbee2MQTT does a fairly good job of documenting the third point there, though it’s normally in the device’s own documentation.

I have a lot of Xiaomi (Aqara and Mijia) devices in my mesh, using a CC2652 coordinator on Zigbee2MQTT. Many of those are Zigbee 3.0 devices, but many are older Zigbee 1.2 devices.

Keep in mind that most no-neutral switches (like this one aren’t going to be routers but end devices. They won’t extend the reach of your mesh.

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Thanks again. It’s worth pointing out that a Zigbee smartswitch I bought off Amazon seemed to be requiring a) a Tuya Zigbee hub, and b) use of the Smart Life app to actually do the pairing operation. That’s what I wanted expressly to avoid. It seems that you have to read the spec quite hard in order not to purchase these things by mistake.

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Well, that’s standard marketing junk. They all claim that.

In reality other than for one obscure US brand almost every Zigbee device will work with any Zigbee coordinator. I’ve seen a few that don’t like TI coordinators (CCxxxx), but otherwise… it’s all just marketing BS.

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That’s interesting, because when I powered up my “Tuya” device, I couldn’t explicitly work out how to put it into pairing mode. Given that one of the microswitches was defective, I just sent the unit back without playing further. Maybe I should have!

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What physical switch did you buy instead?

I’m in a similar position where I want to transition off requiring to be connected to the cloud (e.g. Tuya Smart Life)

And I’m also having issues with getting the Tuya integration working with my scene switch. No events/logs are being sent and there’s only a device, not entities.

Edit: My SkyConnect arrived and they worked with Tuya switches out of the box

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How did you get them to pair with Skyconnect without using the Tuya app? I have a Skyconnect and want to use the Tuya plugs for energy monitoring but I don’t want to use the Tuya cloud.

Cheers!