I’ve been struggling with this for a while. I changed all my bulbs for smart bulbs. Because of obvious reasons, I want all bulbs to remain connected to a live wire, otherwise HA cannot control them. This made me want to change all my switches.
I now have almost all switches working with Shelly’s in detached mode. All my switches are momentary switches which just sent a pulse, creating an event in HA.
However, three switches only have live and switching wires behind the switch and just a switching and neutral wire at the bulb. This complicates it a lot, as I tried the Shelly by-pass but without success…
Are there any recommendations? I just need some device, wifi or ZHA, which reacts to my physical switch/button being pressed. As long as I can notice this button pressed in HA. (Preferably within the second, before the SO starts screaming that the switch is too slow )
Edit: it does not need to switch the power, as these can be connected to the live wire.
There are hundreds on this site, that is if you search.
The barriers to giving sensible and useful advice include:
Where are you? US / UK / Europe / Oceania / Other
What electrical standard you you use? 250V / 220V / 110V / 48VDC / Other
What ecosystems do you use? Z-Wave / Zigbee / Wi-Fi / Matter / Thread / MODBUS / Other
Do you have access to a 3D Printer (is actually relevant…)
What is your electrical competence? I will die / I might die / I am competent / I am Charles Hesterman Merz
Without these details, it is rather hard to offer advice, however…
Sadly, I keep seeing variations on “I don’t have a Neutral wire” and after 30+ years of trying, the answer is ALWAYS “get a Neutral wire”.
(look for the Printables link to understand the 3D printer question - useful for rented properties, and available on eBay)
I know this answer may be unsatisfying, but I started modifying X10 dimmers from the Us for UK voltage and packaging a very long time ago, so have seem many different attempts at not installing a Neutral, “ballasts” or NOT moving the device to another location, and sadly, they all cause different problems that you will hate.
The solutions have only got worse as resistive incandescent bulbs are replaced with CF, and now LED (which are VERY complex inside, and usually a complex electrical load - inductive/capacitive/both).
My current favourite is a Sonoff Mini4RM Matter / WLAN module as it is small, works locally with the existing switch (so instant), and operates across multiple ecosystems. Before that, I have too many Fibaro Z-Wave FGD-212 (which these days are not a good investment). Shelly and Sonoff also make other device types that also work locally (with physical switch inputs).
I also replace UK switches with MK grid system push-buttons as they look “normal” but are push ON not ON/OFF (useful with modules that support dimming).
Thank you so much for your detailed reply.
To answer your questions chronological:
I live in the Netherlands
our grid is 230/240V
I have ZHA and WiFi, and open for other solutions
No 3D printer available
somewhere close to I am competent
Unfortunately, I have to agree that wiring a blue wire would be the best option. That said, the previous owner used a lot of connection boxes, which makes adding wires difficult and the floors are sort of permanent and not to be touched. So I have to find a workaround…
I looked into the Sonoff, but searching through this form a lot of people were not very enthusiastic about this one. I love to hear how you configured this one? Via ZHA dongle or via the hacs custom component?
I am sorry, I do not understand. I do have a physical switch I want to use. I just want to know when this switch is pressed in HA. I use the Shelly for this now. I tried your way of connection just now and the Shelly still does not turn on.
Lets just clear some things.
You want the physical dumb switch to be connected to the Shelly.
The Shelly should not switch the power to the bulb, the state of the Shelly should be mirrored to a smart bulb?
I do not care if it’s a Shelly or any other kind.
I’ll try to explain differently. This is the current wiring:
Box behind the switch containing 2 wires:
Brown wire (Live)
Black wire (Switching)
Wires coming down in my ceiling:
Blue wire (Neutral)
Black wire (Switching)
The wiring now is brown(live) → momentary switch → black (switching) → ceiling out
All I want is to keep my current physical momentary switch and monitor when the switch is pressed. For HA reasons, I’d like to keep the bulb powered on all the time. At this moment, that works for most bulbs, as I can use Shelly’s in detached mode. This keeps the light always on and records the switch pressed. However, one Hue bulb uses less then 20W, requiring a by-pass according to docs. However, this would not work for me as the Shelly does not power on with by-pass correctly installed. So looking for other solutions.
Sonoff have moved from making large relay modules into a wider range of very small devices supporting Zigbee, and Matter - this means older comments may be no longer relevant.
The Mini4RM supports Matter, so ‘just works’ locally without Tasmota or other firmware changes:
It needs a Neutral - but so does ANY similar module (if you see a diagram without Phase and Neutral it won’t work reliably).
I think we are talking about something else.
If I put the Shelly behind the ceiling light I have two wires. a black switching wire, which will be powered or not by the switch and a blue neutral wire.
Connecting the Shelly here and pressing the switch would take the power away from the Shelly, albeit temporary.
If I put the Shelly behind the switch I would not have a neutral wire, resulting in the Shelly not turning on.
What do you propose and where would I place the Shelly in your idea?
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this post!
