Smart wall switches that don’t cut power

[lejoe]

We have a smart light installed because we liked the design (hue liane). It’s connected to two traditional switches (up and down the stairs).

It was working like a traditional light as the switches were cutting the power.
Now we’d like to make use of an automation (motion sensor) without replacing the lamp. For that the lamp needs continuous current.

Is there any smart switch we could use as replacement that would provide continuous current while just triggering events so we can connect them on HA. Bonus points for Zigbee protocol.

I’m probably not the only one with that problem but my research was not successful. Does this problem have a name? Also happy to any pointers to other posts.

[bgreet]

Inovelli Blue switches

Blue Series 2-1 Switch (Zigbee)

[Stephenn]

@lejoe

Does this problem have a name?

Zooz calls it “Smart Bulb Mode”. I don’t know if all of their devices have that option but many do. All of mine are currently in a box because I moved into a rental house but I think every Zooz I own has that option.

[ferbulous (Shaq)]

@lejoe

Is there any smart switch we could use as replacement that would provide continuous current while just triggering events so we can connect them on HA

Usually called detached/decoupled/smart light mode

Another cheaper solution is martin jerry switches

https://a.co/d/3j4vBbW

You could set that mode on tasmota or esphome

Shelly 1 | devices.esphome.io

How to Sync Lights and Switches with Device Groups - Tasmota Tips Episode 7

If you don’t have neutral, there’s hack for that using diodes

Sonoff M5 NO-NEUTRAL required trick! SwitchMan Hack #Sonoff #noneutral #circuit #modified #M5

[WallyR (Wally)]

I normally install friends of hue switches, which can be controlled from the hue bridge or relayed to HA for it to act upon.
The old switches will then either be kept, blocked from being switched or maybe even remove with the wires shorted to always on there after.

[Olivier1974 (Olivier Toussaint)]

I saw a brilliant idea, using a sonoff minir2

Turning an Existing Light Switch into an MQTT Connected Smart Switch using a Sonoff Mini

What is interesting here is, the sonoff is used for the smart part, decoupled from the relay and he is using a “key switch” to be able to activate the switch anyway in case of minir2 or HA failure or unresponsive.

I bought a minir2 on aliexpress for 8€ including delivery, unfortunately it was defect.

But I’ll do that later for sure even if, sadly, there is no such “key switch” in the brand I’m using at home.

As @WallyR suggested, for the kids, I installed a friends of hue scene switch (green power, no wire nor battery needed) at the side of the existing switch that I lightly blocked (still usable with pressure) and I did 8 different commands with it (short and long press for each of the 4 buttons)

you can find how I did in this post too:

Greenpower zigbee dimmer from Niko (friends of Hue)

Hello the world, I’m proud of what I did even if it is still an alpha version of the script. Ultimately, I’d like to convert it into a blueprint but that will be for later I guess. I’m using a Niko dimmer switch for Hue system. It is Zigbee switch but no power is required, it is generating the necessary electricity from the movement of the button when pressed. [image] For this to work, I’ve created 8 template input_boolean like so: Short press on a button - binary_sensor: name: button…

EDIT In the above video, you’ll see that you can even do action on multiple clics, up to 5, to trigger different actions as well.

[lejoe]

Thanks all for your contributions.
Keeping my current switches and placing a relay behind like in the sonoff minir2 looks tempting.

Are there relays that transform the switch into a signal instead of a power cutter out of the box (without flashing)?