I came across this community as I was searching for whether it is possible to use a Sonoff switch in between a regular dimmer switch and non-smart dimmable bulbs. I see that a member of this community, hijinx (aka James Fry on YouTube) has possibly demonstrated that this is possible.
I only want to use the Sonoff for is remote on/off capabilities. I am not interested in the Sonoff being able to dim the lights, I will use the wall switch for that.
So hopefully my question is as simple as this:
Will the Sonoff allow me to use the dimmer wall switch as normal to dim the lights and only come into play as a remote on/off device?
Like hijinx I am UK based and not sure if my lighting has a neutral. The wiring is at most 10 years old, given that was when the house was built. Do the Sonoff swicthes require a neutral? Not the end of the world as having new lighting put in so can add the neutral at that point if required.
If you put a sonoff in the fixture, then the dimmer sort of works, be not really, doesnt go as low, and I would imagine would kill the sonoff eventually, I went with the martin jerry dimmers on amazon, theyer like $23, seem to work good. I did have a issue where they didnt work in two spots due to old(probably weird) wiring, the first person to make a real low profile cheap dimmer will probably make good $.
Thanks Eric, unfortunately those switches are not available in the UK. However there are these:
Unfortunately no-one other than Lightwave seem to do multi-gang smart dimmer; sadly Lightwave will blow my budget (one 3 Gang switch costs £160 and then you need to buy their controller at a further £130).
I was hoping to go down the Sonoff route as a) cheaper and b) won’t need multiple single gang smart dimmers.
interesting, but then the sonoff gives power to the switch, if the switch loses power does the switch go off, or does your light just stay at the last setting? Also you still cant dim your lights, id recommend if you want to dim your lights go with a cheap smart dimmer.
But in the end, ive seen a lot of people putting sonoffs in their wall, never heard anything about it being so dangerous? If he is using LEDs the sonoff isnt really pulling much power anyway.
Thanks Nick
Interesting you day the Sonoffs are unsafe. Is this only when installed behind a wall due to heat issues or in general? Everything else I’ve read indicates that these are great products, especially at their price point.
The set up you have described, putting the Sonoff between power supply and normal switch will work for me. Again I am not interested in being able to dim the lights using the Sonoffs and will use the regular wall switch to dim. I only want to use the Sonoffs to remotely switch the lights on and off; if that means the lights will only come on at the last time setting then that’s fine.
Eric, yes the lights will be LED.
I have found a cheaper multi-gang remotely controlled dimmer made by I LumoS. They do however require a Broadlink RM Pro hub. Both cheaper than the Lightwaves but clearly dearer than the Sonoffs. I suppose the advantage of going this route is the Broadlinks other capabilities other than just lights but have read it’s Alex’s integration isn’t that great, yet.
Actually you misinterpreted what I did with the sonoff.
I built a solution to emulate an analogue dimmer, but it requires a smart bulb.
My device does no dimming - its actually just a rotary encoder that is connected to the sonoff, and allows the code running on the sonoff to send mqtt messages based on whether the encoder is rotated clockwise or anticlockwise. These are then used to control the brightness of a smart bulb.
My solution does not work with standard bulbs… that would be the holy grail and im searching for it too.
Regarding safety of the sonoff I am comfortable with the solution I created since the current through the sonoff is very low (1 x hue LED bulb which is ~10w at 240v). Nearly all problems I have seen with sonoff were due to high currents. If you are not comfortable with this - or if you are intending to drive higher currents - then definitely avoid such a homebrew solution.
offtopic: Actually I saw that recently Sonoff have changed the design of the basic to use thick wires for the mains connections so should be more safe.
If I went with Nick’s suggestion of putting the Sonoffs between the power supply (UK mains) and normal dimmer switch then I think it will work for my requirements (only using Sonoffs to switch on/off remotely). I also think it would get around the neutral wire issue if that isn’t already present.
My concern is now around the safety side as I definitely would want to hide these in the wall.
I think I will end up going down the Broadlink route as seems a safer option, gets around the neutral wiring issue albeit a little more expensive…
If you are frightened then go ahead and go the way that makes you feel more safe, but a lot of switches, dimmers included are actully esp8266 devices, the same chipset used in the sonoff, so im not sure why it would be specifically unsafe.
I use a ZigBee inline dinner and it works increadably well. I use it along with motion sensors in my kitchen and Alexa.
I also bought this which I believe will work but have not yet tried it
[£12.19 10% OFF]AC100-240V Smart WiFi Dimmer Light Switch Home Automation and Voice Control Works with Amazon Alexa Lighting Accessories from Lights & Lighting on banggood.com https://banggood.app.link/rHEZnzHpdY
and im searching for it too.