Sonoff MINI equivalent with Thread support?

Hardware
1

Hi,
In my research towards lights and some power outlets controls (in reference to this thread: New HA powered house plans)

I’m leaning towards using traditional manual light switches augmented by smart switch behind it. Ideally I’d like to connect them with Thread.
Wifi is backup option, but will be using more power which I think is relevant given 30-40 switches across the house might be connected.

My favorite so far is the Sonoff MiniR4M. It supports Matter, but it’s on Wifi.
Is there equivalent device but running on Thread protocol? I’ve spent quite a while searching the internet, unsuccessfully, but I find it hard to believe one doesn’t exist…

Additional bonus would be if the switch could control more than a single line.

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Off topic reply. You do give up a couple of potentially useful things with using an in wall with dumb switch vs a smart switch

a) multi-taps and hold down gestures. I use these on most switches. As an example, I use a double tap gesture to disable automatically turning the light off when occupancy sensors clear. Hold downs can be used for dimming. You could use a double tap down gesture to turn off everything in the room (tv, etc.)
b) box real estate - it takes less space to put in a modern smart switch and less connections (every connection is a failure point / potential electrical hazard)

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3

Probably takes a while since most matter relays are still using matter over wifi.

You can still make one yourself with esp-zerocode by swapping the chip from the relay with esp32-h2/c6

3 Likes
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Good hints, thanks for raising it. I just ordered a single Wifi smart switch for some tests, how it behaves when Wifi is offline etc. Maybe it meets my expectations.

5

If you have enough skill and time, everything can be done :slight_smile:
I prefer off the shelf solutions, though…

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Tested it, works fine but until they’re including features like thead binding or decoupling. I’m probably gonna stick to zigbee for now

Inovelli does have matter over thread switches for preorder

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I have a zemismart matter over wifi bulb and it works with no Internet. WiFi does not mean it needs an internet connection.

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I know Wifi can be local (I actually plan to have it local on a vlan that doesn’t have internet access), but I mean situation when the whole HA shuts down, server breaks or I decide to throw it away for whatever reason, my house must remain functional.

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I did a quick test today, I had already a Sonoff MINI (Zigbee) at home, and ordered Sonoff MINIR4M (Matter, Wifi) and Tuya Wifi switch.

Re Tuya, honestly I forgot they are so heavily dependent on the cloud service. I ordered it because it was similar price to the Sonoff MiniR4M, it has really cool look with the black glass panel, and I have one device running currently from Tuya cloud so I just forgot it’s a cloud :slight_smile:

All devices, needless to say, integrated with HA with no issues.
Sonoff Mini with Zigbee2MQTT
Sonoff MiniR4M with Matter - just added it for this device, flawless experience
Tuya over Tuya integration with the cloud service

First thing I checked with all of them was power usage. I tested with a simple meter, with accuracy of 0.1W, with LED light bulb attached:

Naked light bulb: 3.7W
Sonoff Mini: 4.1W when light turned on, when turned off meter was showing 0.0W
Sonoff MiniR4M: 4.1W, 0.0W idle (yes, no mistake, same reading as for the Mini, no extra usage from the wifi!)
Tuya: 4.8W, 1.3W idle

Wow, a huge disadvantage of Tuya!

Sonoff MiniR4M is a clear and obvious winner.
Tuya is useless. With 40 switches I’d be continuously burning 50W of power for nothing, plus cloud dependency is disqualifying it from my criteria.

Are there any better options for Wifi light switches, ideally with Matter but more efficient than Tuya and without Cloud dependency?

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Assuming the same with the m5 switches, just flash tasmota and enable matter

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Do you mean on the Tuya switch?
That would solve the cloud dependency if I understand correctly, but not the power usage, right? That’s still an issue compared to Sonoff. Besides the cool look, I see no value from this Tuya switch.

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N, the sonoff m5 switches

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Ordered single m5 switch for tests…

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Surprisingly, the Sonoff m5 switch (not the matter version) has the same power usage as Tuya, 1.3W idle, 4.8W with light on. Furthermore, I have some problem enabling eWeLink with my HA instance… Can’t see the addon. MINIR4M still seems to be the winner.

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Is this what you are looking for? https://inels-wireless.com/shop/matter-en/switch-unit-with-inputs-for-external-buttons-matter-rfsai-62b-sl-mt/

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Sonoff Mini R4M does the same for less than half the price. I was looking for full switch, but I gave up already. I’m going to use Mini R4M.

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Does it support decoupled/detached mode?

I have a couple of R4M but I’m ordering the ZBMINIR2 that seems to have everything from the R4M (detached mode included) but runs on Zigbee

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Not sure, I don’t know what detached mode is and googling for it didn’t help me much understanding it.

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There’s a shop on taobao now that sells thread relays and switches

Not sure if you can find it on ali but they’re out there

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Detached mode means that it can control a smart light through the automation whilst leaving the power always on when using a physical switch.

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