I have some outdoor motion lights that use Insteon InLincs that are starting to become unreliable. I’m looking to move them to Zigbee or Z-Wave, but the options for something that fits into the junction box are pretty slim. I’m not looking for motion sensors, just something that can install in the j-box behind the light so I can remotely control it and know when the light is on or off.
As much as I like the Aeotec Nano Switches, $50 each is painful. Given that I have 5 of these to do, I’m not sure I want to drop north of $250 for them. I haven’t had great luck with Sonoff Zigbee devices as the few I have keep dropping off the Zigbee network and need to be re-paired frequently. So I’m not sure I want to go with the Sonoff ZBMINI Zigbee switches, even if they are only $13 each.
And I don’t want to go with wifi – I’m not happy having my home automation depend on my home wifi. I like them being on their own dedicated network. I have enough random drops with ESP8266-based devices now that I’m not sure I trust it for home automation.
So given the above, any suggestions for small devices that can respond to a motion sensor (i.e. have a “sense” line) and will fit in a j-box? Are the Sonoff devices really my only option, and do they all require a neutral wire (I’m not sure I have one in all of these boxes w/o pulling down the current lights).
These are floodlights with integrated LED panels. That’s why I went with the Insteon InLinc when I first installed them years ago. Short of replacing them, my only option is something that can be installed in the J-box and work with sensing the output from the existing motion detector. And they are good quality lights, I don’t really want to replace them.