Hi guys, Im pretty new to all the smart home stuff, so please excuse me if i ask anything silly.
Key Notes:
I have neutral wiring at light switches.
I’ve got builders working on the house currently so changes can be made if needed.
Back box depth on switches are at 35mm currently.
Need something reliable
I’d like some suggestions on smart switches that can be used as normal on/off physical switch not a touch one, but however without having the connection disconnected to HA. Preferably running over wifi rather then RF. My home is covered with Wifi Access Points in all rooms so connection wise it is is solid.
Currently im running Hive bulbs around the house but it is no practical as when the switch is off you cant turn it on from HA or the app.
I would recommend Shelly 1 switches. I have a lot of them in use for several months now. No flashing required, they work as MQTT switches and you can still use the existing switch, even if HA is down.
Thanks for the replies. Hspem would the Shelly switches work with UK wiring as a quick google search and was mostly for American style wiring or have i found the wrong ones.
Id love to go for the sonoff switches but my elderly parents are not too keen on it. They like it the old way .
I’m no expert but would an in-line switch work I’ve seen a few online. But not sure if it cuts off when switch is off.
I too am starting out and will be using my home office and other non-critical parts of the house as my testing ground… and this topic would help greatly before making any purchases.
Is RF, Z-wave, Zigbee preferred? Is direct communications to the devices preferred (my expectation if its compatible) or through hub(s)?
I am thinking of resurrecting an old Wi-Fi router for a segregated LAN to connect to. So no preference on choices - looking for best combination of performance & capabilities as well as price.
Sonoff T1 and RF devices have appeared on some threads. Xiaomi Aqara on alibaba but concerned (rightly/wrongly) about the possible compromising of the device reporting back to Shanghai… Shelly 1, Den (though emailed them today and their response was using a proprietary protocol so only likely to integrate via hub - again, as above question is that good?..). Energenie? Or is another product particularly common or recommended? Or is common to use any combination of dirt-cheap Alibaba items and attach a TX/RX unit for it to a Pi or equivalent, i.e. 433MHz radio, etc (again possibly compromised units, but also adding in lack of UK certified standards too!)?
Biggest ideals are UK-deployment (aka wiring), the non-reliance on HA being available with physical switch and WAF!
I actually didn’t make any progress as of yet I’m still in the planning stage. I ordered the T1 switches awaiting delivery.
In the meantime I went over this topic in the morning with my electrician who suggested this method of wiring MAY work however he is not sure it will report the state back to Sonoff/HA. I’ve attached an image. If someone with extra technical knowledge can shed some light would be much appreciated.
Yes, I have the same arrangement as vnkr: an Aqara Zigbee switch,connecting to my Conbee/deconz-based system. Only one switch so far, but it seems to work well.
So with Shelly i can use the standard on/off switch and Shelly wifi regardless of the phsyical switch state being off? If thats correct then you have answered my puzzle
If you use Shelly 1 and connect it instead of the switch in your circuit inside the switch box, you can connect the switch to SW contacts on Shelly and operate it with the switch. Push button switch would work better in this case but conventional would work as well. The problem is if you have conventional switch ON and turn Shelly off programmatically in order to turn it on with the switch you’d have to flick it off-on.
Shelly 1 can be configured cloud-free without flashing by activating the MQTT mode. It goes behind a wall switch and can be wired and configured to work in parallel to the existing wall switch.
Wall switch -> on, Shelly -> off, etc.
The device knows and reports the correct state (on/off) of the light that it is switching, so any HA GUI is up-to-date, even if you use the wall switch.
here are two different drawings for using the shelly in either a one way or two way switch (3 way switch in US) that will hopefully explain how it works:
Yes, as the device is configured out of the box there is no ability to use a switch but as soon as you put third party software on it (Tasmota/ESPHome) that also gives you the ability to utilize the GPIO pins with a header soldered on to allow a wall switch to toggle the relay.
I’ve ordered the shelly, however i’ve got 6 sonoff’s in the meantime. If you can show me the diagram your mentioning above i’ll give it a go.
From what i have read online in the past two days of my research is that sonoff apparently won’t work because it does not accept high voltage and that i would require a Shelly instead. It’s all going beyond my knowledge
You’ll have to program whatever firmware you load onto it to use GPIO14 as a switch input and decide what mode you want it to use (momentary toggle, edge toggle or follow).
As someone who is yet to flash their sonoffs to be used this way… what are the differences?
I thought there would just be an “on”,“off” or “toggle” option, not additional toggle options?
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