I search for a solution to use my standard old fashioned wall light switches with HA. I have a zigbee ceiling light, with needs constant power. I thought, that the sonoff bzminiL2 was the right thing, but yesterday at my test I determine I was wrong. It is possible to control it via zigbee but it also cut the power to the light, so it is not usefull for me.
I need a way to have constant power on the wire for the lamp and makes my switches smart. Is there any tool that can achieve this?
Was would be the best way, what is your solution for the problem?
Is the only way really to replace the old switch with a zigbee one? I need two switches about each other with a frame.
A dumb switch is a dumb switch. If you want smart control over your smart luminaire via a wall mounted controller, you’ll need to replace your dumb switch with a smart controller of some kind.
There are zigbee switches available that allow for ‘de-coupled’ mode whereby the switch will send eents to HA without actually switching the power off to the light. You’ll have to look for one in your country with this functionality.
If you can find a device that can be flashed with ESPHome, then you can often control the button function separately, like the Sonoff devices.
ESPHome is WiFi based though, but it proves that an ESP device can do what you want.
ESP also make Zigbee chips and Sonoff also use them to make devices, so you might just need a new firmware for that then and someone have probably already made it.
A ZbMini, don’t connect the relay, only the switch. Then bind the ZbMini to the lamp. ZbMiniL2 probably can’t do it, because it needs to be powered through the lamp.
Use your smart switch as a button only, do not connect line out to light. Connect your light to live without a switch and manage the actions using automation on home assistant end