Zigbee Green Power devices

Hello there,

I recently purchased a Zigbee green power “friends of Hue” 4-button switch.
One of the things I really appreciate about it is that it doesn’t require any external power input. No more worrying about low battery or dealing with “without neutral” complications. It’s truly exciting!

I’m curious to know if there is a “list” available somewhere that includes similar devices. I’ve been searching but haven’t had any luck finding one.

Naturally, the capabilities of such devices are limited since they rely on the motion of the switch to generate enough power for sending Zigbee messages. However, I believe this concept could be extended to other interesting home sensors as well.

For example, a door/window sensor where the movement of one part in front of the other could generate sufficient current in a coil to achieve the same effect. Isn’t that fascinating?

I invite you to join me on this journey towards energy-efficient sensors!

2 Likes

Merci pour ce message :slight_smile: I don’t use Hue devices, so this specific switch is of no use for me, but I like the concept and hope that it will evolve and taken up by other manufacturers.

According to zigbee2mqtt devs, it is now included.

I hope to get rid of my hue bridge as soon as I get some time to flash zigbee2mqtt to my ZB-GW03

I want to centralize all my zigbee devices under one single hub.

My 4-buttons switch is a Niko (popular brand in Belgium) not a Philips device.

Zigbee2MQTT has had ZGP support for years. It is the ZHA integation that still do not support ZGP.

I have an Aurora 4 button ZGP device working with Z2M, it is recognised and this:

https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/PTM_215ZE.html

https://www.directtradesupplies.co.uk/product.php/215152/aurora-lighting-au-a1zbkwcw-aone-zigbee-kinetic-wall-controller-white-

It looks almost like the niko I bought. But mine has no symbols on the keys.

Looking at Z2M site, it is the same EnOcean PTM 215ZE control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT

You’ve got my curiosity on this statement. No power? Maybe it “steals” power from the lines being switched? I know there have been some thermostats advertising this ability, but reviews have been poor. For one thing, it can only steal power when the switch is on. I’d be interested to hear how this is accomplished in the Green Power switch.

No, it uses kinetic energy, no connection to any wires

Interesting. I’d like to know more about how it does that. I remember they used to sell flashlights that you’d shake to generate electricity. You had to shake a LOT to get even a few moments of light. It seems powering a Zigbee radio would take more kinetic energy than moving a switch could provide, but obviously there’s more to it than that.

1 Like

Yes they are clever. bigclivedotcom has done a video:

Amazing isn’t it?
I’m really excited by this technology.
It will not be usable for, lets say, temp and humidity sensor, but I see a real potential in this technology.
As a drawback, it does not relay the zigbee signal so does not contribute to the zigbee meshing.

That’s the reason why I’d like to see other types of sensors that take advantage of kinetic energy.
I know about switches now, what about other stuffs?

1 Like

It is pretty clever. You can get a surprising amount of kinetic energy from compressing and releasing a spring. And it’s great to see someone actually counting bits and trying to make the communications more efficient. It’s been a long time since anyone in the technology field cared about efficiency. I’m all for it!

Where I see a problem is two-way comms. I see how you can send a few bytes every time someone presses a switch, but I rarely use my smart switches. Generally either an automation controls them, or I control them from the HA UI. So no kinetic energy available. We could always go back to Tesla’s solution (the guy, not the car.)

I decided to replace the switch that controls my smart bulbs with the niko switch I mentioned earlier.

This offers several advantages: I can now control the light using voice assistants, Home Assistant’s user interface, and with a physical switch for guests who usually prefer the tactile experience.

By making this switch, I resolved the issue of the previous switch disabling the smart bulbs. However, the new switch does come at a cost of 50€ (or 50$) for the four-button version.

Clarifying question, since I read some contradicting statements (from different points of time, though): Running the latest Home Assistant version (and Zigbee2MQTT) on a Home Assistant Yellow device, can I connect ZigBee Green Power / Friends of Hue / EnOcean devices directly via the Yellow or is still a “translator device” required?

Thanks!

yes, you need a mains powered ‘Green Power Device’ to relay the messages

I have Zigbee2MQTT, with a conbee zigbee dongle and only have one ZGP button device (Aurora 4 button) and it works fine

Most hue and IKEA bulbs act as ‘translator device’, and a lot of Chinese switches too.

Hi @francisp, I am trying to find a source for confirming which Ikea Tradfri light bulbs would work as Zigbee Green Power translator.

Do you have any more information about this, please? I cannot find anything on the internet.

Thanks

See here:

Hi everyone, I bought an Ikea Tradfri LED2107C4 today. It works as Zigbee Green Power Translator, and I am now able to join a Vimar 03906 “Friends of Hue” kinetic switch (Enocean based: EnOcean PTM 215Z control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT) to my zigbee network.

I have no Philips Hue devices whatsoever, just that Ikea Lamp.

Ikea lamp firmware version: 2.4.4, date 20230421.

I’ll update the documentation as soon as possible.