This is an interesting thought! It might be possible to accomplish this. Have you had the chance to try it yet?
On the top of my mind there are two things that might be an issue with your suggested work-around (but I would very much like to be proven wrong):
Most smart lights (at least the ones I use) light up when powered. I don’t know if this will cause the light to turn on fully and then go into an off state. Might cause some blinking if that’s the case.
Depending on how this is configured it might generate a lot of communication and interdependent logic. When turning off all lights for example Home Assistant will have to trigger x automations (x being the amount of lights you have) and then send double that amount in commands over the Zigbee network (one for the smart relay to turn on again and one for the light to turn on in an off state).
I might be missing something but I would like to hear more about how this works out if you decide to try it out!
I didn’t saw that we spoke about this earlier in this thread, maybe in some other. But never the less…in ha this switch is rated as xiaomi but I believe its aquara switch. Check online with a model.
I knew I saw somewhere decoupled mode so I went to check on it. I totally forgot about it and then I found it on one of my switches. It can work in relay mode, as a standard switch. When you turn it on/off it turns lights on/off. When you switch it to decoupled mode you cant turn light on or off by pressing the switch. This is what decopled mode should do?
This is actually a pretty nifty work-around, thank you! Only drawback I guess would be if people have double-button switches or the need to control two or more devices “individually” or in groups(since this would mean using both outputs for the lights).
If the Ubisys products won’t work I might look into this option, as long as there are affordable Zigbee alternatives (this seems to be Zwave). Thank you again for your suggestion!
I really love the enthusiasm and the shared interests in here! Thank you all for engaging!
I am sorry for taking so long to update you regarding my experience with the Ubisys S1. I’ve just managed to successfully install a few other brands of smart switches and dimmers for my “dumb” lights so now I feel a renewed sense of confidence for playing around with the Ubisys switch. (It is way too pricey to risk short circuiting). Hopefully I will have time to get around to it next week.
I’m thinking it might be nice to compile a list here with the different work-arounds, solutions and possibly working products identified in this thread and mark that as a solution. What do you think?
If you agree I might try to do put together a list after my tests are done.
True. I have my Hue and IKEA lights (also without bridges) configured to “previous” power-on behavior which I believe means they will resume whatever state they were in before they lost power. This is mainly in case of a power outage (which I agree should be an edge case for most households).
Configuring the lights power-on behavior to “off” should definitely allow for your suggested work-around, and will only require sending commands to any affected switches.
That is totally fine, it’s good that there are options for other scenarios. And yes, this option should work with most smart switches. In cases of non-neutral switches (like the ZBMiniL2 for example) it should also be possible to use Wago blocks/terminals for example to power the switch without having it interfere with the light directly, but I leave that for professionals to determine.
I stumbled on this topic in my search for a decoupled Zigbee wall-switch.
It got me wondering, and I think could you achieve this with a 2-gang (internal wall) switch? Put the physical switch on S1/Channel 1 and not connect the output of channel 1. It would effectively act, as other have said, purely an input switch.
Then, connect the bulb to channel 2 output, and leave the switch input for this channel unconnected.
This means we have now separated the light from the switch, without taking away the opportunity to actually cut the power to the bulb. And by having two different HA automations, you can switch between either cutting power, or controlling the bulb, i.e. on/off of the smart bulb.
You could even use one automation with a condition choice based on an input_helper to decide which function you want the switch to have. E.g. ‘maintenance mode’ for hard switch, or ‘functional mode’ for normal on/off behaviour of the smart bulb.
This would be effectively be a decoupled light switch? Or am I missing something?
Thank you for contributing! If I understand you correctly I think it’s something along the lines as @conklingni mentioned previously in this thread (see quote below), or am I wrong?
In any case, yes this is a great workaround! I am not sure what defines as decoupled but what I mean is the relay (that is what switches on and off the power output) is separated from the switch (what is pressed) on a software level.
I saw aquara switches on aliexpress that supports decoulped mode for only 15 €. Maybe its better to buy one, if someone need this, than to play around with electricity.
If possible please refer to the specific models so that we may look into them (perhaps you are referring to the one you mentioned previously). Aqara, and other suppliers, provide a number of switches and if we have missed any of them it would be nice to be able to look into the details of said device.
When it comes to “playing around with electricity” it’s important to note: Always hire authorized professionals (at least in countries where this is required by law) for electric work. I hope everyone here understands that noone should perform possibly harmful or lethal activities without proper training or oversight from a professional.
That being said I know there are battery powered switches that can be placed or mounted anywhere but the purpose of this thread was to find devices according to the requirements in my initial post.
Thank you! Yes, this seems to be the a switch similar to what you linked previously (the WS-EUK01), and I believe this also requires electrical work (due to wires from the switch to the light among other things).
I recommend you (and everyone else for that matter) to take a look at https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices, a great resource when looking into what configuration options are exposed on a device.
I agree that it’s also a cheaper alternative to the Ubisys switches but with the caveat that you will need to replace the whole switch (see my previous answer below):
This is the code WS-EUK01 and what I see this is sold now on aliexpress for a 15 €. Big discount from what is was a year ago.
Electrical work is marginal as you only need to connect live and light wire or live, neutral and light wire depending on your setup.
As I mentioned in my previous disclaimer the only recommendation I think we should give is that electrical work should always be performed by a professional. We can’t know or control what people do, but I don’t think we should start splitting hairs since we are still talking about live wires. It doesn’t matter if it’s two, three or five wires. It only takes one mistake to cause potential harm.
Well it does but on the other hand it is not that difficult. I mean if you are able to install, configure and set it up and running home assistant on linux, as this is basically made for linux, then it reasonable doubt that those guys will understand some basic electrical procedure.
The recommendations and legislation probably looks different depending on what country you live in, and on top of that there are probably gray areas as well. I don’t think we should get into a discussion electrical work in this thread, suffice it to say that everyone will have to adhere to the rules and regulations that apply to them. Where I live for example the number of wires or my knowledge doesn’t matter, I still need to contact a professional.
But to answer the subject matter - yes, external (not built-in) Aqara switches is an option.
I’m using the Aqara H1 in the UK and it seems to work great in de-coupled mode. Got mine from Amazon but Aliexpress ones above are similar, I think they may market them as Xioami too.
