I don’t know of any device at the moment but I wonder if there might be dedicated Zigbee dimmers out there that might solve this issue? I would at least recommend giving it a search just in case. My limited experience is that buttons and keeping them pressed is not the most efficient or intuitive way to accomplish dimming but perhaps that’s just me.
As a way of working around the problem you could always use automations to accomplish double-press and perhaps even hold actions. At least this is what I did. (There are blueprints like this one that should help you get something up and running even if it might require some minor adjustments.) Wouldn’t say it’s as reliable as if the device would have built-in support for double and hold actions but it sort of works. (It’s worth mentioning I haven’t been trying it out for too long so your mileage may vary.)
Sorry for my late answer, i didn’t expect to see activity on this post after my latest answers:)
anyway i try to address all the mention i have seen.
Related to my first post on the coupler:
Does it have support for zigbee direct binding?
i looked into the documentation and it seems that it has:
I’m unfamiliar with the term ‘green power.’
As far i understood the green power is that technology used also by philips hue for battery-less actuator that harvest energy by a kinetic press and with that little power they generate the zigbee command.
in this case i believe that it is meant the protocol.
For giving a more accurate example:
(sorry i am in switzerland and the link points to swiss sites )
Second post:
First off - thank you for your input! I am always on the lookout for new smart products.
You inspired me, i was on the hunt exactly as you are, and then i found this place that was discussing how to solve a problem that it was bugging me a lot, so thank you
From what I can gather from their site their products seem to fit my initial requirements, even though a lot of the documentation is only available in German so I can’t be sure.
I always find the site in english, they have quite an expensive documentation, maybe i linked the site with the german language selected… I am sorry btw
i linked the pdf for the documentation above.
Unfortunately one of your initial requirements is not satisfied, as someone correctly stated, it is a wall powered remote control that can be binded to lights (and coordinator) that will require to bypass the switch for keeping the light (in my case philips hue ceiling light) powered on.
in this specific i haven’t made my mind yet, your finding with the aqara is still mostly the best choice but it hasn’t the dimming effect (topic in zigbee)
However if my currency converstion is correct they are incredibly expensive. 180+ EUR for one device is a lot of cash for a switch in my opinion!
edit: i understood later that this was written in the thread
about the Zigfred. And for that yes you are totally right they are out of mind with the costs… i also answered in the thread (after i understood how this place work…) that i wouldn’t recommend it after i heard what i heard
i find these modules online for 30 bucks
If you, or someone else, owns the device however and can test it out I will add it to the list in this thread (assuming it meets the requirements).
I will experiment in the near future, right now i am still fixing the network at home I am building knowledge right now.
at the end i will explain my zigbee configurations and ideas:)
third post:
yes you are right
fourth post:
perhaps @ciberkids or someone else has been able to try it out and can answer that particular question.
i believe it does reading the pdf i linked, i haven’t bought it yet
As a friendly reminder I would like to note that I appreciate any suggestions for products that would help solve the issue outlined in my initial post, however I would kindly ask that other products, solutions or discussions be raised in separate threads.
you are totally right! i didn’t really explain correctly what each products do.
i am sorry that i didn’t understand the thread methodology of this forum earlier, i realized what i have done only after i posted… sorry… i will not make the same mistake again.
I hope that everyone understands my reasoning and that noone takes offense!
absolutely, keeping the thread tidy is a must for getting the right information out.
For anyone who’s still looking for a decoupled switch, Z2MQTT has just released support for the Aqara Z1 Pro which, on paper (I don’t have one myself yet) can do on, off & hold.
Strangely, only the 4-gang version lists support for hold commands - the others with less gangs only seem to support hold for the slider on the side.
Hi all and more specificaly to @mikaelhertzman , I would like to revive this thread once more. Looking into the devices supported by zigbee2mqtt i found these three:
Yes, they should fulfill the requirement and they are mentioned multiple times throughout this thread but good looking out!
I actually own a S1 but haven’t gotten around to testing it yet. Finding the Aqara moved it a whole lot further down on my todo-list but if you or anyone else picks one up and tries it out I will be more than happy to list the result here.
DIM Zigbee Push-button Coupler SR-ZG2833PAC-DIM-S2
DIM Zigbee Push-button Coupler SR-ZG2833PAC-DIM-G2
from this manufacturer
beside the fact that they are not supported by zigbee2mqtt and that I had to implement their support on my own (trivial but a bump on the road
nonetheless) into zigbee2mqtt
i have bad news for those. I have them working and they WORK as intended but not with Philips Hue.
The reason is due of their firmware nature. They are green power device, so they behave very similarly to the battery less device where they send a message and the home automation system will intercept it and translate to an action.
These device works slightly differently, they assume that the bulb / lamp that they are targeting has the capability to LEARN more remotes to directly control them.
In zigbee2mqtt they appear as devices that have no endpoint nor cluster (only the green power one) and they don’t send any message to the main mesh hold by the coordinator.
The configuration of these device is more “hardware” than software.
You need to set a certain status the device (pairing mode) via a button sequence and the lamp/ bulb in pairing mode, then the device will send a command to a frequency of the mesh. It can cycle over the 16 channel available until it matches the one where the lamp is listening.
If the pairing is successful, the light will react in some how to it (blinking most likely) during pairing.
Proceed to repeat for every lamp/ bulb you want to control with this device.
These device can control as many device that are at reach of the signal that it produces.
More over, these devices can act as router relying messages of the network, they rely messages on the same frequency where the lamp configured to it is.
They can work within a configured mesh network.
In addition my test were executed with this configuration:
2 bulbs from 3rd party vendor (something from aliexpress, with pairing mode with multiple remote, i discover it only by chances )
bulbs initially paired / joined to my main mesh network zigbee and displayed in zigbee2mqtt
let the button coupler to join the network as well (put it in pairing mode and let it be visualized by zigbee2mqtt)
put one of the two bulb in pairing mode, then put the the button coupler in pairing mode (my newtork is on channel 11) and then simply waited a couple of second. the bulb blinked.
repeated for the second
at the end when i was pressing the push button attached to the button coupler it was indeed controlling the two bulbs with dimming.
So the TLDR is:
If the bulb has this capability then you are gold (their bulb / led driver has this). If you have a Philips Hue you are out of the game.
So their binding is different from what we mention in this thread.
I Hope that this would be helpful to some one.
In addition i am in contact with them since some weeks, i explained my struggle with this device and I explained the needs, it seems that they are listening to the request and they could modify the firmware to allow a different firmware to be loaded with a normal binding, but i am waiting for their answer, i wouldn’t hold the breath for this
I have two of these modules. While they support decoupled mode, they lack direct Zigbee binding, which is a drawback. One issue I find particularly annoying is the green LED that stays on constantly, visible through the plastic cover of my wall box at night. I’ve already requested that Sonoff consider adding an option to turn off the LED and enable direct binding in future updates—hopefully, they’ll implement this. Overall, these modules are the smallest available on the market, and the relay is both fast and quiet.
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