Zigbee light switch with decoupled mode?

Hardware
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102

Hi all and more specificaly to @mikaelhertzman :slight_smile: , I would like to revive this thread once more. Looking into the devices supported by zigbee2mqtt i found these three:

  1. Ubisys S1 control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT
  2. Ubisys S2 control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT
  3. Ubisys C4 control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT

they all three support binding

they all three support decoupled mode

all three are battery less and powered by main.

Aren’t they satisfying all the requirements?

  1. Use the physical light switch to turn on and off smart bulbs (without toggling the power to the bulb)
  2. Use the grid/mains to power said device
  3. Use Zigbee standard for said device
  4. Not having to rely on bypassing the switch with wiring (edit: added this for clarity)
1 Like
103

Yes, they should fulfill the requirement and they are mentioned multiple times throughout this thread but good looking out! :slight_smile:

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.

104

Crap, you are totally right!

I just re-read the thread and you mention them in your very first post… Sorry… I should have read better…

105

I had the opportunity to test for these devices

  • 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 :slight_smile: )
  • 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 :slight_smile:

3 Likes
106

Now there is the SONOFF ZBMINIR2 control via MQTT | Zigbee2MQTT :slight_smile:
It does support detached mode

107

I just need a 3-gang switch that supports decoupled mode for the US region :pray:
Maybe that doesn’t exist yet.

108

Thank you for the tip! If you, or anyone else, owns it and can verify that it checks all the requirements of my first post I will add it to the list!

109

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.

1 Like
110

Draw over it with black marker or cover it with a small piece of black electrical tape. Problem solved

111

I see better ways of spending electricity. This LED is completely unnecessary. However, covering it does partially solve the issue.

112

If the measly amount of electricity a tiny smd led uses bothers you, then go nuclear. Grab a pair of tin snips or your nail cutter and chop off the led. Job done.