My nightstand lights are connected to a surge protector plugged into a Zigbee smart plug plugged into a dumb wall outlet controlled by a single dumb wall switch.
I have the smart plug set to default=On, so the wall switch works fine, and I can also turn the lights off from my phone or via an automation. All good so far.
What I WANT is to be able to turn the lights ON without getting out of bed, and irrespective of the position of the switch.
I tried putting a second smart plug in the switch-controlled outlet and making an automation to toggle the surge protector’s smart plug when the switch’s empty smart plug powers off/on via the wall switch, but it looks like it’s not simple to detect a Zigbee device “disappearing”. I found some integrations that detect zigbee devices disappearing, but those seemed more for running health checks to detect and repair moved devices than for live detection.
Any suggestions?
Assuming technically possible, this solution requires no other hardware:
Is it possible to make the smart plug default to the opposite of the last state? You could use the wall switch like a pushbutton (cut and restore power) and it would toggle, then maintain control from HASS. You might be able to save the last state of the smart plug, detect when it comes online after a power failure (theoretically), and set it to the opposite of the previous state in an automation.
That’s probably possible, but doesn’t solve my problem. That said, some commentors found my explanation confusing.
When the switch is toggled ON, I want the lights to go ON.
When the switch is toggled OFF, I want the lights to go OFF.
Irrespective of the switch position, I want to be able to turn the lights ON or OFF with Home Assistant.
It sounds like a zigbee relay behind the switch will be the way to detect the switch position.
If you’re putting a relay in the outlet box, you can probably eliminate your smart plug as well
The second one that I attempted to use as a switch position detector, you mean? Because I think I’d still need the one in the un-switched outlet to turn the lights on and off.
My point is, you would keep the switch on no matter what and flick it off and on again when switching the lights on/off
Sonoff makes a bunch of Zigbee smart relays, that can take input from a normal switch.
It’s basically just a Zigbee relay that can connect and disconnect regular wires, just like a switch does. But it also has terminals for connecting a regular switch, which then just functions as a button that controls the relay.
Something like this: https://sonoff.tech/en-eu/products/sonoff-zbmini-extreme-zigbee-smart-switch-zbminir2
Any suggestions?
Yes:
Do not play stupid games with surge protectors.
So, I’ve been looking at Shelley’s smart switch modules which actually get wired in behind the light switch and use it as an input to control the smart switch. It involves simple wiring, requires a neutral in the switch box, but would give you control from either the switch or otherwise.
For me, it would let me control the lamps in my apartment and not show anyone that I had made all the switches smart.
Shelly relays are amazing, you wire the load and switches to it. Making a dumb light smart
Here in the UK we don’t have a neutral wire the light switch, so I have a shelly in the light fitting
Oh, that’s genius! I know a light I had to skip making smart because it didn’t have a neutral, but putting it in the light is a great solution!
If I’m reading this correctly, it sounds like what you want is a Shelly relay installed behind the dumb switch. Then you wouldn’t even need the Zigbee wall plug at all.
They do make button pressers, if your switch is the flat kind that could work I suppose.
I dunno what you expect us to tell you though, the switch is gonna turn off power to the circuit.
You may have better luck with a smart zigbee switch to replace the switch. Be careful that it complies with your local regulations etc.
If you want the aesthetic of the current switch, you can alternatively get relay modules which would sit in the box behind the switch and connect both to the switch and the socket.
If you don’t want to mess with the in wall wiring, you can get covers that sit over a wall switch and contain/mount a battery smart switch.
If none of that suits, sounds like you’re on the right track with powering the light from a non switched socket and using the presence/absence of a second device to identify the switch position. But I don’t have advice on the fine details.
I like the relay idea better, thank you. I’ve done outlet and switch wiring before, but never for HA and not yet in this house.
Detecting the missing device seemed like it would be the easiest way as it wouldn’t require wiring, but it seems that that’s actually the more complicated option!
What?
As I read through that Goldbergian stream of connectedness, I’m left wondering:
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Whatever you really trying to accomplish that brought this on
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Won’t that wall switch always be a manual interrupt for the automation
Basically, don’t you want to automate the wall switch of lock it to being always on? (There are wall plates for this).
Kinda sounds like the setup is
Ac mains -> dumb switch -> ZigBee switch -> power board -> light.And they want to turn the light on while the wall switch is off, which sounds like it won’t work because the power would be off, also turning power off to the ZigBee switch and the light.
The goal is correct, but the current setup is incorrect. Right now, I have:
AC mains -> dumb switch -> zigbee smart plug
AND
AC mains -> zigbee smart plug -> surge strip with two lights on it
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