I would like to share my little “momentary wall switch project” combined with a Xiaomi wireless switch.
The one major issue I kept running in to when trying to add lights into my smart home config was that I have “rvs wall switches” which cost me a lot of money and regular switches don’t work well in flows.
Trying to keep my solutions up to the “acceptance levels” of my wife was really hard, untill now I couldn’t find a momentary switch that would work with my “Merten Schneider” wallswitches.
Now that I’ve found a momentary switch that works, I was contemplating about making it work with homey.
At first I wanted to add a Fibaro Z-wave relais but they are pretty pricey!
Then a collegue showed a youtube clip off someone modifying a Xiaomi Aqara switch, we decided to try this.
I went for a regular round Xiaomi wireless switch because this can also handle a “long push” as a scene trigger.
When disassembling the Xiaomi switch my collegue found that it wasn’t necessary to remove the switch button, he found 2 holes on the pcb which also had switch capabilities therefore leaving the button intact and just adding 2 wires.
Button with addition.
Still with the original batteryholder.
2 thicker cable ends for fitting in the wall switch.
The first setup will be a Ikea Trädfri dimable lightbulb combined with the above hooked up to a momentary switch. Making it possible to dim the Trädfri light or turning on multiple light with the flick of a switch!!
After trying to fit the complete button behind the momentary switch I was quite disappointed that it wouldn’t fit in the wall.
So we removed the housing and added some protective shrink tubing, for the next few switches we’ll be adding a proper battery holder.
The modified Xiaomi wireless switch now works perfectly, fitted in my bedroom. Added flows to turn on/off the Ikea Tradfri bulb, Dimm or brighten the Tradfri bulb and telling Homey we’re going to sleep and turn off everything in the house.
With the other square Xiaomi switch it is also possible to do this modification with.
The reason I chose this round switch is that is has the “long push” scene trigger that the square one doesn’t have.
These are the scene triggers that can be used with the round Xiaomi switch:
These are the scene triggers that can be used with the square Xiaomi switch
The “Schakelaar slaapkamer licht - aan/uit” flow is for a square Xiaomi switch button that’s on my night stand to turn on/off the light when I’m in bed.
The others are for activating scene’s and behaviour.
Yesterday I received another order, I also found a double momentary switch, so we’re now going to hookup 2 modified Xiaomi switches to 1 CR2025 battery holder to make sure 2 switches will fit inside the wall behind the momentary switch.
Works superb! We hooked up 2 switches to one standard battery in a separate battery holder, the battery should be sufficient for months of function as a normal switch setup lasts years.
So now I can turn on/off, dimm/brighten, activate scenes for all the lights in my living room with just this one wall unit.
Thinking out loud here: it should be possible to combine one of these with a regular (230V) switch, provided that:
the switch is of the double-pole (“tweepolig”) variety
the switch doesn’t have to be connected to Neutral (so it only switches Live: brown wire in, black wire out)
One of the poles would switch the Zigbee device, the other pole would switch the 230V. Because in a double-pole switch both poles are separated, there’s not risk of putting 230V on the Zigbee part.
Yeah, momentary switches wouldn’t work. If you’d use a double-pole switch, the Zigbee switch would be activated the entire time the switch is on, not sure how/if that would work either.
True, the double-pole switch setup wouldn’t be a replacement for your setup, but another possibility to use the Zigbee devices for (basically to register is a particular hardwired switch is on/off, although it would depend on how the Zigbee devices work with their button being activated all the time).
Also thinking out loud…
At home I have Busch Jaeger switches; among others Future Linear.
Wondering if I could make / 3D print a housing or adapter piece to hold the Aqara remote double switch as an extention, while re-using the normal flippers
was really hard, untill now I couldn’t find a momentary switch that would work with my “Merten Schneider” wallswitches.
