Relay module with inputs for ESPhome | Home Assistant | Page 1

inner sandal Jan 3, 2025, 6:56 PM

#

I would like to have a hardware (can run ESPhome) that has equal amount of inputs and outputs. Dummy button switches on the input, relays on the outputs. Device shall locally toggle the relay if HA is down (can be done with ESPhome checks). If HA is up, I just want events to HA that will perform the actions. I'd like this setup for new home, which would allow smart and dummy lights to still get toggled if HA is done for some reason.

Inputs shall support 230V, so that button press in the wall can propagate live voltage back to the distribution box & to board.

I'm unable to find appropriate board. Board would sit in the distribution box (or somewhere near to it). Wired option with ethernet is preferred tho.

slate laurel Jan 3, 2025, 7:03 PM

#

there are other options.

like the small smart switches you can hide behind your existing light switch that are wired to the switch. these should work locally without ha. no complicated wiring to get those inputs back to the distribution box.

also, you can use zigbee bulbs and wall panels that are set up to talk directly to each other for the on/off function even if you also bind them to ha

inner sandal Jan 4, 2025, 9:02 PM

#

Understand, I have some Sonoff switches. But how do I make it work, that when HA is down, switch relay will toggle, while when HA is not down, pressing the button won't toggle the relay but turn off the light because I want to keep the mesh for other sensors

#

(if HA is down, I also don't need mesh since sensors can't report states, tho)

slate laurel Jan 5, 2025, 11:07 AM

#

i don't have any of those relay type switches in my setup since the locations of the legacy switches here do not match up with where i want to have my light switches. i leave power to all lights on all the time and just use zigbee bulbs. one result is that i have a ton of routers in my mesh. i used zigbee2mqtt to bind battery operated zigbee wall switches directly to bulbs so that i could turn bulbs on and off without involving ha. they were also bound to ha for other presses than on/off so that ha could handle light intensity, colour etc. it was a load of fiddling around in the bind tab for the switches. it's been a long time since i tested it though. ha has been very stable since i moved my usb to sata cable over to a usb2 port instead of usb3.

#

i think the home assistant server must be up though for my solution to work. at least enough to get the zigbee2mqtt coordinator up. otherwise there is no mesh at all.

#

as long as the bulbs are set to come on by default at power on i can still use my old light switches when ha is completely offline

inner sandal Jan 5, 2025, 8:39 PM

#

I don't use the binding as of today, but I do have in my current setup only smart switches. With HA being down, I can't set scenes, nor (currently) can I turn on/off the light.
For the "wife approval" at least a toggle is needed while HA is being updated or for some reason server crashes.

And since another building (the one I'm asking for) is a new and installation isn't yet done, I was thinking to NOT put smart switches behind the switch itself because I could wire them to the distribution box.

Thanks for your insights.

#Relay module with inputs for ESPhome