Just bought a house with a velbus setup and one of the things I am doing with house will be blocking off an existing light switch to build a pantry. What I want to do is change that light switch to a wireless light switch receiver so I can easily put a wireless switch on the wall across from it. Something like this receiver/switch
I have no idea though if a product like this would work with a velbus system?
I don’t want to try to add a new light switch mostly because the wall I want to mount it on is not a “real” wall, just a thin wooden wall to separate the stairs to the basement. Also wouldn’t want to rewire anything, so thinking this would be an easy solution if possible.
Unfortunately Velbus is a fully wired only system.
However
You could…
Put a VMB6PB-20 somewhere and hook it up to up 6 radio keyfob receivers or something like 6 Quinetic wireless / battery free units and place the switches where you want them
Hi Bongobong, you said you do not want to rewire anything, but velbus “rewiring” is not rewiring as you’d have to do with the old school installation. I assume that the light is operated by a velbus relay at this moment - is that correct?
Option A:
Place the new switch on the wall (*)
Run one 4 wire extra low voltage cable to from the new switch to any existing location with velbus and connect it
Configure the switch to operate the light (takes 2 minutes, starting your laptop included). We can guide you by hand with that, but it’s easy.
There is no need to rewire any cables from the light - that part stays as is.
(*) How thin is the thin “wall”?
Option B:
Install the solution you provided in the link, but you need to get a voltage free output version.
Install a velbus input module anywhere near your wireless relay. Connect the wireless relay to velbus input module i.e. VMBIN. Your wireless relay would close the input on the velbus module.
Configure the velbus input to operate the light, same comments as for option A
Maybe not the preferred solution as it is somehow a workaround.
But I think you should be able to find some wireless buttons that can be connected wireless via HomeAssistant integration (e.g. via Google Assistant).
This way, you only have to install the button on the wall and make sure it is recognizable on your network so you can link it to your HA Velbus installation.
Little more programming work to do AND maybe not as stable (direct) as the solutions above.
For the “rewiring”, it is a great feature that I won’t need to wire the light to a new switch! But I was trying to avoid trying to set up a new switch and cables to it if avoidable. The wood “wall” is only a ~2cm panel.
Thanks for the details on the two options. “B” is the one I was thinking of, but looking at finding a proper wireless relay that has a button without voltage out has been more difficult then I thought!
I think I am going to go even easier and either build the light switch into the pantry (not ideal, but at least accessible), or enjoy the other benifits of the Velbus system and just program the downstairs lights to another switch. Will give me time to figure out potentially running a new switch in the future.
Does seem like a pretty nice option actually. My current Velbus installation doesn’t have an IoT gateway though, just the usb connection. I guess I would need that to get an “outside” button linked to the Velbus installation?
The Zamel kit that Przemo mentions is an old Radio-remote standard mostly known these days as “EV1527”.
There are lots of cheap EV1527 compatible kit on ebay+Amazon+ali-express etc
You will find remote pushbuttons, keyfobs, 4 or 16 channel receivers with relays etc.
The trick is in finding the right receiver setup if you want to use it with Velbus.
The simplest+easiest way is just probably to connect a EV1527 relay module to a Velbus pushbutton unit. I still have one of these on my velbus setup with an old VMB8PBU although I don’t currently use it… it was mainly there to enable the builders to turn all the lights on/off before we had finished plastering walls and installing final light switches.
The Zamel kit will do this easily… best to buy switch and receiver together if you can; but if you cannnot get the Zamel kit where you are then there are plenty of cheap alternatives on Ebay+Amazon.
EV1527 is NOT secure… so do not rely on it for door-locks etc.
“The cloud service for the Niko connected switch and the Niko connected switch app will be discontinued at the end of June 2024. This means that devices can no longer be controlled wirelessly via the Niko connected switch app and features such as time schedules, push notifications and alerts will no longer work. Manual control, on the other hand, will still remain possible.” so it gives little benefits if any over Zamel?
