2-1 Blue Switches Seemed to Die After Binding to Group via Z2M

Switches General Discussion
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#1

Hello,

I installed two refurbished 2-1 blue series switches with single pole non-neutral wiring. I thought I had neutral as the last switch I replaced did but these two did not, they were each attached to light fixtures in the kitchen.

I am using smart bulbs that I want always powered on and controlled via bindings so after wireing and pairing to Zigbee2Mqttt I set it into SmartBulb Mode. I then followed these instructions to bind the group of lights to each switch:

After doing this I tried to toggle the switch from Z2M like they did at the end of the video. However the blue light on the switch just turned off and I get constant errors in Z2M when I try to do anything indicating that it cannot communicate with the switch. I am not sure if it somehow died or if I’m missing something, maybe a bypass?

I got about 20 more switches to install, I first bought one for my sons bedroom to test out and it worked fine but had a neutral wire. I have no idea how many others would be without neutral if that’s what is causing this, I’ll have to go around and open up each box to see what’s inside. Most of my switches are 3-way so I need to flip like four breakers as they all chain together.

Thanks!

#2

I assume the smart bulbs are starving the switch for power because I don’t have neutral. Could I wire the line to the load and then back to the switch so that everything always has power. Then just use zigbee bindings for the smart bulbs and have no local control?

#3

You have to throw FOUR breakers to kill the power to a single switch leg? :eyes:

#4

I mean to get through all of the boxes to check for wires. Most have two+ switches but of the group is on a different breaker. Then there’s another box with a switch for the same outlet but the other switches in it are for different breakers. I have like a split level entrance so which has switches in the basement and first floor to control it’s lights but then the entrance lights on the first floor share a box with the switch for the staircase to the second floor which then has a box for lights upstairs. None of this was really labeled in the breaker box either so I had to flip those and see what happened.

#5

I just noticed this setting when setting up some other switches:

image

Not sure if it’ll prevent the need for a bypass in my situation but I’m going to try it when I get a chance to kill the power again and put the switched back in.