I’m trying to wire up my new home with smart switches and lighting. I’ve settled on using ZigBee for bulbs and switches and sensors. Most of my use cases are straight forward (check for neutral, cry, add bypass). There’s two cases that I’m less certain about:
Combo fans with built in lights. Adding the canopy module is clear, what’s less clear is the switch. The fan switch says don’t use with lights, and the light switch says don’t use with fans. What’s the right way to wire one of those?
LED strips with transformers. I’m replacing some crawl space bulbs with strips, but the Inovelli switches don’t like the inductive load. What kind of switch can I use that will work in detached relay mode? Can I use an Inovelli just bypassing the relay completely (transformer is always live, downstream WLED controller handles state, switch sends ZigBee signals to HA which talks to WLED)?
Since you are adding a canopy module, that suggests power originates at the fan box and that you have a 2-wire running between the fan box and the switch box, also known as a switch loop. So as configured, there is no neutral in the switch box; only a hot and a switched hot.
In this configuration, you can use a Blue 2-1 Dimmer in the switch box. The fan will be directly powered by the hot in the fan box, so the switch will not have a load on it.
At the fan box, rewire the 2-wire running to the switch box by connecting it in parallel to the constant hot and neutral. This will provide a constant hot and neutral to the switch, allowing it to be used as a scene controller. The switch will not have a load as it does not need one.
You can then use the switch to control the canopy module (and therefore the fan and light) using automations or binding.
Power the transformer independently without going through the Blue Dimmer. Wire the dimmer with a hot and neutral and with no load. Then you can use it as a scene controller to interface with HA and WLED.