Situation: I have a double Aqara switch (no neutral) that I would like to set up as follows:
Left button switches a dumb LED light like a normal switch would, just with zigbee control.
Right button controls a set of hue lights that should be powered on full time, but the button tells the bulbs (set up as a group) to turn on and off.
I am using a custom driver that allows the buttons to be disconnected from the switch (which I don't believe the generic multi-endpoint drive allows)
I have set the switch to have two buttons and created the two child devices.
The switch works as you would expect and is controllable via zigbee as you would expect when the buttons are connected to the switch.
However, when I disconnect the right button from the right switch, I can control the right switch child (thus powering up/down) by zigbee, but I can't find a way to capture the button input (to control the hue bulbs) while leaving the child power on. The reasons I'd like to leave the power on is so there is reliable power for the no neutral switch, which can be a bit temperamental otherwise.
Effectively I think I want this switch to have 4 separately addressable devices when the buttons are disconnected - 2 for the buttons, and 2 for the switches (that control power).
It sounds like you are ultimately disconnecting all physical wires from the switch, or want to in order for this to work? Is there a terminal for neutral on the switch?
If you can hard wire the switch to get power with a neutral in full disconnect mode, I think the four buttons would work as you want them to. However, in order to do this you need to bring neutral and line into the switch box, by rewiring things in the light fixture box.
If you have experience with home wiring, you can open the box at the first light, and rewire it so what used to be a switch circuit down and back through the switch to the light, becomes a dedicated line and neutral to the switch box. This removes the old switch circuit, and just gives the switch box power for your disconnected switch.
Then you replace the dumb LED bulb with a smart bulb, and you wire the lights, up in that same box in the ceiling fixture, to just always have power, so that your lights that "should be powered on full time," are powered on full time.
So, in summary, Line and Neutral are up in the ceiling fixture, if they are not at the switch box. You tap into that to power source in that box to change things to power both the lights, and the switch in the box, full time, No more switch circuit.
If any of that seems confusing, you should hire an electrician to do it. If you cannot power the switch with line and neutral in full disconnect mode, I guess this will not work.
Thanks for the replies. I think I probably wasn't clear enough in my first post about the setup:
My lighting circuits don't have neutral wires - hence the use of Aqara "no neutral" switches in the house. Re-wiring would be an epic task.
It's a 2-button switch that has the ability to disconnect the button from the "relay" behind it that is connected to the lighting circuits.
One side is connected fine and works as expected. (This is an LED light fitting that can't be swapped out)
I'd like the "relay" on the other side to be permanently "on", but be able to use the button on this side to send messages to the hue bulbs. The driver for this switch has the options to disconnect the button from the "relay" (which is good) and I can access the "relay" as a child device from hubitat (but I want to leave this turned on). However, I can't see a way to access the button from hubitat - logs show activity from the master switch device, but I can't see a way to access this activity as a separate button push.
