I'm looking for your advice on making my own in-wall Zigbee outlets... I bought several (10 to be exact) 3A Nue outlets basically for repeating motion, contact and leak sensors around the house. I didn't want to have a bunch of external plugs both because of the look and because the family will inevitably unplug them... In any event, I believe they have served their purpose over the years, and they were kinda cool with the built in USB charging...
Recently however, they have become very chatty... Maybe they were chatty all along and I didn't notice it... Anyway, they have somewhat outlived their usefulness and I'm considering doing something else. Please don't suggest Z-Wave... Every light switch in my house and about %50 of the outlets are already Z-Wave... Mostly GE/Jasco. I even have a few GE/Jasco Zigbee outlets, but they appear to be out of stock everywhere and I'm not sure they are still making them?
So my thought is this, how about making my own? Putting a relay behind a regular outlet and doing it that way? I ordered a SONOFF ZBMINIL2 only to find out its rated for just 6 Amps... I'm thinking an outlet should be least 15 based on who knows what someone might plug into it... Again, I can't control what the family does all the time...
Are there any higher amp options out there? Has anyone tried this? I don't see much in the way of in-wall Zigee outlets and the ones that are out there are expensive...
The ZBminis aren't great repeaters in my experience. If you don't actually need the outlets controlled, get a sonoff dongle(P type). It's USB powered and will repeat for many devices. I tried an enbrighten zigbee outlet and wasn't impressed with the signal strength and returned it(may have something to do with my foil faced insulation)
This dongle, and the TuYa USB repeaters form the "backbone" of two zigbee mesh networks for me. Both networks are very stable, and both repeaters have worked flawlessly for a very long time (>2 years for the TuYa; >1 year for the Sonoff Dongle P).
What do you plug these USB devices into? I'm assuming you hide them somewhere in the room and they act only as repeaters? I have 10 of the current outlets spread around the house repeating... Would I need 10 of these? Rather than have a USB dongle floating around, I might just have to go the plugin outlet route... It just seems weird companies have not invested in zigbee wall outlets. there are many different z-wave options and of course a ton of other zigbeee devices, just very few built in wall units...
I have Leviton outlets with built-in USB in multiple rooms. So inside my house, I plug TuYa USB zigbee repeaters into those. The repeaters look like this:
@aaiyar They look pretty cool... My only concern would be someone hitting it as it sticks out of the outlet... Definitely like the price...
I actually thought about adding those leviton outlets with the USB capability as well. In fact I bought one to try out... My initial thought behind this thread was to make them "smart" by adding a relay behind them and then we'd have the perfect package...
The SONOFF ZBMINI vs the ZBMINIL2 I bought last week, says it does 10 Amps... Vs the 6 Amps of the L2...
Anyone have any experience with these? Are all the ZB minis poor repeaters? Is it dumb to put a 10 Amp relay in the wall?
Try these. Nice and small to fit in the box with an outlet. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256802980963945.html
Haven't tested on Hubitat yet so I don't know if there are drivers. Does work on a Tuya hub. Any links to the right driver?
My concern with putting a 10A relay behind a dumb outlet is the person who doesn't know it's there and plugs in a heater, blow dryer, vacuum, kitchen device, etc.
You may consider that an unimaginable scenario, but it'll happen.
I would never do it.
A plug-in repeater is infinitely safer and will give better performance as well (not buried & surrounded on all sides in a box).
Yeah, that's exactly my concern... Someone forgetting and plugging in when I'm not there to yell stop! lol... For most things, 10A is good... But it would be that random thing like a heater that would be most concerning...
Ok, I see it now... There ware three versions and I clicked on the WiFi one... I see it goes by a few other models and names on the internet... Thanks for finding this! I'm going to do some research!
The relays can be a pain when they are wired behind an receptacle or switch. If they need to be reset/re-paired, you end up having to take the face plate AND the items in front of them out to reach the button or see the LEDs.
If you're looking for outlet control, go with one of the Embrighten/Jasco models or any device with control from the front without disassembly. If you want repeating only, use plug ins or the USB dongles that @aaiyar recommends.
I've seen the WiFi relays seem to have higher tolerances... Not sure why...
