In front of me I have 2 new products in the Sonoff Range.Well, new except that the controllers appears to be also-recently-released material packaged in very nice looking dual wall switches.In each case, these are standard-fitting wall switches – one runs on WiFi and the other runs on Zigbee.
Worryingly I’m not 100% sure of the release date as I can’t find the matching paperwork from Sonoff but I THINK it’s TODAY.But having just reviewed various new Sonoff controllers, I’m confident I’m unlikely to find any surprises.The BIG one for me is the MW2, running on WiFi and compatible with the eWeLink APP, but if I’m right also their MATTER-Compatible claim is valid.
Despite many years checking out new IOT products I’m still fairly amateur when it comees to Matter-compatibility – so let’s dive straight in.Both are dual switches, one is WiFi (MW2) and the other Zigbee ZBW2) – both of them require neutral.Take a look at my previous article on Sonoff switches and I think you’ll see the controller-basis of these new ORB devices – relevant items to compare are the Mini Duo Zigbee and teh Mini Duo WiFi.
No doubt about it the ORB units are smart-looking – I may just go down this route in our soon-to-be-realised new home – early next year I’ll be knee-deep in re-wiring – right now I have a Heinz-57 mix of wall switches from various manufacturers and in some cases I’ve simply taped over existing wall switches and used Zigbee no-wire battery-powered solutions nearby (well, you have to have manual switches – what if your disappear off on holiday and have friends stay who can’t do smart controls One thing I like about the Orb devices and their underlying controllers is that they should continue to run locally in the absense of any signal, WiFi or Zigbee – handy if you move home and want to leave the wall switches in place… but I digress… MW2… here we go and notice my completely inappropriate wiring colours… incoming power using standard British mainas wire – brown for live, blue for neutral meanwhile the bulb uses Spanish blue and black colours – but as it’s a bulb, no matter.Common neutral using (in this case) choc-block – the incoming live on the switch uses for reasons known best to Sonoff – a different connection type to the rest of the connectors – S1 and S2 are the switch connections which return to live inside the switch.L1 is for a first lamp/load, L2 (unused here) is for the second.
The Sonoff switch packaging like all of their products comes complete with multi-lingual instructions backed up by web versions.A word to the wise – don’t be like Peter – my standard electrician’s light-up plain screwdriver is JUST a BIT to wide for these connectors – and my “Philips” is the wrong pitch.Oh well, I got there.
Having triple-checked that I’d not done anything stupidly dangerous, I plugged the power cable into a handy power socket near my desk.The blue light started flashing and without wasting time I got out my phone, seleted the Google Home App, ADD MATTER DEVICE and had the app scan the QR code on the back of the switch.And that’s IT – DONE.
Well, not quite – got to rename the device as we have 2 new switches – called unimaginitively “WiFi Smart Plug” and “WiFi Smart Plug (2)”.As I only have one MW2 I think I’ll call the set MW2-1 and MW2-2 for now.Let’s see how that goes.
LONG-press on the device in Google Home – settings cog – name – and change.Short-press (I noted) turned the devices on and off as it should be.Well, I’ve avoided MATTER until this week, and this is now my second switch, set up in seconds.
Ok, so I can turn the lights on and off in the Google Home app – big deal – I could have (as I would have done in the past) used the eWeLink app and as eWeLink is linked to my Home Assistant account, achieved the same thing but as I’ve just had confirmed that MATTER can now turn things on and off LOCALLY – this is clearly the way forward.Next – my Home Assistant – but first – trying out the actual buttons on the switch – no problem – press the top half for on – press again for off.The bottom half of the switch will do the same with the second output.
And as for my Google Home – voice command – “ok google, turn on orb mw 1” clearly not the best choice of names I could have made – “ok, turning on 2 outlets”.Perhaps I should stick to “upstairs light” and “downstairs light”.But as I’m moving home shortly I’ll stick with this as I make sure Home Assistant knows about the new switch.
And it gets worse..that’s a single device in HA and it doesn’t turn on or off – worse – if I look at the Matter integration..This is my fault/incompetence, nothing wrong with the controllers – I really am going to have to re-think the naming… “top orb mw” and “bottom orb mw” come to mind..
Well, I only had to add “bottom orb mw” to link the device (both outputs) to HA.Still says “WiFi Smart Switch” in device info in HA….maybe I should take up woodwork or another non-tech skill.
There are indeed 2 separate switches in Home Assistant… just a matter of getting that renaming going – check out my blog entry on the underlying controllers – cracked it once, I’ll crack it again.For now, a working WiFi wall switch.the top half of the button toggles the first output, the bottom half toggles the second output – quite a solid feel.
Ok, I deviced to delete the device and start again – this time calling it sonoff-mw2.In the Google Home App… I THINK that’s it – renamed the device that appeared with that original “WiFi Smart Switch” in Home Assistant.And after a brief struggle with entities from my first attempts (could not delete – then realised I could hit disable – same thing)..
voila.
