Just had my first play with a new Semismart Zigbee Smart Screen Switch ZMS-206EU-3 and I’m quite excited…
See the main photo – this standard EU fitting wall switch – which requires neutral – switches up to 3 devices on and off – the blurb that comes with it says you need to pair it with the Tuya app – no you don’t – if you’re a Home Assistant user and have Zigbee2MQTT set up as I do, it’s a quick matter of hitting PERMIT JOIN in the Zigbee2MQTT add-on and seconds later – one new switch – and it’s BEAUTIFUL.
There is a white version and a black version – this is about the black one – black screen with silver frame – nothing to see initially except for 3 white rings on the screen (not backlit).
But as you move near the switch THAT ALL changes. Initially the screen puts up 3 words at the top, switch1, switch2, switch3. Simple setup in Home Assistant follows – you put in what you want and the colours for the 3 switch circles – any combination for both on and off. I set the text to Livingroom, Bathroom and Porch respectively and circle colours to green for on, blue for off (though the blue looks more like cyan to me – and the warm_white and warm_yellow options simply don’t work, changing back to the previously set colour a second after you try to set them). I’ve reported this back to Zemismart.
You have more controls than you can imagine in both the Zigbee config and HA including brightness, backlight on/off, radar sensitivity – you name it.
So at a distance there is no power consumption for the LEDS as the screen is completely off, radar brings the lights (text at the top, on/off rings near the bottom) on as you get close up. The whole effect is excellent and the switches work perfectly both in HA and locally when your hand comes within physical proximity to the switch.
And here are the controls in Home Assistant under the device settings..
Right now, the one finishing touch that is missing – and I have contacted Zemismart to see if they can change it – you can’t READ the status of the backlight in HA – i.e. the radar. If you could just detect the status of the lighting (i.e. currently on or off) – assuming you put one of these switches next to your front door and next to your back door, you would have a ready-made intruder alert system. Someone’s hand comes within, say 150mm of the switch it lights up – it would be so good if that status could be sent back to HA. It just seems so daft to leave that out.
Maybe I’m being greedy but it seems to me that would make a great addition. I’ll update the blog if and when I get a response. Right now I’m having great fun with this new switch and my wife loves the display.
I should say I received a couple of these switches back in January but it has taken this long due to house moving to actually write something.
OOOH, I like the child lock – set that and you can only control the outputs from your phone or PC, the real buttons get disabled. Unfortunately it seems all too easy for the child to un-child-lock the switch. Press 3 times in quick succession and child-lock is turned off.
Here I’m playing with the second of the two switches I received – this one has a white front (I’ve not yet set the output names) but it is otherwise the same as the first unit.
And finally don’t forget there is a US version of this – and there are 1-2 and 3-gang versions. I don’t have switch boxes with neutral so as usual I guess I’ll be mounting these elsewhere and controlling lights or light groups which are already in Home Assistant. I like to have multiple means of controlling light groups like the living room – Google home voice (which of course doesn’t work when the WiFi is dead externally so I fall back to using the phone – using these wall switches even better as being Zigbee they don’t need external Internet connections… and of course that way at any time I can change their use by simply updating the names that appear at the top of the switches – and updating my automations.
NOW – PRICE – I’ve seen 29 euros – but of course price will vary depending where you are in the world. Of COURSE you can buy much cheaper Zigbee switches – but for two things – the ones I have are 3-gang so will control 3 appliances (of more if you get clever – you can programmatically change the text any time – which opens up opportunities) and they are truly beautiful… I am so sick of sticking labels on plugs, lights and switches. I think I like the black ones the best.