2y ago

With the recent developments of Phillips Hue, I feel like more people should look into Shelly devices. I have a few and they're great.

www.shelly.com

Just a moment...

Shelly is proud of their devices being:

No hub neeeded
Not required to be online
Compatible all major hubs if you do want to connect them.

I do not work for Shelly. I just really like how I don't have to use an app for them and they're compatible with seemingly everything. I've bought the devices and I can do what I want with them.

I had owned two of their smart plugs for a couple of years and they decided to stop responding to resetting and could talk to them. Shelly support sent out two new plugs for me and asked for the defective ones back so they could troubleshoot them. Great service.

Just seems that privacy-centric people should be using privacy focused devices.

They are headquartered in Germany so very unlikely they'll go back on their offline compatibility anytime soon.

33 comments

Just buy a Zigbee stick and you don't have to change all your existing hardware.
Shelly works with Wi-Fi which I don't prefer personally.
- Sorry this might be a stupid question but if I buy a Zigbes stick do I need to use Home Assistant? I have my Hue lights added to HomeKit now but based on the articles I’ve read Hue will still lock out HomeKit from control unless I create an account - so whatever I can do to avoid that would be great.
  
  I’m running Zigbee2MQTT in docker. You could also run HomeBridge docker along side that, eliminating the need for Home Assistant. I still use Home Assistant as my front end but Zigbee is running on a Pi and HomeBridge is on my unraid server. Regardless, look into HomeBridge. It is very powerful for exposing non-HomeKit devices to that platform. I also have multiple Shelly devices and absolutely love them. I just didn’t want to replace my 9 Hue devices needlessly. I’ve been very impressed with the speed of Zigbee2MQTT over the Hue bridge so far.
  
  HomeAssistant can expose any device you want to HomeKit. I use it for Siri instead of going through the Hue hub.
  
  Yes I think you'll need Home Assistant for that. You can add any Zigbee device to Homekit if it's connected to Home Assistant; that'll bypass the Hue account requirement.
  
  You should also check out Hubitat, they make a excellent ZigBee + Zwave hub. Works with Google Assistant, has a REST API and can work offline as well. They give you a lot for free.
- Are there any reputable relay brands that work with zigbee? I prefer relays, but I agree that wifi based relays are basically like installing low power wifi jammers in your house lol (OK, that's an exaggeration, but it is an issue)
  
  Reputable? Eh, depends on your definition.
  A lot of people make use of Sonoff and Tuya-relabled Zigbee relays. If you're able to control it at a wall switch (so not an actual relay) then your options greatly increase.
  
  It certainly could be an issue, but I have 6 installed in my home and WiFi can still go over 200 Mbps. Maybe it could go higher, but I don't need that.
I have quite a few Shelly devices, mostly relays. I Like them very much but they are not ideal if your target is HomeKit. There are work-arounds out there but they do not specifically support Apple ecosystem.
There are also custom firmwares you can load on ESP8266s as well, but nothing beats a UL approved solution so you don't burn your house down 🤪
I have 4 Shelly Plugs:
Two for LED accents in the living room that turns on at sunset and off at midnight.
Two for my 2 3D Printers so I can remotely turn them off if I see print failures.
I rent right now, but in the future I hope to buy and get a few of their light switch and a bunch of relays to turn regular outlets into smart plugs.
- Do you know if klipper can control your Shelly plug? I have a kasa for that reason. All local control.
  
  I do not know. Sorry
  
  I never tried, but Im sure it does. I have tasmota on klipper (mainsal) right now, but found this on moonraker:
  type:
  The type of device. Can be either gpio, klipper_device, rf,
  tplink_smartplug, tasmota, shelly, homeseer, homeassistant, loxonev1,
  smartthings, mqtt or hue.
  This parameter must be provided.
Shellys are amazing. We use the pucks everywhere for anything that's not innately smart.
Some of our use cases:
Kitchen cabinet lighting that syncs each strip with each other as well as the overhead lights. Or the cabinet lights can be turned on independently.
Garage door opener, because MyQ sucks (it's hooked up to a real physical garage opener button and triggers the button for us)
Outlet power monitoring (mostly for fun)
Can be put in light switch boxes in lieu of something like Kasa switches, but the physical switch won't follow the light state any more. Similarly, smart wall outlets for power toggling
I have been meaning to ask, can Shelly be used to turn existing light switches/circuits smart? I have four separate light switched each for a single light, and I'd love a simple solution so if I turn one switch on all four lights come on.
- Yes.
- This should be possible to mount in the wall switch hole behind existing switch. You can still use normal switch or automate to your liking. There are dual devices for dual switch as well. I never used one, but planning to get some soon
I want to use the shelly relays, but I've only got 2 wire switches and can't run without the neutral. Might be able to wire it at the fixture, but that's a lot of work.

33 comments

The type of device. Can be either gpio, klipper_device, rf,

tplink_smartplug, tasmota, shelly, homeseer, homeassistant, loxonev1,

smartthings, mqtt or hue.

This parameter must be provided.