Adding two floodlights (and controlling them independently with a smart switch)

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Hi there.

I would be really grateful for some advice re replacing an old-style fluorescent PIR floodlight.

I live in a bungalow and, in my kitchen, there are two wires that come down from the roof and enter a switch on the wall. Out of that switch, runs a third wire that goes through the wall to the PIR on the outside;

I am in the process of making my home "smart" - specifically with Zigbee and Home Assistant.

What I really want to do is switch out the old PIR for two LED floodlights (ideally, so I can put one on either side of the house).

I also want to be able to control them independently.

Can I therefore replace the current switch with a 2-gang zigbee smart switch and then run two separate lines out to two separate floodlights?
 
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If the cables route from the two lights, all the way to the present switch, then y,es that should be a simple matter of replacing the one gang switch with a two gang zigbee.
 
Thanks very much for confirming (I suppose it is little different to adding a 2 gang electric socket to a ring main).

As the switch is directly on the lighting circuit, I have access to neutral (which seems to be a huge benefit, when it comes to buying smart switches). There is no connector at all for the ground on the switch - I take it that I am fine to connect all four grounds together with a separate connector?
 
Thanks very much for confirming (I suppose it is little different to adding a 2 gang electric socket to a ring main).

As the switch is directly on the lighting circuit, I have access to neutral (which seems to be a huge benefit, when it comes to buying smart switches). There is no connector at all for the ground on the switch - I take it that I am fine to connect all four grounds together with a separate connector?

Yes! Though if its a metal box it should have a terminal, most plastic ones also have one.
 
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I have done the same for the landing lamp, the zigbee relay DSC_6061r.jpg to work centre our outer or both lights, in the main it works well, however every so often it has a hick-up, the hard wired switch stops working, however when my son fitted it for me, the relay was housed inside the lamp. 20220529_211956.jpg Now it is hard to assess the relay, and since the fault is intermittent, and it still works A1 with phone or voice commands, I have not bothered looking at the relay to see if a bad connection, the switch is extra low voltage so no real problem if it stops working, hardly ever use the wall switches.

However learn from my error, mount the unit where it is easy to access.

Zigbee works well with phone and tablet, but needs an emulator with the PC, so very slow using PC, also we have one remote control Lidi-remote.jpg the idea was to use it for landing lights, but zigbee will only allow me to program in bulbs, seems it will not work with relay.

Whole idea of relay instead of smart bulbs was so we could also control with standard switches, the first attempt at automation was with mihome energenie, and we had 5 light switches, now down to 2, as the switches malfunctioned, it seems likely there was interference due to having so many devices on one hub? But the outside light started to flash like a car indicator, so now we in the main aim for devices which are easy to change, smart bulbs and smart adaptors, the relay is an odd one out, most smart lights just use smart bulbs or socket adaptor, so if it fails easy to replace.
 
Zigbee works well with phone and tablet, but needs an emulator with the PC, so very slow using PC,

Win 11 is supposed to have the built in emulator, except I have not found any way to update my lap top. Which emulator are you using, I'm using Bluestacks - latest version is quite a bit quicker loading and running. I only use it for setting up routines, rather than control.
 
Also using Bluestacks, I removed and reloaded the latest version 5.8.0.1081 N32 about a month back, it has improved, and I can do most things, but the relay has to be opened up and you select one of the two buttons. It often takes me around in circles. It also takes an age to load up around 5 minutes, which means in the main I use my phone. I get reports like 1664742574395.png I would assume that is the emulator? In the end I do get this 1664742719091.png but although most only require a simple click, the landing light one needs to open, and clicking on it returns to this 1664742908567.png screen, 1664743067609.png the times show 4 minutes to reload, that's after blueStacks is already running. Other items do work, 1664743306141.png I can scroll down and switch lights and sockets on/off and it does actually show what is running, shows the strip light in living room is on, where the Energenie Mihome app Mihome-used-crop.jpg does not show what is running other than the energy monitor. Smartlife works A1 on tablet and phone, it is only the PC where it has problems, and the zigbee hub has never really had a problem, the Energenie hub around once a month it needs re-booting.

However it is only fair to let people know the smart system is not quite as good as it first seems, and at least Google Nest Mini's often do things which we have not asked for, turning on wrong lights etc. My relay switches are called switch inner and switch outer, and asking it to turn on switch inner it will some times say switching on 6 switches, and one has to work out what now needs turning off again.

All in all I like the automation, but it does have some glitches.
 

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