Moes Self-Powered Wireless Zigbee Switch Review

Every once in a while, a new and interesting smart device will come along that’s worth testing and exploring. Those who follow SmartHomeScene already know we frequently dig up peculiar, obscure and unorthodox smart devices from the depths of AliExpress.

For example, the Tuya Zigbee Solar Rain Sensor (RB-SRAIN01) was quite interesting and unique. It’s solar powered and can detect water and rain drops, resulting in some very interesting automations. I also got to play around with some template sensors and get a few accurate enough to detect whether it’s raining lightly, moderately or heavily.

In this review, I’m sharing a rather interesting smart gadget — the Moes Self-Powered Wireless Zigbee Switch. This smart switch does not require batteries or wiring, generating just enough power with each button click to send a Zigbee payload and execute a command. It’s available in 2 or 3 gang variants and costs about $15.00 on AliExpress.

Technical Specification

• Name: Moes Self-Powered Wireless Zigbee Switch
• Model: ZT-LP-ZEU1S/2S/3S (GreenPower, GreenPower_2)
• Gangs: 2/3
• Connectivity: Zigbee 3.0
• Compatible Zigbee Channels: 11-26
• Transmission Distance: 15 meters
• Operating Temperature: -10° to 40℃
• Price: From $15.00

Teardown and Package Contents

The Moes Self-Powered Zigbee Switch ships in a small box containing the device itself, a user manual, a sticker and a set of screws for installing the device. The user manual is quite important for this device, it holds the unique Zigbee channel selector table needed to pair the switch.

The device looks very simple and minimalistic, with the three buttons spanning the entire height of the switch. The three small holes that look like indicator LEDs serve no function at all. They do not light up when the switch is toggled. This case is reused by a battery-powered wireless switch made by the same company and I’ve encountered it many times.

Some very basic information is printed on the back, including the maximum Zigbee range which is set at 15 meters in this case. The two mounting holes can be used to install the device onto a regular EU switchbox, or simply placed on a wall with the included sticker.

The three buttons (or two if you get the 2-gang version) need to be removed before this device can be added to your coordinator. The button you see in the top left corner is the actual pairing button. This is inaccessible when the buttons are installed and can only be pressed when they are detached.

Underneath the pairing button there is a small rotating knob used to choose the Zigbee channel you want the device to communicate at. The entire case is held together by 11 screws, which makes it quite sturdy.

Here’s a close up image of the pairing button and channel chooser. This knob is marked 1-9 and A-F. Each of these corresponds to a single Zigbee channel from 0-26 (see here). When you press any of the main buttons, the device sends an action payload (button 1 press, button 2 press etc.) Now, when you select the channel, hold down the pairing button and press the main clicker bellow, the device will send out a pairing payload. More on this below.

To my eye, the internals of this Moes Zigbee Self-Powered Switch are absolutely beautiful. This self-powered Zigbee switch operates using a miniature electromagnetic generator. When you press one of the three buttons, a mechanical force is applied to an actuator mechanism that is linked to this generator. Inside the generator, this force causes a rapid relative movement between a small magnet and a coil of fine copper wire. According to Faraday’s law of induction, this movement of the magnetic field across the coil induces a brief electrical current within the wire.

This generated electrical energy, though produced in a very short burst, is precisely designed to be sufficient to power the integrated Zigbee module on the circuit board. Upon receiving this power, the Zigbee module instantly activates, encodes a specific Zigbee payload that corresponds to the particular button that was pressed, and transmits this signal wirelessly. Depending on which button is pressed, a different payload is sent. The coordinator can then differentiate and execute a different action. Simple, effective and very clever.

This device uses the NXP JN8189 [Datasheet] wireless MCU as a Zigbee communication module. The JN8189 is a low-power, high-performance microcontroller with an integrated 2.4 GHz radio transceiver supporting Zigbee and Thread networking stacks. It features a Cortex-M4F core, 640 KB embedded Flash and 152 KB RAM memory, all designed for energy-saving applications.

The miniature electromagnetic generator is capable of powering this MCU due to the JN8189’s design for ultra-low power consumption. Its architecture and operational modes are optimized to minimize energy requirements, allowing it to briefly activate, process and transmit the Zigbee payload upon receiving the short electrical pulse generated by the kinetic energy harvester during a button press. Interestingly, there is no Tuya chip in sight, even though this device is part of the Tuya ecosystem.

About Home Assistant Integration

The Moes Self-Powered Zigbee Wireless Switch can only be used with Zigbee2MQTT and not ZHA in Home Assistant. The reason for this is ZHA does not support Zigbee Green Power devices like this one. Many users have been asking for ages for Zigbee Green Power support to be added to ZHA, but it appears this is much easier said than done.

In all honesty, I cannot hold this against ZHA developers. Zigbee is a mess of a standard, whose official specification is rarely respected by manufacturers. When it works, it works amazingly. When it doesn’t and you can’t figure out why, god help you. With that said, I still consider Zigbee the best smart home protocol by far, even with Thread in the mix now. Check out my article for building a reliable and robust Zigbee network.

Further, Zigbee Green Power (ZGP) protocol switches likes this one require a translator device within the Zigbee network to convert the ZGP signals into standard Zigbee commands, enabling integration with Zigbee2MQTT. Currently, Philips devices are known to reliably perform this translation function, as well as some IKEA devices. However, the Sonoff ZBDongle-E also supports ZGP devices without needing a translator, but you must use ZLL channels 11/15/20/25.

Setting Channel and Pairing

To pair this switch to your coordinator, first you need to find out your current Zigbee channel and rotate the dial to match it. In Zigbee2MQTT, you can see your network channel by navigating to Cogwheel > Settings > Advanced > Zigbee Channel.

Then, simply remove the buttons, set the arrow on the dial to match your Zigbee channel, press and hold the pairing button and then press the main switch. This will send a pairing payload and, if successful, the device will be immediately identified in Zigbee2MQTT.

The dial corresponds to the following Zigbee channels:

Now, it’s good practice to use a ZLL (Zigbee Light Link) channel for your network, regardless of whether you are pairing this switch or not. Zigbee ZLL channels include 11, 15, 20, or 25, which correspond to 0, 4, 9 and E on this self-powered switch. Note: Changing channel might require you to re-pair all your devices. Read more here.

Zigbee2MQTT Integration

Currently, a lot of work is being done on Zigbee Green Power devices in Zigbee2MQTT, including Tuya models. This includes decrypting the Tuya payload, defining a proper external converter for the 2 and 3 gang variants and properly translating the non-standard messages these devices send. Even though it is still detected as not supported, you are able to use this Moes Self-Powered Switch with Zigbee2MQTT version 2.2.0 and 2.1.3-dev.

In my Zigbee2MQTT instance, the device pairing was very interesting. When I initially paired the switch by accidentally holding Button 1, it was discovered as a GreenPower switch by Sunricher, which was wrong. Another click without holding Button 1 sent the correct payload and identified the device as GreenPower_2.

Even though no external converter is applied, the device is able to operate correctly in a Zigbee network with Zigbee2MQTT as is. Here’s how the exposes tab looks like:

The action corresponding to the button presses is recorded under a different payload name, depending on which button is pressed. This needs some work, as the payload is inconsistently named and recorded as off, on and recall_scene1. In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter what the actual payload is, as you can automate this device anyway. Here’s what the logs show when each button is pressed:

Creating Automations

To create a Home Assistant automation for this switch, the procedure is the same as for any other switch or wireless remote. Using MQTT triggers, you can use recall_scene1, on and off as the trigger and execute actions for button 1, 2 or 3. For example:

alias: Trigger Button 1
description: "Button 1 Press"
triggers:
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: bec649fb1a93fbb1099f2431bc1afd1f
    type: action
    subtype: "recall_scene1" #Change to "on" for middle button, "off" for right button
    trigger: device
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: light.toggle
    metadata: {}
    data: {}
    target:
      entity_id: light.office_light_bar
mode: single

Final Thoughts

The Moes Self-Powered Zigbee Wireless Switch has genuinely impressed me. I highly appreciate the fact that there is no wiring or batteries required to use this Zigbee switch. Honestly, I fully expected to encounter various hiccups with communication, but that was obviously a bad assumption.

Executing actions through this self-powered wireless switch is instant. And I do mean INSTANT. As soon as you press the button, the payload is sent immediately, without any delays. By clicking the button as quickly as I could, I managed to capture 12 payloads sent to Zigbee2MQTT in a single second, which is very impressive and attests to the speed and responsiveness of this self-powered switch.

With future improvements coming to Zigbee2MQTT for Green Power devices, some things are going to get tidied up and these types of devices will operate much better. This list includes some Philips remotes and other self-powered switches and remotes from various brands.

If you do not want to bother with batteries or wires, I can comfortably recommend the Moes Self-Powered Wireless Zigbee Switch. You can get it on AliExpress and their Official Webstore.

Moes Self-Powered Zigbee Switch

Zigbee 3.0

No Batteries, No Wiring

2/3 Gangs (Single Press)

Zigbee2MQTT

AliExpressWebstore

Alternative links: AliExpress 1, AliExpress 2, Amazon.de, Amazon.nl