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I'm trying to connect a Shelly Plus i4 into an existing circuit by replacing a wall-switch.

Getting it in there was no problem, but everything getting power is. Having it wired according to the diagram, the Shelly i4 shows up and can be configured. However, the same circuit supplies power to a couple of the lights it is supposed to control.

The control is via Home Assistant, so the Plus i4 does not need to supply the power, but it should be passed through.

Now, the Plus i4 requires a Live and a Neutral wire. If I wire those 2 together (no switch) to allow the lights to always have power, then I no longer have a Neutral wire (both Live) in the wall socket of the switch.

What / how would there be a valid method of re-wiring the socket in such a way that the lights always receive power, and still allow the Plus i4 to have a Live and a Neutral wire?

(For what it's worth: AC 230V power grid -> Netherlands)

P.S. I did take the risk of frying the Plus i4 with creating an extra loop in the wall socket and hooking up the Plus i4 into that. See picture

see picture

However, it does not turn on with this configuration.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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This is not how the i4 works. The i4 input button(s) will trigger another relay to control an item. You cannot directly use the i4 as a classic switch. You should use a Shelly 1 or 1PM in this situation with a classic switch or push button on top.

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  • If you have smart bulbs, it is possible. I have simple PI server to interact locally with the smart bulbs. Works well for me.
    – manish
    Commented Jan 3, 2023 at 12:03
  • Think Shelly i4 as 4 binary input to the IoT system (i4 - has a meaning). It does not switch anything, it is not o4 or both, like 2PM.
    – V-Mark
    Commented Mar 25 at 22:04
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You only have a live wire (brown) and a switch output (black) coming into this socket.

The appropriate way to wire this would be to pull new wires through so that you have live (brown), neutral (blue), and a switch output (black) wire. The black wire wouldn't be used for your usecase, but would be necessary if you want to turn it back into a normal switch.You'd connect the live (brown) wire to the L terminal and the neutral (blue) wire to the N terminal. Failing this there is always the ...

Hacky approach, wherein you repurpose the original output wire (black) to instead connect to neutral. You have to be careful here because the black wires are thinner than the normal wires, but this doesn't matter for a switch. Take some blue electrical tape and tape it on the ends to notify the next person to work on this that it's a neutral wire. In this case you'd connect live (brown) to L and neutral (blue) to N. Important: Do not do this with your current wiring. Your current wiring creates a short.

Connecting the Light can be done in the distribution unit itself. There, instead of connecting it to a neutral (blue) and switch (black) wire, you'd connect it to a neutral (blue) and live (brown) wire. With this the light will always have power

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