r/sonoff

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Hi all,

I bought Sonoff ZBM5 switches to replace all of my light switches (20+) and I have home assistant green with the ZBT-2 to control them. My problem is getting them working in home assistant. I'm using the ZHA integration and I have neutral wires at the switches but when I go to add them it's very intermittent. Most of the time it just doesn't find them. At first I thought it was a range problem so I used the closest switch which is in the same room and about 2 meters from the ZBT-2 (I also have the ZBT-2 on an extension lead so it's 1.5m from any routers etc.). That does seem to help as it does sometimes find them but If I do manage to get home assistant to find the switch it works maybe once then becomes "unavailable".

I then decided to try some Sonoff smart plugs and the first one I plugged in showed up on home assistant instantly without me even searching so I thought it must be the switches. However, when I tried the second smart plug I had the same issue with the switches and couldn't find it in home assistant.

I got very frustrated and bought a Sonoff ZigBee hub to see if that worked and it did! I know have 5 switches working perfectly with different automations etc. through the ewelink app.

Am I doing something wrong in home assistant, should I try 2MQTT instead of ZHA?

Thanks for your help

Setup:

**•**	Sonoff Mini Duo (2-channel Zigbee relay, **with neutral wire** version) installed inline behind my wall switch.  
**•**	Device is still in **complete factory state** — not paired with eWeLink, ZHA, Zigbee2MQTT, or anything. I don’t even have internet in the house yet, so no HA/coordinator running.  
**•**	One channel is wired to my bathroom light fixture.  
**•**	Just installed brand new smart bulbs (Zigbee) in that fixture, intending to use them purely as “dumb” on/off bulbs via the physical wall switch for now, until I get my Zigbee network and HA set up later.

Problem:
Flipping the physical wall switch does nothing at all — no light, not even a default warm-white glow, nothing.

What I’m trying to understand:

**1.**	Does a Sonoff Mini Duo need to be commissioned/paired first before the relay will physically pass power through at all, or should it work as a basic pass-through switch straight out of the box in factory state?  
**2.**	In factory state, is the relay possibly defaulting to “off,” or sitting in some kind of idle/unconfigured mode that blocks power entirely?  
**3.**	Since mine has the neutral wire connected, is there anything different about factory behavior compared to the no-neutral version?  
**4.**	Is there a way to manually force it into a simple passthrough on/off state without pairing it to anything yet — or do I basically need to at least do local setup via the eWeLink app before it’ll function as a switch?

Any guidance appreciated — trying to rule out whether this is a relay commissioning issue before I start troubleshooting the bulbs themselves.

Thankyou in advance!!! <3

Hi guys I'm using sonoff it seem one by one they falling now. any thoughts?