Z-wave Battery Driven Relay

Hi,
I wanted to know if anyone knows if there is a battery operated z-wave relay that is available?
I have some z-wave based projects in mind that I want to pursue but there is not AC power nearby.
I want my projects to be totally battery based.

I have some door contact sensors that allow for an external input. Not sure if anyone knows of a way of these devices being modded so they can activate a dry contact relay.

This has been asked a couple of times before so you can find some old threads in the forum but the answer is, no, there aren’t any built for this use case.

There is a brand new device that just came out about a month ago which is intended as a light switch cover to fit over an existing device and actually physically moves the switch. So you might be able to set that up to throw a switch which you attach to your nonnetworked Device. We should note that even in the best of times, though, the battery only lasts about two months and some people find they run through batteries in a couple of weeks. So I don’t know if that’s of any use to you, but the device does exist.

Another tiny battery-operated actuator option which I really like and use at my own house are the Naran Push microbots. This is a tiny robot finger from a Korean engineering company. It has its own Bluetooth to Wi-Fi bridge, the Naran Prota, and its own IFTTT service/channel.

People use these for a lot of retrofit projects, like when you have a fancy coffee maker that you really like but the automated you just need a button pushed to get it started. Or in my case, I have a small blender where I can’t physically push the start button so I stuck a microbot on that. These aren’t Zwave, but they work well, and battery life is typically at least six months and often more depending on how many pushes you send. The only problem is they are expensive. $49 for each microbot. But they do let you solve some use cases easily which are very hard to solve almost any other way. So if you create a project which can be operated with just a simple button push, you could network it this way.

But as far as something like the Fortrezz Mimolite relay which was battery powered that you could wire into an existing circuit, it doesn’t exist on the US frequency. Probably the short battery life just means there’s too much consumer dissatisfaction to make it a viable product.

@Radio_Star has pointed out in another thread that Popp is now making an electronic door strike actuator on the EU zwave frequency that can be battery powered. They are probably banking on the fact that most stores are only opened two or three times a day. But it also offers a mains powered option.

Anyway, for people in the EU, it might be worth looking at:

https://www.popp.eu/products/actuators/strike-lock-control/

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Thanks for the reply! I think this is definitely a gap in the market.

I know it is possible to do this as battery powered z-wave doorbellz and doorlocks are doing this and they do not need to change their batteries too often.

Hopefully something will emerge that can fill the gap that makes economic sense.

It’s possible to do it, but so far not at a price point and physical size that the market will accept. :disappointed_relieved: A doorbell isn’t physically moving anything, which is why it can get the necessary battery life. You’re certainly right that a smart door lock has a battery-operated actuator, but even the door locks that don’t have a keypad cost $175 and are about the size of a coffee cup, just not a match for typical DIY relay application.

I think the day will come when we’ll get there, but the power management side has to improve first.

Do you think it would be possible to mount this on its end so it can move a sliding switch about 1/2"?

Sure, people use it at all different angles. The biggest issue is the degree of force required. It has no problem with a typical rocker switch or appliance button. But it’s still tiny. It has a max torque strength of 1.6 kgf and a max extension of 10 mm.

Here’s an applicable use case from the website. They’ve used Sugru to stick it to the wall.

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