Sonoff Switch Man M5 Wall Switch
On the face of it, this 3 gang light switch looks like just that, a standard light switch, however, it is much more than that when you dive deeper. The Switch Man M5 works like a regular light switch which is great if you are retrofitting these switches into a house as it means that functionality and natural control methods are not removed. One of the main issues with using smart bulbs in your main lights is that if the light switch is turned off the bulbs do not respond. This can be very frustrating and not the smart expiriance you want. Changing the switch to a smart light switch like the Sonoff Switch Man M5 allows the switch to be controlled rather than the bulb. Therefore automations will always work.
The appearance of the Sonoff Switch Man M5 is striking and in keeping with other products in the range like the Sonoff NSpanel, what was reviewed previously and can be seen hereLINK
The sleek look and gunmetal grey finish on the switch makes for a stunning appearance when mounted to the wall.
The installation of the switch is simple however if you are not confident in changing light switches please ask a local electrician to install this for you.
The Sonoff Switch M5 also requires a neutral wire so bare this in mind when purchasing, in case your home is wired without neutral wires in the switch boxes. The front plat of the switched is removed when installing. This hides the mount points and makes for easy installation.
Once the Switch Man M5 is properly installed you can move on to pairing the device using the Ewelink app.
Pairing the Switch Man M5 is as simple can pressing a few buttons in the app. Press the blue plus button in the center at the bottom of the home screen. This will bring up the “Add Device” screen. Select “Bluetooth Pairing” from the options.
This screen will then be displayed where you need to select the “indicator blinking correctly” check at the bottom of the screen before you can continue.
Once selected the check mark will turn blue as show in the screenshot below.
Once the pairing process is complete you will see the device listed in the Ewelink app. Ask Alexa to "discover new devices" and she should fine your new switch if you already have the ewelink skill enabled on Alexa.
Controlling devices that aren’t physically connected using Scenes
I mentioned in my Instagram post about the Sonoff Switch Man M5 that switch can be integrated and control other devices even with no physical connections to the out terminals. This can be achieved using the scene section of the ewelink app or IFTTT if you wish to control devices outside of the Sonoff ecosystem. Please be aware that using the physical switch with no device connected to the out terminal can be dangerous as the output terminals become live when the buttons on the switch are pressed. As long as nothing touches these terminals there is no issue with this.
To control devices using ewelink scenes first open the ewelink app and click on scenes on the bottom menu.
The following screen will be shown.
Click on the plus at the top of the screen this will start the scene creation process and allow you to control other devices listed in the ewelink app.
The first screen lays out how the scene will work and uses the “if this then that” method to show how the scene will work. First you need to select an “if” or Trigger action.
The trigger actions can be seen above. You can have a trigger through a virtual button using the “Tap to perform” option, a scheduled trigger using “Time of Day”, a trigger that uses the sunrise or sunset, or finally when another smart device state changes. This is the option we will use for this example. Select “Smart Device” from the list of options.
Select the device that you wish to use as the trigger. In this case we will be using the Switch Man M5 which will show with the name you entered during the pairing process.
Select the Channel that you with to use as the trigger. Channels are the buttons on the physical switch. Channel numbers run from left to right.
Once you select the channel you will need to select the action that should be used to trigger. If you with for one action to be performed when you turn the switch on and another when the switch is turned off then you will need to create 2 scenes. one for the on action and one for the off action.
Select the action and tap the “save” button.
This will then take you back to the scene creation screen with you new device and trigger in the “If” section of the scene. Next a “Then” action needs to be selected. This is the action you want to happen when the “if” condition is met. Press the “+ Add” button to select the action to be taken.
A similar list of option is seen to when we added the “if” trigger action. By selecting “Smart device” you are able to select a smart device to be controlled. This works in a similar way to before, where you select the device, channel and state. Instead of this being the state in which the scene will be triggered, this is the state that the device will automatically be changed to when the “if” condition is met. click the save button at the end and you are all set and the scene will be active. It is also worth noting that you can add a time period where the scene will be active too on the scene menu screen. This can be done using the option below.
These scenes in the ewelink app work great.
If you are looking to control devices from other manufacturers this can be achieved using IFTTT. The walkthough to create an integration using IFTTT can be found hereLINK
All in all, the Sonoff Switch Man M5 is a great looking product as well as being super functional. We love the fact that this switch matches in with other products in the range and comes with all the features and functionality we have come to expect from Sonoff products.
If you wish to get your hands on one of these switches or any other Sonoff product then they are all available at the links below:
