Bypass blown - Reproducable

  • Hi folks!

    I have gotten acquainted with the Shelly product line recently and immediately went out and bought some. I have had a Shelly 1 running for a couple of days now (needed that one for the dry contacts) and the next step was to install some Shelly 1L's in my light switches.

    Yesterday I got the first one hooked up. Simple wiring with a single switch, controlling a light fixture with two 3W LED bulbs. It worked very well, firmware updated, configured, attached in Home Assistant, all was well. Until the bypass blew up. A fairly loud bang, and the main breaker tripped. That was a surprise. I triple checked the wiring diagram again and made 100% sure that I wired the things correctly. That conclusion also supported by the fact that the whole system worked fine for like an hour. I could toggle it remotely and physically, I could trigger my automations off of it, etc.

    I figured I must've had a bad bypass, but fortunately I bought two. So this morning I installed the other. I came to the unfortunate realization that not only the bypass had blown, but the Shelly didn't switch the current on and off anymore. I could still hear the relay click, the web interface was working, etc, just no light. I assume there 's a fuse inside that's also blown.

    Anyhow, I tried another 1L too. So a different Shelly and a different bypass to the first set that had blown. Again, it worked great. Didn't hook it up to HA yet, but I started trying different combinations of things. Turning it off from web, when the physical switch had turned it on, the opposite of that, etc. etc. All worked well and I was happy.

    UNTIL...

    I tried switching it on/off/on in quick succession via the web interface, and the exact same thing as the day before happened. A loud bang, breaker tripped and the bypass charred. Which makes me wonder, what's causing this? I see a couple of options:

    • I wired it incorrectly. This seems extremely unlikely, since it's not a complicated schema, plus the whole setup worked fine, until I flicked the switch in the web interface a couple of times.
    • I received not one, but two faulty units. This seems statistically unlikely, although I guess coming from the same batch, etc etc, it's not impossible.
    • There's a design flaw in either the hardware or the software of the Shelly that's causing things to short. On the one hand that seems unlikely, because I guess the devices and software are pretty thoroughly battle tested by now, on the other hand, I can imagine not a lot of people have tried clicking the web button 5-10 times in very quick succession. Is that a legit use case? No. Should the product be able to handle that without stuff exploding in my home? Yes, absolutely. I'm not completely sure, but I think I was doing something similar when the first one exploded, because I wanted to verify how Home Assistant would handle the switch flipping while the previous automation hadn't finished yet.

    So, I guess my questions are...

    • Do these symptoms ring a bell for anyone?
    • Is there another potential cause besides the three I've mentioned?
    • Has anyone experienced this before?
    • Is there a warning not to quickly switch the relay somewhere, that I missed?
    • Is there anything relevant t
    • hat I should know, but apparently don't?

    Thanks in advance for your time!

  • Do you live in a rural environment? Outside a village, perhaps in a grange? Would it be possible that your premises is supplied with mains voltage by a transformer mounted on a pylon?

    „Habt Geduld. Alle Dinge sind schwierig, bevor sie einfach werden!“ (aus Frankreich)

    „Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.“ (Marie Curie, 1867-1934)

    „Es reicht nicht“, rief Schiller, „Gedankenfreiheit zu fordern, man muß auch denken können, sonst fordert man Gedankenlosigkeitsfreiheit und die ist die Freiheit zur Dummheit, welche wiederum die schlimmste Unfreiheit überhaupt ist!“
    (Aus „Besuch aus Weimar“ von Gert Heidenreich, Schriftsteller, *1944 in Eberswalde)

  • Do you live in a rural environment? Outside a village, perhaps in a grange? Would it be possible that your premises is supplied with mains voltage by a transformer mounted on a pylon?

    Thanks for the quick reply! No not at all, I live in a city in an appartment building.

  • Thanks for the clarification, ErikBooij ! Some days ago, I had an exploded bypass too - on my bench. Details are recorded here: click! (Unfortunately in German language, sorry). Hypothesis is that bypass is in danger if a transformer with high leakage inductance is present in the same mains network. But in your environment this should not be very likely…

    „Habt Geduld. Alle Dinge sind schwierig, bevor sie einfach werden!“ (aus Frankreich)

    „Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.“ (Marie Curie, 1867-1934)

    „Es reicht nicht“, rief Schiller, „Gedankenfreiheit zu fordern, man muß auch denken können, sonst fordert man Gedankenlosigkeitsfreiheit und die ist die Freiheit zur Dummheit, welche wiederum die schlimmste Unfreiheit überhaupt ist!“
    (Aus „Besuch aus Weimar“ von Gert Heidenreich, Schriftsteller, *1944 in Eberswalde)

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von thgoebel (8. Januar 2022 um 14:01)

  • Ah, vielen Dank! I can read a little German, but I think the technical details would go over my head even in my native language (Dutch). Thanks a lot though, I'll keep my eyes peeled for other suggestions here.