Dry Contact Relay – How It Works with Shelly Wave Devices

Modified on Wed, 24 Jun at 3:43 PM

Overview

Shelly Wave devices such as Shelly Wave 1, Shelly Wave 1 Mini, Shelly Wave Pro 1, Shelly Wave Pro 2, and Shelly Wave Pro 3 use dry contact relay outputs.


A dry contact relay output does not send voltage by itself.


The relay works like a controlled switch. When the relay is turned on, it connects the relay input terminal to the relay output terminal.


This means the output terminal will only have voltage if voltage is also supplied to the related input terminal.


Supported devices

This logic is valid for the following devices:

DeviceRelay output type
Shelly Wave 1Dry contact relay
Shelly Wave 1 MiniDry contact relay
Shelly Wave Pro 1Dry contact relay
Shelly Wave Pro 2Dry contact relay with multiple inputs and outputs
Shelly Wave Pro 3Dry contact relay with multiple inputs and outputs


Important terminals

For Shelly Wave 1, Shelly Wave 1 Mini, and Shelly Wave Pro 1, the main relay terminals are usually:

TerminalFunction
LDevice power supply
NNeutral
IRelay input
ORelay output
SWSwitch input

For Shelly Wave Pro 2 and Shelly Wave Pro 3, the same rule is valid, but the devices have more than one relay channel because of that have multiple inputs (I) and outputs(O) and switches (SW)


This means they have multiple relay inputs and outputs. Examples:

DeviceRelay channels
Shelly Wave Pro 22 relay inputs, 2 relay outputs and 2 switches connections
Shelly Wave Pro 33 relay inputs, 3 relay outputs and 2 switches connections 


Each relay input works together with its related relay output.

For example:

  • Input I1 works with output O1

  • Input I2 works with output O2

  • Input I3 works with output O3, if available


How the dry contact relay works

The relay inside the Shelly Wave device does not create voltage on the output.

When the relay is off:

  • The relay input and relay output are not connected.

  • No voltage is passed to the load through the output terminal.

When the relay is on:

  • The relay input is connected internally to the related relay output.

  • Any voltage connected to the relay input is passed to the relay output.

  • The connected load can then receive power.


Why the output may not have voltage

A common mistake is to expect the output terminal to provide voltage automatically.

This is not how dry contact relays work.

The output terminal is only a relay contact. It does not provide voltage unless the related input terminal is connected to a voltage source.


For example, terminal O will not output 230 V AC unless terminal I is also supplied with 230 V AC.

On devices with multiple outputs, the same rule applies to each channel.

Examples:

  • O1 will only receive voltage from I1

  • O2 will only receive voltage from I2

  • O3 will only receive voltage from I3, if available


Example: Using 230 V AC on the output

If you want to have 230 V AC on the output, you must connect the phase wire L to the related relay input.

For a single-channel device:

  • Connect phase L to terminal I

  • The load is connected to terminal O

When the relay closes:

  1. Terminal I is connected internally to terminal O.

  2. The 230 V AC from terminal I is passed to terminal O.

  3. The connected load receives power.

For multi-channel devices:

  • Connect phase L to I1 if you want 230 V AC on O1

  • Connect phase L to I2 if you want 230 V AC on O2

  • Connect phase L to I3 if you want 230 V AC on O3, if available


Correct wiring logic

To switch a 230 V AC load with a single-channel Shelly Wave device:

  • Connect L and N to power the device.

  • Connect the phase wire L also to terminal I.

  • Connect the load input to terminal O.

  • Connect the other side of the load to N.

To switch 230 V AC loads with a multi-channel Shelly Wave device:

  • Connect L and N to power the device.

  • Connect the phase wire L to the needed relay input, such as I1, I2, or I3.

  • Connect the load to the related relay output, such as O1, O2, or O3.

  • Connect the other side of each load to N.


NOTE: You may find wiring examples on the following link, wiring of the Shelly Wave devices are the same Wi-Fi devices.


Important note

The relay outputs are potential-free. This means the relay contacts are separated from the device power supply.

Because of this, the output will not work as expected if the related relay input is not supplied with the voltage that must be switched.

Always make sure that the correct input is used for the correct output.


Summary

Shelly Wave dry contact relays do not send voltage from the output by default.

They only connect the relay input to the related relay output when the relay is active.

To get voltage on the output, the same voltage must first be connected to the related input.


This rule is valid for:

  • Shelly Wave 1

  • Shelly Wave 1 Mini

  • Shelly Wave Pro 1

  • Shelly Wave Pro 2

  • Shelly Wave Pro 3

The only difference is that Shelly Wave Pro 2 and Shelly Wave Pro 3 have multiple relay inputs and outputs. Each input controls its own related output.