What Smart Lights?

[Will McElderry]

Hi All,


I'm just beginning to look for smart lights.  What are you using?

I'm interested to hear what you chose and what you learnt from the
choices you made.


Any gotchas to think about?

Any good online video recommendations also appreciated (found lots of
videos - not enough time to watch them all!)


What (I think) I'm looking for:

 - I'm keen on privacy & local control over wifi

        -  Ideally with a Linux (CLI) application or easy to use API.

         - No need for an app to get going

         - No Internet access for the lights!

 - Full RGB control with no flicker from power would be great!

I want to start deploying some in a GU10 package.


Thanks!


Will.

[Alistair MacDonald]

Hi Will,

I feel I am a little out of date on this one as my setup is getting old, but I will mention what I have just in case it is useful.

My main lights are all the Ikea Tradfri bulbs, switches and the original hub. The bulbs are great and I am still happy with them. I only have white ones, but I am happy with them, and will likely buy more in the future.

The switches have been okay, but one keeps failinig because and crashes every time it starts an automated firmware update. I am looking at other options for these, and am using a couple of Dan's old switches while I decide what to do. If anyone is buying bulbs and does not want switches, can I give you a few quid, you buy the kits instead, and I have the switches?

The hub has also been without issue, but they have a new hub out now and I get the impression they are considering not supporting this original one soon. Just a feeling from some of the wording in some of the documents. I don't know if they will just leave it unsupported, if Alexa support will be maintained if it is unsupported, or if they will remotely brick them all . It works locally and I can talk to it using the COAP protocol. Ikea don't officially support this but they did give the required information to use it to the Home Assistant community so I was able to retrofit it onto my original homebrew system. This is not really relevant as they only sell the new one now and I have no experience of that.

I have played with using a ZigBee stick Malcolm got a few of a while back and that also works well. If they kill the original hub I will probably build my own using these. Most people seem to use these (and ZigBee to MQTT) and Home Assistant. My feeling this is what you are looking for really.

Additionally I  use a Tuya bulb on a lamp, some Tuya smart switches on some other lamps, and an IR controlled bulb on one lamp that is controlled using a Tuya IR blaster. The Tuya stuff is all cheap and okay. I generally use it on stuff that does not matter. The older kit was mostly ESP8266 or 8258 based so could be reflashed if Tuya stopped working, but the more recent stuff uses a new control module and I don't think can be. I can't recommend these if you are after quality or something for everyday use, but for something cheap that you don't care about that much then they are cool. Most of the Tuya protocols have been backwards engineered and I have also integrated them into my homebrew system, but everything goes via the SmartLife (a Tuya EU brand) server.

I think that is all that I have that might be useful. Others have done more than I have though.

All the best,

  Alistair

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "North East Makers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to north-east-mak...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/c0eb1016-d833-4b14-b7a4-8a4ccdd984f8%40mcelderry.com.

[Jon Davies]

Hi Will,

I also use Tradrfri, which was good quality bang for buck when I shopped around and researched what would be fit for my purpose.  I don't use a Tradfri hub like Alistair, and instead use a ZigBee 'Herdsman'-compatible dongle with the Zigbee2MQTT server and an MQTT server to present my Zigbee devices to Home Assistant.  Home Assistant is the prime orchestrator of automation in my house, with NodeRed filling in a small portion behind the scenes.  At some point in the future, I would like to move over to using the Matter standard for all my IoT devices.

As a fairly good starting point/garnering a baseline, you might find it worthwhile watching the following test/review by Paul Hibbert:

https://youtu.be/qET8kxAqYsI

He pitches a set of smart lighting companies against each other, and validates why some others just don't even get a mention (*AHEM* phillips hue *AHEM*!).

Also, you might benefit from having a rummage through Dr. Zzs videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7G4tLa4Kt6A9e3hJ-HO8ng that covers various parts of Home Assistant, both hardware and software.

As a final note, I feel that GU10 is an expensive format to cater for.  I only have one fitting that's in my Kitchen that takes five GU10 Tradfri bulbs, and that is the single most expensive lighting solution in my house my a country mile.  Everywhere else is a single pendant fitting with a Bayonet>E27 adapter and an E27 Tradfri bulb.  All of these (GU10s and E27s) are dimmable and white tone adjustable.

HTH :)

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/CA%2BA%2BpoKii3D5wVt_o2S08W3x0x0OsYGWKrnj%3D%2BwP3L2w2ikUEg%40mail.gmail.com.

[David Pye]

The GU10 format is indeed a pain.....

My kitchen and dining room use recessed GU10 bulbs (10 per room)...

That prompted me to go down the sonoff WiFi  touch switches to control them + HA. (but obviously no dimming or rgb capability). For me that is bearable but I also get it's not what Will is after.

David 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/ca242534a88c346afa49e8dac4c5bb77%40gmail.com.

[Will McElderry]

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments - I've enjoyed following along.

I was interested in LiFX but Jon's useful video suggests they may not be entirely great as a company so I'll consider a bit more.  Thanks Jon.

I think I will give Tuya a go - it looks like it's possible to flash firmware to some of them OTA without having to open the case (not sure if they have plugged the security hole yet - may need to run old firmware).  Again, it's great to have the feedback that they may be imperfect, so I'll consider it a project if I have time - thanks Alistair.

I'll also look into HA and Tradfri lights at some point as they seem popular.

If I go down the Tradfri route I'll let @Alistair know if there's any possibility of upgrading a set of bulbs to a package that includes an extra switch and see if you still need it.

And thanks to David for the suggestion of the Sonoff - not what I'm looking for this time, but one I would have overlooked, and it could still work out better than nothing!

I'll update this list in the New Year (hopefully...) with any conclusion - in case it helps anyone in future.

All the best,

Will.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/CAOQ6x0EmJXLe2Y58_%3D-JSPpyva-vrZ7ZCDdJqNfETcfwR%2B-WNw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jon Davies]

I sincerely hope there was supposed to be sarcasm in your response about LiFX...!

Please be a patron to them if you hate your life. %)

Sent from Nine

---

From: Will McElderry <wi...@mcelderry.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 13 December 2023 20:39
To: north-ea...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Makers] What Smart Lights?

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/3cf9647a-92a1-48c2-9a0e-5eef8c11a9b7%40mcelderry.com.

[Alistair MacDonald]

I note that those Tuya boxes that I have mentioned for switching existing circuits are currently under £2+VAT each. Free delivery if spending over £8 on any order that is free delivery over £8 (and that is a lot of things). https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005730837332.html

All the best,

  Alistair 

[Brian Degger]

exciting...

I am learning about 'home assistant' and trying to get the Tuya recognised. At least I have an extra remote for the chromecast when I misplace the "white lozenge" 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/north-east-makers/c0fb6de6-76d2-4811-a694-be2b4c85eb47n%40googlegroups.com.

[Brian Degger]

seems some tuya devices can be flashed with tuya-convert to make them tasmota for local control, but once they are provisioned with the apps the firmware is updated, and its no longer possible [https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Tuya-Convert/] 

[Shaun Burrows]

Might be a bit late to the conversation, when I looked in to this years ago, the only way to get a decent level of local control was to make it yourself. I really didn't want to go via someone else's computer to control something locally.

I used 12V rgb drivers with LED strips, all ordered from eBay (other sites available), I found there was loads of bad quality stuff out there, so need to check reviews.

Description of what I ordered: RGB LED Strip Driver Controller Module Full Color For Arduino STM32 AVR

(Loads of 12V rgb strips available.)

Used an ESP8266 to control everything, which hosted a webpage for control and used websockets for communication. I don't think it would be too difficult to add CLI.

Code here:

https://github.com/ShaunBurrows/ESP8266-LED-control

7-off strips but easy to modify.

This was largely a lockdown thing, and I've not updated it for a while, hopefully enough comments in the code for it to make sense.