Advice on wifi-enabled bulbs?

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2886 posts

Uber Geek

#2328781 3-Oct-2019 09:20

Not the cheapest option, and not bulbs per se, but it's also worth checking out the Nanoleaf Aurora lighting panels which link together and attach to the wall using 3M command strips.

I installed a set of 9 panels last night and am pretty impressed. Bright, well saturated colours, decent size, and able to be linked to Google Home. The Rhythm module, whereby you can have light schemes respond to ambient sound such as music, is also pretty neat.

There are some good demo videos on YouTube.

jonathan18

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#2328799 3-Oct-2019 09:37

And at the completely other end of the price range...!

I bought a pack of four B22 Kogan white bulbs - $65 with 'free shipping'- about the only affordable B22 bulb that I've found sold in NZ, so a good option for those of us with the more common light fitting in older houses.

https://www.kogan.com/nz/buy/kogan-smarterhome-10w-cool-warm-white-smart-bulb-b22-4pk/

Pretty good, especially for the price; the colour adjustment (warm to cold) is fine, but (as an earlier post found with the coloured Kogan bulbs) the dimming relativity is crud - "1%" seems more like 15-20% of actual brightness, so not really suitable if you want a real dim light for a nightlight.

The biggest issue was the Google app on my phone (a S10+) started crashing frequently (when using GA) almost immediately after installing the bulbs; this seems to have stopped a few days in.

As for the Arlec range at Bunnings - our local store still has nothing but the 4-pack (2 bulbs and 2 plugs), and there's basically nothing listed on their website; would be good if they got their A into G and launched this properly.

cebo

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Master Geek

#2328853 3-Oct-2019 10:01

The Arlec smart socket and bulbs are both Tasmota-flashable. This opens them up to hue emulation and mqtt, and means no phoning home. It's quite a fun little project if you're into it. More info at

https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert

Does need someone smarter than me to figure out all the required settings for the bulb after the flash, but I managed to get it on/off, bright/dim - just can't work out warm/cool!

jonathan18

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#2328858 3-Oct-2019 10:06

A question in relation to using GA-controlled bulbs - what are the best methods to:

1. control wider groupings of bulbs, and

2. minimise the chance of turning on (or off) the wrong bulbs?

GA is somewhat crude in that it doesn't allow devices to be in more than one grouping at a time; this means it's not straightforward to group bulbs - eg, have 'upstairs lights' or 'sleepout lights' - while still having the bulbs set to an actual room. I am trying to use routines to manage this - eg, routines to turn on/off the bulbs in the lounge/dining area (calling this wider space 'living'), but this way every single variation has to be programmed as an option - so I can't simply say 'turn living lights to warm white' unless I've programmed that specific instruction as a routine.

Another option I've tried is adding a consistent word to the name of each bulb in the wider 'group' (so all have 'living' in their title), which sometimes works it'll turn on/off those bulbs if I say 'turn on living lights', but will be inconsistent when responding to instructions like 'set living lights to 50%'.

In a similar issue, I want to find the easiest way to not affect the bulbs in bedrooms when wanting to only control bulbs in the living rooms; I can imagine it'll be frustrating for someone sleeping to suddenly find their lights on simply because Google misheard 'turn on lounge lights' for 'turn on lights' and so turned on every bulb in the house!

Thanks for any advice...

mdf

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#2331932 7-Oct-2019 15:00

Bunnings has added Deta-branded stuff for wifi hardwired IOT controls (switches and sockets). Looks like they are controlled from the same "Grid Connect" system for the Arlec plug-in-able stuff:

https://grid-connect.com.au/

NZ standards approved and not horrendously priced. Might be flashable too with any luck.

richms

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#2337048 14-Oct-2019 22:06

Whole lot more stuff up on bunnings if you search grid connect. Many things I have wished existed but not being able to find, but little info and no stock at glenfield today.

Im wondering if the sensor lets you change the on time and sensitivity from the app, the descpiption just mentions changing manual mode, which would be no more funtional than stuffing a sonoff or something powering the lamps directly. I'd like to see daylight levels, changing daylight threshold, run time, setting if it retriggers or not, and other things via wifi, not worth it if its just an app controlled manual override, but it also is only $25 more than a plain sensor normally.

There are also a bunker light, but no mention of the CCT of the lamp or if it dims or not. The last cheap LED bunker light I got had nasty 100Hz flicker so was pretty unusable, so again I would like to get 1 to check out before getting a whole lot. Also not sure if the sensor could be set up to trigger the bunker lights on and off via the tuya automation rules or not.

Also a T8 smart fluro tube. Would probably have gone with those instead of stuffing sonoffs inside fluro batterns, but again, no CCT changing, its only available in 5700k which is too blue IME, and only the one length.

Richard rich.ms

Edwood

218 posts

Master Geek

#2346333 30-Oct-2019 14:54

JimmyH:

...In my case I have a consumer grade WiFi router, and am already getting up to 10-12 connected WiFi devices (smart speakers, Allplay speakers, phones, tablets, one of my chromecasts etc). If I add a bunch of WiFi bulbs to the mix then I suspect my WiFi will start to struggle...

If only I was as smart as Jimmy... or smart enough to read Jimmy...

In my case I have a consumer grade WiFi router, and am already getting up to 10-12 connected WiFi devices (Smart speakers, TV, PS4, phones, tablets, laptops). I've gone and added a bunch of WiFi bulbs to the mix and now my WiFi is struggling!

First clue was when I couldn't connect a laptop to the router... huh!? Second clue was when the printer dropped off the network and I couldn't reconnect it! ...so, y'know, I turned the lights off so I could print! 💡

I'm also stuck in limbo with my robot vacuum cleaner that refuses to speak mandarin to the Mainland China server, and my light bulbs that only speak mandarin to the Mainland China server.

Bugger.

My plan *was* to sell my Philips Hue hub + 2 bulbs, and move on over to Xiaomi. I purchased the bulbs from Aliexpress because the ones PBTech / Xiaomi sell here don't let you change colour tone.

My grand plans have been foiled and I'm heading back to the drawing board...

Does anyone know if the Xiaomi Smart Hub

a) Works with the Xiaomi Philips LED bulbs?

b) Acts as a dedicated router for Mi devices, and therefore frees up the connections to my router?

I couldn't figure out if the Arlec product was Wifi, but I guess it must be, so will suffer the same problem.

My Philips Hue setup had better control over brightness (Cant get Mi ones dim enough), a slightly better app, was much more responsive, and presumably, scales up well.

...so maybe I just sell all my shiny new Xiaomi Philips LED bulbs and bite down hard as I pay twice the price for Hue.

Penny for your thoughts!

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huckster

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#2346337 30-Oct-2019 15:06

ARLEC's Grid Connect is wifi - bought a pair of switches (PC189HA) and the last RGB bulb in the shop (GLD120HA)

Have flashed 1 switch and the bulb with Tasmota. Took a few goes for both.

With the ARLEC template for Arlec GLD122HA Bulb....

{"NAME":"Arlec RGBWW","GPIO":[255,255,255,255,37,40,255,255,38,41,39,255,255],"FLAG":0,"BASE":18}

.... Tasmota shows brightness and white temperature (cold - warm) but through the console, you can set the colour.

Not get it going in HomeAssistant as yet.

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#2346338 30-Oct-2019 15:06

I haven't looked past the hues. They just work and are a well known brnad. A pity they don't do brighter (higher lumens) colour changing bulbs though. The hues are often on sale at certain times, wouldn't pay full retail for them.

richms

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#2346343 30-Oct-2019 15:13

I've given up on Mi stuff with their region locking of things. The gateway only does zigbee to their sensors etc, it will control the lights if they are on the same china account, will not control lights on a singapore account. Alexa cant control the china account. Not sure on google, never bothered. My mi camera will not work at all since a firmware update just telling me by voice that it only works in mainland china.

The gateway will also only play chinese radio streams, cant input your own shoutcast URL. All I use it for now is a doorbell and noisemaker for a zigbee sensor on the parcel box, and to see temperautre sensors that were unreliable when I had them on my smart things hub at reconnecting.

If your wifi cant handle the devices, fix your wifi. If its just an associated device limit then add a dirt cheap 150 megabit 2.4GHz only AP for the IOT junk.

Richard rich.ms

jonathan18

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#2346375 30-Oct-2019 16:39

@Edwood: I'm using a 'consumer grade' router (the 2D-supplied Fritzbox) and have faced no issues with the significant number of devices that are connected to the network; that currently includes nine wifi bulbs and a couple of wifi switches (none using a hub) and many other devices, so is your problem caused by your particular router (like hitting the 32 device limit of the HG659)? If so, upgrading that may fix your problem. (I am using Grandstream APs as well, which may make things more stable).

I understand why people have gone with Hue, but thus far I'm not regretting the decision to be a cheapskate and go with a range of much more affordable brands.

I'm relatively happy with our Mi bulbs; they've been somewhat unreliable the last week or so, but otherwise have performed well. One frustrating thing is that the bulbs I ordered from the Akld Mi Store vs the ones from PB Tech are actually quite different in colour when on very low brightness (the Mi Store ones are incredibly yellow when set to 'warm white' at 1%). Ostensibly they're the same model, so that's somewhat weird.

The Kogan white bulbs are pretty good, too, other than the lack of a truly dim setting; given the price (four for $69 incl postage, I think) they're definitely great value.

I've just ordered four of the newer and brighter Yeelight RGB bulbs, as the Mi bulbs aren't quite bright enough in some settings. After these four I think I'll have all I need (other than a strip for the TV perhaps); I realise now there are places it's just not worth putting in wifi bulbs (eg the hall), as it's far more frustrating to control via voice than simply using a switch!

My Bunnings still has only one of the Arlec range in stock, so haven't investigated that further; must hit them up about this next time I'm there...

richms

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#2346384 30-Oct-2019 17:33

Ive got several of the e14 bunnings ones for some table lamps, only available in warm white (ick) and the dimming says its 1% in the app but its probably more like 10% minimum. All PWM dimmed too, but when you have a cluster of lamps on independant PWM its not as offensive to be around as when you have 10m of LED strip all dimmed with the same flicker. The pricier older aliexpress wifi ones that still use tuya as the app all have a proper LED driver in them so dont have flicker when dimmed down, but sadly the race to the bottom thing on there means its hard to tell now what is what.

Richard rich.ms

disillusioned

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Geek

#2346387 30-Oct-2019 17:37

Yes the Arlec ones are wifi, but I figured in my case a single WiFi power strip with 5 plugs beats having 5 individual WiFi switches connected. Otherwise would buy the TP-Link HS300 power strip that isn't available here yet. Don't want brands like Vivitar...

I also have a Fritzbox router from 2degrees and had WiFi issues when I had around 25 devices on the network, took some devices offline but also realised I had an bandwidth issue for uploads caused by incorrect configuration of the line speed - that could have been causing issues for smart devices trying to connect to cloud services.

Edwood

218 posts

Master Geek

#2347028 1-Nov-2019 07:57

jonathan18:

@Edwood: ...so is your problem caused by your particular router (like hitting the 32 device limit of the HG659)? If so, upgrading that may fix your problem. (I am using Grandstream APs as well, which may make things more stable).

Yup, that's exactly my problem. Adding another router would fix my # of devices issue. I might have one in storage somewhere. Failing that, anyone recommend a cheap & cheerful 2.4ghz router?

jonathan18:

I'm relatively happy with our Mi bulbs; they've been somewhat unreliable the last week or so, but otherwise have performed well. One frustrating thing is that the bulbs I ordered from the Akld Mi Store vs the ones from PB Tech are actually quite different in colour when on very low brightness (the Mi Store ones are incredibly yellow when set to 'warm white' at 1%). Ostensibly they're the same model, so that's somewhat weird.

I had a surprisingly great experience with the Mi store who sold me my original Mi Philips LED bulbs. Long story short, they are a different model to what I thought I was getting and they don't change colour tone. They were happy to take them back and gave me a full refund. I would imagine someone would be happy to take some of your bulbs back and make sure you had a matching set. On their websites, they both have the Manufacturers code of MUE4088RT

(linky link)

Wait what?! "when set to warm white!?". Are you using Yeelight? ...or the Xiaomi Philips ones? The Xiaomi Philips ones you buy in NZ do not let you change the colour tone. Thats why I had to buy all mine on Ali.

FWIW, our use case is pretty simple... We just wanted to be able to set the brightness & colour tone the way we like it. I'm still learning to live with it, but at the moment, we use switches 95% of the time and the lights are set the way we want, with a few exceptions. I have set up a day/night setting for the bedroom, and also a 'reading' config which turns off extraneous lights, and I manually dim and or turn on/off lights via app for for dinner/TV mode.

I have not figured out any way to set up custom scenes which is very frustrating! Xiaomi only give you 4 preset scenes, so I can't set up a "TV mode" and "Dinner mode" like I had with my Hues. *Surely* this is coming soon in an app update!?

I might spend some time this weekend really sorting out my plan.

Dugimodo

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Master Geek

#2347054 1-Nov-2019 08:51

Just some notes regarding the philips hue bulbs and hub, they don't use your wifi they work on their own mesh network from the hub which has an ethernet connection to your router.

The upside of this is they still work even when the wifi is down and don't load up your router with devices. Some other brands also work like this. It also means coverage is not normally an issue.

For me I bought 4 hue bulbs and a hub and two switches. Because my house is difficult to add electrical wiring to (solid triboard walls, no cavities) and has a lack of switches where they should be this was actually a really cheap option comparatively. Now I don't have to walk across my lounge to the front door to turn the lights off and walk back in the dark (seriously what were they thinking). Each switch is setup to operate two rooms but I should probably get a 3rd. I can control the lights with Alexa, or the wireless switches (which you can carry around), the app on my phone, or the regular light switch.

I couldn't convince myself I needed coloured bulbs though, a bit pricey for something I can't see me using much so mine are just the white ones.

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