Some pretty compelling reasons there. Thanks @rob1303
1 Like
@thetastate This Perfect Home Automation - Home Assistant is the reason many of us adopted HA . Certainly was a major factor for me. The cloud is dealt with there ā¦
5 Likes
Thanks Nick - I hadnāt seen this article before - really useful and I wholeheartedly agree.
1 Like
Thanks @nickrout for the link and not eye-rolling. The logic is clear and inline with the way Iāve approached using HA apart from cloud. The issue is that Iām largely cloud dependant. Not just for tuya but for several other platforms. No doubt I could have made better device selection choices but aquarium gear is almost exclusively cloud and Bunnings is close. While all my switches and lights still work without internet, few automations will. Even if I had the skill to convert my tuya devices, a truely cloud independent implementation would, for me, provide less functionality. Localising as many devices as possible would mitigate some risk thoughā¦ Thanks for your input.
1 Like
Home Assistant and Esphome, clearing the home automation universe of cloud dependencies one device at a time 
3 Likes
If/ when you are ready I am pretty sure someone here is likely to be able to let you know which ones are easiest to take out of the cloud/ replicate the functionality.
Do you have a list of devices you would like to make local?
If they are mainly tuya based then āTuya localā (GitHub - rospogrigio/localtuya: local handling for Tuya devices) would be a great starting point that shouldnāt require hardware changes.
1 Like
Dave, thanks for posting the opened Kogan smart Plug back in December.
I recently accidentally bricked the last unit of eight units I reflashed to ESPhome (because of a self inflicted power removal while the last one was being Tuya-converted), so I had to open that one up for wired flashing.
Based on what I saw in your pics, I dripped acetone with an eye dropper along the case join line and left it to soak it for 5 minutes. After that one end of it popped with just a bit of leverage, so I repeated the acetone again and the 5 minute wait. Then the whole case popped apart at the bond and join with just a moderate amount of leverage and no case damage
I had no issue with a wired reflash, no timing issues. I tied GPIO0 to GND for the whole process though, only removed the link after the flash got to 100%. (I removed the module to reflash it, to get at GPIO0)
2 Likes
Can confirm. I just had one die as well. Same deal, unavailable in HA, button not working, only usb is still functional.
Order date of 12th or 25th of May 2020. Pretty sure itās from the first batch I ordered but a year later itās a bit hard to remember.
One more question- are the buttons backlit? And if so, can you switch that off?
I finally found the time to flash my old Arlec panel heater with Tasmota and also bought a new one this year - both neatly integrated into Home Assistant for local control. Here is my write-up in case anyone is interested:
1 Like
Hi All,
Iām only just starting to look into the home automation side of things, researching what components to use to achieve the result. Itās been quite the rabbit warren. Given Iām not a fan of touch switches, or IoT devices talking to the cloud Iāve ended up here.
Iāve had a sales rep give me a couple of free SAL Pixie switches. They look to fit the bill of what Iām after, being reasonably priced, donāt require a neutral, arenāt a touch switch etc. Problem is the only mention of them here I could find was from October 2019, stating there isnāt a way to integrate them into HA. I donāt suppose anything has changed on that front?
Ewww, bluetooth. In all my HA experiences, BT is one of the biggest PITA to do anything with outside of the deviceās own ecosystem.
You might be able to shoehorn them into HA using bt-mqtt-gateway if theyāre supported. Usually this will mean they need to be a ārebrandedā chip like Tuya devices, or generic enough to work with default settings.
I do similar with my Weber iGrill, and plan to do the same with some Xiaomi Flora sensors.
What are they charging for a switch mech?
Surely the sales rep can answer your questions. He should be able to, or he should sick them where it hurtsā¦
Honestly I had to google Sal Pixie. If their biggest selling point is a scantily clad blonde woman, how serious do you think they are about technology.
That is a bummer. Where would I start to look to find out if theyāre a Tuya device, pull one apart I suppose?
Theyāre about $50 for the digital mech and $75 for the Trailing edge Dimmer mech. Which is half the cost of the Clipsal āWiserā mechās which I assume would have the same Bluetooth integration issue and also require a neutral.
Running a neutral isnāt the end of the world, if anyone has any cost effective non-touch switch recommendations that are āeasyā to integrate into HA.
Requires neutral and kinda is touchā¦
https://brilliantlighting.com.au/product/smart-wifi-dimmer-mech-e94960
Pretty much. Most of the Tuya based ones are the all-in-one with a wallplate style so donāt think these are - but may be something else thatās just rebranded and retooled to fit a Clipsal mech.
I have just installed 14 SAL Pixie light switches - I have no neutral and adding neutral would have been very hard as many of the existing wires run in the render. It works very well with Google Home and in fact much more responsive that Bunningsā Grid Connect switches I used in a previous house. Given the lack of HA integration I use Assistant Relay to control the lights, which works okay (there is probably a 1-2 seconds delay which is acceptable). Would be nice to have HA integration though. I doubt those can run on Tuya although I donāt have much experience with this.
Yes - Blue and Red but no idea if you can turn them off
Could anyone recommend a smart thermostat to control a simple 2-wire gas central heater. Wifi or zigbee would be preferred. Iāve been considering the entry level Google Nest, but canāt easily find any other options
Today I bought this Mirabella Genio Wi-Fi Double Power Plug with USB Ports for $29 ($25 actually, since the box had been opened and I asked for a discount).
tuya-convert says āYour deviceās firmware is too new.ā
Since the box had been opened, itās possible a previous āownerā updated the firmware, but so far it looks like this device is not flashable.
Iāve set it up with LocalTuya now.
When I connected it with the app, I was prompted to install new firmware. I wonder if this would be good to do, since it seems I canāt flash Tasmota onto it anyway.