does anybody know a battery powered light/lamp on the market, which can be integrated in HA?
I already have a MiPow Playbulb Candle and will test is, as soon as the component is released but I guess I need something at least a bit brighter.
Or is there something like a Z-Wave, 433mhz or BT relay/switch, wich can be powered by 5V, so I could build something with a USB power powerbank for example. Or anything similar.
If you have any other idea, how I could create a wireless light, which can be integrated into HA, just let me know.
anything with leds on battery is with little light.
if it is bright, the batteries will be empty very very quick.
if you want that also with transmitting/recieving options the batterie will die before you can use it.
even with better powerbanks that would have a short life.
powering things with a powerbank is in most cases not a real good option anyway.
if the sleepmode doesnt use enough power, most powerbanks shut down.
if the sleepmode uses enough, the powerbank goes empty very quick.
i hope for you there is somthing like that to be found, but with batteries i dont think it can be very good.
exactly like i said.
300 lumen and a batterylifespan from 2 hours.
why use a light on batteries if it only works for 2 hours?
and then pay almost a hundred bucks for it.
i really dont see the sense from remote controlling such a light.
that makes only sense if you want to use it in the shower.
@anon35356645 true, I forgot to exclude that one since 3h of batterie life is not enough for my use case
@ReneTode I totally understand your points and agree with most of them…
Let me dig a bit deeper into my use case to give you a better understanding:
I live in a flat in an old house and sadly there is no socket at all in the corridor. The only light available in the corridor is the one at the ceiling (which is integrated). But we wanted some passive/decorative light, something cozy, something that turns on every evening.
My current solution is a lantern with two simple 3x AA powered LED chain of lights with a build-in timer (it lights for 6h every day at the same time as I pressed the button for the first time), like this one. That’s enough light for this use case and the 3x AA batteries last for about 2 weeks. I even have everything at home to power it with 9 instead of 3 AA’s to decrease the intervals to change the batteries.
So, since a 4,5V chain of lights offers enough light and the lantern has enough space to store as man batteries as I want, I came up with the idea to “replace” the timer function, with something smart and more flexibel.
i probably would make the efford to create a thin 5v powerline to the point where you want the light, but oke you like it battery powered. (or like i did just a powerextension to that point)
did you consider to connect a nodemcu(ESP) or arduino to the light you already have?
with a single nodemcu you can connect to a MQTT server that you have locally (on your RPI?)
all you need is an nodemcu (and maybe a relay if the power from the light is more then the mcu can take, but i think thats not the case)
the node is powered by 5V so you need to have a powerup dc/dc converter to convert your 4,5V to 5V
but they are cheap out there to.
i really dont think that there is anything ready to go out there. most cheap leds with remote are IR.
@ReneTode The ceiling already has 6 GU10 spots from INNR integrated into Hue and therefore into HA But thats not the same as a passive light in the corner.
Thanks for the nodemcu idea, I’ll check this out.
In addition I just found a mini 433 receiver relay on AliExpress, which works with 4 to 12V. If this ever arrives I’ll give this a try.
And a powerbank - this is tricky, since you don’t know who much power has to be consumed to stop the powerbank from turning off. I had luck with the one I had already at home, since its even not turning of even if only the NodeMCU is running with the lights turned off.
The wiring is quiet easy. The powerbank has two outputs, so one powers the nodeMCU and the other one is for the light. The USB VBUS IN is directly connected the the USB VBUS OUT to the light. GND IN is connected to the Source of the MOSFET and and MOSFET Drain in connected to GND OUT. The MOSFET Gate is triggered by the GPIO D0 of the NodeMCU. That’s it. No setp-up/setp down or anything needed!
TODO:
Find a bigger powerbank which does not turn off on low power consumption
I tried to measure the power consumption of the chain of lights but I or my Multimeter failed somehow. So currently I have no real estimation to start with.
I’m using a 10.000 mAh Powerbank at the moment which also stays on, if only the NodeMCU is consuming power. The 30.000 mAh I ordered for this case turns off after a while when the light is off…
I’ll create some automations the next days and fully load the powerbank again and keep you posted.
BTW: Sine I also improved my WiFi infrastructure an the weekend, I now have an access point in the corridor, which also has a USB port. So if this is all wired up, my “no socket” issue might be gone (at least for this case).
@ReneTode & @anon35356645 I fixed a broken fuse in my multi meter and was able to measure the consumption. The chain of lights consumes ~40mA. As far as I know the NodeMCU consumes an average of ~35mA. So with the light being on half a day I could run this setup with the 10.000 mAh powerbank for ca. 10 days.
Als already mentioned, currently I’m running it over the USB port of my new WiFi Access point which works great. But I’m already starting to think about new battery powered use cases/places
But thats not the same as a passive light in the corner.
