Basic question here with a feature request for those with the skills.
After a lot of frustration with a bunch of iDevices smart wall plugs (random rebooting, unable to update, invisible after resets) I branched out and settled on the Currant smart plug (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HKVRGNN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I have to say- this is the best looking plug that I’ve seen, has two separately controlled side-mounted outlets, responds instantly from Currant’s app, and only costs $30 on Amazon. #winning. Except- now I can’t figure out how to get it into HA as apparently no one has developed the matching component. Yes, I should have checked that beforehand. Moving on…
These switches have Google Home and Alexa support, neither of which I have in my home. Nevertheless I downloaded the Alexa app for iOS and added the switches. Then I added
alexa:
to my confugration.yaml, but there’s no discovery of the switches to add them to HA. All of the documentation regarding Alexa is oriented towards using Alexa to control HA, but I can’t find anything about adding Alexa components back to HA, which is where I’d be controlling them (and from there to Siri via a virtual switch).
Then I tried Smartthings and ultimately realized that it doesn’t work without a hub.
Thoughts on how to add the switch?
Anyone up for adding a home assistant component? Seriously these are the slickest switches out there right now.
It’s kind of a long-shot but you might want to see if the Tuya app can control the switch since many smart device manufacturers just use a re-branded variant it.
If the Tuya app works you’ll just need to add the tuya component to HA.
Thanks for the suggestion @jparthum, but it doesn’t appear that the Tuya app sees the switch.
However, I managed to get it using the Smartthings app running hubless! I missed it in the HA instructions that you have to use the “classic” Smartthings app, not the updated version.
Little confused, how do you add something to SmartThings without a ST hub?
There’s a mention here of a “classic app”, but I’m unclear where you’d get that.
I was a ST Kickstarter, but abandoned all of it in favor of HomeKit/HA.
Answering my own question, just go install the SmartThings integration via the Frontend UI. There is a “SmartThings Classic” application on the iOS App Store (and I assume Google Play). You need to use that application on your mobile device to link it. It also sounds like using Nabu Casa (HA Cloud) makes this much easier (I do).
Now to see how to pair a switch with SmartThings Classic without a hub?
Thanks! I’m guessing you had them previously paired with the hub, which is why they then automatically showed up (I had an old sensor do the same). Have you tried pairing a new device with the app (and no hub) since?
I’ve never had a hub! I looked into it after realizing that I had no way to get them into HA (because there’s no component that’s been developed). I’m guessing that the hub functionality is mainly for z-wave/zigbee etc., but apparently you can add devices that don’t need the hub. It’s yet another cloud connection to break/be mined by the corporate overlords/etc., but it solved my issue.
I just added my Currant brand switch to Smartthings using the classic app “hubless” and it integrated into Home Assistant as described. I found that I can control the switch, but I’m not getting the energy or power readings out of it. @fmon are you able to see those values?
Thanks for the feedback. I have the Currant WALL02 device and I see its power readings in my Currant App and in my SmartThings app, but not in Home Assistant. The token I’m using for the SmartThings SmartApp allows all content. I’m happy for the control at the moment, but would love to use the power readings from this outlet in some automatons.
Click the developer icon on the left of HA (looks like a hammer) and then states at the top. Scroll down to switch.nameyougaveit and see if it shows current_power_w: as shown in my image above… if so then it’s just a matter of understanding how to refer to that attribute of the switch. In my case: {{ states.switch.homepod.attributes.current_power_w }}
You can experiment to figure out the correct syntax using the “templates” tab under developer.
Just an update here for anyone that comes across this… for unclear reasons, as of about a month ago, I’m getting this error from Smartthings: unsuccessful-http-call status=424
Which apparently indicates a missing or malfunctioning dependency on the SmartThings server. Weirdly, the Currant switches toggle as commanded, but the presence of the error causes any automations involving the switches to abort. I tried SmartThings support and they were worthless, and I’m still waiting on Currant support to answer me. I kind of wonder if they did this on purpose to interfere with people trying to use their service without buying their hub… but they did offer their integration in the product, so that wouldn’t be very nice of them. I’m going to try offloading the switch commands from automations to discrete scripts called by the automation as from what I’ve read that won’t cause the automation to abort.
If anyone has other thoughts I’d love to hear them.
