I am planning to automate my home heating system using HA. I have 19 radiators in my home. Some years ago I bought 19 Tuya “intelligent” TRVs because they were the cheapest device that I could find that could remotely turn on and off a radiator I also bought two of the associated Tuya WiFi Zigbee bridges. I have completely failed to get these devices to work. I can’t reliably get the gateway to pair with my phone, or the TRVs to pair with the gateway. I have several (differing) sets of instructions for doing this, and the valves that I’ve got don’t behave like the instructions describe. I suspect that the problem may be that there are lots of companies making “Tuya” devices, and they have all probably modified the design, or implemented different versions of Tuya, or implemented different parts of the system (a bit like Android phones). The TRVs that I’ve got don’t have a button on top, and have an LCD display on the side (i.e. the curved surface, not the top). Surely SOMEONE must know how to get these devices to work? I recently bought a few Tado TRVs and their controller, and they have set up and work like a dream. But it will cost me over £!K to equip all 19 radiators with these, and I’m not sure that I will ever save enough energy to pay me back for these. If you know how to get the Tuya devices to work, or have tried, or know who to ask, PLEASE reply. I’m desperate to get this fixed!
There are three Tuya TRVs on the list here and only one has the display on the side, is that yours? If not, are you sure they are Zigbee? There seem to be wifi and bluetooth versions as well which look much the same.
I’ve bought wifi stuff by mistake in the past - sometimes the only visible difference is a tiny tick on the outside of the box.
I’m afraid “some years ago” does not bode well. Nor does “cheapest device”…
They are not exactly the same as any of these three. Mine are a plain white cylinder. The top of the cylinder is not a button, but can be removed by twisting to change the batteries. The LCD display is on the cylindrical surface, not the flat end. The only control that you can see when the LCD display is off is a “home” icon on the side. I’m 99% sure they are zigbee. I have (if I remember right) at least once been able to get one of them to communicate in some way with the Tuya zigbee gateway, but I can’t remember the details.
The Z2M website has pictures of supported devices, but I can’t see yours there either.
Rather than using a Tuya bridge, have you considered the HA Zigbee integration?
If you get the SkyConnect dongle this is pretty much plug and play.
If your TRVs are standards compliant (with Tuya this is far from certain, I’m afraid) they should work out of the box; if not Zigbee2MQTT may be the way to go. As I say, they don’t seem to be supported at the moment, but Z2M make it very easy to request support.
Thank you for these suggestions. It sounds as if trying this route may well be worthwhile, but before I do here are some questions:
Is the SkyConnect dongle compatible with Raspberry Pi? I see that there are specific Raspberry Pi hats available, but ideally I would like something that will work either with PC or with Rasp Pi.
Is there a way of doing this where I can get my money back if it doesn’t work (e.g. if my Tuya devices just won’t play)? Will someone sell me the dongle and give me my money back if it doesn’t work?
