GridConnect Integration

Grid Connect is an Australian smart home automation system and app.

Would be great if this could be integrated.

You can flash these devices with alternative firmware that works with HA. See:

1 Like

You also have the option of rather than pairing with the Grid Connect app, download the TuyaSmart app and pair all your devices to that. The Grid Connect app is just a rebadged TuyaSmart app. Everything will work exactly the same and there is already a Tuya Integration available for Home Assistant(no sensor or camera support currently).

Even though utilizing the Tuya Platform the Smart Life App is more buggy, less responsive than gridconnect app.

1 Like

Any updates?

Doesn’t appear as though anything works for my Arlec Grid Connect Outlet.

Thank’s for the tips. I was able to install the Tuya android app and link 3 Arlec 4 port wifi powerboards to it and then intstall Tuya in HA. Everything is working great!

To get the Tuya app to link , you need to press the power button on the powerboard for 5 seconds so the LED flashes fast and then 5 seconds again and LED will flash slow. Then in the Tuya APP add a device, select “Power Strip (wifi)”, hit next and then select “EZ Mode” from the top right. Select AP Mode. Hit next and confirm. Then on the next screen it will ask you to connect your mobile to the Grid Wifi AP. Connect and go back to the app and then select continue (tiny text underneath
Reconenct). As soon as you do this the LED on the Arlec will turn off. Wait for about a minute and it will add it to Tuya.

Hey I’m new to HA, but I’ve had some of the Arlec dimmable light/ceiling fans for about six months now, and I’ve been controlling them all this time with the Grid Connect app.

Do you know if I need to un-pair devices from Grid Connect first? I put the fans in pairing modes and paired them with the TuyaSmart app, but it almost seems to be a shortcut within the TuyaSmart app straight to Grid Connect, and when I start following the instructions on the Tuya integrations page I linked the app acct but none of my devices showed up.

Do I need to factory reset the fans or un-pair them from Grid Connect or something like that?

OK, so I have a number of Arlec “Grid Connect” devices, and I have to admit I’ve never used them with the Grid Connect app. When I click on one of them in the Smart Life app, it shows up with the Arlec branding so maybe that’s what you mean. Basically, Grid Connect is Tuya with a different skin, so I suspect what you are seeing is normal.

Firstly: Maybe you are looking at the wrong data centre? For me (also Australia) all my devices are in Central Europe. Make sure you can see them in https://iot.tuya.com/ first.

Secondly: Not all devices are currently supported by the integration, and this might be the case with you even though it claims to support fans (Tuya - Home Assistant). This was also the case with the old integration, although it did seem to support a few more things. In my case, for example, I’ve lost access to some motion sensor flood lights. The good news though is that this new integration is officially supported by Tuya, and they do plan to bring more devices in over time.

I believe this space will get exciting as the recent 2021.10 HA release integrates Tuya v2 integration: The New TUYA Home Assistant Integration (FULL SETUP) - YouTube

Which hopefully translates into HA’s support to all GRID connect products. If this is the case then HA will gain a major step into Australia smart home market through Bunnings selling GRID connect products.

I’m yet to play around with GRID connect via Tuya but will be willing to give it a try once I upgrade my HA to 2021.10!

Thanks for the correlation on that mate, yeah my experience is the same

This was my solution; I didn’t realise that each device’s datacentre is generated beforehand, and not allocated by the user when adding the device to the Tuya iot platform; mine ended up being in EU too, despite that probably being the furthest DC from Australia.

Austria ↔ Australia, same thing. :wink:

2 Likes

On the sad side, moving to Tuya2 (which is a little fiddly to do, but you just need to follow the instructions) I actually lost the ability to control some motion sensor security lights (Brilliant Smart via Aldi), but then again Tuya2 is officially supported by Tuya so hopefully I will be able to control them again soon and yes maybe in the future they will start to add in support for even more Tuya devices. Fingers crossed!

** update ** Looks like a lot of work is actually being done - for example power info is being added: Add sensor platform to Tuya by frenck · Pull Request #57668 · home-assistant/core · GitHub. So I suspect more and more devices will start to appear as HA & the Tuya integration are updated…

Thanks for the info here. I’ve just installed my Grid Connect lights from Bunnings (Verve Design Oyster Light ACL01HA) and connected them to Tuya Smart, followed the guides and they are working perfectly in HA.

One thing that wasn’t clear for me at first that might help others: When pairing with Tuya Smart use AP mode. Cycle on-off three times until rapid blink, then cycle on-off again three times until slow blink. Tuya Smart add as “others” and “wifi” then top right select to AP mode and follow the instructions.

…and as of HA 2021.11.0, my energy monitoring switches gained extra power sensors plus a few more tuya devices appeared although my motion sensor lights are there but say they aren’t supported (so maybe that will change eventually in the future).

Yeah I’ve also had my Arlec fan/lights show up, seems they’ve finally been implemented…

…sort of.

HA can see the devices but they’re listed as “unsupported”, has anyone encountered this before?

I bought the Grid Connect smart sensor pack yesterday from Bunnings, and I added all the devices to my Tuya Smart app. HA is able to see them, as can the IoT platform, however the climate and motion sensor are showing offline in Iot platform, and as unavailable in HA.

Not sure if this is because they are BLE only or not, but would love to have a way to use these as there aren’t many other options that are affordable in Australia.

I too have that sensor pack. I have been unable to get HA to interface directly… It “sees” them but says they are offline

At the moment, I have “scenes” set up in Tuya to trap the motion sensor and turn on some lights. Then in HA, I have an automation which looks for the transition from off to on and turns the lights off after 5 mins.

Would be better to interface to the motion sensor directly, but this still works.

I have an alternative HA automation that kicks in if the light is switched on (ie using the light switch) which turns them off after 15 mins (so, if the light goes off while you are still there, just turning the switch off and back on sets it to 15mins)

Still working out the best way to use them.

Similarly, the temperature sensor is set using a Tuya scene to turn on a fan and increase the speed as the temperature goes up… Another scene turns it off at 06:00pm

I returned it and swapped it for a Hue motion sensor when they were the same price, and it works flawlessly out of the box.

Highly recommended!

is it possible to have 1 device paired with both grid connect and tuyasmart app?

Just found out the hard way after buying the sensor pack from bunnings there is no way to directly integrate it unfortunately. I have had an idea of setting up the passiveBLE monitor on HA to read the status of the sensors as they are all bluetooth rather than going through the grid hub. I’ll report back if this is possible after some testing. I do have an RF Zigbee bridge on the way and it seems RF based motion and door sensors are very affordable. Might buy a couple for testing purposes. I hate having to rely on the Tuya app to trigger an automation into HA. Sort of defeats the purpose.

1 Like