GridConnect Integration

Any success with getting them to worth via passive BLE?

Grid connect products are Tuya products.
If you use Smart Life app (instead of Grid Connect app) you should be able to use them in Home assistant using Tuya integration.

I like to use community build LocalTuya using HACS. This allow local control. This setup process is more involved but you can follow the steps to setup LocalToya

Note: GridConnect products replaced most of the ESP chips as a result you can not flash with Tasmota any more :angry:

For now avoid BLE products. Support is not there yet

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Tuya app for WiFi products / Tuya Integration in Home Assistant. It works fairly well, but will always be cloud based (Tuya seems to have given up on local support).
BLE may work with the latest (2022.8 and above) versions of Home Assistant, but don’t assume this, best to always check.
There are plenty of alternative products if you do not already own Grid Connect products, so consider that also.

Hi guys. Just letting you know that I purchased one of the arlec bulbs


from Bunnings today and I have it functioning fantastically with local tuya. A bit of mucking around but happy to share my config if you guys want it. I believe it is a BLE model but it is working

Can you please share your config mate? I have trying to reuse my grid connect sensor pack and power plugs.

Question, all my devices are connected to a wifi network without internet access, does TuyaLocal still operate without internet?

Thanks

I’m really keen to deck my new house build with Grid Connect as they’re Australian Certified, reasonably priced and readily accessible from Bunnings. I plan to secure my smart home using a local restricted VLAN only providing internet access to any devices where absolutely unavoidable or on a temporary basis for set up.

As this is a major decision from a house build standpoint can you help me with this decision. Specifically are there any Grid Connect devices that DOES NOT WORK with the Tuya v2 platform and in turn won’t work with Home Assistant.

The key requirements for me are specifically certified to Australian legal standards (for my building surveyor) and the ability to integrate to Home Assistant.

Any other feedback based on your hands on experience is also appreciated.

Since the Grid Connect gear is basically rebranded Tuya by default it expects to use their cloud platform. Your best solution is the re-flash all the devices to ESPhome so there is never any need for an external network connection.

In my honest opinion,

Stick with esphome for everything.
It’s reliable and easy to use and setup, I’ve done everything with esphome now and I swear by it.

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You can connect it via tuya smart

Good day, mate. Have you had any experience with their LED Batten lights at all? (Arlec GRID Connect).
I just got one and would like to have it working on my Home Assistant, just don’t know exactly how to flash it to ESPHome or if it could damage/brick it…

Thanks!

I haven’t bought them. Crack it open and post some photos, we can see what is involved.

This is the item, with the product spec:

I’m not home at the moment, but I suppose I can remove the plastic cover and see what’s in there (I’m not a professional tradesman or an electrician, my apologies, so I might not be of much help with identifying what’s what).

Thank you.

I opened it up today, got a few photos, but it’s all sealed up, not much to see.

I ended up using the smart plug to control it instead (I’m not going to messing with the colour or intensity, I just wanted a way to work with a sensor in a set-it-and-forget-it mode).

It’s working perfectly for that now, so I’ll leave it as is.
Thanks all the same.

Well if you aren’t worried about cloud connectivity, just set it up as per the docs and use it that way. You should also be able to use Local Tuya to remove the cloud dependency. It’s not as good as running ESPhome, but better than buying a smart light and using it in dumb mode.

Hopefully this helps, but these are all the photos of the internals (everything else is empty space or cables):



If that’s enough to give me a clue on how to proceed with the ESPHome, I’ll be happy to take a shot, but otherwise, I’ll just leave it in dumb-mode as my experiences with Local Tuya in the past were quite convoluted and one device, sadly, got bricked (ceiling lights).
Thank you!

We need to see inside that box that the wires connect to. Once removed from the light fitting you might be able to open it up. I would imagine the shell is in two parts.

Thank you, mate. I’m going to drop it for now and stick to the dumb activation as that’s exactly what I was after in the first place and it’s not costing me any more (because I already had a smart 3-plug outlet near the location of the light anyway, controlling another device).

I don’t want to risk bricking this, but thank you for the offer all the same. It’s very much appreciated.