How To: Inexpensive ($10 US) WiFi RGB Bulb that works with Home Assistant

stelgenhof · November 20, 2017, 12:46am

Have a look at http://tinkerman.cat/yet-another-wifi-light-bulb/. Xose Pérez wrote another blog post about these WiFi lights and did some brightness comparison. Might be of some interest

stelgenhof · November 20, 2017, 12:55am

There is a solution to use the development version of the ESPAsyncTCP library which includes the fixes you’ve encountered. In your platform.ini file change:

lib_deps =
ESPAsyncTCP

to this:

lib_deps =
GitHub - me-no-dev/ESPAsyncTCP: Async TCP Library for ESP8266

(Leave the other libraries untouched)

I can confirm this solves the issue. Keep in mind though that this is still an temporary fix until they have put the fixes in an official release.

hulkhaugen · November 24, 2017, 2:50pm

EDIT: Just found your reply right above and felt like an idiot. This is what i initially wrote:

hulkhaugen:

I’m trying to get this to work, but i have problems in VS Code (Windows 10 x64). I’ve installed the modules PlatformIO 0.2.3 and PlatformIO IDE 0.7.4. I’ve also installed NodeJS 8.9.1 and Git 2.15.0, but I can’t confirm that they communicates with VSCode. The instructions is pretty vague for someone (like me) whose never used it before. However, I assume that i’m suppose to open the PlattformIO (PIO Home). From there, I import the AiLight-master folder. I’ve made a copy of config.h and made my changes, and also made a copy of platformio.ini without changes as described. My errors looks like .piolibdeps\ESPAsyncTCP_ID305\src\ESPAsyncTCP.cpp:78:28: error: invalid conversion from 'long int (*)(void*, tcp_pcb*, pbuf*, long int)' to 'tcp_recv_fn {aka signed char (*)(void*, tcp_pcb*, pbuf*, signed char)}' [-fpermissive]. Googling that suggest that it might be version incompatibilities, but i don’t know of what. At the end of the build process, i get error from dev, while dev-ota, prod and prod-ota was skipped. Anyone familiar with this type of issue?

stelgenhof · November 24, 2017, 3:57pm

No problem!

trumee · December 25, 2017, 12:56am

@stelgenhof How do you connect the wires to the pogo pins? The jig you sent me some time ago is sitting on my desk unused.

stelgenhof · December 25, 2017, 1:12am

Not too difficult Just solder the wires to the end of the pogo pin. I then use a piece of heat shrink (about 1.5mm in diameter) to cover/protect the soldered part. Then the other end of each wire can be soldered to the appropriate connections of your Serial adapter.

trumee · December 25, 2017, 1:14am

Do you insert the pin into the jig before soldering?

stelgenhof · December 25, 2017, 1:26am

I wouldn’t recommended that. First solder the pins and then insert them.

kirpat · January 21, 2018, 10:30am

I bought the same from banggod, but the light doesnt seem to be 7w

dear, can you please guide me

can i use this bulb with homeassistant without flashing custom firmware
what firmware hae you flash
guide me to flash custom firmwarae on this bulb.
lastly what bulb do you recommend me in lie of this bulb at budget rate.

thanks in adv.

stelgenhof · January 21, 2018, 11:28am

Hi,

Does the light you bought have an indication of the wattage? As for your questions:

Without any custom firmware it’s unlikely you can use Home Assistant. The built-in firmware probably has no option to setup any communication using MQTT or HTTP/REST for example.
I use my own firmware: https://github.com/stelgenhof/AiLight
If it has the ESP8266 chip and MY9291 LED driver, then you can use my firmware: https://github.com/stelgenhof/AiLight or another good alternative is ESPURNA: https://bitbucket.org/xoseperez/espurna. Check these websites for the documentation how to flash.
As for AiLight, this is the WikiPage with all known working bulbs: https://github.com/stelgenhof/AiLight/wiki/Compatible-Light-Bulbs
Let me know if you have any further questions.

Cheers! Sacha

kirpat · January 21, 2018, 12:58pm

Dear,
What firmware have you flash on Arilux e27 RGBW 7w?
Please recommend me.

roswell3rd · March 7, 2018, 12:09am

Hi,

I am getting an error when trying to flash Ailight through platformIO.

error: espcomm_upload_mem failed

I’ve also tried the esp2tool.py and get a timeout while connecting.

I am using a CP2104 I bought through amazon. I installed the driver and platformio lists the device on COM6.

I saw a suggestion somewhere that the error typically means the ESP8266 is not entering flash mode. The CP2104 has a single GND so I have wired the GND pad and IO0 to the GND of the CP2104. Would this be correct and could it cause an issue?

stelgenhof · March 7, 2018, 12:30am

Correct, to enable firmware flashing the GPIO0 pin must be pulled low before the device is reset. For a normal boot, the GPIO0 pin must be pulled high (or floating).

If you have done that and still get the error message, you may want to check if all the wires are connected properly. Resetting the device again, replugging into your USB port can also help in some occasions.

Cheers! Sacha

roswell3rd · March 11, 2018, 5:54pm

Thanks for replying. I’m still having difficulties getting my bulb to flash. I’ve remade the connections and still no joy. I also aquired a CM2102 and had not success with that either. Tried serial Bps at 4800, 9600, 11500.

This afternoon as a last attempt I tried adding a pair of 4.7k resistors I had lying around between the GPIO0 and GND (saw it suggested elsewhere that a 10K Ohm might help). Can you suggest anything I haven’t yet tried?

stelgenhof · March 12, 2018, 12:50am

Hard to tell what the issue is exactly. Could you also share a photo of your connection to your FTDI/UART adapter? And perhaps a screenshot of the error message you are getting?

Cheers! Sacha

trumee · March 12, 2018, 6:56am

How does the Ailight compare with the RGB yeelight in terms of brightness?

stelgenhof · March 12, 2018, 8:02am

Can’t tell myself as I don’t own a Yeelight However there is also a variety of different wattage within the AiLight family of bulbs. I happen to have the 9W version and they are nice and bright; not as bright as a traditional bulb, but for my purpose powerful enough.

Xose Pérez did a review of some other Smart Lights here: http://tinkerman.cat/yet-another-wifi-light-bulb/
He found out the AiLight was the brightest.

roswell3rd · March 13, 2018, 6:25pm

Here’s a pic of the connection and the error message

stelgenhof · March 13, 2018, 11:17pm

Thanks! Try swapping the TX and RX connections on your FTDI/UART adapter

roswell3rd · March 14, 2018, 10:51pm

I can’t believe I missed that! Thank you so much for your support. The bulb is working perfectly integrated with my Homeassistant. Do you have a donation link so I can buy you a beer?