I have several of these generic RGB controllers, and almost no knowledge of how to set anything up in Home Assistant:
Is it possible for me to connect these directly to Home assistant, and to bypass the Tuya smart life app altogether. Just controlling them over my local wifi connection?
Yes, but you’ll need to replace the firmware like esphome (libretiny) or openbeken.
If you’re going for the localtuya/tuya integration, you still need to pair it first with the smartlife app.
Are there any instructions on how to do this?
I’m guessing that this would involve opening the device up and soldering some kind of cable so that it can interface with a PC. Being able to update the firmware wirelessly seem a little overly optimistic.
There’s tuya cloudcutter for that, as long as your tuya firmware devices aren’t patched yet
If you’re not familiar with esphome, you can use openbeken