Looking for smart bulbs with RGB that are easy to get out of the cloud

Hardware
1

Hate messing with tuya devices because they are all “too new” to flash. Really want some smart RGB bulbs to put in the apartment that I’m living in as changing switches is probably frowned upon by the land lord.

I want some RGB bulbs, that have a full spectrum of white, that I don’t have to solder on to get esphome on them. I’ve had no luck using tuya convert on anything in the past year. I see that WalMart sells Merkury bulbs. But I can’t get those to flash either… Even on an old set of bulbs my girlfriend had in her closet from at least a year ago. :pensive:

Any suggestions on smart bulbs that are decently cheap that have the ability to be flashed?

2

I don’t think you still will find a lot of Wifi bulbs that are cheap and can be flashed OTA anymore. Have you thought about IKEA zigbee bulbs ? Full white spectrum, but you need a Zigbee stick.

3

I actually haven’t considered it. I’m not against paying a few more dollars to get a quality product. I’m wanting all recommendations.

I am going to look into zigbee. That’s the same as z wave right?

4

Zigbee is comparable with z-wave, but they work on another frequency. And z-wave devices tend to be more expensive.

5

Which stick and bulbs would you recommend? I want something that is capable of being BRIGHT! I use hass on a pi3b+ if that makes a difference. One day I will move it to docker on one of my Linux servers

6

Lifx bulbs are hard to beat, not cheap, but after intial setup are full local control. I have mine blocked at the firewall and HA just communicates locally.

Yeelights have a similar setup and then allow local control. Ive had a few of their white only bulbs in service for years outside (protected and dry but open fixture) with no issues. They 100% need to be blocked though as they will repeatedly phone home.

7

Also look into Shelly’s Duo bulbs. You don’t need to flash them and you can disconnect them from the cloud with the click of an option. They allow cloud connectivity but don’t force you to use it.

8

Another vote for LIFX bulbs. I am using Wi-Fi (few devices) and these don’t require opening, re-flashing, or otherwise breaking the warranty to use with the HA integration.
The price dropped locally (Australia) a few months back (maybe clearing current stock before new models).

9

One thing to really watch out for is the default power on state… I have 4 TP-Link LB130 bulbs that are really good, but I really want to step on them every time after a power outage, because they always turn on when powered up and there’s no way to control the behaviour (you’ll find many, many complaints on this).

I was checking something else earlier regarding smart bulbs and came across this useful and extensive comparison page. I couldn’t find any references on this forum that this link has been posted. Hopefully it will be useful.

10

These are great posts! That comparison parautenbach posted is really good! I like the idea of the lifx bulbs, but I have really been considering zigbee! I really want Shelly duos, but they aren’t available with the standard Edison base in America just yet. Gonna see what my pocket book can afford and consider waiting a few weeks to get either zigbee or lifx.