New user here. I installed HA on a BananaPi and was expecting (hoping) the economy priced WiFi RGB bulbs by Conixons would automagically be discovered. Upon my dismay I’ve started tumbling down the rabbit hole of device compatibility.
I see things about ZigBee2MQTT and ZHE (though don’t fully understand either). I then see bulbs with ZigBee, but also that it can’t be assumed to work with HA.
why in principle would the Conxions bulbs not just work?[*]
what are the HA compatibility requirements for a device (bulb)
why aren’t there economy priced bulbs that are compatible with HA
Because until Matter over WiFi really releases there’s no such thing as a global standard for home automation over wifi. No Tuya and Esp32 while popular are not global standards. Thus why most wifi smart bulbs need thier manufacturers app to initialize. Matter will make this easier as I strongly suspect many budget wifi bulbs will support matter over wifi in the future
It needs to use a supported standard and integration. Zigbee like you mentioned is one such standard. And for that you will need specific zigbee hardware.
Because it essentially needs to be a bulb and a tiny microcontroller. Those things cost money.
Insert theological conversations here about wars between standards. Short version the standard got fractured, but there’s lots of better posts about that than I can write here.
Thanks, Nathan. Exactly the sort of response I was after. Is it ever worth taking a gamble on these cheaper bulbs, in case I get lucky, or will 99% of them not work.
From looking at the Amazon links you posted, I believe your Conixon bulbs are based on a command and control system created by a company called Tuya. Have a look at the integration that Home Assistant offers at link below, if I am correct if you follow the Tuya integration setup steps, your bulbs will be discovered. This company and the HA folks started a collaboration to make products in the Tuya universe work with Home Assistant, unfortunately the company seems to have lost interest in the partnership as I read. That said, you think can use the Tuya integration to find and control your Conninxon bulbs. If you search these forums for Tuya related posts you will find a lot of information (maybe too much ) on Tuya devices and HA. I think it is a mix bag of success and not by folks. Light bulbs seem to work pretty well. Other that the lack of progress on the partnership, the main pluses and minuses of Tuya: plus = lots of interesting devices at reasonable price points, minus = the control of these devices kind of depends on information from the ‘cloud’ (it’s a bit complicated, but you can control your bulbs locally, but you need to get info from the Tuya cloud to do this and the Tuya devices continue to talk to the Tuya cloud). I think this babble addresses your question 1 and 2. For 3, there are reasonable priced ‘simple’ bulbs using wifi and zigbee that work well with HA. However, the first problem is a location problem, sometimes the vendors do not offer the local socket type and power for your country. Have a look at the Shelly company’s line of WiFi products. The partnership of this company and HA seems strong today and growing, rather than parting. Have a look a their products a link below. Question 4, for zigbee, you do need to invest in a USD 20 to 50 ‘gateway’ device and they often do ‘just work’ fairly well. If you again search the forums here and youtube videos you will find how to set one of these up, not too hard. I recommend going with either Hue or Ikea for a more ‘off the shelf’ experience with good reliability and stay away from the lower cost Asian based zigbee gateway products, as with the Tuya problem often there is not enough information sharing by these vendors. Or follow some of the many good guides here and youtube to setup your own DIY zigbee gateway. A bit more work to do a DIY, but often lower cost with still good reliability.
I am not sure you will see a ‘universal’ ‘it just works’ system for 1 to 2 years. This is the ‘hope’ that this Matter standard promises. But it is very new and still has much work to do for it to be useful.
Welcome to the ‘rabbit hole’, it’s not that bad. Take your time, and take advantage of the many helpful and smart folks on this forum and youtube, that have ‘already made a lot of mistakes’ and helpfully share their paths .
Thank you so much, they were Tuya compatible devices! Seems somewhat limited integration; can only switch on or off, but this is more than okay – get what you pay for and all that.
