Support for the Merkury Light Bulb

i have been farting with this thing for over a week to try and get it to accept any type of flashing with zero success… it seems like it can detect the bulb but is telling me that it’s not compatible with flashing. can i get any tips i should do for trying this again? before my next attempt i’m going to format and start with a fresh raspian stretch and in stall tuya convert, but any help prior to would be great. thanks

I’ve had success with older versions of tuya convert. I never knew what would work until it did or didn’t.

so how exactly would i use a different version than what downloads via the documentation?

just download an older release.

that’s helpful. thank you

Hi,
I bought the ones from walmart, has a tuya module part number WB2L which has an ARM processor. Can those be flashed? If not, then I have drawn a schematic and am shoving in a ESP8266 based module. That way I can at least use these two lights and play around with them and the software to learn more about home automation. I have obviously taken one apart and can not be returned. I am including 1 internal pic of the bulb. (new user)

If anyone is looking to use these Merkury bulbs in homeassistant with local tuya?
The easiest way in October 2021

bluestacks android emulator
smartlife app (old ass version from apk download site)
bluestacks tweaker app (gets root on the emulator so you can pull the file that has the keys)

There was one video I saw that got pretty close to something like this, but I think the guy was using a rooted phone or something and not the rooted emulator. Yes, the video tells you what version of smartlife app that you can use to get the keys. then he’s got a really dangerous looking windows script (not recommended) to pull the keys out of the file.

I just set these up today. Opened the Tuya app and paire quickly. the Tuya integration seemed to quickly link up and it seems to work fine.

I purchased a few of these from Walmart around mid '21 and I am just finally getting around to messing around with them. I purchased the 75W (equiv), RGB+W bulbs, MI-BW904-999W (Closest match on Tasmota, but not the same FCC ID:2AJ3WEBEQPW92).

I wanted to flash Tasmota firmware onto them. After getting my RasPi all setup to do it, the bulb did not connect to the RasPi. I tore open the light, and just like @rockyjsquirrel discovered, it has the WB2L Tuya chip rather than the ESP8266. I believe the only option for this style of WiFi chip is the Tuya HA integration, which I’ll be trying next.

I hate that these devices are switching chips. With the ESPs they’re rock solid.

I tried one as well and found it had the new chip. Disappointed. I want all MQTT at this point since it relies on nothing other than a broker and a wifi connection.

@James_Casterline_Jr and @Sawadee, Sorry to tag you from a post so long ago, but I am trying to flash these light bulbs that I have, and can’t figure out how to get the LED board off so I can get to and solder wires to the pins/pads needed to flash. How did you get that LED board off on these Merkury bulbs? Also, any thoughts as to whether or not wled could be flashed to these bulbs? I like wled a lot more for light bulbs than tasmota or similar options. Thanks for the pinout and everything!

There is a way to flash the Tuya WB2L chip. Needs to be desoldered from board and flashed with OpenBK. See the link below for instructions. It’s a process, but doable.

Not to necro the thread, but these bulbs are on super cheap clearance today over at meh.com:
Meh: 24-Pack: Merkury Multicolor + White Dimmable Smart Bulbs
24 Bulbs for $48.

That’s what brought me here. I haven’t set up home assistant yet but have been accumulating hardware for eventually setting it up. Debating whether to grab this deal for my future use.

Currently have Kwikset ZWave locks, RPi4, ZWave dongle, some Sonoff devices, etc.

Anyone else think I should grab this deal for my future use??

Edit: I’ve continued searching and reading about how these interact with home assistant and there seems to be mixed success stories. Still curious what veterans of HA think?

Also here because of the Meh.com deal.
The bulbs on the site are model: MI-BW210-999W, which is slightly different than ones listed above.

If we can flash Tasmota onto the bulbs, it will be a huge step in the right direction, but I’m honestly not sure if it will be possible. I’m not sure what’s actually under the hood of these bulbs. Here’s what the Tasmota page has to say about them:

I’ve been searching around off and on for probably a total of 1-2 hours and haven’t found anything definitive on support for running tasmota/esphome/etc on their proprietary chip without opening the bulb and hardware flashing. Bummer. I’m not looking to open 24 bulbs to hardware flash them. I’d prefer an OTA method.

If anyone jumps on this specifically to go after home assistant support, let me know and I might buy some and try to work on it as well.

Edit:I did come across this: GitHub - tuya-cloudcutter/tuya-cloudcutter: A tool that disconnects Tuya devices from the cloud, allowing them to run completely locally. which appears to support an OTA exploit against the WB2L / BK7231T that I believe this bulb might be based on. Man this is still tempting. Don’t wanna waste $50 though.

Hi folks!

I did snag some of those bulbs after having success with the Merkury LED Strips.

I can happily confirm that:

  • The cloud cutter script works well with device: merkury-innovations-mi-bw210-999ww-rgbct-bulb-v2.9.16
  • ESPHome(via libretiny branch) happily flashes and OTA updates these bulbs.

I took a bulb apart to confirm the pin wiring and LED driver - it uses a BP5758 driver:

BP5758D LED driver — ESPHome

Here’s the ESPHome configuration:

esphome:
  name: rgbct-bulb
  friendly_name: rgbct bulb

libretiny:
  board: wb2l
  framework:
    version: dev

<SNIP> 

light:
  - platform: rgbw
    name: "Bulb"
    red: output_red
    green: output_green
    blue:  output_blue
    white: output_white
    color_interlock: True  
    effects:
      - random:
          name: slowRandom
          transition_length: 2s
          update_interval: 3s
      - random:
          name: "Fast Random"
          transition_length: 4s
          update_interval: 5s        

bp5758d:
  data_pin: P7
  clock_pin: P8 
    
output:
  - platform: bp5758d
    id: output_green
    channel: 2 
    current: 15 # In mA, valid values 0-90, default 10
  - platform: bp5758d
    id: output_blue
    channel: 1 
    current: 15 # In mA, valid values 0-90, default 10
  - platform: bp5758d
    id: output_red
    channel: 3 
    current: 15 # In mA, valid values 0-90, default 10    
  - platform: bp5758d
    id: output_white
    channel: 5 
    current: 50 # In mA, valid values 0-90, default 10     

Please note that the currents are my best guesses based on testing and I’d welcome someone being able to provide a better idea.

Dang! Now I really wish I would have jumped on this when it was on sale on Meh

Anyone have any luck with the MI-BW904-999WW? When I try them I get connected on the first step and get all the info but on the second boot it connects and then says " The profile you selected did not result in a successful exploit."

@crzykidd @austinc3030
I was watching DigiblurDIY’s video and figured this out.

First figure out how to put the device into slow blink mode.

You will be following the running the toolchain. https://github.com/tuya-cloudcutter/tuya-cloudcutter/blob/572d2786f3baf7b1ab26c4032dae9d4b19c99f6c/INSTRUCTIONS.md#running-the-toolchain

I just ran sudo ./tuya-cloudcutter.sh -r with selecting > By firmware version and name and > 1.2.16 - BK7231N / oem_bk7231n_light_ty which was the firmware my bulbs were from the Meh deal. Works great now!