Arlec Grid Connect Smart LED CCT & RGB Downlights Unboxing and Review
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2024
- Unboxing, Review, and setup of 4 Arlec Grid Connect Smart LED CCT & RGB Downlights
Available from Bunnings: bit.ly/3jJN3Il
Helpful Links:
Home Assistant: www.home-assistant.io/
Home Assistant iOS App: apple.co/34JATce
Home Assistant Android App: bit.ly/30VUsNh
Raspberry Pi: www.raspberrypi.org/
Balena Etcher: www.balena.io/etcher/
Music: www.purple-planet.com 
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After an hour or two trying to figure out why these lights weren't showing up in my Tuya integration in Home Assistant this video has finally solved that issue for me!! Thanks alot :)
Glad I could help. Thanks for watching!
Awesome tutorial
Glad you liked it
Great video! Did you put a different colour scheme for the far right light? It doesn't always match (see 12:09 and 12:14)
We noticed when trying to affect the Tuya Group that it isn't 100% reliable across all the entities in the group. I suspect more latency issues with the Tuya cloud service.
We're hoping the custom firmware that divorces the units from the Tuya cloud will make a big difference to the reliability, especially where latency is concerned.
That video is still in planning stages.
I bought one of these lights today and got so frustrated when it wouldn’t appear in Home Assistant under the Tuya intergration. It wasn’t until I rewatched your video that I realised it will only integrate properly if flashed with Tasmota. Luckily you have a video showing how to do that… :-)
Glad I could help.
I've been so disappointed with the Tuya Integration every single time I use it. I still don't know if it's a limitation with the Home Assistant Integration or if it's something with the Tuya API itself. Because it's so inconsistent between accessories, It's difficult to pin down. And maybe that's the catch, each accessory is working with different pin-outs.
Tasmota makes everything better.
Hi, I'm considering getting some of these globes. Just wondering if they retain their settings (light colour and intensity) when turned off at the switch?
As far as I recall they do, but I've flashed all of mine now to use Tasmota. It's been a long time since I had the standard Tuya Firmware on them.
Hi there
We have multiple grid connect smart globes in rooms around our house
None of them dim to zero unless turning off
I’d say it’s by design
Thanks, that's good to know. I have noticed after using them for a while that they're not as bright so it's not as worrisome now. There's clearly a burn-in period with these.
I’m trying so hard to get these to load but for the life of me they just won’t configure.
I’ve got the dual band wifi through Telstra. Am less then 5m from the router. The light enters into the flashing stage just fine but the search won’t find it, it just goes the full 2 minutes and then times out saying make sure light is in range etc. this happens on both the grid connect and tuya app. What am I doing wrong :(
These lights ONLY support 2.4GHz Wifi so worth double checking any band steering etc.
A lot of "Dual Band Wifi" tries to force 5GHz.
5GHz, whille it's got greater capacity, can struggle to even get through the plasterboard
The Grid Connect and Tuya app are...... the same thing with a different skin so I don't think you're doing anything wrong here.
it is possible to have TOO MUCH signal as well, so being right next to the router isn't always ideal.
Honestly, lose the Tuya firmware and flash them with Tasmota anyway. Cloud connected devices introduce too much latency and other problems.
Your wifi is signaling with the lights the whole time ? Or only when you turn them on ? U turn then on using the light switch of course but u. An add a timer ?
Provided there's power to the lights, they'll always connect to Wifi.
I block the physical power switch so nobody accidentally turns off the power to them.
You can use the native app to set schedules, and Tuya Smart also has an Amazon Alexa Skill so you can tell Alexa to turn the lights on/off, to a specific percentage, specific colour, etc.
Once Flashed (seperate Video) you can put them into Home Assistant and add much better automation to them. I have 3 of the DETA Grid Connect Downlights, Flashed and installed in the Kitchen, I use the motion sensor from the Alarm System to detect motion in the kitchen to turn the lights on, and then they turn off after 5 minutes of no motion.
You could then add something like an Ikea or Phillips Hue Remote to them (with a Zigbee Bridge) to control the lights if you still want a physical light switch/controller. This will also help it to pass the "Spouse" test.
I thought it might be worth sharing that I bought some down lights in Dec and in March then had a internet outage for 6 hours. Once the internet came back it fried the pairing function on 7 lights. Took them back to the store and they were replaced but a shame that some of them faulted after only a few months use
I've heard similar stories that power outages have caused issues with Tuya based devices and I've even got a Genio LED bulb that seems to have failed.
Unfortunately I don't think there's enough filtering on the PSU in these to handle any kind of power surge.
@@HiveMindAutomation It's a shame but I was fortunate to have warranty so I had them all replaced but 2 came back with wifi issues again so hoping once I have them back the problem will be resolved
is there any way you can control all the lights with one button for changing rgb etc ?
You can create a group inside the Tuya app, or you can flash them with Tasmota and create a group in Home Assistant.
To create a Home Assistant Light Group: ruclips.net/video/1bAc9QTsSWY/видео.html
and I flashed these lights in this video: ruclips.net/video/g6KeFUbwLH4/видео.html
I bought the same downlights and it was only after they were installed that I realised that turning them off at the light switch totally disconnects the power, so I currently have dumb smart lights 🤦🏻♂️.
My plan was to use the Tuya smart life app integration to get them into HA and then get some of the IKEA Tradfri dimmers to control them via a ZigBee dongle, but that won't work if I can't get the downlights to show up in HA.
Fingers crossed they can fix the Tuya/HA integration.
I just leave the wall switches on and use the Amazon Alexa skill for Grid Connect to turn them on and off for now.. It does what I need until I go grab some more from Bunnings and try flashing the firmware with Tasmota via a Serial Connection. I tried to flash the DETA brand Grid connect down lights over the air, but they've updated the firmware, so I definitely need to do some more digging
Do they default to a standard colour when the switch is turned back on or they don't work at all until you re-activate them via the mobile app?
I just tested by setting the app to red and then powering off the switch, waiting a few seconds, and powering them back up. They powered back up in the state they were in when powered down, so in my testing, they came back up in Red, so needed the App to reset the colour. I’m planning on flashing the firmware on these at some point to remove the tuya cloud, but as it is at the moment, the light switch is permanently on and we use the Alexa integration to interact with them until I flash them with Tasmota to get them properly into Home Assistant.
Assuming everyone has led down lights already, it would be simpler to just change 1 light switch with a Tuya/grid connect instead. That way you won’t have to worry about the light switch position being OFF.
How are you controlling from your pc? What application are u using?
There's no direct control that I'm aware of through the PC, only the Home Assistant Web Interface with the "workaround" to integrate the Tuya Smart Scenes
Last question LOL . Can I connect 4 let’s for outdoor but I dim all at once and change color temp all at once or I have to do it individually ?
The Tuya App does let you group multiple devices together and control them all at once, and if you flash them with Tasmota, and add them into Home Assistant, you can group them together in there as well.
Whether un-modified or stock, the Effects can and do get out of sync. but all the other controls like dimming and colour temp are normally fine.
I don't believe these units are rated for Outdoor use, however if you're planning to use them under Eaves, they'd be fine for that.
Cheers for the reply brother .. make a video about outdoor smart lights . By arlec I think they are the up and down lights
Love your vids and only stubbled across your page today. I am running Grid Connect app and Alexa, The question I have is if there is a easy way of connecting the lights to my Wifi after my Network name or password has been changed/
Not that I know of. You'll likely need to reset and re-pair all of the lights.
Any idea how to wire the smart wall switches? When is double switch one light? People talk is different but not what is different?
I'm not an electrician so unfortunately I can't provide this advice.
I can say - from what I've seen of the smart switches - I don't believe they support dual switching.
@@HiveMindAutomation seems is not information even in installation docs... so silly
these work with hue bridge
Is that a statement or a question?
I don't think these will work with a Hue Bridge because it's a Network to ZigBee bridge and these don't use ZigBee.
They have a Tuya ESP8266 module inside the control box that connects direct to Wifi, so ZigBee would be redundant.
I've since flashed them with Tasmota and I'm much happier with them now.
As a sparky I'd have to say it would be much easier to fit a socket to the house side of the wiring, rather than try to fit what may be several cables into the small termination block on the driver. This would also negate the need to alter the fitting from the manufacturers spec, which can be problematic. Otherwise, thanks for the review.
Good insight.
Wiring a socket probably is the right solution in hindsight.
Hey mate, I’ve been looking at these lights for a while however I have one concern. If I were to buy six of these would that mean I would have to connect each one to my wifi? And if so will it effect the internet in any way?
In order to control them smartly, you would need to connect them all to wifi, the second question is a bit loaded and the answer is “it depends”
For the most part, these smart devices don’t use a lot of bandwidth, the biggest use would be if they’re performing a firmware update. The challenge is with some ISP supplied routers, they struggle to route traffic the more devices you connect to the network and need rebooting periodically. Most ISP supplied routers are trash, and the ARP tables fill up quickly. But if you’ve got a decent router, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about with internet performance. If you really want to ensure they don’t hit the cloud too hard, I’ll be releasing a video shortly on how to flash them to remove the reliance on the Tuya cloud service.
Hi, have you done video hot to flash them? Thx
Not with the Arlec units, but I have a video of flashing the Deta downlights
I’ll be digging the Arlec out of the ceiling in the next few weeks to flash them
@@HiveMindAutomation which are better, the Deta or Arlec?
I have installed 6 in a new build. The electricians did it before I had synced them before installation and now struggle to get them to enter pairing mode when I flick the light switch they are all connected to. Any options other than pulling them down and doing intervidually my friend?
hmm... I'm not aware of a way to put them in programming mode other than the "flick the light switch on and off multiple times, which is obviously going to be a pain if they're all on the one switch.
They're not hard to pull out of the ceiling though, but keep the vacuum cleaner handy if you do.
5 gigs as 5G ?
5GHz Wifi and 5G Mobile are not the same thing.
Are you using a voice changer or something like that?
Nope, The only processing I apply is some Compression to squash the Dynamic Range, and sometimes I'll apply a Threshold Gate to cut out some background noise.
I've recently started applying a soft clipper as well to help me push the volume a bit harder without distortion.
grid connect should send you some free stuff for promoting their stuff
HAHA. I certainly won't say no if someone wants to sponsor a video, but I will tell them that my integrity is not for sale. Even a sponsored video will be a warts-and-all representation of the product.
@@HiveMindAutomation your videos are already better than anything grid connect have online
@@rrrrrrrr290 very tru
Thank you for the videos Stu. I have purchased some of these lights as well as some Deta light switches to begin my journey. But, there always is a but, isn't there.
But I have found some problems or should I say challenges. If you have the lights connected to a switch when you turn them off they lose all network connectivity. Therefore they have to require a network connection before you can adjust them etc. Not sure but perhaps with the Deta light switches but perhaps have an electrician join all the wires into a common grouping to only power the Deta switch and then use the light switches to turn the lights on/off via inbuilt power switch. That way the lights always have power and network connection. Perhaps even use Zigbee switches as a cheaper alternative to turn them on/off.
Not sure just beginning to see what I can do and learn. Back to some more videos.
How did you go with flashing the lights to Tasmota?
My research suggests these ones can't be flashed Over the air, so I'll probably have to dig them back out of the ceiling and pop open the control box. I've got some more experiments coming up with Tuya-Convert. Hard to plan a video for it that won't just look like me bashing on something for 45 minutes without a LOT of editing :P
its so obvious that he is reading from a script.
Yeah, sorry about that.
Discovered early that improvising ends up with me rambling and spending extra time editing.
@@HiveMindAutomation yeah. have a look at the channel technology connections he made a video on teleprompters and script reading, otherwise, just try to somewhat memorise your script and have it closer to the camera so it's harder to tell when you're glancing at it. if you haven't done so already do you think you could have a look at the data smart touch switches and fan controls and some other smart lighting and devices available from bunnings?
@@willpower3544 in my newer videos I’m using a prompter and it helps a lot.
The Deta grid-connect smart switches are on the list for 2021, hopefully including flashing the firmware to get rid of the tuya cloud reliance.
@@HiveMindAutomation interesting. Interesting. I look forward to it. I've been tinkering with smart devices recently, I'm about to make a video of them.
Awesome. I look forward to seeing your results. Hope you had a good Christmas!