Smart LED 8W Downlight $12.99. These were $13.99 in Sept last year.
Is this a joke?
No, it's a downlight. theSav needs them to light up his house. Times are tough, gotta make concessions somtimes.
No joke, these are decent, cheap & can be flashed with local firmware, so no dependence on the cloud (OpenBeken). Work perfectly with Home Assistant.
If you’ve got an alt suggestion, I’m all ears.
I think it was more that it sounded like you were sitting around in a house with no lights waiting for this deal :)
(as opposed to obviously just changing your lights)
@theSav Flashed with local firmware……..can you include a link please. I have a few of these and interested on what you used?
IGNORE……you noted further below https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/13702180/redir
Cloudcutter? … There's also libretiny now which is an esphome fork
@cplagz: Tuya CloudCutter (https://github.com/tuya-cloudcutter/tuya-cloudcutter). It’s essentially and exploit in the Beken Chipsets allowing for custom firmware upload OTA instead of having to wire the device in with USB to flash.
I’ve got no ESPHome devices, so can’t comment - not sure on the benefits of each tbh?
Yeah. Last time I only was able to buy two because of stock shortage. I ended up doing the dunny and laundry only. This time I hope to buy more as well
That man's got priorities!
I cleared out my local Aldi stores last year and completed the entire house. 50 of these all working well.
As someone in the lighting industry, considering the function, price and aldi backed warranty, this is actually a crazy price even at last years price 😂 (as long as you don’t mind the Downlights being a bit glarey)
What would be a fair cost for a sparky to remove my current LED lights (they're hardwired) and replace them with surface socket?
(I'd get them to do 15 in total at the same time)
Can’t say for sure as I’m not a contractor - and probably too many variables eg your location etc, the actual surface sockets themselves are cheap as hell these days but install can vary wildly - best to ask for at least 3 quotes and compare from there.
What state are you in?
Sydney
A couple of years back in Sydney.had a licensed sparky do it for ridiculous cheap price.. roughly if I remember about 20 to 30$ per replacement ..I had about 30 replacement done
I’m not going to talk about how easy it is to DIY electrical because it’s technically not legal.
it’s technically not legal
The best kind of being not legal.
What CRI do you reckon….30? 40? :D
Not that terrible, prob 70+
Got these all over the house - 21 lights in total. Can definitely recommend. Can’t believe they’re getting cheaper!
Appreciate the recommendation. Do those blue clips sit within the ceiling so they're not invisible? Can't quite figure out how that works.
Yes mate these are what hold them up so sit on top of the gyprock
Cheers!
Yeah, the blue clips sit in the ceiling cavity, you won't see them
Cheers mate.
“Alexa, remind me to wake up for Aldi sale”
Reply sorry the lights on but no one home….
Can someone explain to me what I'd need to set this sort of thing up? I live in an apartment with modern "dumb" downlights.
If I wanted to install these, would I need new switches / a bridge / hub or anything? Are these wifi enabled? Can I buy a bunch and hire a sparky to do the installation since I'm dumb?
Depends on what you have currently. Eg halogen downlights or exisiting led downlights.
For halogen down lights may be a pain as you may need to check the transformer inside the ceiling to ensure its drawing enough power when switching to LEDs. I'm no electrician so prob not using the right jargon.
If you have existing LED downlights and the same LED size as these, and they are also on plugs, then it's just swapping it out.
Howerver each one of this light will be connecting to your wifi router separately. Again not techie, but this will just be like a traffic jam to your wifi.
Hence Philips Hue or something similar avoid this by requiring a hub/bridge. To connect to router and to 'minimise the traffic'.
I'm no electrician but don't LED lights use less power than their halogen counterparts?
I am an electrician but I'm no expert.
That said,
LED smart lights draw less power and may not be enough to engage the transformer.
This has been a problem for electronic transformers.
I ran into trouble getting a smart wifi wall switch to work with a smart wifi LED globe simultaneously.
The globe would just flash or not turn on when controlled by wifi and a smart switch.
It was a bit of a rabbit hole.
Product support and online forums assured me it was impossible without an additional load correction device. I managed a workaround without anything added to the circuit and it was worth it to have a a switch and a globe controlled by voice
@PlaunsJanus: "LED smart lights draw less power and may not be enough to engage the transformer.
This has been a problem for electronic transformers."
You don't use the transformer with these, they are 240V, the halogen light transformer converts 240v to 12V.
"The globe would just flash or not turn on when controlled by wifi and a smart switch."
This is what they do when not connected to the wifi.
@pket: The transformer is electronic and built in, Yes. You can't run an LED on AC.
You're correct. If I wasn't clear about there being an electronic transformer, my mistake.
Like I mentioned, I'm no expert but thanks for repeating what I said and also quoting my comment just for added clarity
If there is an existing transformer, won't be using it as these have an integrated driver and plug in to 240V. Having a plug base installed if not there already would be the way to go, replacing the light in future would be plug and play.
The easiest way to work this out is to remove an existing dumb light from your ceiling and check. Most modern apartments will have surface sockets and changing over to one of these is literally just inserting a plug into a socket, same as you would with any other appliance.
You won't need an electrician or any other equipment. Careful though, spring clips can be nasty if you catch them and gyprock can fall into your eyes. After doing one you'll find the others a cinch.
Your halogens are much brighter and beware that many of these cheap fittings don't specify a beam angle, so less light and a wide diffuse beam equals disappointment.
What kind of plug is this ( it says includes plug fir diy)
Does that mean that you can screw it into existing light sockets?
it's a downlight, there is no socket
Most likely standard power point plug
They would come with a two prong plug, which is kind of useless unless you already have sockets installed inside the roof.
Can I just use these as dumb downlights?
Why not?
yes controlled by on/off switch
BUT these things generally won't work with a dimmer dial. You can dim via the app
Pay $6.20 for dumb ones with dimmable and colour selection
https://www.tradezone.com.au/product/davis-lighting-9-watt-d…
*Oops wrong reply button
How do I know if those Tradezone ones are any good or not?*
@WSDtightwad: you try them out for $6, like I did. They seem to be fine so far, but they've only been in for a month.
They seem popular with electricians, buying them in bulk
@tehsnrub: Thx.
It shows as $9.11 ea for me on tradezone.
But I didn't say I was a sparky (i'm not one).
@WSDtightwad: I "upgraded" my account to electrical contractor when I signed up, but it hasn't asked me for my EC/EW and I've bought stuff for a while..
give it a go :D
When they say plug do they mean 10 amp?
Plug as in the bit with 2/3 pins
Does this work with Home Assistant? Is this a Tuya based light or something else?
Would like to know this too.
Yes, they’re fully compatible with Home Assistant after adding them via Tuya!
Yes they work 100% with Home Assistant. Yes they’re Tuya.
You can happily liberate them from the cloud with OpenBeken (https://github.com/openshwprojects/OpenBK7231T_App) & Tuya CloudCutter.
White config - (https://www.elektroda.com/rtvforum/topic3971124.html)
RGB config - (https://www.elektroda.com/rtvforum/topic3866123-810.html#201…)
Thanks so much! I have these in my house and I run them via localtuya, be so good to rip these out of the cloud.
Hate Tuya, but love ripping Tuya devices off the cloud lol
Doesn't look like an easy job at all having to desolder the WB2L module from the board in advance to gain access to the pins…that's a fiddly job that requires a decent soldering iron and some soldering skills.
If using Homeassistant, One can always just use Local Tuya which takes them somewhat away from the cloud once setup. One just needs to grab the device ID and password from Tuya Cloud after which will work locally.
No soldering needed for these courtesy of Tuya CloudCutter!
Here’s an older (read: not current) guide which roughly outlines the process:
https://youtu.be/3QFNtc6sQgM
Essentially:
Find the firmware version
Grab the matching custom firmware from OpenBeken
Setup CloudCutter on a Linux box
Reset the device a few times
Execute cloud cutter
Upload firmware
Configure the device as per normal Tasmota (links above show the White and RGB configs)
Profit from no cloud integration!
@theSav: @theSav
"Grab the matching custom firmware from OpenBeken" - how did you go about flashing them? What did you select in cloud-cutter to match these?
Assume for OpenBeken they are BK7231T devices?
@MnM007: OpenBeken releases on GitHub are here:
https://github.com/openshwprojects/OpenBK7231T_App/releases. Yes these run BK7231T - though to be fair, I’ll still open each of them to be sure each time too - nothing to say that they won’t change in the future.
For my existing devices - Grab the OpenBeken ‘CCtr Flash’ release for use with CloudCutter.
Here’s the actual CloudCutter output with the options which I used last time when I flashed one of these RGB Lights from a couple of weeks ago (you’ve got to know the fw version the device is already running first - 2.9.16 in my case):
1) Detach from the cloud and run Tuya firmware locally
2) Flash 3rd Party Firmware
[?] Select your desired operation: 2
Loading options, please wait…
[?] Select your custom firmware file: OpenBK7231T_UG_1.15.664.bin
* OpenBK7231T_UG_1.15.664.bin
[?] How do you want to choose the device?: By firmware version and name
By manufacturer/device name
* By firmware version and name
From device-profiles (i.e. custom profile)
[?] Select the firmware version and name: 2.9.16 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
2.0.3 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light5_sm2135e_yamao
2.0.6 - BK7231T / WB3S_RMD_Night_Light
2.1.1 - BK7231T / HYS_03_018_bk7231t_r1e1zch4rds9ypqq
2.1.6 - BK7231N / bk7231n_common_user_config_ty
2.9.12 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
2.9.15 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
* 2.9.16 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
2.9.25 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
2.9.27 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
2.9.3 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
2.9.6 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_light_ty
7.0.0 - BK7231T / oem_bk7231s_dltj
7.0.2 - BK7231N / Klarstein_Wonderwall_Smart
[?] Select the brand of your device: Aldi
* Aldi
Arlec
Brilliant
DOGAIN
Daybetter
Feit
Globe Electric
Helloify
Kobi
LSC
Lightway
Lumary
Phopollo
[?] Select the article number of your device: SMART-AL2017-TGTS Lightway 8W Downlight
* SMART-AL2017-TGTS Lightway 8W Downlight
Selected Device Slug: aldi-lightway-smart-al2017-tgts-downlight
Selected Profile: oem-bk7231s-light-ty-2.9.16-sdk-1.0.8-40.00
Selected Firmware: /work/custom-firmware/OpenBK7231T_UG_1.15.664.bin
After this, CloudCutter just runs through the firmware loading/device resetting process.
Hope that helps!
@theSav: Nice, might try on one of mine.
Excuse my lack to knowledge, so once done,
- how do you access them, does it provide a ID and P/W?
- What app do you use to controll them, set colours etc?
@Borg: All the info you need is in this thread.
Ultimately most will use something like “home assistant”
@Borg: @Borg. Yes, it still sits on your wifi like it does out of the box, with its own IP. It has a web interface for configuring the device (Google ‘Tasmota web interface’ to see images of this). I have mine added into Home Assistant, but you can also use the ‘TasmoAdmin’ console to manage them too - I run both.
@theSav: Thanks for that. Have put it on the To Do list as interested to see how Tasmoto type of device work.
I use local Tuya for a lot of things (non hackable) so probably not a lot to gain by doing this as will still need local Tuya for other things.
@theSav: @theSav thanks heaps for the guide and opening my eyes to Tuya CloudCutter and OpenBeken. Didn't realise these projects existed after Tuya patched out TuyaConvert/Tasmota a few years ago.
Managed to flash 6 of these downlights as well as exploit another few IoT devices I had. Feels good having full local access to my devices without sending data to the cloud :)
@keyman: Yeh it’s awesome hey! No wazza dude. Glad it helped you on your way! Always nice to expand the grey matter :)
@theSav: Would it be as effective to simply block internet access to the devices? Or would this cause them to stop working?
@DN38416: That won’t work, out of the box they require tuya cloud connectivity to work.
The default comms flow is from the mobile app, out to the Tuya cloud, back into your device.
I’ve gotten stuck a few times previously when my internet went down and I couldn’t control my lights anymore… what a dumb. Hence custom firmware now for me.
@theSav: I've left mine on the cloud as I don't have Google voice connectivity to my Home Assistant, but localtuya means I can still switch them without internet via my zigbee switches. Alexa controls locally them via emulated hue but obviously still won't work without internet.
@theSav: Did you manage to get "RGB" colours in Home Assistant? I have light and Temp control without issue but not the Colour Palete with these lights?
@Borg yes I did (on the RGB model only of course!). You’ve probably not got the light itself setup correctly in its own firmware, or some pins im the wrong order. I had some trouble initially, but below is what worked for me.
Browse to the IP of the light in your favourite web browser to see the config page. This is how mine is setup:
Config > Configure Module:
Pin - Role - Ch Index
P6 - PWM - 2
P7 - PWM_n - 3
P8 - PWM - 4
P24 - PWM - 1
P26 - PWM - 0
Config > Configure General/Flags:
Set Flag 8 - without flag 8, weird things happened when changing colours and brightness…
(I also set flags 10,18,27 - but those are optional & I’m not sure how needed those are..)
You’ll also need to configure wifi, names, MQTT & Home Assistant settings to whatever your network/servers are set to.
Hope that helps - let me know if you need anything else
@theSav: Thanks for confirming. Yet to flash one and still using Local Tuya with default firmware. Good to know that it sorts that part as never managed to get it working with defaults on HA.
@Borg: @Borg I’ve not used local tuya, so can’t comment. But the ones I still have in normal Tuya work correctly, RGB & all in HA - haven’t converted them all over yet.
@theSav: Interesting. Would you have a link to the Tuya settings (values) you used or if you tweaked to make yours work, if possible note them here? I mucked about with them in HA to no avail and gave up as wasn't that important but would be nice to get it working, I do get the Colour selector but it doesn’t work. Only the brightness and Temperature sliders do anything.
@Borg: @Borg I’m just using the standard tuya cloud integration with HA for the lights I bought which I’ve not flashed with custom firmware. No special settings at all, just worked for me. Perhaps try the homeassistant subreddit or the like? I’ve not used local tuya at all sorry.
The ones with custom firmware work over MQTT & after the above config, also work perfectly for me.
@theSav: Thanks for the reply. All good as not too worried about the colours. They aren't great as not very bright. It works via Tuya App, just not in HA. cheers.
Why would someone fit their entire house out with these? I assume it is very difficult / impossible to get replacement lights if they fail, which would mean an entire room would need to be replaced if you cant get a good colour match.
Can a standard wifi router really handle 50+ wifi connected lights?
Is it a better solution to install wifi switch controllers and standard led downlights at $6 each?
At this price, just get few extra as backup.
At this price, you might not find a few extra …lol
To answer the router question, mine was struggling with around 30, it was a mid range Asus. Upgraded to a Deco mesh and now everything is happier.
The other option is to run a separate wifi for home automation using an old router. Downside is a bit more config effort required to do it all.
That’s what I did, fitted the house with Deco. I’ve got all the smart 2.4Ghz stuff on the guest network.
Depending on what you define as mid range, my old trusty tm1900 (ac68u) has no problems handling over 50 devices.
Well mine worked fine until I would try and do a speaker group with half a dozen or so speakers. Would then get speakers dropping out. Upgraded and the problem went away.
Different lights for different requirements.
- Smart lights allow dimming and change of colour (white/warm/RGB)
- smart switches just allow on and off and maybe dimming
Any thoughts on good dimmer smart switches?
I use hue dimmers and covers for hue lights personally
Standard wifi router.. Maybe not. I have 80 devices on my home network now but I have a Unifi system.
Is the standby current draw significant?
I’ve got a watt meter - I’ll test and get back to you. There’s definitely some draw since they’re connected to your WiFi network
Good question - I just tested one RBG downlight I had lying around not yet installed - looks to be 0.3w as you plug it in, then ramping up to - 0.6w after about a minute while turned off @ idle.
White (warm or cool) 100% brightness ~8.7w
Colours 100% brightness ~2.2 - ~4.2w
Wattage ramps pretty linearly for brightness at 50%(4.4w) or 25% (2.4w) (for white anyway).
Hope that helps.
Standby draw is low…..approx 0.230w when off.
~5.5w/day or ~2kWh/yr (~50c) .
How bright are they? Doesn't state lumens. Can someone who has them post the details here?
Woohoo, been waiting for these to come back again to finish the house off. Thanks OP!