So CES this week… already found something that caught my eye, and hopefully gets integrated with IFTTT > SmartThings:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/5/5271018/belkin-led-lighting-starter-kit
Looks like a cheaper Hue!
Any reason not to try to integrate these into the ST system? http://www.homedepot.com/p/TCP-Connected-Smart-LED-Light-Bulb-Starter-Kit-with-2-A19-LED-Light-Bulbs-LCG2LD11/204474334?N=bmbuZ32z#
I know it’s not as big a name, but they sell some of the bulbs right now at 3 for $23!
@WambleJ – wow, great find! I found a video on youtube, and it seems pretty simple to customize and send voice commands: http://youtu.be/Repl3pG3uA0
Also seems that the TCP bulbs have a webpage that you can “control” with: http://www.tcpi.com/connected-by-tcp-overview
I’m hoping to keep “things” integrated into one platform, but for the price, cant beat it!
It would be very cool if they could be integrated directly to smart things. I would guess if it is open source than someone could do it. The belkin may be more likely to be integrated as they are already working on the Wemo integration, but the price of these TCP is right!
I couldn’t find any technical info on TCP Inc’s system but it looks virtually identical to GreenWave Reality’s Connected Lighting which is based on NXP GreenChip technology.
http://www.greenwavereality.com/solutions/connected-lighting-solution/
Here’s some info on JenNet-IP protocol:
http://www.jennic.com/products/protocol_stacks/jennet-ip
Well… I’ve just picked up TCP Connected Smart LED Kit at Home Depot for $49.88.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/TCP-Connected-Smart-LED-Light-Bulb-Starter-Kit-with-2-A19-LED-Light-Bulbs-LCG2LD11/204474334#
The price is hard to beat and with generous 90 days return policy it’s a risk-free purchase. I wonder if they sell these kits at loss to capture the market, because the TCP gateway alone is listed for $69.88. I.e. the kit, which includes the gateway and two LED bulbs, sells for $20 less then the gateway without bulbs!
You can buy additional bulbs for $17.97 each, which is super cheap, considering that a regular dimmable LED bulb cost $10 to $12. You could also buy a bigger kit, which includes 3 bulbs and a hand-heald remote for $109.99, but as it stands now, it’s cheaper to buy them separately. The remote sells for $19.99.
I was considering buying Philips Hue, but I wasn’t sure about practicality of full-color lights for home application and also concerned with their high cost. With TLP bulb costing less than 1/3 of Philips Hue, it’s a very attractive proposition.
As I suspected, the TCP kit is designed by GreenWave Reality, so it must be based on NXP’s JenNet-IP protocol (which is based on 6loWPAN). I believe that 6loWPAN is far superior than both Zigbee and Z-Wave and I’m glad to see a consumer product using this protocol finally becoming available.
I’ll post my first impressions as soon as I hook it up.
@kernelhack – thanks for buying one for the team 
The other links you posted were great too, btw! I noticed varied prices for the TCP kit, so you’re probably right about them trying to capture early market adopters. Amazon listed prices way over what Home Depot listed.
Interested to hear about your impressions!
If you’re at CES come visit our booth!!!
Also as it happens we are attached to the TCP peoples booth! I’ll talk to them tomorrow when I’m there and see whats up!
@urman, you should probably also talk to GreenWave Reality since they’re the folks behind technology powering TCP lights.
Any update on this? I have the tcp kit and 10 lights in 3 rooms and it works great. The tcp lights are excellent, and reasonably priced compared to hue and actually cheaper than a dimmer switch if you have a room with few lights and are buying LEDs to swap out cfls like I am anyway.
Andrew King I believe had a thread where he was trying to integrate but appears stuck.
How did the discussion at CES go or did it not occur?
Lightreading had an article dated jan 6 where greenwave cmo Nate Williams discussed their partnership with TCP and actually referenced smartthings as a platform with limitations, and went on to indicate greenwave has ambitions in the market.
Soo I’m guessing they’re not gonna be helping with integration so the question remains…
Any progress on ST end to get these integrated?
I bought some of these too. Price point was good for sure. I only bought them hoping for integration. It’s so crazy to have a closed architecture nowadays.
I pose two questions to everyone:
- Would you buy a TCP Connected light if it WAS, or WAS GOING TO BE integrated with SmartThings?
- Would you buy a TCP Connected light if it WAS NOT going to be integrated with SmartThings?
I know we’re kind of biased in here, but still, you limit your possible customer base by saying “We only work with our stuff”. Versus “we work with our stuff and we work with SmartThings, and, and, and”. I’ll buy the “3 and” thing first every time.
I also only bought them hoping for integration. My router has all of its lan ports filled and now i have a modem, router, and 2 hubs crowding my desk. That plus i have to swap apps to control lights.
I’m with you on my choice will always go to the product that is cross platform capable. I despise proprietary anything, be it computer components, automotive, tools, etc. It burns me to no end when working on something and I have to buy a special tool or bit for some fastener or part. No rational reason for the engineering, all about the money. Build a good product at a good price, make it open and non proprietary and IMO you’ll outsell closed architecture products by a huge margin, and not be tossed in the trash when the closed systems fail, as some will as all these “systems” come to market. In the meantime we suffer the usual punishment for early adopters. In a few years or even months all the stuff I have will be crap, and I will have grossly overpaid for most of it.
I’m looking at some of these things and the one problem that I keep coming back to: No each manual control.
The WAP is always an important thing to consider in my situation. For example I have some Lifx bulbs, two of which are in my den. (My kids each have one in their room as well. These aren’t their main lights, just accent/bedside lights.) These are accent lights in my den as well, but there just isn’t great acceptance of them by my wife. She doesn’t want to pull out her tablet and turn them off… she’ll just flip the switch. Which is fine in a way… I mean they go off so their off. But because power is cut to them rather than the bulb turning itself off internally they become impossible to control electronically.
An alternative setup would be to wire past the physical switch so they lights always have power, then put in a z-wave ‘dummy’ switch (one not connected to any load) and setup rules in SmartThings that when the dummy switch is turned on it turns on the smartbulbs and when the switch is turned off it turns off the smartbulbs… but there’s a big problem here: COST!
I’m not going to buy $50-$100 bulbs and then ALSO buy a $50 switch for each install! What I’d ideally like to see is for Phillips or TCP make a cheap switch that ties into their system that can be setup to wirelessly control their bulbs. But I don’t know if such a switch would ever be cheap enough.