Cree Connected Max (Wifi/Bluetooth Smart Bulbs)

I finally found an Edison/filament style bulb that has color temperature control and claimed to have Smartthings support… but I can’t connect!

Here is the bulb. It is a wifi/bluetooth bulb and it seems like all the old cree lights were Zigbee and Smartthings seems to be looking for the Zigbee ones when I go through add a device and pick Cree.

Has anyone used these devices or anything else in this Connected Max line and know how to connect them to Smartthings?

I purchased some Cree Connected Max to work with Smartthings too as a press release from May 11th 2021 states new integration. Maybe we’re just waiting on an app update on the Smartthings side.

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So after sitting here and doing some playing around I got my Cree Connected Max lights to integrate into Smartthings. I connected them to Alexa using the instructions in the Cree app using Smart Life brand. I then looked in Smartthings and saw the Smart Life brand. I linked Smartthings to Smart Life and now they show up in my app. I’ll see if my settings (schedules) in the Cree app work with the Smarthings app and vise versa, but so far so good.

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Very interesting! Thanks for letting us know.

I’d also be curious if it’s a two-way integration. That is, if you turn on the lights using the smart life app or just by telling Alexa to turn them on, does the status change in the smartthings app?

Just told Alexia to turn on front porch light and the status in Smarthings changed from off to on so looks like that works. The Smartthings integration doesn’t seem to have all the bells and whistles that the Cree app has, such as dusk to dawn auto on off timer (that I can find yet) but seems to give me most of the controls I’m looking for. I’ll set the automated setting in the Cree app to turn on and off at sunset and sunrise, but at least I have the option to modify and view everything in one place in Smartthings.

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We’re a Google Home house but your suggestion took me down the right path.

For anyone else looking to integrate (until we have a more official integration from Cree/Smartthings):

Apparently, the Cree bulbs can be added directly to the Smart Life app. If you prefer to bypass the Alexa step, just reset your Cree bulbs (if necessary) and instead of setting them up in the Cree app you can just set them up in the Smart Life app. Once you’ve done that, you can add the Smart Life connected app to Smartthings and those devices will appear. Dimming and color temp are working well from smartthings.

Of course, this would drop some of the automated Dusk to Dawn, etc functionality offered by Cree (I assume) but this is fine with me since I prefer all of my automations live in Smartthings.

Thanks y’all!

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Is anyone else having issues with setting the color temperature for these bulbs in the SmartThings app being wrong? The API between the new Cree Connected Max bulbs and SmartThings isn’t translating the color temperatures correctly. When set the color temp using the Cree Lighting app the color temperature looks right, but when I set in the SmartThings app they do not. I checked the logs in my SmartThings IDE account and when setting the color temp for a bulb in the SmartThings app, it’s wildly off. And when setting the color temp using the Cree Lighting app, the SmartThings log is even more wildly off. For example, setting 2200K in the Cree app results in 10,000K (which isn’t even to spec for this bulb) in the SmartThings app. Setting the color temp to 2200K in the SmartThings app results in a setting of about 3400K in the Cree app. Very weird.

I have a similar problem with Alexa not interpreting the color preset name properly. “Candlelight” assigns an arbitrary Kelvin color that is not even close. “Daylight” is not even understood. (Using the app screen works fine.) So it’s not just your SmartThings integration. Cree–time to step up lads! Doesn’t seem like rocket science.