Apologies for yet another question about using WiFi devices with ST but I’m not getting it. I want to install tunable, color-changing PAR38s in my outdoor floodlights so I can control them with ST. The only ones I’ve found are Cree WiFi bulbs but I’m not sure how to connect them to ST.
I’m thinking that I can have Alexa find them and then after Alexa sees them, they’ll be available in ST and subsequently in Webcore.
Or do I use the IDE and create a DTH from code someone smarter than me has developed and posted to Github? That assumes there is a DTH for these particular Cree bulbs or there’s a generic DTH for Wi-Fi bulbs, which I doubt.
Or does ST now have native support for WiFi devices?
Or do I do something entirely different?
Like I said, I’m not getting it. TIA for any guidance anyone can provide.
Pair the bulb with the Cree app or with whatever app the instructions say.
Then go to Smartthings.
In Smartthings press the plus sign, select device, select by brand, select Cree, select lighting.
This will only work if the bulbs have a Smartthings integration.
At present WiFi does not have a single unified standard for home automation commands, so all integrations have to be done on a model by model basis, or at least Brand by Brand depending on whether a brand has decided do use the same commands for all of its models. (Some do, some don’t.) so there’s no “generic Wi-Fi” DTH the way you can have for Z wave or a specific zigbee profile.
There is strong optimism that this will change, at least for a large number of Wi-Fi devices, once the Matter standard has been adopted. But that’s probably at least a year off. Still won’t be universal for all Wi-Fi devices, but we should see many of the large manufacturers adopt it.
As far as the “Cree connected max“ line, which are their Wi-Fi bulbs, the company did announce a smartthings Integration, but I don’t know if it has been implemented yet. If it has, follow the instructions that @Paul_Oliver already gave you. If that doesn’t work, some community members have had success using the smartlife app.
I have few Wiz wifi bulbs in use. They are ok and Wiz app has some features but with ST they are not local which annoys me. But there probably will be Edge Driver for wifi bulbs which means better integration with different brands. At least that’s what I hope.
I used the Cree app to link them to my WiFi network
I installed the Smart Life app by Volcano Technologies (there are a few on the app store) and created an account.
I reset the bulbs and allowed Smart Life to discover them
I went into ST and used the add device function to look for devices by Smart Life
The bulbs were found, added, and I was prompted to link my ST and Smart Life account
The above was posted by someone who had success. I however got to number five and I successfully linked smart things to smart life however the bulb does not show up. Says I’m linked but no bulb.
The problem with the Tuya/SmartLife integration is that many devices are not compatible with the integration.
Go into the Tuya/SmartLife App open the device, on the detail page in the upper right corner there is a pencil or 3 dots. Click on that and the new page should show a 3rd party control section. Things like Alexa and Google will be shown. If Smartthings is shown it should work, but ST is not show that means there is no Smartthings Integration.
If Smartthings is NOT listed there is work around that will give you a partial one way integration.
Another thing is that the Tuya integration seems to work better that the SmartLife integration. You can keep the devices in the SmartLife App and use the Tuya integration.
