FAQ: Battery Powered Z-Wave or ZigBee LED Light?

The only zwave/zigbee one I know of is the Hue Go, but it will only run for about 2 hours on battery, then it shuts itself off.

The problem is that a light usually just takes too much battery to also run a radio… There are some decent nonnetworked ones with remote controls or motion detectors. I personally like Mr. beams. But they don’t integrate with SmartThings.

2019: The Ring Lights Alternative

On the other hand, if you are willing to use something that has a proprietary protocol, uses its own bridge, and has only limited integration with SmartThings, as of 2019 Ring now offers its battery-powered Ring Lights system which has both big outdoor floodlights and small step lights which could also be used in a closet. Expected battery life of about a year.

(Amazon acquired Ring, Ring acquired Mr. Beams: the result is some pretty nifty devices that work really well with Echo.)

The floodlight is 600 lumens (about a 60 W equivalent), the spotlight is 400, and the steplight is a nightlight-like 35. So not super bright, but functional for many situations. :sunglasses::partly_sunny:

You could also use a combination of the Ring smart lights and the Mr. Beams dumb motion sensor lights to cover a lot of use cases.

Most models come in a choice of black or white cases.

So if you are OK with a separate bridge and a separate protocol, how do you get SmartThings Integration?

Unfortunately although there is an Official ST/Ring Integration, it doesn’t include these devices.

And the Ring IFTTT channel doesn’t include them either. :disappointed_relieved:

However: you can turn them on with Echo. And both the motion sensor as a trigger and the lights as a target show up in Echo routines. :+1:

Which means you can use Echo routines as a “man in the middle” for ST integration without having to actually say anything. Setup is, shall we say, intricate, and integration is limited, but it can be done.

FAQ: Can I trigger an Echo Action without Speaking to It?

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