New user and Deciding on what to Buy (UK)

Hi, Just joined here.

I am very new to home automation.
Bought 7 Lohas WiFi lights a couple of weeks ago and have them setup to use my Echo 3rd Gen all OK (using the Smart Life App and Skill).

With hindsight maybe I should have researched for and considered alternatives to WiFi but it s what i have, so…

I now want to add a sensor the the bathroom light fitting comes on when someone enters the bathroom. Then turns off after so many minutes of inactivity.

I have been informed I need a hub for this so am looking at the SmartThings Hub (V3). Currently its on Amazon for £79 which seems like a good price.
Amazon also have a SmartThings Motion Sensor there for £24. I like the look of this sensor but after posting a question about it I am told it is not suitable for bathrooms. I will add my bathroom door is always open and steam an absolute minimum but if I need to look elsewhere I will.

So I have a couple of questions if I could please:

  1. Is the sensor mentioned not suitable for my bathroom use and if so is there an alternative that looks just as good (and similar price)?

  2. If I use the mentioned sensor (or a suggested alternative) would this be easy to implement in the SmartThings hub with my Lomas Wifi bulbs? Its actually a light fitting I installed in the bathroom and I really like the look of it. It cost quite a bit too so not really wanting to replace it.

Thanks for any answers or any pointers to an existing similar thread I might have missed.

I’d suggest you to try if Lohas can be integrated with SmartThings via Globe Suite first, since it is also a Tuya powered bulb, which is recently integrated with SmartThings. See the detailed instructions in the post below, and you don’t need a physical ST hub to try this out, so you can be confident if this is going to work with ST or not before buying the hub.

I have this motion sensor in my bathroom and is recommended by many in the community. Works great and the best part is its battery lasts long time. (I haven’t replaced the battery since installed 2 year ago.)

2 Likes

Thanks James, I will check out that link. Sounds promising. I’m in the UK so will see if I can find that motion detector on Amazon UK. Looks great.

While you are new try to stick to devices that are officially supported:

Once you get comfortable, then feel free to branch out.

1 Like

I have all 7 Lohas lights in both the Globe Suite and SmartThings Apps now. Plus my Samsung TV is in SmartThings. All setup in my Echo, except for two bedside lights have been picked up as switches this time for some reason. These are the only two lights that are white light only (no colors), so this may have something to do with it?

Found the option in Alexa to change the type back to ‘Light’ so all good

1 Like

@jamesguitar3 All running now without problems. Am I right in assuming if I buy the SmartThings hub I will no longer need Globe Suite and can uninstall it? That all the lights will be picked up by the hub directly? Many thanks.

1 Like

Yes. You can control them through ST going forward, and you shouldn’t need GS app anymore unless there is any change. Keep in mind that your Lohas lights are connected to your ST “account” not hub since they are cloud-to-cloud connection, so when you get the physical hub, just make sure you add it to your existing account and location, so your future devices can interact with your Lohas bulbs.

1 Like

Thanks James. Guess I better get on Amazon and order it then :slight_smile:

1 Like

Okay, I got the Samsung hub delivered this morning. As soon as it connected, two of my Lohas lights started showing as offline in SmartThings (one at least was okay moments before as I turned it on with Alexa).
I deleted them from Globe Suite and now cannot add them back (same in any tuya app). In the detection process, at 6%, the lights stop flashing but they never get detected. It is not the actual lights (I do not think) as I bought them in pairs and the other light of each pair is working with no problems. I am connected to a 2.4GHz network. I wiped data for both apps, Uninstalled and reboot my phone. Reinstalled Globe Suite and same issue. Are these bulbs fried?

I just deleted the lease for the bulbs on the router and they are not picking up an IP address now. So I guess they are dead.

Try remove the hub from your network to keep the condition as the same as before and re-add them to Globe Suite app and SmartThings connection again. And I am not sure if you had installed Tuya skills on your Alexa before. I’d suggest to remove it and Alexa can still recognize it through SmartThings once you add them back to ST. (I never tried, but just don’t want to confuse Alexa.)

I do remember I had run into the pairing issue, and I vaguely remember I tried to make sure delete the device in TuyaSmart app specifically, and then add to Globe Suite to get it back to “paired”, but I am not sure if it’s just coincidence.

1 Like

Tried with hub removed and still the same. The only skill I have is SmartThings.
I have used 4 different apps including Globe Suite but none were installed.
I reinstalled them and they had no lights configured.
I tried to add lights with them but still not possible.

I tried deleting other devices from the network as I currently have 40 things connected including guest devices and still cannot add these lights.
Worse i just noticed another light has an issue. If I turn it off with Alexa or SmartThings it never goes completely out. Flickers a bit and then has a faint glow to it, permanently. A very faint glow that is most evident in the dark but can tell its on even when daylight.
The other identical one does not. It is used as bedside lamp and I switched bulbs around between the lamps and problem stays with bulb (so not a lamp fault).

I have ordered replacements for all 3 bulbs and have arranged to return them in Amazon and eBay.

I am going to back up my router settings and reset it and try to add just the faulty lights, one at a time jsut to prove to myself they are faulty.

I red good things about the Lohas bulbs so am a bit surprised to find faults with 3 of them at same time. Just bad luck on my part I guess :frowning:

Resetting the router never worked either so I set it back to my configuration from backup.
The someone suggested to try and rename the Wifi SSID. I was going to scoff at this suggestion but thought what the heck anything its worth a try.
Well guess what it worked. Detected quickly as they should be.
I then removed the light and renamed the SSID back to its original one and again they were able to connect with no problem.
So all is good.
Well except for the one light that glows a little even when turned off. I have been unable to find an exact replacement for this. The only seller of this light i cna find, who is on Amazon UK, says it out of stock and does not know when in stock or if it ever will be. I can find almost the same lights but the color is not the white 6000k that I like. Its 3000K which looks a bit too yellow for me (apart from that it is an identical light). Guess I will just have to live with the glowing one :wink:

Anyway all is resolved for now but I do have a question about removing Globe Suite but I will do that later :slight_smile:

1 Like

grrr :wink: Still not right. Devices not added to SmartThings from Globe Suite. I have changed my Globe Suite password but the SmartThings app can still login? How do I remove all Globe Suite permissions from SmartThings (to make it as though Globe Suite and SmartThings never met)?

Edit - Found it. Removed and added back and now all lights found. Phew :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thanks James. All working now but just a quick question/s please (the last for this thread, I promise).
So if I add a new/replacement Lohas WiFi light in the future I will still have to use the GS app to get the light talking to ST? There is no way to add these lights to the cloud via the ST app or through the web site? There is nothing planned to add Lohas directly to ST in the future?
I guess if I want others to use my ST setup (just to be able to change light colors etc) I just get them to create a Samsung account, install ST and I add them as a member and they will never need GS?

@Flakie99
I may be wrong but I believe your average motion sensor including the Smartthings one works like an alarm system PIR and therefore is looking for a change in heat. This is fine for detecting motion e.g. someone entering a room but less so at knowing when someone is still in the room but not moving. This can then lead to the lights going out after an interval as they do not detect continued motion.

There is one presence system I have found which gets round this completely although it will cost more and be more complex to do the initial install. See below, it keeps track of how many people enter or leave rooms and therefore always knows if someone is still in a room.


Note: If it cannot be connected directly to Smartthings then it might be possible via MQTT.

1 Like

@jelockwood that looks like a great piece of kit. Completely right about the hand waving. I have put a Samsung one in the bathroom and for certain things it does keep turning the light off. Looks a bit too pricy for me though at this time and not sure about UK availability but will keep my eye on it.

@Flakie99
For your information I previously contacted Hiome myself, they have been very good at answering emails.

The following reply is particularly relevant.

We use a direct radio connection between the sensors and Core. In the US, it’s 900mhz, but we’ll be releasing a 433mhz variant for Europe eventually. The different power supply requirements is the primary reason we’re focusing on just the US for now.

So yes we both need to wait a while longer. :slight_smile: Another discussion confirmed the easiest way to power the ‘recessed’ version which uses a wired power connection rather than either batteries or a USB charger. For these embedded versions they agreed that a bell transformer might be the simplest solution, this could be located in the ceiling void and then run thin and cheap bell cable to their embedded versions. You might even get away with running several off a single bell transformer.

The following is the bell transformer I was thinking of.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Honeywell-D753-8V-1A-Transformer/dp/B0001NPZ60

1 Like