Been away from ST for a while then I saw there was a Tuya Smart integration. Ive had some great Tuya Smart Wifi Door Sensors lying around so I run through the Tuya Smart integration with Smart Things (I also have window blinds) but nothing shows up anywhere. What am I missing? Is it the same old “doesn’t work with Smartthings” issue or are they getting it sorted now?
The Tuya/Smartlife integration is lacking to say the least.
The Tuya integration works better than the Smartlife integration for some reason.
If you open up each device in the Tuya/Smartlife apps using the edit icon it will tell you which 3rd party integrations are supported. Alexa and Google integrations are common, but Smartthings is not supported by many devices.
One work around for bulbs, plugs and switches is to create tap-to-run on and off automations in the Tuya or Smartlife apps and these automations generally get imported into Smartthings even if the devices don’t get imported.
One problem is that these on/off automations will show as offline in Smartthings.
You need to link these automations to virtual switches using WebCore or Sharptools to make them usable.
Not sure if that would work for contact sensors. It doesn’t work for cameras.
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Thanks for advice
I got my Tuya devices linked to Smartthings. There are two steps that you need to do before you can see your Tuya devices. The first step is click on the + sign (in the new app) to add a smart device, select Tuya, then enter your Tuya username and password.
The second step is go into the Smartthings settings, scroll down and select “Linked services”, you will see Tuya Smart as one of your linked services. Select it and you should see all your Tuya devices. You might have to do the second step a few times, it might time out depending on how many Tuya devices you have but eventually you’ll see all your Tuya devices. Once you see all your devices, go back to your home screen and scroll to the bottom to see your devices.
That didn’t work for me. What devices are you adding? Maybe it works for some devices but not all.
The devices I added are Teckin Plugs. I originally had these plugs setup with Smart Life but I could not get it to work with ST. When ST added Tuya to their list, I moved all my Teckin Plugs to the Tuya app. When I initially click on Tuya Smart under Linked Services, all I saw was a blank screen. I knew something worked because I saw one of my Tuya devices on the Home screen. I had to click on Tuya Smart under Linked Services several times before I got all my devices listed in ST.
Ok thanks for this but I think the problem with the sensors is different. Appreciate your advice though.
I am having the same issue. I see TuyaSmart as a linked service and when I click on it is says it’s successfully linked. I do not see any devices however. I have the Tuya (and SmartLife) apps and I can see the devices there and control them. The device in question is the Garage Door opener/monitor which works well.
Is there a remedy for this?
Paul
Only some Tuya/Smartlife devices integrate with Smartthings.
If you open each device in the Smartlife/Tuya app and hit the edit icon it will list the “3rd party controls” that are available for that device.
I have 5 Smartlife devices. They all list Alexa and Google integrations. Only 1 lists Smartthing.
There are work arounds for simple devices like plus and bulbs, but I don’t think it will work with a garage door opener.
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Got it. Thanks Paul. I checked that out and you are right. SmartThings is not listed but Google Assistant is. The garage door opener works in the native Tuya app but nothing else - ST or Google. It does work with Alexa.
These are the device info screens. I would have though given the IP address and MAC address I could add the device manually in ST.
Paul
Paul,
If you can operate the door with 2 simple “tap-to-run” (scenes) in Tuya you could try the following.
In the Smartlife or Tuya apps create seperate “tap-to-run” on and off automations (scenes) for each device you want to use in Smartthings.
In Smartthings run the Tuya integration. Do NOT use the Smartlife integration. (The difference between the Smartlife and Tuya intrigations is that the Tuya integration doesn’t end with an error message. And when you look on linked services the imported scenes are listed under Tuya, unlike Smartlife which is blank.)
When you go back to the main page in Smartthings you will find on and off switchs for each device possibly in No Room Assigned.
They will say they are off line, ignore that for now.
I have been using WebCore with my Smartlife/Tuya devices to overcome the offline issue, and it works good. Reportedly you can also do this in Sharptools.
I create a virtual switch in Smartthings.
In WebCore I create a piston for each device. The first part of the piston say toggle the “on” scene when the virtual switch is turned “on”. The second part of the piston say toggle the “off” scene when the virtual switch is turned “off”.
I have been using for months with no issues.
Not sure it will work for garage door.
Paul
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Thanks. I’ll give this a try and report back.
Paul
Hi Paul. Thanks for your great instructions. So I am down to where I have the TuyaSmart application as a linked service in SmartThings and, just like you said, the two Garage door switches are showing in the room ‘Garage’ I created but are offline. You said this would happen and it did! I can still use the function in the Tuya App and the door opens and closes in response to these commands.
So the next steop is to get around the offline status using WebCore pistons. I hadn’t used that program before but have got up to speed and written a couple of test ‘pistons’ that work. Very powerful program. Now I need to create the virtual switch in ST and then generate a piston for each scene - ‘Garage Door Open’ and ‘Garage Door Close’.
That is where I am at and working out how to create the virtual switch and link it to a Webcore piston. The job isn’t done yet, but getting close and I’ll update the community with progress.
Thanks for all your help,
Paul
Update: I created two virtual switches in ST to correspond to the two tap-to run scenes in the Tuya app. These sho up as switches on the ST app and in the IDE but do not open the door. The virtual switch moves when tapped and the ‘On’ changes to ‘Off’ but the door does not open.
I am thinking that this is because there is no automation to connect to it yet and I need to do that in Webcore. I will work on that now.
The above is the piston I use for a Tuya plug. The if statements are referring to the virtual switch. The then statements are the Tuya scenes
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Just create a routine in ST with a virtual switch, works for me, no need for WC, your offline non connected Tuya options are available when creating a normal ST automation, just ignore the fact they say offline, if you want you can hide the Tuya devices showing offline in a room you create but don’t use, call it device holding or something that suits you, saves them being confused as usuable switches
IF Virtual garage door switch on
THEN tuya garage open
IF virtual garage door off
THEN tuya garage close
Don’t use the option if on then also switch off at the bottom of the automation, it won’t work
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Thanks Paul. The problem I am having when trying to write the piston is that the Tuya scenes are not showing in the Webcore app. I went into SmartThings/SmartApps/WebCoRE/Settings/Available Devices/Which Actuators and added the virtual switch so that can now be ‘seen’ in WebCoRE when I am writing the piston. The device however, I think because it is showing offline, is not shown as a device to add to the ‘then’ statement.
Do I need to add that device manually? maybe as a Global Variable? I have the Device ID (Tuya Inc.|:Scene|:vEV23OBaVjZXLLlj) but do not know how to add it to the piston.
Thanks,
Paul
Thanks Mike. I understand the logic here but tried wring the code in the WebApp IFFT and the IDE as a SmartApp and didn’t make any progress.
Paul