Twinkly Christmas Lights

So I have some Twinkly Christmas lights on my Christmas tree and they integrate with my google home, unfortunately they don’t directly integrate with Smartthings or IFTTT. Does anybody know of a way I could maybe force them to be able to integrate with SmartThings or IFTTT maybe a loophole or something to where I could incorporate them into some of my automations. Would like to use them in some Webcore pistons or routines. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

1 Like

What’s the brand/model of the lights?

@JDRoberts sounds like they might need to find a solution similar to mine in Alexa

Yes, I was thinking that, too, but it will only work if the twinkly lights have an Alexa integration. That’s one reason I asked for the brand and model. :sunglasses:

1 Like

They are Twinkly Christmas lights, the second generation 250 string special edition RGBW.

The integrate with my google assistant and im able to use voice commands but I want to use them in some webcore pistons or IFTTT applets instead of just use voice commands, say our presence is at home they turn on or a multipurpose sensor changes to open I would like them to turn on. I could use them in a google routine but that’s just another voice command lol not exactly what im looking to do with them. Hoping they get SmartThings and or IFTTT integration like soon lol

1 Like

OK, they work with Alexa, so you could probably use the following method:

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

There’s no equivalent for Google home yet, although Google has said they are going to be adding to their Google routine capabilities in 2020, so maybe we will get there. But for now, using echo as a “man in the middle” May be the best option.

1 Like

Someone who knoww how could possibly use this to do something:
XLED - unofficial control Twinkly - Smart Decoration LED lights : https://github.com/scrool/xled
Twinkly private protocol details : https://xled-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/protocol_details.html

(foun the links here: https://community.openhab.org/t/twinkly-christmas-lights-integration/58499)

I’m also interested if anyone reading this is gauging interest in making a smart things integration. I lack the know how to do it myself. These lights are awesome and I’d love if there was a smart things integration. I’ll try out the Alexa man in the middle solution for now.

Has anyone begun looking at this? I took some time to read through the API details published at the above links and I don’t think it would be too difficult to hack something together, however that would be my level of ability a hack.

If someone else is looking I won’t bother as it will likely take me longer than needed, wouldn’t be a particularly great integration either. Finally, it looks like it wouldn’t be possible to “discover” the lights and they’d have to be manually added by IP address (unless I am missing something).

Not sure if anyone is still looking at this, I have built a SmartApp and device handler to install the lights to SmartThings. Do you all have knowledge of adding custom device handlers and apps?

So far it is VERY limited functionality, with on and off only. So I know what to focus on next (assuming I have the skill to actually take this any further), what were people hoping to be able to do?

3 Likes

I’m hoping that any integration created, would also work for the Twinkly pre-lit tree which i own? It’s a 1st generation device - can anyone confirm if both generations use the same API?

@StevenJonSmith: Sounds good, thanks for working on it! I would expect the app to be able to do basic stuff that any lamp can: On, Off, Dim, Change to Colour. If you could somehow activate a specific scene then it would be absolutely ideal. All of this functionality to be then available in webcore too. No pressure, but i dare say you alone have the power to bring happiness to the hearts of countless souls around the world who have lost all hope of a solution! =)

I only have a set of gen 2, 250 led string, so that’s all I can test against I am afraid. I’ll share the code soon (once I’ve tidied it up a little and made some performance tweaks.

I’ve managed to find an endpoint which wasn’t documented in the unofficial links above, which will allow me to set brightness easily enough.

I want to try to find one for colour too, however it may be a case of needing to set the RGB values for all the LEDs on the device (this is MUCH harder, for me at least). Scene will require this RGB, frame by frame connection, as the scenes aren’t saved on the device they are streamed from the application every time you change them.

Hi, I’m interested in this. Currently I’m using Alexa routine to turn on/off the tree, but I would like to control it directly in Smartthings.
Where can I get SmartApp?

So I’ve got on, off, and brightness working. I’m working on setting a single solid colour at the moment and I’d like to get that sorted before I release it.

If I can’t get colour setting done early next week, as I am away now, I’ll release it as is and iterate on it later.

1 Like

Yes please Steven, I understand why you want to make a more complete first release but these devices are so intrinsically seasonal so itd be a shame not to maximise potential usage before they get they get put into storage for another year!

1 Like

I’ve not forgotten you all, I am currently having a small issue with turning the lights on. Off and brightness appear to work fine, so you can use brightness = 100% for on. As such, I am going to release it as is. Let me know what problems you face, there is no error capturing to try to help you. It barely works if I am honest but it’s something.

You’ll need to log into the IDE and add my GitHub repo.
Owner: StevenJonSmith
Name: SmartThings
Branch: master

To install it you need to add the “Twinkly Device” in the device handler area, and then add the “Twinkly Device Creator” in the SmartApps. You can then use the SmartApp to enter the required details to create your Twinkly device, and the new “thing” will appear in your devices area.

3 Likes

For some reason its not letting me add your repo, any idea why?

Unfortunately I can’t help there, I’ve successfully added it. Has anyone else following this thread had issues?

It should look like this:
RepoAdding

You could go direct to GitHub (https://github.com/StevenJonSmith/SmartThings), then copy and paste the code into a new handler and new SmartApp.

Installed, set up and working as adverticed (on-off-brightness)

Makre sure to update the firmware of the lights, as brightness did not work for me before I updated to latest firmware…

1 Like