I’ve been expanding our smart devices and with the holidays coming, I spent ‘too much’ on some Hue Festiva light for the tree among some other things like a pair of Govee curtain lights (would have gone Twinkle for both but just read too many gripes on ‘lasted one season then died’. Will see how the Govee HA integration works out eventually.
Meanwhlle, we also have had some ‘curtain lights’ on a rear ~6-7’ x 6’ fixed window, another on a roughly 8’x8’ front set of windows, and a third set over the kitchen sink roughly 6; wide x ~4’6” tall. The two big ones are plug powered but also have a remote for modes, and the smaller one is battery pack and remote.
Of course, when we originally got them, I nudged the wife towards warm white (~2700K-ish) but she wanted white, So yeah, now she wants the 2700K, so was going to surprise her before the holidays and replace them alll. There are a ton of all over Amazon, and thought I found a match - the big sets of lights I have on Thread outlets and group them to turn ‘window lights’ on or off, and they work well enough other than being the wrong color ‘now.’ The ktchen sink lights were never ideal but I found some that had both a battery pack and USB power, with the intent of putting them all on Thread outlets for on/off.
So, the problem. On power to the outlet, you still need to use the stupid remote on the set I got, and it doesn’t retain state, meaning iif I use the remote to turn on and pick a mode, then cut the outlet power then turn the outlet back on - you still need to then use the remote, which kind of defeats the purpose. We don’t desperately need all the remote modes, just solid and or slow blink is fine, but need them to at least go on/off via Home, voice, something.
Here’s an example of the type of curtain or ’fairy lights’ I’m talking about. Considering the $$ I’ve put in elsewhere into smart home bits and now the Festivia and Govees, really was looking for expensive and can work with smart outlets. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KLV417B
I haven’t checked the bigger sets yet but the one above is a fail at this point. They’re simple (but nt enough to come on when power s apple - meh), and they make my wife happy waking up in the morning when it’s still dark out or at night. I did try adding batteries as well as wall power, waiting to see if any magic smoke was let out, but seems like it’s wired as battery backup (or sole power if not getting wall power), so then when I turn off the outlet, it just goes to battery and doesn’t turn off, again defeating the intent. I have not looked at the tiny circuit inside the battery box switch and it’s possible I may be able to solder/jump a few pins but - has anyone found working sets same style that work as described, possibly being able to be cut to length, that aren’t outrageously priced?
I did a bit more digging as well as was able to find receipt for the original works-with-smart-plugs-but-wrong-color lights.
The ones that might work call out they have ’memory’ in the light controller, which is sort of funny as the various 8 mode lights don’t need more than well, 4 bits to cover last mode.
But my ‘problem short set’ claims to have ‘memory’ but with zero instructions and in this case I bet it’s still lost on a power cycle via smart plug, and in this case if it even works at all, it’s in the remote, thus still needing the remote to power on, so useless for me.
Some guessing happening here, but digging through reviews, questions etc., seems like the cheap lights with a USB-A for power generally don’t save state as I’d like, while the lights able to extend strings ending in a rectangular kinda blocky plug - are more likely to have a bit more (or at least 4 bits/few bytes anyways ;) ) to their controllers, and more likely to actually work with a smart plug.
I have a few ‘should work’ sets inbound - Amazon is going to love my returns of no-way-to-cleanly-repackage non-memory lights…
Still no luck on the short ~8x4.5-5’ set. The ones I got claim the retain state but don’t. I picked up a set of warm white icicle lights instead as a backup. Will see how it works out this weekend.
Oh, there are a very few sets of lights IF you can find them that don’t have a remote, but do have a normal plug and a controller with a dial. These ‘probably’ will work, unless they also have a momentary on switch on the controller. They probably made it for cost savings but might work out as an advantage.
have you looked into the Twinkly lights? They have a pretty good reputation and might be a good fit for your setup. Good luck!