Hi!
Yesterday I stumbled across the Mirabella range of WiFi products at KMart. I was standing in store and thought ‘oh well it labells itself as Google Home Assist and Alexa compatible… maybe there’s a Home Assist plugin for it’.
So that led (pun sort of intentional) me to discovering it’s a generic device made by Tuya, and there’s an active project to convert the internal firmare over to the Sonoff-Tasmota stack. Basically we’re talking an AU/NZ standard ESP8266 enclose LED ring.
The documentation on the Tuya Convert is a little light on the ground for the Mirabella range and doesn’t seem to cover the power plug at all. So I thought I’d sign up here and post my findings along the way as I proceed to hack on them, then push upstream. The idea being that I’m rather more likely to encounter Australian home automation hackers with an Australian KMart nearby here than over on the upstream projects.
Just getting ready to flash my first bulb. I’ll take notes and update this thread as I go. As I’m looking at covering a particular brand and not a specific area (lighting, home control) I’m not sure where to Categorise this thread. If someone can point me in the right direction that’d be grand.
Kerry, certainly can’t imagine any issues importing and using them over there. Someone was telling me Bunnings sell something with the same chipset inside and hackability, however last I was in a Bunnings store I couldn’t see anything as cheap as the KMart stuff. Whether that was just the store was out of stock I don’t know. Cheers bru.
Right so successfully flashed the basic Sonof onto the globe. Moved onto the power plug, similar success. I don’t have my Home Assistant up at the moment so can’t actually test the stuff to properly say ‘yup it all works’ but this looks very promising indeed.
There’s some of the code in the convert project I think should probably get some attention from me more to start with so that it’s a little cleaner and requires far less Linux internal knowledge to get it going.
I’m going to head past KMart again tomorrow morning so I’ll see what else they have in the range, I notice from the Mirabella Genio website there’s a rather large range
Tuya seems to be in everything right now. Just about any WiFi product on retail shelves has a Tuya module in it. I have an Arlec power plug here that I bought at Bunnings, and it’s Tuya based as well. I’m probably going to do a video some time about reflashing Tuya modules.
Ah, it’s the Arlec from Bunnings? Neat. I’ll take another peak. Not seeing anything matching Arlec WiFi on their website.
What I’m really eager for is someone in AU/NZ to release/replicate the TP-Link Kasa style power board with certification, but I guess our population density isn’t sufficient. But if we support these retailers where and when we can, hopefully the manufacturers will get more confident.
My big problem with Bunnings is that they constantly churn their product lines, so if you buy something from them and go back a month later to buy more of the same thing, they probably don’t sell it anymore. They do it with all product categories, but electrical is by far the worst. Many times I’ve seen people talk about something they bought at Bunnings, then I’ve specifically gone there to buy one and they don’t sell it anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if they no longer carry this particular Arlec plug.
These Mirabella globes are also showing up on the Australian Big W website. Haven’t been in to my local yet to check it out. However, for Kerry’s interest, Big W is owned by Woolworths Australia, who own Countdown NZ. If you’re giving KMart NZ a query I’d send one Countdown’s way too.
Stuck my head into the local Big W. Lots of Mirabella, no smart devices.
On my way home I dropped into my local IGA*, and spotted small Mirabella globes in there. Haven’t asked the store owner yet, but I plan on asking her if she can get them.
*Tasmanian IGA is a little different to North Island IGA, not quite sure precisely how so I can’t promise any similarties in stock/warehouse etc.
I bought a couple of Arlec wall-mounted panel heaters on sale recently from Bunnings for $30 each and they are Alexa/Google compatible. Seem great for the money. I also grabbed a few Brilliant brand power sockets with USB 5V out which work with Smart Life/Tuya as well. $15
I intend to pick one up RSN and pull it apart to see what’s on the inside, I’ve not really searched for anyone else having done so yet (kinda half expect folks looking for ‘kmart australia genio’ to find this thread).
Price wise, these units are about $30 cheaper than the equivalent TP-Link product, which is the only other I’ve seen on the shelves so far in Australia* (which also has three points and two USB so possibly same hardware). As with other TP-Link home products, its main selling point is that no hub is required. So when I pull this apart I’m expecting to find an ESP8266 inside with a relay, just with junk firmware that ‘requires’ 'net connection as with other Genio product. Will update when I know more, but if someone else gets there before me, please update this thread!
*Yes, there is one under another name being sold by Aldi but that company isn’t as widespread as KMart or JBHiFi (where I saw the TP-Link) so I’m not classing it as ‘available’ across the country.
I have successfully flashed the Mirabella genio downlights with tasmota, and they work really well (so far).
My next project is to try the Mirabella IR remote, which is apparently also supported on Tasmota.
While at Kmart, I also picked up a the Mirabella door and window sensor. Having done some more research on this device, it looks like other folks have run into some trouble configuring Tasmota on it (https://community.home-assistant.io/t/tasmota-and-door-sensors/126165), and it is not on the currently supported list of devices for Tasmota.
