Home Automation

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?