Review of Smart Wi-Fi Garland Tuya MSL6 With Addressable LEDs And Light Music Aliexpress 2022. What a new year without a garland ?! But since we have a smart home, then the garland must be smart. In this review, there will be a smart garland that can be controlled using automation and a mobile application via WiFi. In addition, the TUYA led garland can be controlled using the remote control included in the kit, as well as from the unit directly on the garland. The main difference between this garland and the simple ones is 7 different installation modes, from a Christmas tree to a fence or even a Christmas wreath. All modes have built-in work presets, creating a very beautiful visualization. Additionally, you can simply turn it on on a smart garland – the desired color and brightness using the Tuya Smart or Smart Life mobile application. Also, the smart LED garland TUYA can act as a light and music, for this a microphone is built into the unit, and several modes of operation options. The smart Tuya garland has 16 basic colors and 16 million shades – if you compare it with an ordinary multi-colored garland, it is much more beautiful. In addition, you can set up a simple automation of the smart WiFi garland, when the sun goes down – turn it on, and after midnight turn it off automatically. I also tried to integrate Tuya smart garland into the Home Assistant smart home system.
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It comes in such a box, in fact, only with the inscription Globe Fairy Lights. On the back there is a sticker with the main characteristics, namely the MSL6 model, powered by USB 5 Volt. Length 32.8 feet, or 975 centimeters, roughly rounded – 10 meters.
Inside the box we have instructions for use. You will have to read it, since how to add it to the smart home system is not entirely clear. The instruction shows and explains all this, there is no English, but in English everything is generally clear.
Further in the kit is a meter-long power cord from any USB port with a voltage of 5 volts.
Right next to it is double-sided tape for attaching the garland block to a smooth surface.
And a small IR remote control. It is powered by a CR2025 battery – take out the shipping film before use.
The garland itself consists of a control unit and one and a half centimeter plastic balls with addressable LEDs. The number of LEDs depends on the length of the tape, there are 5 meters, and there are 10. 33 and 66, respectively. But, as for me the price of $ 4 at the time of the creation of the review, it is worth it for the overpayment of a 10-meter garland.
The balls themselves with LEDs are tightly sealed, and to the touch they rather resemble the so-called soft touch. Three-core cable with soft protective sheath.
I really liked how the garland was made in terms of balls, they scatter the color very nicely and glow almost evenly.
The balls are placed every 15 centimeters. There are 66 balls in total on a 10-meter garland. From the control unit to the first ball of the garland 1 meter.
The garland can be located outside, it is not afraid of moisture, but this applies only to the garland, and not the control unit – it just needs to be protected from moisture in the form of snow, rain or condensation.
The daisy chain control unit has a power input and a separate remote IR receiver for working with the supplied remote control. In addition, there are three physical buttons for controlling the garland on the case itself. The block can be fixed both with the double-sided tape from the kit, and on a thread / self-tapping screw / stud, for this there is a small eyelet in the upper part.
Button “Music” – control of various modes of music, using the built-in microphone control unit. A short press switches the garland into a light-music-type operation mode, a long press cycles through four musical scenarios. After changing the script, the garland will blink merrily in red, blue, pink or green.
Button “Color” – when pressed once, switches the garland to the programmed glowing cycles, there are 8 of them in total, switching is cyclical.
Button “On / Off” – turn on or off the garland. Long press – transfer the garland to the mode of pairing with the mobile application.
There is a small board with a WiFi module inside the block.
If necessary, we can also power the garland from the PowerBank – the consumption is up to 0.8 amperes with a bright warm color.
By the way, there is no lighting drawdown between the first and last LEDs, which means that good wires are used.
IR control unit
Let’s start a more detailed acquaintance with this smart garland from the IR remote control. The control panel is divided into 11 control zones, which are detailed in the instructions.
In the top row, the + and – buttons are responsible for adding or decreasing the brightness of the garland, and if the music mode is turned on, then, respectively, increasing or decreasing the sensitivity. The on / off button is clear here, the previous status of the garland is remembered. Button W -, quickly switch the garland’s glow mode to warm or cold white light.
In the second row, there are RGB buttons – which quickly switch colors to red, green and blue, respectively.
The third row of buttons labeled 1H, 4H and 8H is the automatic turning on or off of the garland after a certain time. If the garland was turned on and press the 4H button, then, respectively, after 4 hours, the garland will turn off. And if it is now turned off from the control panel or control unit, and press 8H, then it will turn on.
Below them, in the 4th row, there are 3 buttons for selecting a different music mode. And as you can see, they differ in the degree of work of the garland. I really liked the 3rd mode of operation. To the right of these blocks are buttons for selecting the brightness of the glow 25%, 50% and full brightness.
Buttons Mode 1-5 is a choice of five preset modes of operation of the garland, I think everyone will find their own mode to taste =). The button with two arrows starts a cycle of 20 modes of operation of the garland, the glow mode will automatically change every 30 seconds. The up arrow / down arrow buttons allow you to just select that operating mode, count the blinking of the lamps among the programmed 20 and leave it. If we switch the garland to a constant glow mode, then with these buttons we select the color we need. 16 colors available.
Tuya Smart mobile application
Well, the most interesting thing is working with the Tuya Smart or Smart Life mobile application. We transfer the garland to pairing mode, for this, with the garland turned off with the power button, hold down the power button for 5 seconds. After releasing the button, the garland will start blinking in red, which means it has entered pairing mode.
Turn on Bluetooth on your mobile phone and connect to your home WiFi network in the 2.4 GHz range. We open the Tuya Smart or Smart Life application and I was immediately prompted to add a new found device. If this does not happen, add it as a normal WiFi device, choosing a WiFi socket. We indicate the password from our WiFi network and wait for the process to complete.
In the main window of the program, we can only turn on or off our garland. Immediately we see the status of the timer, if we have set it.
Going inside the plug-in, the garland immediately suggested updating the firmware. I would never have thought that I would update the firmware in the New Year’s garland =). In the main window of the program, we see 7 different options – where we will attach our garland. The 8th box promises us that the list will be expanded.
In the settings, we can view information about the device, immediately view the scripts and automation associated with this device. Give access to the device to another person. But the most useful thing is to create groups of devices, especially if you have more than 1 garland, so that they work and be controlled synchronously.
At the bottom there is a button for turning the garland off. And then the transition to various modes of operation of the garland, scenarios, music and constant glow.
The last button is the settings button, where you can set various schedules for turning the garland on or off. Convenient if you decide to turn the garland on and off at certain times and days of the week. But I think it would be more logical to do it by automating sunrise / sunset.
There is also a countdown timer, it will simply change the status of the device from off to on and vice versa. In this case, the seconds will start on the main screen of the application until the timer is triggered.
Smart scenes
A bit strange, but the first scene for control we see a palm tree, not a Christmas tree. Ok, a palm tree, so a palm tree, we go into it, in fact it is winding a garland around a post. The slider at the top of the peseta allows you to adjust the brightness of the garland’s glow – this control is available in all working scenarios. There are 4 different presets of the garland operation in the “Palm” mode.
If you switch to the tree mode, there are already 9 ready-made presets for the garland operation in the “Christmas tree” mode.
The garland can also be hung on a “fence” or a railing, in this scenario there are 4 work presets.
Another option is a garland of several layers. In this mode, 8 ready-made presets are available.
In the mode of chaotic arrangement of turns of the garland – 8 ready-made presets of work are available.
Well, what to do with the garland when the new year is over ?! Correctly, you can hang it by the TV and make both light and music and just a beautiful glow in the background. To do this, you need to place a 10-meter garland ball to the ball and fasten it very close with tape or other things. I will not do that yet, I will show it as it is. In the “TV” mode – 6 ready-made work presets are available.
The last light mode is the “Christmas wreath” on the door of the house. There are 4 ready-made work presets available here.
Let’s go to the Music mode, when the garland will blink in time with the music. In the upper part, there are 4 main colors that will be active in the work, they can be set both by hand by clicking on the color circle and choosing the one you want on the circular palette. You can also activate automatic mode. At the bottom there are 4 icons for selecting a different music mode and a slider for adjusting the sensitivity of the built-in microphone. You can also adjust the brightness.
In dimmer mode, we can simply select the color we need by clicking on the 4 popular colors at the top of the application, or select our own by simply clicking on the circular palette with our finger. The brightness is adjusted with a slider at the top of the screen.
Automation
I think it would be more correct to turn on the garland at sunset, or a little later. To do this, in the main menu of the TUYA or Smart Life program, go to the automation mode, select add, and when the weather conditions change. Where we choose sunrise / sunset and there is already a sunset in it.
Click on next and select our smart garland to launch. In total, 3 points are available for automation. Turn off turn on, select the operating mode (scenario, color or light-music mode. At the same time, it is not possible to additionally indicate which scenario or color we want. Also, you can set the timer to turn off by choosing the desired time in seconds.
Therefore, for the competent work of automation, I recommend that you first select the mode of operation we need and the preset for it through the plug-in, and then simply set the on / off via automation. It turned out to be such automation. The second item can be set to turn off the garland either at sunrise or at a certain time.
Working in Home Assistant
In the home assistant, it is forwarded through the Local Tuya integration. So we added it, immediately found a garland on our native platform. And accordingly, we add it to the lovelace. Our garland appeared on the main screen.
In essence, the garland is transmitted as an RGB LED lamp. We can create automation, we can control brightness and colors. turn the device on or off. And watch the statistics of work
Video review
You can buy on AliExpress – delivery took 18 days.
I also ask you not to forget about the @Lubops Telegram channel, where you will find not only discounts, promotional coupons, but also various new items from the smart, and not so, home system.
conclusions
I definitely recommend it for purchase. The price in comparison with the possibilities is very low, such garlands but from well-known brands cost several times more. The minus is still only 1, and that is not significant – you cannot draw your own presets or modes. There are quite a few modes, and everyone can steal the tree in their own way. You can change the preset on the tree at least every day and make it unique for every day. Also, the Chinese do not forget about updates, and it is possible that they will supplement both various modes and ready-made work presets. And when the new year is over, you can make a decoration for the TV or even make a beautiful color music at home without unnecessary problems.
