KAUF A21 RGBWW Smart Bulb with ESPHome, Compatible with Tasmota, Made for Home Assistant

I've replaced nearly every bulb in my house with these, and while they're more expensive than the security hole nightmares that come from the big-box stores, they're worth it.I love that they only talk to my server and aren't "calling home" to a server in another country with my wifi credentials.Yes, it is more effort to setup, but that's the price you pay to protect your privacy and not have to worry about some service provider deciding to stop supporting their servers/bulbs.The only issues I've had getting them connected was with a few bulbs that had older firmware and wouldn't take the initial wifi connection until I turned off my second wifi access point. (I've had this issue with Amazon Echo Dots too.) After the initial connection and firmware update there have been no connection issues.I love the brightness and the ability to control the warmth of the white light. They work brilliantly with Home Assistant and ESPHome. The ability to set a default state when power is lost and brought back is really nice too.The designer is friendly and has great tutorial videos on his youtube channel.Great bulbs. Will continue to buy these as I need them.

This WiFi smart bulb is perfect for my application. I'm using three of them in shielded outdoor home lamp fixtures. There is zero flicker and the bulbs dim smoothly to very low lux levels. Their RGB capabilities probably fall short of some other bulbs but I use them with a warm white temperature and they look fantastic. They integrate perfectly with Home Assistant and were a breeze to configure. Their reliability with my older ASUS access point has been flawless. Highly recommend these.

As an advocate for running your smart home devices ONLY on a locally hosted server, I want so bad to love these bulbs, because there really isn't an available alternative to smart light bulbs that work natively with Home Assistant. But unfortunately, here I am leaving a 1 star review that will read very similarly to the others:The power supply on these bulbs are horrible. They are advertised as 10W bulbs, and they WILL meet that with light output, yet the person who makes them openly says they should not be run at 100%, insisting on keeping them at 80% or lower to avoid them burning out. Don't put them in enclosed fixtures that will trap heat, they'll tell you. Don't leave them on all the time. Don't this and that to avoid the lightbulb dying..Let me tell you: These. Bulbs. WILL. Die. Period. Every single one I've had has died within one single year of use. I don't run them hard. They're usually only on for a few hours a day, never at 100% (There's actually a setting in the bulbs firmware that lets you set a maximum output percentage. After the first couple deaths, I have had this set to 70%, so keep in mind that means when the bulb is set to 100% in home assistant, it's ACTUALLY only at 70% output). NONE of them are in enclosed fixtures, the fixture in my bedroom is even open at the top and vented at the bottom, and my latest fresh bulb in it lasted only THREE MONTHS! I've had one that just died outright and would never take power again, and three more that slowly degraded over time, developing a flicker and only pulling ~2W of power when set to 100%If you go looking around for people having problems with these bulbs, you will inevitably find people who tell you that if you email the maker of the bulbs, he will send you replacements free of charge.. which is very nice, I won't disparage him for that at all. This is something that I have already had to do in the past, the email exchange with him was painless and he sent me replacements for the failed bulbs. I tried to press for clarifications on just how much to limit these bulbs to not have them fail prematurely, and he stood by the 80% limit. I took that and set the limit to 70% and they STILL DIE. Getting free replacements is cool and all, but I don't want to be stuck in this perpetual cycle of replacing garbage with garbage.

This thing is made by a maker, for a maker, and it shows. The manual is in clear english aimed at someone that knows what they're doing. It explains how to set the bulb up with Home Assistant. It also tells you how to go straight to Tasmota without bothering with Home Assistant.Because it's not UL/ETL listed, I wanted to have a look inside to make sure I trusted the design and its safety characteristics. The bulb is extremely easy to disassemble. The plastic diffuser is not glued in. It's firmly snapped in, but you can turn it, and when you get it to a certain point, a slight gap shows up. Stick a small flat-head screwdriver in there and the diffuser pops off with zero or minimal cosmetic damage.Once inside, the circuit board is visible including the ESP8266 chip. I didn't look for specific pins, but I bet you could solder and flash this thing if you needed to. But you won't need to unless you brick it.Unscrew two screws and the board comes loose, exposing the ac to dc converter. I didn't take that apart but I'm quite happy with the way that it's totally enclosed in a metal chamber. The main circuit board is sandwiched up against the metal with silicone thermal grease for heat dissipation.All in all, I'm happy with the electrical design and I feel confident using this bulb. DO NOT take my word for it as I am not an electrician or electrical engineer. I make no warranties or claims about the safety of this product. I'm just sharing what I saw.I haven't actually even tested this thing as of this writing. It would have to not work AND kill my kitten to lose a star.

Update: I had another bulb fail. Same reason, the PSU died. I am very disappointed in these bulbs. They worked great, I didn't have to flash custom firmware or anything. They just connected to my server and worked. But if they will fail after only a few months, I can't recommend them.Previous review:Excellent bulbs. They connect no issue. I was able to find and modify the configuration to suite my needs. However, the power supply in one of the lights failed after a month or so of operation.