Moving devices from CBI app to SmartLife

IOT (The internet of things)
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So very rapidly I have 11 smart devices that I am ultimately controlling with Google Home. This includes my TVs, or probably the Chromecast devices that we have attached to them (Google Home knows about these).

So I have five CBI smart controllers. These are registered on the CBI app (I presume in their cloud).

I have two controllers for water isolators, no-name brand devices that I bought from GeeWiz. These are registered on SmartLife, as are the two CBI smart adaptors (basically plug in timers) that I recently got.

I use Google Home to tie every thing together.

This is at least one app too many. I want to consolidate everything.

Note that CBI do not prevent their devices being used with SmartLife. The two ASAs were never linked to the CBI smart app, I took them out of the box, plugged them in and SmartLife found them.

Now I would like to start moving those ASCs over to SmartLife. In fact SmartLife can do all the automations that I use Google Home for. Since I have no interest in including the TVs or chromecasts in automations, I don’t need to use Google Home.

Today I tried to move one of the ASCs from the CBI app to SmartLife. This didn’t work. Removing it from the CBI app is easy enough. Now neither CBI nor Google Home can control that device. But adding it to SmartLife didn’t work.

I added it back to the CBI app, noting what I did, then deleted it again. Confident that I knew how to get the ASC into pairing mode I did this then scanned for new devices with SmartLife.

Nothing.

So in the end I added it back to CBI, and relinking my CBI app to Google Home put it under control of Google too.

Some notes

  1. the CBI app looks a lot like SmartLife, but on SmartLife I can scan for whatever is in pairing mode (this worked for the ASAs), whereas in CBI I have to specify the type of device I am adding.
  2. You can do a manual add in SmartLife (and see point 1, I think this is what you really do in CBI), but you have to specify the type of device and there’s nothing really like an ASC.
  3. Just scanning for a device in pairing mode was good enough for the ASAs (which don’t seem to work quite the same as ASCs in turns of their interaction with the network). It also worked for the controllers that I bought for the isolators in my my water lines. But it doesn’t seem to work for ASCs.
  4. I reset the ASC I tried to move. But when I eventually reconnected it to CBI again it was like it was never away - all the stats were there, the device got it’s old name back. I’m guessing that this is not because that data is stored on the ASC, but because CBI recognised the MAC address.

This is not the end of the world. Not yet. But in the new year I want to get some smart light switches installed. My electrician has done this before but they are not CBI devices. So IDK, do I now need ANOTHER app on my phone? Can I link that app into SmartLife? I’m guessing that SmartLife will do the job, but I don’t know.

In any event, getting everything controlled by SmartLife is first prize for me. I can do all the same automations that I can do with Google (maybe more), and it’s one app on the phone rather than three (and counting).

Is it possible to bring those ASCs into SmartLife after linking them to CBI? See one of my earlier remarks - I don’t think CBI are trying to block their devices from being used with another app.

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PS: Yes. I know. Happy Christmas to you, dear reader. We have a very empty house this year and I am bored. I don’t mind leaving this matter for a couple of weeks, but long time I want to consolidate. This may mean going Home Assistant. I have a Pi 4 sitting around doing nothing, and I’m retiring next week.

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Welcome! It’s a big move, don’t kid yourself!

But like any change in life you need to apply yourself to make it work..

1 Like
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It sounds like consolidating to SmartLife makes sense. Some ASCs might stay linked to CBI’s cloud even after a reset, which is why SmartLife isn’t picking them up. You might need to fully deregister them from CBI first or contact support.

For smooth automation, sticking with SmartLife-compatible devices is usually easier.

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Presumably this can happen with SmartLife as well.

One reason for consolidation is to have one virtual home to hand over if we sell.

How does one deregister the ASCs from the CBI app?

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Eish, this is where you could run into problems…

Over the last 5 years I have automated a bunch of stuff in my house, geyser with CBI ASC, outside lights, bathroom towel rails with a mixture of Sonoff and Shelly, Victron inverter, etc. The Victron is only controlled remotely through VRM, it doesn’t have a manual interface.

Just sold my house and the new owner is completely non-tech literate, is not interested in learning. So won’t be able control anything with an app. I need to reverse the whole exercise and install the Victron touch control so the new owner can operate everything manually.

Absolutely PITA. Just make sure you can reverse everything quickly and easily.

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Indeed! You should have a manual system as a priority, even for a smart operator. Controlling equipment has failure points all the way up the chain. You need to be able to go back to basics.

My philosophy has always been a manual/auto switch…

1 Like
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unfortunately, probably not in a clean way. Even though the CBI app looks like Smart Life, the ASCs appear to be locked to CBI’s cloud/firmware and don’t expose a compatible device profile to Smart Life. That would explain why they pair instantly back to CBI (via MAC recognition) but never show up in Smart Life discovery.

Your ASAs and no-name devices are likely true Tuya/SmartLife devices, while the ASCs are Tuya-based but vendor-restricted. Unless CBI releases firmware that allows generic SmartLife pairing, you’re stuck with CBI + Google Home for those devices.

For future switches, I’d strongly recommend buying devices that are explicitly Smart Life/Tuya certified to avoid adding yet another app.

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Thanks for the reply. So CBI do restrict access to some devices.

The ASA looks a lot like a no name device you can get from GeeWiz and the procedure for pairing, and the way the indicator lights work, does not match the ASC.

But I don’t think I see another in-DB device that does what the ASC does.

10

Like the regular in-DB timers?

The ASC (which seems to be a hot seller right now) does have a manual override. Using that you can set it on or off in the moment, but if you have a program set up in the app then that will take control again unless you disable that program.

There’s only three of these devices that are involved in solving a real problem for me.

And this is where it gets bad. One of them is an ASC and has to be registered in the CBI app. The other two are common or garden Tuya and are registered with SmartLife.

And they can’t be included into one automation without some unifying app. I use Google Home which is a layer on top of the other apps and which can just send on/off signals according to a schedule. It relies on the underlying apps (SmartLife and CBI in my case) to make the devices accessible via the cloud(s).

I kept all the timers that I had replaced. What I should have done in some cases was fit the ASC in series with the timers that were already in place, then one of the pair can be left in an always on state, but that still adds complexity and more options for fouling things up.

The ASC on the heatpump is set to always on and just measures consumption. But that’s proving less and less interesting quite quickly.

Other than the one real problem I actually had to solve, the rest is all seduction.

11

Cancel that. They are available.

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Ha! I tried again today and it was easy.

The CBI app walks you through what looks like a manual add on SmartLife, so I tried a manual add today once I’d removed the ASC from the CBI app.

I added it manually under the headings

  • Electrical
    • Switch Module
      • Breaker (other)

Interestingly it was imported with the name I’d given it in CBI and with all it’s power use history.

I’ve checked that I can turn it on or off from SmartLife. I’ve deleted the Google Home automation that used this device. Now I’ve set up the schedules in SmartLife and we wait and see.

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I think this suggests that the CBI cloud is within a greater Tuya cloud. Or there is just one cloud and CBI have restricted what you can control via their app.

Anyway, I got bored yesterday (it was a loooooong weekend) and moved everything across from CBI to SmartLife. All the automations I’d set up were in Google Home and could not be transferred.

The CBI devices can be controlled by SmartLife without any other app being involved. So far all the automations, schedules, and tap-to-runs have worked. Any remaining problems will be attributable to PEBCAK on my part.