Assistant-Relay-for-Hassio VS tuya-convert

I also use Assistant Relay which lets me send commands to Google Assistant, giving me a two-way connection

You can use the following application and trigger a call via REST API to Google assistant to broadcast a message. https://github.com/Apipa169/Assistant-Relay-for-Hassio

From the Amazon Page this looks like it works with google home. If nothing else works (and you're running Homeassistant or another piece of software that can make POST requests) I would try Assistant Relay. You can just use a POST request to ask google to "Turn off the Plug Light" or something. It's a bit slow, but it's better than nothing.

I know some people use this with Home Assistant to send commands to Google: https://github.com/Apipa169/Assistant-Relay-for-Hassio

Not OP, but I think the trigger is pressing the hue button. The response by the mini is most likely done by using the Assistant Relay addon for supervisor

Add them to HA and remove them from Google / unlink the 3rd party integrations from Google is the long term move, if you're still unsure on HA then you can use Google relay (https://github.com/Apipa169/Assistant-Relay-for-Hassio)

First of all I've tried Tuya-Convert but it was never able to find the device. I've also tried TuyOTA with similar results, it just seems like it can't detect the device at all - neither in pairing mode, nor in normal operation mode.

I was about to say a similar thing. Companies closing off their devices with paywall and other closed API are calling for a hack. I found this repo on GitHub

Mit tuya-convert.

Is it possible to run custom firmware on them? Like using https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert (not sure if this one is compatible with the newer lamps). Or maybe something else?

If it has an ESP chip, it probably won't OTA with https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert since that doesn't work on recent Tuya firmware, hence the blakadder page showing manual flashing.

> They cost >2x the Meross ones. Got 2. They work so far. Crossing my fingers they're legit, though my guess is they won't last.

FYI - there are cheap Tuya devices that can be flashed with alternative firmware[1] which works locally. More generically, there a lot of ESP32-based switches that work with Tasmota open-source firmware[2]. There breadth of devices is annoying because it makes configuration difficult because because different manufacturer wire up the relays differently, so it took me trial and error to figue out which device "port" the firmware needs to toggle to turn the switch on/off

1. https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert

2. https://github.com/tasmota

If you're already comfortable with Docker, setting up ESPHome and Home Assistant should be fairly easy for you, and will unlock lots of options. Depending on the hardware revision of your smartbubls, you might even be able to use Tuya-Convert to install ESPHome or Tasmota on your existing bulbs, and completely cut ties with Tuya and the cloud.