With Christmas around the corner, I'm looking for options for being able to turn various AA battery powered fairy lights on and off from Home Assistant.

Last year I thought it would be a good idea to get some of these RF "relays" that I could then control from Home Assistant using my Broadlink RM Pro.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32956944463.html

This actually worked really well for a few days but unfortunately the power draw of the module itself drained the battery after around a week (lights were turned off), plus it didn't help that the minimum voltage of the module meant that 2 AA batteries couldn't power it at all once they got to around 1.4V each.

Are there any other tips and tricks that people can recommend for controlling battery powered lights on just 2 1.5V AA batteries, maybe some kind of IR module assuming it would consume less power, or RF / Zigbee. I'm assuming it is doable with IR given there are a load of remote control lights on Amazon that run off batteries but I just can't find any standalone modules on Aliexpress.

I found this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09H4G2K5Q/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ALK0Y4WB9PEWC&psc=1

It's almost what I'm looking for but not quite. I'd like to put one inside the car and one on the rear hatch so when it's up, I have light for my drawers and cooking. This one is connected by a magnet and I don't think the motion of opening and closing my rear hatch will like that attachment method.

Anyone have experience here and can share their suggestions?

Gracias mis amores