UltraLighting3 Beta

[Ultrajones]

Thank you for providing this detail. The event you created essentially sends the LIFX Led bulb all those commands within a few milliseconds. The timespan parameters you are specifying are a LIFX Led bulb command, and not a plug-in command. This means if you want to daisy chain commands in one HomeSeer event, you'll need to add a wait action.

Essentially what's happening is the color change to white isn't being updated in the plug-in before the next brightness change is sent. The LIFX API does not yet provide a brightness only command. This means my program has to cache the last bulb color, then send the brightness change along with the current color values to the bulb.

For the issue you reported in the second screenshot, the color state of the bulb is not sent until the timespan completes. In my testing, setting a "Wait 4 Seconds" seems to do the right thing. By the way, you should be able to set the color and brightness of the bulb (use no timespan) when the bulb is in a powered off state. That way you can have your final action setting the brightness to 40% over a time span which causes the light to fade up instead of a harsh power on, color change, then brightness change.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[Chewbucka]

Thanks for the clarification. So when setting the bulb to 3200K, I then have to wait till the color change is reflected in the plug-in before issuing the brightness command? I've seen anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes before HS status is updated.

Is there anyway to modify the brightness command to include an option for specifying a color, white level, or a default value of use current color?

That way, instead of having to wait for the plug-in to get the updated color from the previous change, you could pass the selected color along with the brightness level to change the bulb immediately.

[Ultrajones]

Thanks for the clarification. So when setting the bulb to 3200K, I then have to wait till the color change is reflected in the plug-in before issuing the brightness command? I've seen anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes before HS status is updated.

Is there anyway to modify the brightness command to include an option for specifying a color, white level, or a default value of use current color?

That way, instead of having to wait for the plug-in to get the updated color from the previous change, you could pass the selected color along with the brightness level to change the bulb immediately.

I plan on modifying the plug-in so each value can be specified. In the mean time, you should be able to set the color and brightness of the bulb (use no timespan) when the bulb is in a powered off state. That way you can have your final action setting the brightness to 40% over a time span which causes the light to fade up instead of a harsh power on, color change, then brightness change.

[Chewbucka]

I have two use cases that I'm trying to solve.

1) When it's dusk and the light isn't on, then turn it on to 40% with 3200K - This is solved with your suggestion of sending the brightness and white change while the bulb is off.

2) When the bulb is already on, sometimes I will change the color to indicate something like alarm disarm notification. The color is set to 75% brightness. I have an event that checks to see if the bulb is on to 75% for at least 10 seconds and then I want to set the already on bulb back to 40% with 3200K. I'm trying to use the same event which works when the bulb is off, but what ends up happening is that the bulb will change from it's current green 75% down to green 40%, then will fade to 3200K @ 75%. It's as if the action to set the 3200K is also sending the 75% brightness to it. Re-sending the power on doesn't seem to hurt anything if the bulb is already on.

How do I get the already on bulb from green 75% to 3200K 40% smoothly?

[Ultrajones]

I have two use cases that I'm trying to solve.

1) When it's dusk and the light isn't on, then turn it on to 40% with 3200K - This is solved with your suggestion of sending the brightness and white change while the bulb is off.

2) When the bulb is already on, sometimes I will change the color to indicate something like alarm disarm notification. The color is set to 75% brightness. I have an event that checks to see if the bulb is on to 75% for at least 10 seconds and then I want to set the already on bulb back to 40% with 3200K. I'm trying to use the same event which works when the bulb is off, but what ends up happening is that the bulb will change from it's current green 75% down to green 40%, then will fade to 3200K @ 75%. It's as if the action to set the 3200K is also sending the 75% brightness to it. Re-sending the power on doesn't seem to hurt anything if the bulb is already on.

How do I get the already on bulb from green 75% to 3200K 40% smoothly?

I added a brightness parameter to the SetWhite action. I'll post the update shortly.

Regards,
Ultrajones

[Chewbucka]

I added a brightness parameter to the SetWhite action. I'll post the update shortly.

Excellent. Now we'll have a brightness string when setting whites, and, as I discovered, when setting colors via the "V" value in the color picker.

[matt246]

Hi, just wondering if it's possible to get a color picker added to the device management page, only reason I'm requesting this is because I added my life bulb to the homekit bridge plugin but can only use the on and off functions the color or white type doesn't work it just crashes the other plugin.

[Chewbucka]

I added a brightness parameter to the SetWhite action. I'll post the update shortly.

Regards,
Ultrajones

Thanks for the update. That fixed my issue. My event still repeats until the plug-in is able to determine the new brightness level, but until that happens, the light is simply set back to 3200K at 40% which it's already set to, so no change is noticed.

Also, if anyone is experiencing your LIFX bulbs dropping from your wi-fi periodically, there is a firmware fix coming. I just finished testing version 1.9 and it resolved an issue where my bulbs would keep dropping from wifi due to a session timeout that I have configured every 8 hours. The issue was that the bulbs would not automatically re-connect once they dropped offline. I'm not sure when the new firmware will be released, but it is coming soon.

[will40]

Still waiting for my HomeTroller S6... In the mean time, can you provide me information on how you have your HomeSeer system connected to 2 networks at the same time? Are they attached to the same subnet or different subnets?

My PI trial expired and I am currently controlling my Lifx lamps via the HTTP API for the time being. Lately there is noticeable delay and occasional missed triggers.

Were you able to make any progress if UltraLighting3 PI can be network selectable?

I don't have the talent to create a script to use the Lifx LAN protocol so I am checking up on yours.

Thanks

Will

[Chewbucka]

Add option for cloud devices

Is there any way that you could incorporate the cloud API into this? I was thinking that for certain bulbs that are only accessible via the cloud (like for bulbs at vacation homes), you could have an option to add a device for the cloud bulb and be able to control it similar to how you do now for the LAN bulbs. I had an occasion recently where I had a bulb that traveled with me and it would have been nice to integrate it with HS to do more advanced notification and scheduling rather than having to utilize the LIFX app on my phone.

[Chewbucka]

udp broadcast or unicast

After you collect an inventory of LIFX bulbs on the network, when you go to send a command to the bulbs, are you sending out a broadcast to the .255 network address, or are you sending a unicast packet targeted to each bulb?

EDIT: Also, I'm assuming that you are just listening for UDP broadcasts on port 57600 for any new bulbs that might show up on the network?

[matt246]

Just wondering how I would go about writing a script to interface with your plugin, what commands are available?

[bigjezza]

Hi, thanks for your plugin - I've spent weeks seeking an ideal solution for my home - Homeseer and your plug in are fantastic!

I have come across an issue though. Whites are not being set correctly if the bulb is colored at the start of the event.

Lets assume a light is set to a colour. eg red 50%.

I have an event that will:

power off the light over 3 seconds.
wait 4 seconds.
set white 2500k and 100% bright
wait 4 seconds
power on over 3 seconds.

The lights that were colored fail to set the proper temperature - lights that were any other white temperature (say 9000K) change properly.

If I re run the whole event, the white temperature sets ok.

I am using Lifx original bulbs on the latest firmware as of today.

[Chewbucka]

Started getting this since upgrading to 3.0.5918.32781.

Mar-18 23:34:58 Error All RGBW to WHITE Exception Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at at System.Collections.Specialized.OrderedDictionary.get_Item(In t32 index) at Scheduler.Classes.clsActionsInEvent.GetAll() at Scheduler.Classes.EventClass.c4c3067e3140ac9d0af8a320b8ad72c 83() at A.c1b0f37609f28fb7afed8d440680e6db4.c286c675f0c01bc04565c67f 4291d4b76.c39fa18f7a7e131ca220f6638b55716be()
Mar-18 23:34:58 Event Event Trigger "Lighting All RGBW to WHITE"
Mar-18 23:34:58 Error In ProcessEventItem, setting up to thread event: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

When I check that event, I don't see any triggers any more. and this error shows right under the IF portion:

Exception rendering triggers for event Lighting All RGBW to WHITE (816) : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

I have other events where I'm only setting individual lights to white and they are working ok, it's just this one event that seems to have an issue.

I've attached the event that changes only one bulb to white and the event that used to change all bulbs to white. I've removed the event and re-created it and it seems to work, just not sure what caused this in the first place and thought you might want to know.

[dj_siek]

lux levels and groups?

Thanks for building this - looks awesome. I am tempted to come across from Smartthings. My whole home is lifx and right now each bulb turns on indivudally (i.e a group of 5 in my lounge should turn on all at once but smartthings integration turns on one at a time.. quite annoying).

It looks like this supports groups.

Does it support the ability to check the lux levels and only turn on if it meets the level required when motion is detected? (like by using a aeon lux sensor and motion sensor to turn it on only if it meets that level? )

Thank you