[App][Pro] LIFX (LAN)

LIFX (LAN)

Adds support for controlling LIFX devices using your local network.
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App Store: LIFX (LAN)
Frequently Asked Questions & Troubleshooting
Change Log & Known Issues
Want to give some feedback? Go here.
Want to apply for the closed beta of the Custom Effects Editor? Go here.

Experimental Custom Effects Editor

At the moment I cannot include it in the app directly. So you need to use it online.
Don’t worry. All communication is encrypted through https.
Custom Effects Editor

So why closed beta? Yeah, basically it is not fully tested and might change a lot still. Like in breaking changes. So currently created custom effects might maybe not be supported for all eternity at this point.
If you are interrested in this feature you can apply for a key to use it. This will however entail that I might contact you from time to time about it. Every time I do fundamental changes, I will invalidate the access key for safty reasons.

Supported Languages

:uk: English
:de: German

Supported Devices

All LIFX Devices (theoretically, I don’t own all models)

Permissions

From v0.8.0 on this app requires the homey:manager:api permission to access the Zones info of Homey for additional zone specific actions cards.

Available Flowcard Actions

  • All default light parameters with optional transition duration
  • Set infrared max (can also be set from the Homey app as additional dim value)
  • Set Multizone Advanced and Simple (for LIFX BEAM, LIFX Z, … - see details below)
  • Set random led colors (for LIFX BEAM, LIFX Z, …)
  • Show Progress (for LIFX BEAM, LIFX Z, …)
  • Play effects per device (see details below)
  • Special card which takes an RGB Hex Code for setting the color (useful if you have such codes in tags)
  • Switch Relay On/Off
  • Start Cleaning Cycle (Supports the duration property for custom cycle length)
  • Abort Cleaning Cycle

Scene Flowcard Actions

Requires you to set your LIFX cloud access token in the app settings.

  • Set scene stored in LIFX cloud
  • Set color of lights in a scene
  • Set brightness of lights in a scene
  • Turn lights of a scene on
  • Turn lights of a scene off

Zone Flowcard Actions (v0.8.0+)

Requires homey:manager:api permission for access to the zones data.
The zone cards respect hierarchy. When selecting a zone the action is applied to all child zones as well.

  • Zone On/Off with duration
  • Set Zone Color
  • Set a random color in a zone
  • Set a random color in a zone (advanced)
  • Set Zone Color by RGB Hex Code
  • Set Zone Dim Level
  • Set Zone Relative Dim Level
  • Set Zone Temperature
  • Play Effect in Zone: Glow
  • Play Effect in Zone: Saw
  • Play Effect in Zone: Pulse

Available Flowcard Triggers

  • All default light triggers
  • Device gone offline/online event (generic and per device)
  • Relay # turned On/Off
  • Cleaning status changed (Technical) (text constants representing the status as token payload)
    Constants:
    • COMPLETED
      Cleaning cycle has finished.
    • ACTIVE
      Cleaning in progress.
    • STOPPED_BY_RESET
      Cleaning was interrupted due to device reset.
    • STOPPED_BY_HOMEKIT
      Cleaning was interrupted by Homekit.
    • STOPPED_BY_LAN
      Cleaning was interrupted by LAN API.
    • STOPPED_BY_CLOUD
      Cleaning was interrupted by Cloud API.
    • NO_STATUS
      No status information available, yet.
    • UNKOWN_STATUS
      An unknown status was reported.
  • Cleaning status changed (Human Readable) (localized human readable status as token payload)
  • Cleaning progress update (fired every time the progress percentage changes)
    Provides percentage (as 0-100) as well as overall duration and remaning time in seconds as number token payload.

Available Flowcard Conditions

  • Light is On|Off
  • Relay # is On/Off
  • Cleaning Mode is On/Off

Set Multizone Action Card

The Set Multizone action card is enabled to set every single zone. To get this job done we need to use a Zone Code.

The Zone Code

The Zone Code consists of a light description, containing the color, saturation, brightness and kelvin, or a RGB hex code.

You can address as many zones as you like by adding more such data sets separated by ‘;’.

Syntax

Variant A: hue[0-360],saturation[0-100],brightness[0-100],kelvin[2500-9000];…
Variant B: #ff0000;#00ff00;…

Note:

  • Both syntax variants can be mixed.
  • Do not add a trailing ‘;’ to the end of the code.

Examples

Of course these examples could be better but this is just to demonstrate how it works afterall :wink:

  • 0, 50, 50, 2500;50, 50, 50, 2500;150, 50, 50, 2500;200, 50, 50, 2500;250, 50, 50, 2500
  • #fff;#ff0;#f00;#f0f;#00f;#0ff
  • 0, 50, 50, 2500;50, 50, 50, 2500;#f423a0;#0a34d2

Zone Start Index

This is a zero based index, which defines where to start setting the LEDs based on the Zone Code.
For example, you can split up your zone settings into multiple cards and set the zones in groups of 10 LEDs.
Setting a zone which does not exist will have no effect. By definition there cannot be more than 256 zones.

Apply Settings

If you split up your zone settings into multiple cards it might make sense to only apply the settings after sending your last zone configuration to the device. This way all zones will update simultaniously.

Not Working?

Then you have a syntax error in your configuration string. Check and try again.

Effects

Effects are supported for devices with color support only.

  • Glow: Sine & Triangle (First number is the repetitions, second number duration of one impulse)
  • Saw: Saw & Half-Sine
  • Pulse

Firmware Effects for Multizone Devices (LIFX BEAM, LIFX Z, Z2, …)

  • Move Transition (infinite) & Stop
    The move transition actually moves the zones along the line. It does not shift the values from zone to zone. This means you can change the pattern easily whilst it just keeps moving.

Firmware Effects for Chain Devices (LIFX Tile, Candle, …)

This requires you to set your LIFX cloud access token in the app settings.

  • Flames Effect (infinite)
  • Color Morph Effect (infinite)

(Experimental) LIFX (LAN) Build In Custom Effects (v1.0+)

The app now provides build in effects for Homey Zones, which can be controlled by flowcards.
In general the app makes a difference between one shot effects and looped effects.
NOTE: As this is an experimental feature, it might be changed or removed at any time. Also any feedback about it is highly appreciated, don’t hestitate.

Action Cards

  • Play a predefined effect in zone
  • Stop a predefined effect in zone
  • Play a user defined effect
  • Stop a user defined effect
  • Stop all running effect scripts

Condition Cards

  • Predefined effect is active in zone
  • User defined effect is active

Implemented Effects

Alert: Police Looped Animates a red to blue effect with a white flashing at the end of every cycle.
Creepy Candle Looped Creates a continuous flicker and burnout effect, similiar to the LIFX apps effect.
Icy Lights Looped Changes lights to random blue and icy colors continuously.
Random Pastel Colors Looped Changes lights to random pastel colors continuously.
Strobe One Shot Stobes all lights for a brief amount of time.
Twinkle Looped Lights randomly flicker up bright white.
Xmas Lights Looped Randomly changes lights to red, green, yellow or blue continuously.

Please Mind: All build-in effects are matter to be updated or removed at any time whilst this feature is in experimental state.

Power Consumption Data for Homey Energy

This app preconfigures the power consumption data for energy usage approximation.
Note: If you set the values manually, this app will not update them anymore, even after the data was added to the app. If the data is missing for one of your lights, please contact me.

Device Settings

The device settings are just showing details about the device. There is nothing to configure there.

Power consumption values are provided by the app automatically. If you have a light which is missing those values please contact me and include the Product Name and Version shown in the Devices Overview of the App Settings menu.

Example: LIFX Tile 1-55-768

Note: If you set the energy settings manually the app will not update them automatically.

App Settings

  • Polling Interval (for device status requests - change this only if really needed)
  • Developer Token (required for LIFX Cloud Access)
  • Default light transition duration
  • List of all devices
  • LIFX communication error rate. This is for testing purposes. You should be fine if the counts are not extremely high. High counts whilst no flows are running would indicate a network problem for example. If you have concerns contact me.
  • Logic Behavior: This controls how the app handles on/off and dim level relationships (v0.10+)

Dim Logic Behaviors

  • Athom (default): If dimmed to 0% and the light is on it will be turned off. If the light is off and dimmed up from 0% it is turned on.
    If the device’s dim level is 0% when turned on it automatically dims to 1%.
  • LIFX: Mimics the behavior of the original LIFX apps. You cannot dim below 1%.
    If the device’s dim level is 0% when turned on it automatically dims to 1%.
  • Original: No restrictions or relationships are applied. Logic behaves like LIFX (LAN) v0.9.4 and earlier.

Kelvin Behaviors

  • LIFX (default): Same behavior as in original LIFX apps. (Uses 3500 kelvin in color mode)
  • Adobe Photoshop: Use the same kelvin setting as the Adobe Photoshop color picker. (Uses 6504 kelvin in color mode)
  • Advanced: Use the kelvin value set, before switching into color mode.

Background: The kelvin value only makes a difference, in color mode, if the saturation is below 100%. If you are uncertain which setting to use, just leave it on default.

Limitations

  • Firmware effects for LIFX Tile can only be controlled through cloud access.
  • LIFX Tiles cannot be controlled individually.
  • Power consumption for LIFX Tile, BEAM and Strips are not implemented. This is not possible because calculating the proper values would cause too much network traffic and CPU load on Homey.
  • No fixed listed IPs for lights supported. Discovery broadcast packages must be allowed to find the devices.
  • LIFX Switch devices only show their own power consumption. The consumption of the devices attached to the relays will be available later once it is supported. When this is ready also consumption change events and flow tokens will be added.
  • The new LIFX Clean HEV mode cannot be controlled, yet, but will be added as the api for it becomes available.

Unlikely, but just in case should you need to report an app crash

In case the app crashes, please submit a diagnostics report for the app before restarting the app.

NOTE: Please add your email contact in the crash report if you want me to get back to you about it. At the moment, crash reports are submitted anonymously by Homey.

On a another note

The never released memory feature is now available as a separate app, called ‘Zone Memory’.
Zone Memory works brand independent: Forum Page

My Special Thanks To

Remco M (aka caseda)
Robert Kelb
petterHomey
Bas van den Bosch
Emile Nijssen (aka WeeJeWel)
Ramón Baas
Matt Redding (LIFX Hardware Engineer)
and all you users, who helped me squishing bugs, bringing in ideas and making the creation of this app worth while :crazy_face: :partying_face:

6 Likes

Frequently Asked Questions

Please also mind the latest update of the Change Log in the next post.

Q: When I set the infrared level using Homey the original LIFX app states the feature as deactivated?
A: Yes. This seems to be a shortcoming of the original LIFX app. Actually your light operates at the custom value you set using Homey. The LIFX app cannot interpret this and would default to showing infrared as deactivated, whilst it actually is working.

Q: The app store page shows a lot of devices, but when I start pairing it shows “All LIFX Devices” only?
A: Yes. This is because all LIFX devices technically share the same driver. You will still get device specific icons and all the device specific features.

Q: I added my device (app v1.0 or newer) but it shows the wrong icon for it or no icon at all?
A: Please contact me via email or private message directly so I can fix the icon mapping. Fixing it will not require you to repair the device. I just need to update the software accordingly.

Q: Flows with the Light went offline and the A light came back online get deactivated often?
A: Yes, this can happen if you have quite some lights. Please use the device specific cards instead. They serve the very same purpose. The generic cards are meant for testing mostly.

Q: Why are some flowcards prefixed with “(Experimental)”?
A: Well, those are literally experimental features. That means, those might be changed or removed at any time.

Q: Does the app require internet access?
A: Yes and no. For its primary operation the app does not require an online connection. However, there are two features build in which require online access.

  • LIFX Scenes) You need to allow the app to communicate with the LIFX Cloud servers in order to be able to use the LIFX Scenes functionalities. This also requires you to configure the API access token in the app settings.
  • Homey Zones) You need to allow the app to communicate with the Athom WebAPI (you most likely have this anyways) to be able to use zone wide commands. Hence why the app requires permission to control all devices, whilst it really just needs that to read the information about your configured zones. (see below) Whilst this usually works without internet as well, it might possibly need the online connection as fallback.

Q: Does the app still work if my internet connection is down?
A: Yes, it does! The core functionality is build on the LIFX LAN protocol. However, flowcards for LIFX Scenes will only work if Homey can connect to the cloud servers of LIFX. Currently the control over hardware effects specific to LIFX Tile and Candle are also depending on the cloud access.

Q: LIFX BEAM, Z and Tile do not provide any energy consumption data?
A: No. I decided to ditch energy support for those devices, simply because it would cause too much network traffic and CPU load to calculate it properly for those devices.

Q: Effects for LIFX Tile devices only work using the cloud?
A: Yes. I initially thought I would wait with the v1 version bump until I got full LAN protocol support for the Tile. But I decided not to invest time into this topic for now because LIFX decided to no longer produce those devices anyways. This app will, however, keep to support the Tile.

Q: Why does “Set random led colors” not respond timely?
A:: All multizone devices are limited to how many transitions they can process simultaniously. If you send too many updates, those updates will be queued up to certain extend. Try tuning your settings, delays and transition times to improve the behavior.

Q: Why do you require the homey:manager:api permission?
A:: This permission is required to access the WebAPI, which currently is the only way to access information about the zones (rooms) you have configured in Homey. The zones data is used to provide action flow cards for controlling all lights in a zone (and their subzones) instead of addressing the devices individually.

Q: When I rename a light in Homey it is renamed in the LIFX app as well but when I rename it in the LIFX app Homey still shows the old name?
A: This is by design. Currently Homey does not support renaming devices from the app code. I will support updating light names in a future release, if I find a solution or workaround for this.


Troubleshooting

Problem: Homey does not show energy usage certain devices.

Reason:I most likey do not have the power consumption values for the device in question, yet. Power consumption is in general not supported for LIFX Tile, LIFX Z and LIFX BEAM devices.
Solution:I will add this information as I can get my hands on the data. If you can provide the information please contact me. I need the value when the light is in standby (zero dim value / off) and the value at maximum white brightness.

Problem: My Homey Zones are not showing up in zone flowcards.

Reason:Homey needs a connection to the Athom Cloud for zone features. This data is cached by the app. If you just edited your zones this information is most likely not up to data.
Solution:The app automatically refreshed the data after 10 minutes. Either wait and try again or restart the app to force a refresh.

Problem: I set up zone flowcard actions but the devices are not reacting to those commands.

Reason:Homey needs a WebAPI connection for zone features. This data is cached by the app. If you just moved your devices between zones, this information might not be up to date.
Solution:The app automatically refreshed the data after 10 minutes. Either wait and try again or restart the app to force a refresh.

Problem: “Set Random Color” action card does not seem to set a color.

Reason:The card is autogenerated by Homey and sets a new hue value only.
Solution:Add a "Set Saturation" card in addition to make the color visible.

Problem: I renamed a light in Homey but in LIFX the name got cut short.

Reason:The name of the lights is stored within the physical device and it may be 32 characters long only.
Solution:Use a shorter name please.

Problem: No lights showing up for pairing.

Reason 1:The LIFX device is already paired using a different app. (unlikely as of v1.0+)
Solution 1:Remove the LIFX device from the other app first.
Reason 2:Broadcast packages are blocked on your network.
Solution 2:Allow Homey and LIFX devices to send broadcast messages over your network.
Also check your wifi router settings.
It needs to allow devices to see each other.
Also configure your VLAN accordingly if you have such set up.

Known Issues

Issue: Some flow cards are missing on Homey Pro 2023
Reason: This is due to bug in the new Homey firmware for the 2023 model.
Update: This should be fixed starting with firmware version v10.0.0-rc.118

Issue: LIFX Switch has not the correct icon or no icon.
Reason: Unfortunately I got no suitable icon for these, yet.

Issue: Devices show capabilities they actually do not have.
Reason: Seen in Homey v7.1.3 - Capabilities up-/downgrade is broken in this Homey version. The problem should disappear with future Homey firmware updates.

Issue: The app store shows flowcards for devices which do not even support those flowcards.
Reason: Unfortunately, this is caused by a design decision by Athom, on how the App Store works. And the related feature clashes with the way I am generating the devices seen. Even more unfortunately, I cannot implement a simple fix for that.

Change Log

v2.0.5 (Test)

  • Fixed: Fixes related to relay control of LIFX switches.

v2.0.3

  • Fixed: Effects flowcards cannot find data files on Homey Pro 2023.

v2.0.2

  • Update: App migrated to Homey App SDK v3.

v1.6.1

  • Updated: Support for all new devices until 2023-01-07.
  • Added: Formatted card titles.

v1.5.2

  • Added: Support for LIFX Z (Model 118).

v1.5.1

  • Added: Support for HEV light features of LIFX Clean lights.
  • Added: HEV light toggle (for configured standard duration) in Homey App UI.
  • Added: HEV light status data to the sensors tab of the Homey App UI.
  • Added: Action flowcards for starting and stopping HEV light cycles.
  • Added: Condition flowcard for probing whether an HEV light cycle is active.
  • Added: Trigger flowcards for HEV cycle status and progress update.
  • Fixed: Potential fix to remove flowcards shown in the App Store, which do not really exist.

v1.4.0

  • Added: Support for new device variants as state of 2021-09-16.
  • Added: Firmware effects are now available for matrix devices like LIFX Candle Color.
  • Changed: Relaxed status polling to improve responsivness on large amount of devices.
  • Changed: Minor corrections for already known devices have been applied.

v1.3.0

  • Added: Support for new LIFX Switch model (PID:71).
  • Added: Support for kelvin ranges based on device firmware version.

v1.2.0

  • Added: The kelvin behavior can now be modified in the app settings.
  • Updated: The kelvin behavior is now aligned with the original LIFX apps (default setting).
  • Updated: The app settings page has received a styling update, to visuallly group information.
  • Fixed: Previously used color saturation is now restored instead of being reset to 50%, when switching into color mode.

v1.1.2

  • Fixed: Duration on auto generated flowcards been ignored by the new v1.0 engine.
  • Fixed: Missing duration option for auto generated set color flowcards.
  • Updated: New app store info as requested by Athom.

v1.1.0

  • Fixed: A glitch, introduced in v1.0, in the new update logic causing the in app color picker to act up when used to set colors and whites.
  • Fixed: Device status information should now update in realtime when using zone specific flow cards.
  • Fixed: Infrared status also updated when changed from within another LIFX app. There was a glitch in the migrated feature from v0.12.x version.
  • Fixed: Added a safty check in case devices report faulty light temperature values causing an out of range error in the app.
  • Fixed: The wifi strength indicator in the app settings menu now drops to zero when a device goes offline.
  • Fixed: A bug making the show progress flowcards for multizone devices behave wrong if not the full length of zones is used.
  • Added: Option to reverse the direction of the progress show progress flowcards for the multizone devices.
  • Added: Generic action card to stop all predefined, user defined or both types of effects at once.

v1.0.2

  • Fixed: Get infrared status error handler bug leading to an app crash.

v1.0.1

  • Major rewrite of the software core for better maintainability and easier improvement.
  • Improved responsiveness massively.
  • Improved reliability of commands on bad network connections and high amount of lights.
  • Added: Support for LIFX Switch
  • Added: Device specific icons are here! The icon assignment happens during device pairing. Unknown devices will have no icon, but the icon will appear once it has been added to the app. Please contact me if you have icons missing.
  • Added: App Settings page now includes LIFX communication error rate statistics for testing and diagnostic purposes.
  • Added: A new experimental feature was added to play predefined effects in a Homey zone.
  • Added: A new experimental feature was added to play user predefined effects. This will be available for closed beta on release of v1.0. I will update the app description at the very top about this when ready.
  • Added: Zones and devices’ zones membership cache to reduce cloud traffic, RAM and CPU consumption.
  • Added: Pre-pairing info message with some important notes.
  • Changed: You can now pair devices, even if they are already paired with a different LIFX app.
  • Removed: Ambient Flux has been disabled/removed because it is not officially supported. I will reenable it, should it ever serve an official purpose.
  • Fixed: Infrared value not updated if level was changed from within another app.
  • Fixed: A race condition which would kill the flow editor when trying to select a Homey zone.
  • Fixed: Zone command set color by hex code not accepting color from logic variables.
  • Updated: Imported latest bugfix updates of all involved node modules.
  • Known Issues: Energy data is currently not available for device id 15 (Color 1000), 19 (White 900 BR30 HV) and 96 (Candle White To Warm)

v0.12.4

  • Fixed: Set color by rgb hex code card not working with flow tokens

v0.12.3

  • Fixed: Zone action set temperature not switching to temperature mode

v0.12.2

  • Updated: athom-api to v3.2.7

v0.12.1

  • Updated: athom-api to v3.2.3
  • Updated: lodash to v4.17.15
  • Updated: uft8-binary-cutter to v0.9.2

v0.12.0

  • Added: Additional Show Progress action card for multizone devices, taking a custom scale as input

v0.11.1

  • Maintenance only. No functional changes.

v0.11.0

  • Added: Zone flowcard for advanced random colors
  • Added: Set random led color for mulitzone devices (BEAM, LIFX Z, …)
  • Added: Show Progress card to use multizone devices (BEAM, LIFX Z, …) as progress bar
  • Fixed: UI typos

v0.10.5

  • Minor UI improvement for zone selectors

v0.10.4

  • Maintenance only, no functional changes

v0.10.2

  • Changed: Changing the dim level of a single light by flow card does no longer cause the light to turn on. Except if it is matter to the logic behavior rules (see App Settings for details)
  • Added: Ability to manually choose the desired dim level logic (see App Settings for details)
  • Fixed: A potential crash problem if using whites only lights

v0.9.4

  • Fixed: Light mode change not detected if done by 3rd party app

v0.9.3

  • Just minor corrections for the app store

v0.9.2

  • Changed: Simplified app store info and replaced GitHub Links with Athom Community topic link

v0.9.1

  • Fixed: Wrong or no name during device pairing

v0.9.0

  • Added: App settings now shows a product version code for all devices
  • Added: Zone Card for setting random colors
  • Added: Energy Consumption data for all devices except LIFX Z, Z2, BEAM & Tile (These require some special handling)
  • Added: Device advanced settings dialog now includes energy consumption data as known by the driver app in addition to what was actually set
  • Changed: Now using icons for wifi strength to save space in app settings dialog

v0.8.1

  • Fixed: Reduced memory footprint by removing deprecated network queries
  • Fixed: Homey firmware required is now >=3.0.0
  • Fixed: Trigger device online/offline is now using the Homey device name instead of the LIFX device name

v0.8.0

  • Added: Action cards to control lights based on Homey Zones hierarchy (requires new permission)

v0.7.0

  • Initial Version using SDKv2

Thanks for this app @Shakesbeard works brilliant and fast!

1 Like

You’re welcome. Hope you will enjoy the upcoming version as much :smiley:

1 Like

Did you know?
You can create quite some fancy effects with the MOVE animation of multizone devices, as the zone index is actually being shifted along the device. Means you can basically change the pixels whilst they are moving along the strip.

Sounds cool! I dont use the lamps in multizones though.

The next update is no in certification for rollout.
As Athom wants all light apps behave the same in aspects of onOff and dim behavior, this is now the default behavior as soon as the app is updated to v0.10.0+. In the rare case this, if this causes problems for your existing flows, you can change back to the original behavior through the app settings.
However, use of the Athom logic is encouraged.
If you are used to how the LIFX apps handle this and do not have other lights paired with Homey, you might as well choose the LIFX logic, which will mimic the original LIFX App behavior.

Great work @Shakesbeard! Athom told me it couldn’t be done! :blush:
It’s very stabile and quick for me.

What is the best way to use it with motion sensors?

For example: in the night, I use soft red light if I walk around. In the day, it’s bright white.
If the last motion was detected in the day, it’s hard to get it to soft red light without first going through bright white.
It would be nice to be able to set the temperature/color and dim all at once.

What is your recommendation for this?

hehe, I think nothing is impossible. I do have to admit that you might run into issues if you have a huge amount of lights. Like 30+ maybe. But I had no user with so many lights reporting issues yet. The network communications eats a good amount of RAM :smiley:

well, actually the logic is debounced. So if you just set all the values with flowcards in one go it will cause the LIFX api to execute it as a single command. But I also noticed that the transition behaviour might not be what you expect. This is in the hardware though and cannot be altered.

I have a similiar setup. When homey says am sleeping, my lights are reconfigured to a low dim value. And dimmed back up bright when it registers me being awake.

What I do, am actually using the zone command to reconfigure all lights. The lights do not need to be “on” for the change to be applied.

If you still suffer the flashing bright light. Try setting the dim value first and change the other settings with a little delay. 1s is enough to skip the debounce behavior. Let me know if it helps.

Also, just crossed my mind. If you change the color and dim. You should maybe try using the hue value instead of setting it by RGB with the color picker. That might help with the transition issue as the RGB color from the color picker sets a dim value too, if am not totally mistaken.

I Saw this app today and direct installed.
Worked out of The box.
Finally goodbye The default lifx app with cloud.
Thanks for The app.

2 Likes

Just wanna chime in regarding RAM, I have about 10 lamps, 2 of them multi zone. RAM usage has been around 10-12Mb. It’s one of my more resource effective apps on my Homey.

I’ve just briefly tried to get the sensor-lights perfect, no go so far. Witch method do you use for the app?

What exactly do you mean by “sensor-lights”?

And yes. With the new firmware update the RAM consumption dropped massively ^^ I’m very happy about that myself :smiley:

I just mean the lifx lights that I control by PIR sensors.

I see. Well I actually use Fibaro sensors to capture the light values per room. And then store it in a Homey variable per sensor. I update that variable only if the light in that room is not turned on. Basically to prevent “false” readings of the actual light value when the lights are on.
Then have the motion sensors assigned to Homey Zones. And if a Zone becomes active I check the light value variable for that zone to decide whether to turn the lights on or not.
And then I simple use the ‘Zone inactive for x minutes’ card to turn it off again. Works like a charm.

Hi there!

I’m thinking about purchasing 4 LIFX downlights and 1 LIFX LED strip (2m) to use in the same room. I want to switch them on with a normal switch, which switch-device is recommended to do this? Perhaps a Fibaro Switch and enable scenes to start a flow or zone?

Hi @DidierVU,

Basically, any switch which can be read by Homey would be suitable I’d say. So if you have z-wave you could have a fibaro relay underneath and capture the on/off event for example.

Also, regarding downlights. I am uncertain if your devices are supported already. But the upcoming v1.0 of the app does for sure.

And if you are not in a hurry with the switch, LIFX is releasing an LIFX Switch, which is already supported by the upcoming v1.0 app. That switch might also be suitable for controlling LIFX scenes and toggling natively. You can check up on it on the US LIFX page I think. or google for LIFX Switch.

Thanks for the reply! I would opt for a “Fibaro Switch” because it also can capture long press or double click of the button/switch, do you think it’s possible to switch between the colors by holding the button? In other words: is there a flow/function/scene in the LIFX app to do this? Maybe relative color or something like that? I see random color is available.

My idea is to when you push the switch once: turn on the 4 downlights in white, push twice: turn on LED, push three times: start showtime magic light effects :star_struck: and long press: switch between colors or dim everything.

The downlights and strip aren’t bought yet, I saw there are new downlights coming (450 lumen instead of 400 lumen) so I’ll wait for that. Also the LED strip isn’t that good available now… Good to know the v1 will support them! So for now there’s no experience with the downlights or strip?

I’ll look into the LIFX switch for sure but it’s always nicer to have the same type of switches everywhere :slight_smile:

hmm… The good news, there is a lot of effects stuff possible. I myself got a party flow which alters light colors and things continously. A relative hue card is not in though.

The main problem you need to deal with is more a general problem with Homey. Homey is not able to recognize when a button is held down. So even if you can capture that event of the switch you still only have a flow for that run once, or at best in intervals as long as the button is pressed. I think it might be easier to abuse a dimmer device and translate the updated value to the 0-360 degrees hue range.

Personally I got no experience with long press or double press events as I have no usecase for such. Never tested myself. But well, that is also not the scope of the LIFX app :smiley:

So back to your initial question. It is possible to grab the hue value from a flow variable/tag to update the color. How you get the value there is a topic for the device you will use for providing that value.
Maybe have the hue as a logic variable and rotate the value in there by the long press event of the switch. And then have a flow reacting to the update of the logic variable to pass the value on into the set hue flowcard. Well, that’s just an idea.
Also be aware that setting the hue alone will not have any visible effect if your light is in whites mode. You also need to raise the saturation to see the color. (that confused some people in the past)