Hue/Ikea disco

Hi, I’m trying to get my Ikea Tradfri lights to start flashing in random colours when a certain song is played on my Sonos. I manage to trigger the flow but I can’t find a good a way to make the lights flash in a nice way. I tried to make the song start a countdown timer and make the lights set a random colour each time the countdown change (every second). But I think that I’m overloading the Homey with traffic because sometimes the lights stay the same for five seconds and sometimes they change several times a second.
I then bought some Hue lights hoping there would be a smooth way to make them flash but if there is I can’t find it.
Anyone with an idea on how to solve this?

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Hi

I have noticed the same kind of phenomenon.

I have 8 lights connected through Homey-Hue Bridge and 4 lights connected with fibaro single switch. The 8 lights through Hue Bridge are grouped with the group-app in Homey.

I made a flow that when security alarm is set off all the lights toggle every 30s. Some of the lights work every time and others will change their state every now and then. This doesn’t bother me but if someone has an explanation to this I’m more than happy to learn more.

Homey isn’t great with changing the state of multiple devices at the same time. Regardless of the protocol used (Zigbee, Z-Wave, WiFi), it seems that not all messages are sent properly. That’s why it’s a common trick to use delays between action cards (although that won’t solve your problem because you’re using groups).

I thought this might be the problem.

I also tested the flow without the group-app and it works when the delay between the state changes is 10s (all the commands are send at the same time without delays), but below that the commands tend to get mixed up.

But like you said the operation can be made better if some delays are added between action cards.

Do you have any insight what is the problem with Homey sending commands to multiple devices at the same time? And has there been any info from Athom that is it going to be fixed at some point?

These issues started when firmware v2 was introduced, when the way that flows with multiple action cards got handled was “improved”. Since then, lots of people are experiencing similar problems, and because v2 was introduced about a year or so ago, I assume that Athom is well-aware of the problem. However, I have no idea if they intend to fix it.

Not exact what you asked for, but Hue entertainment gives a possibility for lights coulouring on the music. But it uses the microphone off your device. So not a Homey solution

Hi, ok thanks for your input. Is there an easy way to make the lights change every other second instead of every second like now in the countdown timer?

In my particular case I’m hosting a late Christmas party and want to make two Christmas stars flash like disco lights to a specific song that recurs on the playlist.

For instance it might would work better regarding to radio traffic if one star changes colour every even second and the other one every odd second. But I can’t find a way to make that happen.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi,

Thank you for your suggestion. I saw that one When I was googling but is it possible to trigger the app from homey so that it only makes disco to a specific song?

No that is not possible.