Controlling RGBW light group(s)?

I spent many hours reading various threads on controlling RGB lights in a group but couldn’t find the right solution with which I can reliably control a group or groups of RGBW lights.

I was able to achieve the most by using the Smart Lighting mirror function and the Color Coordinator apps simultaneously:

  • If I use Smart Lighting’s mirror, I can control the group’s on/off state and brightness but I cannot control the color.
  • If I use the Color Coordinator, I can control the ‘connected’ lights’ color, but I cannot control brightness.
  • If I use both apps applied to the same devices, I can achieve unstable results. The color and brightness commands are executed, but after a random time some of the RGBW bulbs change their color without any user input or automated commands.

Is there any method, app or whatever means out there with which users can reliably control a group or groups of RGBW lights?

Please point me in the right direction. Thanks.

You could give TrendSetter a try, it can group devices together (including color bulbs but also any other type of device).

You should be able to create a scene with the settings you want and run the scene in your automation.

Thanks @Paul_DeFeo

If RGB colors could be set to an exact value, scenes would be a somewhat tolerable compromise.
As far as I know however, the actual color can only be adjusted by tapping the color wheel for each participating group member which results in a visible variation.
Trying to create a uniform color coverage across a larger area by using more than six light sources is rather a frustrating hit or miss process.

I’ll give TrendSetter a try as @iridris suggested.

Nonetheless, I was hopeful that a native app exists for such a basic task and I only missed it during my onboarding.

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that this highly sophisticated system doesn’t offer a simple, user friendly, reliable interface for controlling RGBW light groups.

Anyway, at least the community around the HUB is great :slight_smile:

Correct, but it looks like it saves the value to be reused in the groups of circles below.

Yes, it saves the most recent colors in the circles and thank you for drawing my attention to this feature.
As long as the application requires no more than six colors across the entire home AND uses the same light sources this can be a workaround.
I’m using the hub heavily for light automation. I have various RGB and RGBW controllers and smart bulbs around the home. Unfortunately, the light scenes needed from the kitchen through the home office to the bedroom for different times of the day exceeds the capacity of the stored six recent colors.
Add to the mix that no two RGB lights from different manufacturers would produce the exact same color output for identical input values and fine-tuning becomes inevitable.

The real solution would as simple as being able to set an exact RGB value or color temp along with dim level for a group of devices.
Looking at the extremely complex tasks that Smartthings can implement with ease and elegance it is difficult to embrace that RGBW light management is such a low priority for the manufacturer.

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I agree that this has been frustrating. Having only a color wheel to select from is very annoying. I want access to RGBW direct values. Perhaps I am unusual because I work in professional lighting but if you could actually set each value on a mix independently then matching would be much easier. Even across different brands you could fine tune per light source.

Hi,
I’m trying to create an actionTiles dashboard and would love to control all my living room lights with 1 tiles (without having to create a bunch of scenes for all the possible setting I might want since there’s alot) I see there is a SmartApp called Color Coordinator but when I set which bulb I want as the master the which ones I want as the slave, the slaves never follow the master (they completely ignore the master and do nothing.
Is this SmartApp broken? or am I possibly doing something wrong (I’m using the new SmartThings App)