[OBSOLETE] Garden Hue: New smartapp to change hue color on a cycle or random, sunset to sunrise

Here is version 3.0 of my new smartapp: Garden Hue.

I could not find a smartapp that would change the color every so often sunset to sunrise…

So far I have it cycle through about 16 colors, only turns on sunset to sunrise (with an optional offset) and will change color only between these times, OR if you manually turn one or more of the hue lights controlled on.

I have set cycle times of 10 , 15, 30 minutes, 1 hour and 3 hours. so I can use the built in functions of runeveryxxminutes etc. so as not to overload the backend running on fixed times. (check the docs these randomize the time).

I also have a disable/enable option.

There is is also an option for a random one of the 16 colors instead of cycling through them.

I am using the scheduling/cron feature to do this and also schedule turning the hues on at sunset and off at sunrise.

source here.

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Time to go shoppnig, because this is exactly the app I needed!

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version 2.0 release
with following changes:

  • Version 2.0:
  • add app name to push messages.
  • also, don’t schedule anything if disabled is set.
  • clean up and remove some debugging.
  • add run every 5 minute option.
  • Turn off all hues when saving app.

Just musing here as I don’t yet own any devices, lol. But Right now, I have a variety of dumb led bulbs around the house that just randomly change colours… my wife likes the effect. So where those bukbs are it’s just that… they change colours or they are off… I can’t use 'em as normal bulbs just for more light

There’s like 6 of 'em, it’d be handy to me to be able to put smart bulbs in there so I could choose to have normal bulb light, or party mode for the missus at night.

So, it sounds almost like your app could get me there, except for it being primarily controlled by sunrise/sunset.

Is it also switch controlled and I missed that part? In my perfect world, I could set up a virtual switch, run your colour changing app from that switch, and be able to set up all sorts of rules that have the bulbs working like normal bulbs and switching over to the colour changing mode when needed through that virtual switch!

I don’t follow … normal.bulbs cannot be color controlled. This app only works for bulbs that can have their color controlled. That is the purpose to cycle through colors. The color can be controlled automatically. Or you can hit the arrow in the app to change color. In addition as long as it is not disabled, if you turn on one of the controlled.bulbs it will.cycle through the colors just like if it was.between sunset and sunrise regardless of the time.

I get that it’s for colour changing bulbs… I just meant that if I switched from dumb to smart bulbs, I could change the bulbs to white when not using your app so I can actually see better. My current dumb colour changing bulbs can’t be set or changed to white… they just change colours on their own.

So if I was able to control your app with a switch, I could set the controllable bulbs to white when I’m doing work, and then turn on your app in the evening for colour changing mode when chilling with my wife.

If there was a switch control, I could set this all up using rules

As I said if you leave it enabled and set up a virtual switch and turn it on the app will operate no matter what the time, it will however turn off the lights when the scheduled time comes uP, so I think you are good. The sunset to sunrise only turns the lights on and off, the schedule is always running regardless if it is enabled and doesn’t do anything if it finds no lights on. So are you asking for a smart switch to be selected and monitored in the app to act just like the enabled/disabled toggle the app has?

It’d be pretty fantastic for me, lol!

Reason being, I"d want to use the bulbs for normal white light at times and for colour changing at times. But there won’t really be any set schedule per se. I’ve gotten pretty good using rule machine at predicting when the wife and I are settled down for the night and automating my mood lighting.

So being able to just add into my rules another switch which could activate the colour changing would be totally badass.

That being said, I totally understand if you don’t feel like it… might be a pretty limited use case of me! And, since I haven’t gotten my hands dirty in code yet, I don’t even have a concept of the amount of work.

Either way, thanks! Cuz I’ll make do with what you have regardless! It’s a feature I’ve been trying to figure out for a bit now.

No bigee to do
10 minutes of coding .

ok here it is
version 2.1
with the following changes:

  1. added an option for a physical/virtual switch which sets enable/disable based on switch state.
  2. also work around issue where sunrise time sometimes shows today (in the past) sometimes tomorrow, by comparing with current time do decide if we need to set straight or add 24 hours.

Man, this is all sorts of awesome, I well and truly appreciate you supporting me making my wife happy!

I’m traveling on business for a week, but I do believe I’ll be sending packages from Amazon to my house while I’m gone so I can come home and get some lights going!

Thanks much!!

Anyone else using this. Any issues?

Just got back into town today and got some lights in from Amazon… haven’t had a chance to test yet but I’m in the process of setting things up

This is exactly what I was looking for. So far in the few minutes I have tested it, it works great. I have tried it on a hue light strip plus. It seems to sometimes flash white when changing colors. Not sure if it is just as the values change though. Some suggestions would be allow it to turn anytime, not just between sunset to sunrise. Give the user the option to set if it should run all the time or at set times. I have ambient light that I use in a room that is still a bit dark during the day where I would like to use this. Another suggestion would be to allow it to not need a change timer. Maybe only set it to change colors every time it turns on only.

Something else I noticed. There is a misspelling in the section for when to turn off before sunrise. You have “manu” instead of “many”.

It does run all the time if enabled. Just turn the light on and it will take control. As mentioned the scheduling just turns it on and off

Also mine do not flash or go white when changing. Sometimes I cannot even tell they changed. I would check your lights. What brand ate they

it is a hue light strip plus. It was not your app causing the white. I experienced the same issue just manually changing the color, even from the hue app. I have another suggestion. Could you add the ability to select the colors you would want? So for example, for Christmas someone could want it to only change between green and red. It would be nice to have the ability to select which colors the light while show instead of go through all of them.

yes seems like a lot of work as it would mean 16 separate enable disable toggles in the configuration…
next time I have some time I will look into doing it… but don’t hold your breath it probably will be a month or two

No problem. Thanks for even considering it.

Thanks for pointing me to this @Lgkahn. I haven’t been as active this month so missed it. Now to set my yard to cycle red,white,blue for the weekend :smiley: