I am controlling several light strips with their lighting controller and its Wifi-104 App (iOS). It works great, enabling me to fully control all my RGB strip lights from my iPhone. You can use their little credit card remote to control the lighting (pretty useless really, especially because it only supports about a dozen preset colors), or use their app, in which case you can set RGB (or RGBW) and intensity to make all the color combos you want, fade effects, control zones separately etc.
HOWEVER, as far as I can tell, this is a completely closed system. So unless you are using their remote control or their iPhone app, there is no way to control the lighting with SmartThings. This is a big drawback because I want to be able to do things like set the RGB colors and turn lights on and off via automation and webCoRE. For instance, when I first enter the room I want the RGB lights to come on, and after x hours of no activity I want the lights to go off, etc.
As a workaround, I could use a Smart Outlet to programmaticaly turn lights on and off, by keeping the light “on” in the Wifi-104 app at all times, and then turning the power on/off to the RGB light strips by plugging their power transformer into the Smart Outlet. However not only is that kuldgy, but I have 12 or so different light strips and transformers, so that’s a lot of money in Smart Outlets plus a really kudgy approach times 12. I may do this for just one zone (using just one Smart Outlet) which wouldn’t be a terrible workaround, but I’d like to have a much better approach. As far as I know there is no API from the manufacturer.
Hi,
I dont know about the specific products compatibility, but I would imagine that they work in the same way that the Aeotech or Fibaro RGBW’s work. Most of these still require a live and neutral wire and can normally only control up to a 10m strip or you will blow them.
So basically if you have 12 different transformers, you will likely need 1 per transformer. You can obviously group them to control them all together though.
Thanks. Do the Aeotech or Fibaro RGB controllers integrate with SmartThings?
To be clear, I’m not looking to integrate with the wiring or electronics. Rather, I’m looking for a way to get their seemingly closed system to integrate with SmartThings, mainly so I can send on/off commands through automation, and ideally so I can change colors and brightness too. As mentioned, a kuldge workaround for the closed system is to just put the transformer for each strip on a smart outlet. When I want it on I can just tell ST to turn on the outlet and vice-versa for off.
Mainly wondering if anyone here is using Wifi-104 and if they looked into the ST integration. Thanks all!
Hi,
Hopefully this will answer your question.
Yes, both the gen4 and gen 5 fibaro products, and the later aeotech products work with ST.
So either the Fibaro or Aeotech products will act as their own switch and can effectively break any “closed system” and make it “open”. Think about this is the same way as adding a switch onto the DC transformer. These are just z-wave switches so they will then link to ST and you will be able to control them either via alexa or your phone.
Via your smartphone, you will then be able to select the dim or use the rgbw functions.
Now, let me say this… you will still need one RGBW per DC transformer that you use, the same as a smart plug. So you’re not likely to be in a better situation cost wise. Although the hack to this, is put a smart plug in, then a multistrip. Add all the the transformers to the multiplug and you would have only bough 1 smart plug. Just watch out for your draw so that you dont burn the smart plug out.
BUT, doing the above will not let you control the colours of the RGB, you will still need that pathetic keypad that they all come with.
So if you just want a simple on/off function, you’ll need 1 smartplug and 1 multistrip (maybe 3 or 4 considering you mentioned 12 transformers earlier)
OR
If you want to control the RGB, and on/off you will need some knowledge of electricity (or pay an electrician to do it), and 1 RGBW device PER transformer.
Again, you can normally string up to 10m of these LED’s together before you’ll blow the RGBW device. So you might be able to cut down from 12 to 6 transformers and RGBW with a bit of knowledge.
Thanks for the info. The Fibaro looks great. What is the iOS app that controls the lighting and scenes? I’ve made a big investment in the WiFi-104 controllers so it would be expensive to start over but may be worth looking into since it’s zwave controllabale…
Hi,
at the moment im just running the normal ST app and controlling from there… I have put in the github code for the Fibaro dimmers. Sorry I cant remember who made them, but its floating around on these forums.
I havent really made any scenes yet as Im still busy setting up a lot of my automation, so all of those routines will only be built in later. Currently i just have a night mode (20% dimmer) and then off/on, but once Ive installed the presence sensors and new alarm system and the harmony hub I will start looking at different modes.
Anyway Im waffling now
Good luck with the Wifi-104’s. Please let us know how it turns out!
