Issue with Sylvania Lightify 72483 RBG

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

I have three outside lights, each having a Sylvania Lightify 72483 LED RGB bulb. Two are post lights and one is on the front of the house. The fixtures are enclosed, glass and a small bit of metal. They have been working fine for 6 months, then one day one of the post lights stays on and is white all the time. This is the furthest light from the SmartThings hub. One gypsum wall with a brick facade on the outside. Again, it has been working fine for 6 months then stopped working. About 30 feet seperate the two. In the Smartthings Classic app, the bulb is reporting an error. The IDE says it is offline. I deleted it in IDE, and when I paired it again, I had to tell the app what it was looking for. Once it identified the correct bulb, I could not turn the bulb on or off with the app, nor could I change the hue or brightness. It would appear to make the change, but it is still stuck at 100% and white.
I have removed the bulb in the app and added it back in several times with no difference.

These post lights are enclosed, and Sylvania says not to use them in an enclosed fixture. Seeing how 2 of the 3 are still working fine, I can only assume the enclosure has enough fresh air to keep the bulb cool. I can only think the reason an enclosed fixture is bad is because of something to do with zigbee.

I have an electrical outlet under the deck about 10 feet from the uncontrollable bulb, which made me think about adding a zigbee range extender. but the few I have seen are prohibitively expensive. I see a lot of Z Wave range extenders, but few zigbee. I read no battery operated things are range extenders due to battery life. Are there any zigbee outdoor outlets similar to the GE 14284 ?

Oh, I brought the suspect bulb in the house and it works fine. I can only assume it is a range issue but the post hasn’t moved in the 35 years I have lived here, nor has the house, nor has anything inside the house.

I am open to other ideas. My wife picked these enclosures herself, so replacing all 3 is out of the question. We both have mild OCP so they do need to match.

Thanks to all who contribute and put up with people like me.

2

Zigbee shares wireless frequency with wifi routers. Maybe you or a neighbor set a new one up that’s now interfering?

3

That is something I had not considered and exactly why this group is so helpful. Looking at the problem with a different brain can yield a possibility.

If this is the case, and my zigbee signal is being walked on, I assume I just need to find something that is stronger. I do have an outside electrical outlet under the deck that is shielded from snow and rain by the deck above. Some zigbee outlet would be great. My brain’s light bulb just lit.

Thanks, DavinD

I enter this holding my breath, hoping it will work.

4

Hope it helps. I use the zigbee energy monitoring plugs to bridge the gap to my outside lights (sylvania garden spots).

5

Another thought would be to replace the offending zigbee bulb with a z wave bulb. As long as it is RGB A19 z wave this should correct the problem.

Any recommendations for RGB z wave bulbs? The Sylvania were a good price because they are zigbee, which I did not know was subject to interference.

The monoprice led is a bit pricey, and the Sengled looks to be only wi-fi and not z wave. The monoprice has poor reviews on Amazon.

6

I’m not much help here. I don’t use many bulbs, but the ones I do have are all Sylvania (osram) zigbee. I mostly use switches (GE/Jasco).

7

My boss is why I am hooked on SmartThings. He told me a while ago to stick with z wave and not to get zigbee. I have a mixture of both and this is the first issue that is not operator error. I bit the bullet and bought the monoprice $50 bulb. Not many reviews on Amazon and a lot of them are bad. Reading the complaints (there are no 5 star, 33% 4 star and 67% 1 star) this doesn’t look like a good bulb, but it can be returned if it does not work as advertised.

8

Another light bulb lit above my head.

I have several Ring Spotlight Cam Mount cameras and one has no audio. The video is fine.
This camera is about 15 feet from the affected light. Ring tech support wants me to create a hotspot in case there is interference or swap the camera with one that works.

Perhaps the interference is coming from the camera causing the bulb issues or said interference is from a neighbor’s recent installation of something that transmits and is affecting both the camera and the light.

9

For some unknown reason the Sylvania bulb started working again. Nothing has changed from the original setup other than swapping bulbs with no new results, so tonight I put the original bulb back in. It paired immediately and I was able to turn it on and off, vary the brightness and the color.

Maybe someone nearby has a transmitter that overpowered the zigbee signal. I have a program that lists all the SSIDs around me. There are several that are equal in strength to mine.

Thanks to all who offered ideas. This thread might help someone else later on experiencing this issue.