Hey all! I’ve created an improved device handler for the Aeon Labs Aeotec Smart Dimmer 6 (based on previous work by @Robert_Vandervoort and James Pansarasa) and I figured it’s time to share it with the world. Though this happens to be my first project using SmartThings (and my first post on the forums), I’ve been developing software for nearly 10 years.
Some improvements include the ability to blink the device (with configurable duration and cycle rate), immediate on/off (instead of dimming to on or off), an improved color picker integration, and better configuration management.
On the roadmap:
Ramp rates (a previous implementation was buggy, so the feature was redacted)
The issue with parameter handling has been fixed and pushed to the link above. Also, some parameters have been added to allow for adjustment of how long to blink, the blink cycle duration, the number of steps per second (ramp rate) when dimming, along with previous parameters for handling the LED behavior and color as well as the monitoring interval.
I’d love to help. The device handlers seems to work on my setup, so I need some details to reproduce what you are seeing.
Can you give me a few scenarios where the device handler doesn’t work? What phone OS are you using? What version of the SmartThings app? Any screenshots you can get would help as well.
Hi! The problem is that it suddenly startet working after i clicked the configure button on the device inside the ST app and waited som times (happened after I wrote this post)
And… because I had so much problems with it, I’m not sure if I want to ruin it by trying to get the problem situation again.
If it’s OK with you, I would like to wait and see if I get the problem again, and we can pick up this conversation again then?
I can understand your situation. The device handler may require you to configure the device manually (pressing the “Configure” button) if the device was securely included and the device handler hasn’t caught on to that fact. I’ll look to see if there’s something that can be done about this.
Feel free to drop by whenever you can reproduce a bug. I’ll be doing an audit over the next couple of days, so keep checking in to see if there’s an update.
You may want to check out the latest version of this device handler. Many stability improvements and reporting is a lot better. Let me know if you have any questions!
Brian, I got the code installed in the IDE and changed the handler from a generic Z-wave switch (or whatever it initially recognized it as) to your handler. I’m on Android (v 7) and can’t seem to get the “Configure” or “Blink” or any of that to work. The on/off works. The dimming works. The color picker doesn’t seem to do anything when I actually go to pick a color – I can pick a color, but there’s no resulting effect.
I appreciate you putting this together because I really need to find a way to get the LED off at night – way too bright in the bedroom. What can I provide you that might help you diagnose what’s going on?
Apologies for the late reply. With the holidays and getting married, it’s been a busy time.
“Configure” should only push a configuration (basically derived from the settings you’ve entered). There’s no feedback except through the logs in the IDE. “Blink” definitely does work for me, but if for some reason the configuration isn’t taken by the device, it may not work.
As far as the LED colors and state, there’s a way to change what mode it operates in. Those are:
Momentary Status
Energy Tracking
Night Light
Energy Tracking and Momentary Status are essentially the same, the only difference being that the latter only shows the status for a certain amount of time. The color picker is for Night Light mode only. Changing the LED mode hasn’t been exposed yet, but most of the code is already there for it.
Using the IDE, run the device type handler in the simulator and assign it to your actual device (not a virtual one). Take logs while:
Pushing “Configure”
Pushing “Blink”
Changing the color
Please attach those logs and I’ll take a look. Thanks!
EDIT: Actually, the LED behavior setting has been exposed, so please make sure you have “LED Behavior” in the preferences set to “Momentary Status”. Do that before capturing logs, if you can. Thanks!
No worries on the delay – marriage and holidays come first (congrats!).
When I get home, I’ll create the device handler from your code and create some logs. I found that device took a really long time for the app to respond to the state change of the device I was controlling. “Blink” would ultimately work, but it would work on a significant delay. It was almost as if a bunch of the commands queued up and then went all at once so I’d get the lamp dimming, then the blink would kick in, then the lamp would do some other control, etc like it was possessed.
I’m also wondering if I need to upgrade the firmware of the device. It looks like there’s a 1.03 version and I’m not sure if my dimmer is up to date or not.
Yea, you might need v1.03 if you don’t have it yet. That’s what I test against.
Your logs should show this as well, but I’m also interested if your device is securely paired. Maybe there’s an issue with secure pairing that’s causing a delay. Or it could just be needing that firmware update.
Very interested in your progress, please keep me posted and let me know if you need anything.
So, it looks like the v1.03 is pretty key in getting the DH to work the way you intended. I can get the color to change using the picker and things like “blink” work for me now. A couple of things I noticed:
It seems like it takes a bit for the status of the tile to update to “On” or “Off” at times even though the device responds almost instantly.
The dimmer value also seems to get out of whack from the value that the light is actually set on.
On the ‘settings’, if I go in for the first time and change the “LED Brightness” setting to, say, ‘10’ or any other number and try to save, I get the “you must complete all the required fields” message. I’m thinking that it has something to do with the fact that there is no “LED Behavior” set by default maybe? I need to try to recreate it, but I think it’s only on the first time in.
I’m going to see if I can clear some logs and replicate and let you see what’s going on under the hood, but definitely add the v1.03 requirement to your docs. Thanks again.
I am having the same problems, but found a solution to one of them
The same problem - when I go into app settings, I get an error that you must complete all required fields. After changing every value, it accepted it.
It won’t actually turn off. It will show up as off in the app as off, the ring will be purple, but the lights still on. I am on V1.03. I haven’t found a solution to this yet.
Thanks for the feedback! I’ll take a look at these things this week, and update here when I get some sort of progress. I’ll definitely be sure to highlight the v1.03 firmware as a requirement.
Have you tried reproducing #2 without securely pairing? I’m unable to reproduce this regardless of whether or not it is securely paired, but regardless please see if you can grab some logs so I can take a look. Thanks!
