Just chiming in to also attest to the build of these controllers, they actually don’t get that hot since the MOSFETs they use for each color channel are rated at 20 amps and most strips draw 3-6 amps total across all color channels…
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Both of my Smartlife led controllers have ceased to be seen on my network. I Had a power outage for a few minute and now I cannot see any of my controllers. I have unplugged them and powered them back up. I also tried to power on the controller with j3 jumpered, then powered off and removed the jumper. But I still can’t seem them on my router. I’m running Inet Pro on my IOS device and I can see all of my other devices. Just the Smartlife controller are not present.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
@suprdave04, are they rebroadcasting their AP? espRGBW.mac. I am wondering what is unique about a power failure vs pulling the plug that occasionally makes them forget their Wifi settings. From what has been reported in the forum, all other settings are being retained. I will take a look at the wifi library and see if I notice anything strange.
good call Eric…i didn’t even think to see if they are rebroadcasting their default. and yes they are!
guess ill log back into them and set the correct info.
thanks
Alright, programmed a couple of these and I’m playing with the configuration. I have some questions.
First, after a power outage is there any way to set the default color when working with the light in SmartThings without also specifying a program? My specific application is to install these in each of our porch lights. I am going to have SmartThings turn on the switch in the house then after about 5 minutes activate a program. Can these remember a specified color after power is cut and restored?
When setting up a program on a virtual is there any way to specify a custom color other than the listed colors?
and finally is there any way to set more or less virtual device program? Depending on the device I will have more or less programs. 6 should be more than enough, however for some of the lights 1-3 may suffice.
Again, thank you for developing this!
So I figured out on the virtual devices how to set up more colors and change percentages. Yay for basic programming knowledge. I have not changed the colors much yet however I did add a 5% light output setting.
So, are you wanting it to just turn to a certain color when power is applied? For example, you just want to set a static color of “Red” so that when power is applied it turns on Red? The activation of a program after 5 minutes can be accomplished with CoRE or maybe even Smart Lighting.
For a custom color I can add the ability to put in your own hex values.
As for the programs, I haven’t thought about adding more than six as I figured that would be sufficient. SmartThings doesn’t support dynamic device handler tiles, so it would be difficult to have one with 3, one with 6, etc. If you don’t want all 6 virtual switches that are created, you can probably delete the unwanted ones, but you might want to test that first. Also, you probably won’t be able to get them back without deleting them all and them readding them.
I will also change the dimming capability to be a number input with a range between 1-100.
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I would love to be able to make custom colors as well.
Is there anyway to be able to modify the virtual switches after they are
created?
I have a RGBWW controller that is connected to a plug that is on a GE Z-Wave Switch. I control the colors via the app and on and off via GE Switch. Hardly ever adjust the colors however would like to know if this controller will work with the power being switched on and off to them via my setup?
Didn’t know about RGBWW so my strips are just RGB and going to replace them with RGBWW Strips. Figured, since I was at it, might as well look into a better controller. I do like the dance to the music thingy via the app though. Does this one have any cool features like that?
I just posted an update that allows you to choose a custom color and set the level via number input instead of by selecting an option.
There names can be changed in the SmartThings app. They can can be deleted in the IDE with the caveats mentioned above. Are there any other modifications you are thinking of?
@rontalley As of right now, the default of the strips is off when power is applied, but, if you can use SmartThings to turn the controller on and off would you need the GE switch anymore? I am guessing you use the switch to get SmartThings control for an RGB controller that doesn’t have it right?
This controller does have customizable programs. There are several options to program them exactly how you want.
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Actually, I had to consider those who don’t want to use ST or their phone to turn things on/off. So I went with smart dimmers and switched as opposed to bulbs. This would allow for manual operation for those who need switches with the benefit of automation.
I can use Alexa to turn off the RGB controller or the app but not ST. When power is supplied to the srtrip, it remembers its last state. So I typically don’t use the controller app not Alexa.
However, I would love to be able to use a dimmer (GE) to dim the RGBWW lights along with ST to change colors or what not…
Right now it works pretty well outside of not having WW.
It would be awesome if we could set the program/state/color when power is applied.
My use-case: I have a bed light that I may only on it for a few minutes if I need to get up in the darkness, so I do need or want the power to be always on. I’m afraid the power adapter might get too warm.
Thank you Eric for the enhancements to this app!! I think Rontalley and I are on the same path. We both have GE z-wave switches that turn line power on and off to the H801.
Right now when line power is restored to the H801 it defaults to off. When I activate the LED’s using the SmartThings app it defaults to the W1 output on full. It would be useful to be able to set a default state when line power is turned on, and or to have the H801 resume the previous state from when it was powered off.
Regarding the virtual switches, since they cannot be dynamically assigned could you make it so you specify how many virtual switches to make when setting them up? ( I edited this from my earlier comment after I realized from a post above that virtual switches cannot be dynamically changed in SmartThings at this time.)
I have finally finished my controller for about 25 meters for RGB LEDs that I installed along the front of my house. The heat sinks for the mosfets are probably overkill, but they were free (pulled from a broken ATX power supply). I ran the lights all halloween night, cycling through a few different colors, and nothing got remotely warm. Everything is controlled using my smartthings hub 
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Wow, is that 2 equal 12.5M lengths? experience any fading towards the end of the strips without using a amp?
I love the car power adapter in the middle of all that! Hope it’s fused! 
I am just about done with the firmware that allows the controller to power on to the default color after power is restored. When the controller is first powered on all LEDs turn on at 100% for a second and I believe this is just a result of the hardware in play. Does anyone remember if the original firmware does that? So they all flash on and then turn to the default color.
If you set the preferences to use previous color as the default color then they are going to turn on to the white channel at 100%. The reason for this is that writing to storage actually causes the lights to flicker. So if I wanted to do a previous color option that survived a reboot, I would have to write to storage after every color change which would cause a lot of flickering. Previous color does work however if you don’t cut power.
One thing that is unique about this controller is that you can connect a physical switch to J3. I think that is a better option than connecting a GE switch to allow non SmartThings users to control the strips. I don’t think these things consume much power when the strips are off so you don’t save much by turning them off.
I will look into the virtual switch number. My only concern is that if you make too few and later want to change it, then you would have to remove and readd them all (unless I made some significant code changes). I guess the number of virtual switches never bothered me because I have hundreds of devices on my account already and use rooms to see the relevant ones. I never go into the Things list unless I am testing devices. Even then I try to put them into a “Testing” room to easily find them.
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I have a few using J3 with regular paddle switches, some work all the time, some don’t, kinda random. Checked my solder joints, they seem solid, so not sure if it’s just a device issue or switch issue.
I don’t think I’d mind the flicker when setting a color, is there a way you could have a toggle option to set that or not?
I also tried setting two of these up with Trend Setter, works ok for turning on/off with my set default, but changing color does some wicked weird things. Have you played with that Smart App at all?
I will check one of my units at home tonight and see if the factory firmware flashes when first plugged in. I believe other RGB light controllers do the same thing.
I could see where the flickering would be annoying as you change the color to get it to recover to the previous color. perhaps an option programmed to let the person setting up the device decide? “power on state: Off, Previous color, and specify”
I did my math wrong, its what I get for posting at the end of a long day 
It is about 17 meters of RGB LED lights. One side is 10 meters, and the other is 7 meters. They are the 60 LEDs per meter strips. With the ESP8266, full brightness in the firmware is about half brightness (I believe the firmware here uses 0 to 512 for brightness, while this particular version of the ESP8266 uses 0 to 1024 for PWM ranges). Even with this, I do not see any dimming at the end of the strips.