I’m new here, and wanted to say thanks for the awesome custom device type. Prior to being edited, this message had some basic questions that I was able to figure out on my own. My new quandary is this:
I bought two Lightify bulbs. I tried to pair the first one before publishing the Lightify bulb custom device type. So, I got an Unknown device type. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I uninstalled the device. After publishing the custom deice type for me, I was able to successfully pair the second bulb. However, I am unable to pair the first bulb. I think I have to do a factory reset on it and then try to re-pair it with the SmartThings Hub, but I haven’t been able to do the reset on the bulb. I’m trying the 5 second on/off cycle, but am not having any luck. Is there anything special you guys are doing to reset the bulbs (I have the A19 Tunable White 60W).
You will have to do the factory reset to be able to pair the bulb again. Osram says to repeat the 5 second on/off cycle 5 times, then the bulb should flash shortly to confirm it was reset. After that you should be able to pair it again with the ST hub. I know with other bulbs it sometimes needed more tries than the manufacturer specified. It can be frustrating/annoying, but keep trying until you see that flash.
Sidenote: If the bulb isn’t recognized initially and pairs as Unknown, you can always change the DeviceType manually via the IDE by going to the My Devices tab and selecting the device in question, then clicking Edit at the bottom of the next page and using the dropdown to assign the devicetype you want it to be. That’s another way to apply a custom DeviceType if it doesn’t auto-detect during pairing. Uninstalling from ST should only be done if the device is unresponsive or you no longer want it part of your ST network. Most other issues can be fixed via the IDE.
Thanks, was able to reset the bulb…I think I was turning them on and off too quickly and not waiting for the flash.
I’ll probably buy some more of these off Amazon. Do you guys do anything special to group the bulbs on multibulb lamps and fixtures so you can dim and change color simultaneously on more than one bulb?
@wackware created a great SmartApp called Dim With Me to be used for group fixtures, and it works best using a virtual master device. It listens for changes to the master, and sends those changes to the selected lights. I added to his app to listen for the color temp event from the Lightify deviceType, and also created a stripped down version of the Lightify to be used as a virtual master. I added both to my Github (links below).
1st add a New Device and assign it to the virtual lightify devicetype, then install the SmartApp and choose the virtual as the master, and select your lightify bulbs in the appropriate section.
The official way is to set up a “Lights and Switches” shortcut group. Note however that that will set all bulbs to the same dim level. It can be set up through the mobile app, no custom code required.
If you want different levels for different bulbs in the same group, you’ll have to use a custom smartapp like Dim and Dimmer from @geko or Scene Machine from @wackware. There are some others available as well. Each author can tell you more about their app.
Thanks @Sticks18 and @JDRoberts. I was actually playing around with @wackware’s Scene Machine last night to get it to also record/restore the colorTemp in the Lightify bulb device type. It was actually a pretty nice introduction to Groovy, the SmartThings architecture, the handy “state” variable, the really cool ability to test/debug straight from the IDE, etc. I was a programmer a long time ago, so the stuff started making sense after a while.
Two days with the SmartThings hub and I’m hooked. The only thing slowing me down is Amazon delivery for additional bulbs/sensors.
Hey I did, it was a range issue now I have the reciever burried in the dirt so I will have to figure a way to extend my zigbee mesh out further. one interesting thing is that I think you can extend the garden spots for longer distances by using an amplifier and another power supply I will test it out. In any case it comes up as a hue bulb and works great!
Great. I would love to hear more about how that works out. I was thinking of getting those for my parents (dad has been been talking about getting LED garden lights for years) but I was wondering if the length was too short.
you get about 400 cm from led 1 to led 9, i ordered another 9 which will put me at 8m. beyond that i think i need the amplifier, but I was thinking of buying another starter set and using the provided zigbee controller to use somewhere else indoor/outdoor not sure.
So they updated the device type documentation and it shows how to use a custom range for sliders, so I did a test for my device type and it’s pretty easy to use a slider range of 2700-6500 for color temp instead of the 0-100. I’ll try to make this change this weekend and post the new code, but I’ll keep it separate from the current version because SmartApps might need to be re-written.
If anyone has any other suggestions for how to improve it, please let me know.
Version 2 of the Lightify devicetype is here with a custom range for the color temp slider. Now you can directly select the kelvin value you want the bulb to emulate (Note: there is still a conversion to the format used by zigbee, the kelvin value may change slightly upon refresh).
If you use any SmartApps that call the setColorTemp() command, you will need to adjust them to send a kelvin value if you update to this devicetype.
I found currentValue() to be unreliable. I am not as well versed in zigbee compared to zwave, but with Zwave I can count on currentValue about 95% of the time.
I linked the device to pollster to see if I could up this reliability. It didn’t really do much for me
This is probably a manufacturer defect - but I’ve noticed that if I send the device a few thousand commands or so it starts to become unreliable. On/Off fixes it at the switch, but if you try sending that to the bulb it doesn’t always respond
I managed to mispair one bulb (out of 10). Its sort of at the edge of the network so it might just be distance. I’ll probably replace it in the next day or two and let you know more details
Otherwise, I think you did a good job with the device.
Thanks for the feedback! When you say the currentValue() is unreliable, what exactly do you mean? Is a particular value not being displayed or saved?
One thing that is weird about the Osram is that the current dim level seems to be set to 0 when the bulb is sent the off command and doesn’t go back to the last dim level when turned back on. It always goes to full brightness. I could hack this by using a state variable to preserve the dim level, but it’s really an issue with the bulb.
I might be able to beef up the parse() section to make sure I’m catching all the level and color temp reports.
I did a bunch of research on this. I tried picking through the catchalls to see if there was any additional commands that might improve the robustness. I didn’t see much.
I have all of my lights on z-wave switches. A common sequence of events is that if the switch is off, the ST device still thinks the bulb is on and with the previous settings it had. Example would be: I set the bulb to 1% light level, z-wave switch goes off after some time, z-wave switch goes back on from motion and the bulb is at 100% light level (yet the app sees 1% until a refresh comes along from pollster).
I think a way to improve this would be to set the bulb to off if a refresh fails to return anything. Also, turning it off should revert the color temperature and light level to the factory defaults. (This would also be an improvement Hue integration @juano2310)
I’ve noticed the other thing you said about the 0% dim. I’m pretty sure it goes back to 100% light level on every on/off. The Hue is the same way.
Let me know if you think the unreachable / off state is doable. That would help a ton!
Hi @Kristopher, the Hue does show off if the bridge can not reach it. Just remember that we poll every 5 minutes but you can try to turn the switch off and refresh
Hey Juan - I thought it was getting polled a lot faster than that. I figured out the way to go was to have Pollster poll 1 bulb instead of all of them, and that reduced the load on the ST Hub a lot.
Also my comment was more for the direct paired ST bulbs, which I know everyone says to not do
