Osram/Sylvania Lightify (it works)

The OSRAM Lightify Flex Strip? It’s officially supported and it has it’s own device type. I have one at home and it works great.

1 Like

Ah great! I didn’t check because I saw this thread. This is exciting! This gadget addiction is getting expensive :wink:

By the way Tyler have you been able to compare the Lightify to the Hue strip? Just curious. Went with Osram because of price and features (expandability, etc).

I haven’t checked out the brand new Hue strip, but I also went with the OSRAM strip for my house over adding a strip to my Hue bridge.

Grrrrrrrr! @tyler Philips lightstrip plus with 1600 lumens. Get one and send the poor bugger (me) your old Osram one to test… :wink:

Try this custom deviceType for smooth transitions. After you update your device to use this, press the refresh button in the device’s screen in the app.

If you use the sliders/color picker it should transition brightness and color changes. I’m not sure if it will work for on/off commands. My Osram tunable white didn’t support that attribute, but maybe the gardenspot does.

NOTE: If you’re using a v2 hub, I believe you will lose local processing by using the custom deviceType; so you may experience latency that wasn’t there before.

https://github.com/sticks18/Lightify-Bulb/blob/master/OSRAM%20Lightify%20Gardenspot%20RGB%20v2.groovy

1 Like

I was wondering as well if they were zha repeaters and tired of trying to find an official response so I emailed support. They got back to me in about a day see thier response below-

Jason, the current Lightify devices are all ZigBee routers so they will “repeat” messages for any other devices in the same network.

Best Regards,

SYLVANIA Lightbulb Team

OSRAM SYLVANIA
National Customer Service & Sales Center

Yeah, I’ve seen a similar answer from their customer service department before. I’d just like to have the engineers verify it specifically for ZHA. I believe absolutely that the ZLL versions repeat the ZLL messages.

I guess I assumed when they said all devices that meant zha. I emailed support back to clarify, if I find time tomorrow I may call them. Smartthings desperately needs more zha repeaters in my opinion.

1 Like

Please let us know what you find. I bought one specifically because it was reported to be a ZHA repeater. I’ll bring it back if that’s not the case.

1 Like

I bought one of the $20 light bulbs at Lowes (non-adjustable). It is recognized as GE link light, but it doesn’t work. It can’t be turned off with the ST app, nor it can be dimmed.

@qfwfq I brought that 20 dollars light at Lowe’s also and I use @Sticks18 Device type name Lightify Bulb Ver2 with no problem.

Try the OSRAM Tunable White deviceType for it or as @llcanada did, you can use the one I had posted earlier in this thread. The OSRAM bulbs are using a different endpoint than the GE Link and the GE Link device has it hardcoded, not dynamic. Just note that the extra color temperature features don’t apply to the $20 bulb.

1 Like

I tried to connect it as OSRAM tunable light but I couldn’t do it. I am a total newbie. I just connected the hub a couple of weeks ago. I probably did something wrong.
I don’t know how to use the code you posted. Are there instructions posted somewhere?
Also, I read in one of your previous posts that v2 users would lose local access. Would that happen only for the devices controlled using your code or for all devices connected to the hub?
I understand the color temperature feature is not controllable on the $20 bulb. I don’t really need it. I just picked up the bulb hoping it would work as a cheap ZHA repeater for the open/close sensor in the freezer which is going through batteries like a kid with candies.

You’ll need to create an account and log into the developers section to get into the IDE. Choose the section My Devices, then click on the bulb. The next screen will give you a lot of details, but you want the Edit button at the bottom. This will give you dropdowns. Under deviceType choose the OSRAM tunable, then click Update at the bottom to apply the new device type.

http://developer.smartthings.com/

2 Likes

That worked, thanks! The lag is very small, less than a second, comparable to the GE lights.
Now if only it would repeat ZHA signal I would be a happy camper. Is there any way to check directly?

Not easily. If you had a zigbee sniffer you could try and monitor the traffic going to/from the bulb. One other idea is to place a different zigbee device very far from your hub until the signal doesn’t reach, then try placing the Osram somewhere in between and see if you regain control of the far device.

1 Like

I did check directly. They don’t repeat ZHA signals for other brand devices.

Sadly ZigBee allowing that completely breaks all advantages of Zigbee and ZHA. It makes the idea of a reliable self healing mesh unachievable unless all you buy is the exact same brand of all devices.

I also heard the rumor that they did repeat ZHA signals, but my ZHA sniffer and tests to heal a network proved they don’t in reality.

The SmartHome wall plugs though, do reliably repeat any ZHA signal from any brand. Installing two of those in the same locations as where I had my Osram Lightify bulbs made a huge difference right away.

You need to actually unlink all ZHA devices in the area you want to use the relay boxes. join those boxes, then join the devices further out. ZHA is not smart enough to look for the closest and strongest path.

1 Like

It’s actually a little different than that. If you take the ZHA coordinator off line (not all individual devices) and wait long enough for all the battery powered devices to wake up and realize that the network is out, then everybody will find their new neighbors when the controller comes back. This is an important feature in zigbee, and used in the sensor nets that deploy thousands of devices. It why unplugging the hub forces a network heal for ZHA.

But there has to be a decision point forced.

ZLL doesn’t require a coordinator, though, so you can’t force the rebuild the same way.

The range and repeater FAQ has some examples.

On the Osram bulbs, I’m sorry to hear it, but I believe it. Although since they have done a couple of different firmware updates, and they do use different profiles in the EU and in the US, there’s always been some question as to whether every lot has the same behavior or not. I’d really like to hear their engineers verify The current intended architecture.

2 Likes

Thanks for checking. Back to Lowes it goes.