SmartThings Community

[RELEASE] SmartLife (H801) RGBW LED Strip Wifi Controller & Bulb

dth_lighting
(Anthony Rossetti) #1738

i have one request
i would like an option to disassociate the W2 channel from the W1 channel with the mutually exclusive option switched on
so that i can use alexa/GH to control my RGB and W1 channels and use the extra W2 channel for something else that i want to be able to keep on when the RGB is on

aslo i second the “linked devices”

i finally finished my kitchen cabinet project which required to use 3 H801’s
i had been using only one and only had my main cabinets lit
i figured that since i have one H801 grouped in with my other kitchen full color hue’s in alexa smart home and was able to have all the lights change to to a specified color when i command the group by voice request that it would work for the 3 controllers
so i made an alexa group ,named it “cabinet lights” and added the 3 H801’s into it
but the results are not as i expected at all
it won’t control all 3 H801’s so if i say to change the cabinet lights to red it will only change 1 or 2 sometimes all 3 but i usually have to give the command 2 ,3 , or 4 times or more to get them all to respond
then with the W1 channel it is not working at all i used the smart app to get the 5 seperate channel virtual switches then i put the W1 channel virtual switches for all 3 H801’s in an alexa group and into a GH room but when i tell either of them to switch on the group/ room i get nothing
also when i say to turn cabinet lights on ,the group with all 3 controllers in it behaves REALLY strange ,
sometimes 2 will come on sometimes 3 but they all change colors then one will sometimes go off after shifting to a few colors first
they don’t turn on all the same color

i am not sure what is going on but i had 2 H801’s working fine before this

one for one bank of kitchen cabinets grouped in with 6 hu br30 full color bulbs and no problems at all , then i added another one under the bed and i grouped it in with a osram lightify full color BR 30 and a hue full color bulb and no problems at all
i can tell it switch the group to a color and all 3 devices change to the right colors i can also switch on and off the W1 channel with no problems, the problems come when i add more than on H801 to an alexa group or GH room

also do you know what the switch debounce setting is for?

(Anthony Rossetti) #1739

did you get it working?
i had the same problem , i never got the smartapp to work for detecting the controller automatically
have you manually set all of the settings in the controller advanced tab in your browser?
IP,gateway,subnet ,HA controller IP
manually enter those values and save
then go to the smart app and add it manually in there and save and be sure to back out and save on ever screen the smartapp is a little awkward you need to save then hit back then save on that screen too i forget but i think i had to hit same on 2 or maybe 3 screens

(Jared) #1740

Where do you guys buy your RGB or white light strips? Every option I look at on Amazon either has no reviews or a ton of negative reviews.

(Steve ) #1741

I get mine from Gearbest or AliExpress they take a few weeks but work well.

(cjcharles) #1742

From the UK, these strips are great quality if you want really bright and high CRI lights (it means they look more natural as the colour profiles of the strip matches sunlight more accurately). Can then pick the temperature on top, though you do pay for the high CRI nature of them.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/joy-street

(Steve ) #1743

Not bad prices them for UK delivery.
Saved the seller :grin:

(Antony Pugh) #1744

Can you use all 5 channels for separate whites? R for Wstrip1, G for Wstrip2 ETC??? just thinking if you wanted to light up different shelved or sides.

(cjcharles) #1745

There is nothing to prevent you doing this and the hardware supports it, but obviously you would need to make some pretty significant device handler changes to make that possible.

(Michael Hess) #1746

Virtual switches and CoRE. Easy to get 5 whites out of it. Who cares if the SmartApp is relevant if it’s just white and you only use on/off/level?

(cjcharles) #1747

True, thats easier! Haha!

(Anthony Rossetti) #1748

so has anyone had any success at all grouping these things together in an alexa smart home group? or a GH room?
like i said i can group them in the same group or room with hue full color and osram lightify full color and i have no problems but once i put 2 or more h801’s into a group i have problems
im my kitchen i had one h801 and 6 hue full color br 30 downlights
no problems at all .
in the bedroom i have 1 hue full color ,1 osram lightify full color and an an H801 for the bed
i can say “alexa , set bedroom lights to red” and they all change it works flawlessly every time the H801 and both bulbs
in the kitchen i had some trouble with the one H801 but then i got it sorted
but now that i have added 2 more to the kitchen and put them in a group that just has the 3 H801’s and nothing else called “cabinet lights” i get weird results
if i can get GA/GH or alexa to switch them on at all they come one and the colors all change and then sometimes one will go completely off ,sometimes one will put on the W1 channel and the other will be set to all different colors
i can get alexa or GH to change the colors but it only changes one sometimes two and rarely 3 or sometimes none at all i keep on repeating the request they will usually finally all change
i use the virtual device sync smart app to make 5 channels for all my H801’s
and i put the 3 W1 channel virtual switches for the 3 cabinet light controllers in a group named “warm white cabinet lights” and i can not get either alexa or GH to switch on ANY of them when i put them in a group or try to control them as a group
if ask to control them separately it works but they won’t even switch on if ask alexa to 'turn on warm white cabinet lights"
funny how i can control everything just fine on all of my H801’s individually but once i group 2 or more H801’s into the same group i have problems but i can group them with other color bulbs and i have no problems at all
anyone have any ideas how i can get the 3 cabinet light controllers to all respond at once?

oh yeah also when they are in a group i can not turn them on individually alexa says ok but they never go on i tried to turn all 3 of them on individually with alexa and she says ok but no response if i try and turn the group on they come on but change a few different colors and all stop at different colors , but once they are on i can tell alexa to set the group to any color and it will work but they don;t all change i have to keep giving the command till they all change and once they are on i can change the colors of each one individually with alexa
something needs to be changed int he device handler i think because grouping them totally breaks google home and alexa control

(Antony Pugh) #1749

Thanks. might need this at some point to run multiple sections in a cabinet.

(Jared) #1750

I am having a weird problem with mine that started after I finished installing it under my cabinets. Got it all hooked up and powered on…but it was no longer responding to smartthings.

I then found that it was broadcasting its “espRGBW.blahblahblah” ssid again. OK, I guess I’ll connect to it and configure it again. After it reconnected to my wifi, it started randomly turning on and off the light strip without any input from me. I was able to now control it, but it will not keep what I set. If I turn on the white lights for example, they will come on but then a few seconds later start fading off and back on again at random intervals.

Then after a few minutes I will lose control again and discover that it is broadcasting it’s setup ssid again. It refuses to stay connected to my wifi.

What is going on here? Why is it randomly turning on the light strips and losing connection to my wifi?

(cjcharles) #1751

Im getting there with some of my planned improvements, I find I no longer get flashes on bootup, it keeps the saved default colour better and Ive got custom pin numbers working, hence am keen to start testing the code with a few users. It is certainly not finished, but getting there, hence keen to find a few ‘lightly technical’ users who use a fair few of the features already in use e.g. the ‘Program’ options through ST (which I dont use).

Can you message me if keen to have a play - you can always revert back, but it shouldnt break too much. I can upfront say there will be a few Device Handler changes needed to make this work best (which I havent started yet) but the main things I use aren’t affected in my testing.

(Jared) #1752

Here is a video of what my H801 is doing. It’s so weird. In the video I have all strips set to 100% and no one is changing anything. It seems to have a mind of its own.

(Mase Driskell) #1753

bad 12v source or the source has a pwm\dimmer switch before the power transformer have done similar things in my house. transformers aren’t meant to have pwm/dimmers before them.

(cjcharles) #1754

I would agree, think it is probably related to poor power supply driving the ESP (strange given it has capacitors built in). If you have a spare capacitor, try adding 100uF or so to the voltage input on the h801.

Did you try the other one and find it gave the same results?

(Jared) #1755

I had the multimeter in the video to show that the voltage stays around 12volts. I have also tested another power supply with the same results. This is plugged in to a standard wall outlet in the kitchen so it is not on any dimmer.

Also of note, the strips will turn on on their own without me setting it. Doesn’t seem like a power supply would do that.

#1756

Do you think you would be able to use an H801 Controller with Vera?

(Jared) #1757

I just tried it with a voltage regulator that also shows amps. Even if I power it up, configure it for my wifi, then turn off all light strips, it will only be pulling 0.04 amps… Then a few moments later it will drop off my network again and start broadcasting it’s setup SSID.

What does it mean when the red light blinks. It blinked (I think 5 times) and then it appeared the device reset.

I don’t get it. I will sit there not touching it and it will do this over and over again at seemingly random times.