At first I thought it was just me, but as I dig deeper, it seems that there is no way from ST routines or scenes to recall a LIFX scene. Is that really the case? Could I be the only one wanting to do this? I’m just quite surprised that this is not possible.
For clarity - in the LIFX app I have created several scenes. Each scene controls over a dozen bulbs with different color settings, brightness levels, etc. I want to program my Zooz scene controller so they I tap a button it recalls a specific LIFX scene. Apparently it can’t be done.
In the past, I did this with webCore, using its “ACTIVATE LIFX SCENE x”. Easy. But with webCore going away, I need to find a way to do this in ST. I can have the scene controller but control all the bulbs individually, to mimic the scene. But this is a lot of extra work and messy, and makes maintenace difficult. Its far easy to just adjust all the LIFX lights how I want them, then save it as a scene, and then recall the scene as one action.
If you could do it from webcore, that’s probably just using a webhook, in which case you will likely be able to use it from one of the new edge Drivers. But edge itself is still in beta, so things might be a little glitchy.
@TAustin has been doing a lot of work on LAN communications from an edge driver, so he may know more about the current state of things.
Alternatively, you can use the free Alexa app. Then you can use an Alexa routine (not a smartthings routine) to activate the LIFX scene.
Because Alexa routines can only be triggered by a sensor, not a switch, at the present time, you will also need a virtual device in Smartthings which is both a Switch and a Sensor for that method. So you have a smartthings routine turn on the switch which makes Alexa think the sensor has opened and that triggers the Alexa routine.
Again, @TAustin has an edge driver that For this kind of virtual device.
There is a max limit of 99 routines per Alexa account, so that’s just something to be aware of.
yet another alternative is to use Ifttt as an intermediary. Same idea as method two, you turn on a virtual switch in smartthings and have that’s switch coming on activate the LIFX scene through Ifttt.
Ifttt has a complex pricing model. “Applets“ (their equivalent of pistons) are free to use if they are provided by the device manufacturer.
You can add three custom applets for Ifttt account in the free tier.
If you want more custom applets than that, or you want more complex recipes, then you have to pay a monthly fee.
So whether that’s worth it or not depends on exactly what you’re trying to do.
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So those are three options. It’s also possible that LIFX will eventually add activating scenes to their smartthings integration, you should definitely ask them to do that.
It’s allowed in Both the old SmartThings Groovy architecture and the new SmartThings Lua architecture. You just give the virtual device both “capabilities“ (that’s a smartthings technical term): Switch and Sensor. Once you do that, turning on the switch will make the sensor look like it is open and turning off the switch will make the sensor look like it is closed.
Alexa will think they are two different devices, but they will always work together.
TAustin has added the switch capability to most of the different virtual devices that his VEdge Creator creates so they can be turned on and off easily.
I’m just quite surprised that this is not possible.
