LED Strips

[RexBeckett]

Happy Christmas, Chris.

Would I be right in saying you need a new dedicated remote for each lighting type (you know the one they sell) ? RGBW, White etc?

Quite right. There are currently three types: White, RGB and RGB+W.

Where can I find the RGBW LED strips you are talking about? I could only see bulbs and ceiling lights on the easybulb page, am I missing something?

There are MiLight controllers for both RGB and RGBW strips. They work with the V3 bridge and behave like the equivalent lamps. I am hoping they will introduce a dual-white controller at some point. I bought mine from wifiledlamp who also sell compatible LED strips, power-supplies, accessories and kits. You can get a discount for being a Vera user. See this post.

[patelhe]

Is there a way to turn on both the white and the color leds of a strip at the same time using mi-light rgbw controller.  I am able to do that with the original IR remote that came with the LED strips.

[jimmyhtz]

RexBeckett,
Thank you again for such an excellent plug-in.
However, now I need to write code for the first time to have this do what I want

I want my RGBW strip to turn bright white, regardless of the last setting, each time I press the ON button of the light switch

Note: The light switch controls the power supply to the RGBW strips.
The light switch ID is 221 and I am using PLEG to handle the the automation.

Just so I know I am doing this correctly, under the Actions tab of my Switch condition, I pressed the On and I moved the slider to 100% in your plug-in control.
Under the LUUP tab I have this:
luup.call_action("urn:dcineco-com:serviceId:MiLightRGBW1", "SetWhiteMode",221)

I think I missed something in the formatting because it did not work.
Thank you again

[RexBeckett]

Your Luup call looks OK, @jimmyhtz, but I find the lamps will not accept any commands for about two seconds after power-up. I have some scenes that are triggered by the power switch and I delay each action by two seconds. This works reliably.

[jimmyhtz]

Your Luup call looks OK, @jimmyhtz, but I find the lamps will not accept any commands for about two seconds after power-up. I have some scenes that are triggered by the power switch and I delay each action by two seconds. This works reliably.

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

Please confirm, I should insert this command on top:
luup.call_action("urn:dcineco-com:serviceId:MiLightRGBW1","SetOptions",{newOptions="ICT=200"},221)

Do you think I can sneak in the command when I press the power off switch?
Meaning that it would accept the command before it actually powers down and it will turn on white the next time I turn it on.

Should I also put a delay in between commands if I have more than one?

[RexBeckett]

Please confirm, I should insert this command on top:
luup.call_action("urn:dcineco-com:serviceId:MiLightRGBW1","SetOptions",{newOptions="ICT=200"},221)

Do you really need to extend the inter-command time? All my MiLights work fine with the default 50ms. In any event, you only need to set this once - it will be retained in the plugin through power cycles and Vera restarts.

Do you think I can sneak in the command when I press the power off switch?
Meaning that it would accept the command before it actually powers down and it will turn on white the next time I turn it on.

I doubt it. By the time Vera gets the trigger, the lamp will already have lost power.

These things work best when you leave them powered on all the time and turn them on and off through the plugin. One trick is to use a Z-Wave switch just as a trigger for scenes and power the lamps directly from live. That way you don't need to wait two seconds before the first command and you could also set the lamp to white before turning it off.

Should I also put a delay in between commands if I have more than one?

I haven't found that to be necessary but it probably depends on what commands and how many. Try it out and, if commands get missed, add a one-second delay.

[jimmyhtz]

Do you really need to extend the inter-command time? All my MiLights work fine with the default 50ms. In any event, you only need to set this once - it will be retained in the plugin through power cycles and Vera restarts.

I assumed 200ms = 2 seconds
Oops, now I just released that I need to put the delay in the PLEG, not as a command to the device. Duh...

These things work best when you leave them powered on all the time and turn them on and off through the plugin. One trick is to use a Z-Wave switch just as a trigger for scenes and power the lamps directly from live. That way you don't need to wait two seconds before the first command and you could also set the lamp to white before turning it off.

The Strip Lights light up my patio between my house and my garage.
I currently have an Evolve LSM-15 Binary Switch paired with an Evolve LTM-5 Accessory Switch as a 3-way switch, so I can turn on and off the patio lights from the house or garage.  The Luup code is so that the strip lights will turn bright white if I had previously changed color or mode.
If we have friends over, or just lounging outside, I plan to turn on one of the switches and then play with modes/color/hue with the remote.

I agree with you that it would be better to leave the power supplies on all the time and use the switches as scene selectors, but I can't do that with my current switches.... or can I?

[RexBeckett]

I agree with you that it would be better to leave the power supplies on all the time and use the switches as scene selectors, but I can't do that with my current switches.... or can I?

Why not? All you do is take the power feed for the lights from the switch Live instead of Load terminal. Use scenes or PLEG to catch the on and off triggers and send the On and Off lamp actions. It will work with any switch that supports instant status.

[smwein]

Trying to get this work with my strip LEDs.  I have the LED controller connect to wifi bridge and everything works.  But it doesn't seem to work via the plugin.    Also I'm running UI7.  Is that the problem?  Any help would greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[RexBeckett]

Trying to get this work with my strip LEDs.  I have the LED controller connect to wifi bridge and everything works.  But it doesn't seem to work via the plugin.    Also I'm running UI7.  Is that the problem?  Any help would greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I have not yet released the version for UI7. The changes are required to fix the UI, though. Version 1.0 should work on UI7 although not all the controls can be used.

Here's the debug checklist:

     1. You have lamps enrolled on the bridge and can control them with the smartphone app.
     2. The bridge has a constant IP address set on the bridge or with the router.
     3. You have set ip in the plugin's Advanced tab to match the bridge.
     4. The port number at the end of ip is correct for the bridge. Recent bridges use 8899
     5. You have set Group on the Advanced tab to match where your lamps are enrolled (1 - 4).
 

[smwein]

Ok I have checked all the setting and everything is correct.  I have v4 bridge if that makes a different.  I still can't control led via the plugin.  I'm using the RGBW plugin because I have a RGBW led strip.  Thanks

[RexBeckett]

Ok I have checked all the setting and everything is correct.  I have v4 bridge if that makes a different.  I still can't control led via the plugin.  I'm using the RGBW plugin because I have a RGBW led strip.  Thanks

It works on my UI7 test system (Vera Lite) with an RGBW lamp on a V3 bridge. The MiLight RGBW LED Strip controller works the same as the RGBW lamp and the V4 bridge should work the same as the V3 one. Maybe wait until I release the new plugin and see if that makes a difference although I'm not convinced that it will.

[smwein]

I have downgraded to UI5 and it is still not working. I only have one led controller paired with my wifi bridge,  so I'm assuming it is in group one.  Are there any logs I can check?

[smwein]

So I installed the MiLightRGB plugin and everything started to work.  Any ideas why the RGBW isn't working.

Thanks

[RexBeckett]

So I installed the MiLightRGB plugin and everything started to work.  Any ideas why the RGBW isn't working.

Thanks

No. If you have a four-channel MiLight LED controller, the RGBW plugin should work - it does on mine.