I have some a question about bulb device drivers. I just started experimenting with RGBW bulbs. First one I bought was a WIZ Matter but could not get it commissioned so I used the WIZ RGBW built in Driver and was impressed with all the options. I also bought a Coupureye RGBW Matter bulb and was able to get i commissioned and shared with Hubitat. The Generic Matter Bulb driver doesn't have near the options that the WIZ driver does. I started purchasing the bulbs to use in my exterior sconces. Is there any way to use the WIZ driver or a driver with more options for a Matter bulb?
Generally, no. Matter only allows for some basics with bulbs (brightness, on/off, CT, and color) and does not have effects in them (like you see with the WIZ driver). As Matter updates, there might be mechanisms added to allow for more options, but in the beginning, it is just a fairly standard set of features.
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Thanks for the help. Reason I asked when I finally set up the WIZ bulb using the built in driver I was surprised to see all the options. Then when I started fooling around with them I realized all the possibilities for the bulb. So here is another question. Would I be gaining anything by mater commissioning knowing I will loose the functionality of the bulb?
In this specific scenario, not really. It only works because LIFX bulbs have a LAN API that Hubitat is tapping into. Most WiFi bulbs do not have this and rely solely on the cloud for control. Additionally, what you are seeing is that LIFX bulbs have a few effects built directly into the firmware of the device that Hubitat can activate.
Matter is designed for basic, local control of bulbs that traditionally would be cloud only. It's not designed for fancy features.
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It's confusing. If the firmware in the bulb doesn't have any built in dazzling effects that you can access via a Hubitat driver then you the user has to build and execute them by individual commands say by building a rule with the Rule Machine.
You could also use a Hubitat app created by another user designed for a purpose like that, or possibly write your own app code (although that’s not an option for many people, myself included).
Ultimately someone has to design a lighting effect so that the hub can issue the necessary commands to the bulb; you’re correct that the bulbs can’t do that themselves, and I don’t think there’s a built-in Hubitat app that’s intended to do something like that (though it depends what exactly you have in mind, I think).
The WIZ driver just gave me some ideas that would mean another project that I don't need. I suspect the Mater drivers will become more robust with time.
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Until Matter catches up you might want to look at @mbishop Holiday Lighting App, see if it could help you do what you want with those bulbs. Right now, I have it running all my exterior lighting, even in non-holiday periods, and he's great about helping out with it!
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