thinking I might I kit out my new place with them. They're half the price of the Phillips Hue equivalent and have colour capability (which Phillips downlights unfortunately don't have). After playing with it for a day I think overall it's great - bright, quick, paired easily to HE using the generic zigbee RGBW light driver etc.
The only two downsides I've found is that
when changing colours it scrolls rather than snaps (eg: changing from blue to red might go through yellow/green/purple on the way) - not ideal but not a dealbreaker. But more irritatingly,
it seems to refuse to fade up/down. No matter what I set the fade time in motion lighting or the transition time in device settings as, the unit just snaps to the set brightness. Not particularly elegant.
It's obviously capable of fading, so I assume it's something about the command it's being sent that isn't quite achieving the desired effect. Any ideas?
Fixed! Thanks so much @mike.maxwell, much appreciated!
The only other bug (which may be something I'm doing wrong) is that despite being able to easily and reliably change the colour, colour temperature and level/brightness via the device page, apps like motion lighting and scenes seem only to be able to turn the lamp on or off.
That is to say, if the last time the light was on it was red level 100, when the motion lighting app fires it will successfully turn the lamp on, but will only turn it on at red level 100 (not, for example, warm white level 50 as programmed in the app).
This was happening before with the generic zigbee driver as well but I thought I might be able to figure out what was driving that behaviour, alas I'm at a loss Any thoughts?
There is indeed a colour pre-staging toggle (not that I know what that does). I've tried with it on and off - no love. So strange.
Clearly the colour can be controlled, just doesn't seem to want to budge when using apps. I've tried with both motion lighting and scenes - same behaviour.
After clicking it and pressing save did you click configure?
Pre staging doesn't seem to work for UK lamps (or at least the ones I have used/tested) so if it doesn't work they may be the same.
If you turn it on from the device page then set a colour does it goes to the correct colour? But if you turn it off from that page then set a different colour or temperature does it just turn ON?
Edit: @mike.maxwell if the above is true and after re reading @scott.santinon post I think it will be, it sounds like the same issue I had with the driver and European lamps. That have to be ON to send a colour or temperature change.
@BorrisTheCat - Yes I've made sure to click save and configure after each setting change.
Turning the lamp on and off from the device page works reliably. When turned on, changing the colour with "set colour" on the device page also works.
However, (I think in answer to your question) if I turn it off, then set a new colour (eg: red, level 100) and click 'set colour' nothing happens. Even if I then turn it on it hasn't changed to red (so yes, it would appear it can't change colour when turned off). Is there a workaround for this?
In contrast, the behaviour of my phillips hue bulbs seem to be that setting colour or colour temperature (even with level 0) from the device page when the lamp is off does change the colour but also turns the lamp on (albeit very dimly).
@at9 they come with a plug! Its a great unit, the only problem appears to be the aforementioned difficulty getting them to behaviour via HE
Yes @mike.maxwell provided me with a driver that sends a ON then sets the colour when sending a colour command. Basically it turns on and as it's turning on you see the colour change, to be honest I don't notice it as it's so fast. He was going to be working on the official release for these types of lamps and drivers in your case. But I would need permission from him to share with you his current driver to test? But for now it definitely doesn't support pre staging by the sounds of it so turn that off and save and configure again.
@scott.santinon BTW from the description these are RGBW not RGB tunable so what happened when clicking the colour temperature does it go between whites?
@mike.maxwell it seems odd that these are ZigBee 3.0 and they also do it this way, is that now the "standard"?
while we try and find a driver that will do the job for you. I remember there was a work around for this. set up some scenes for the levels and colours you want to go to and recall them in the app. from memory i believe that does work.
Any thoughts?
