Is there any documentation on how to use the device page (and Alexa chants) with the built-in Fibaro drivers?
I struggled to get it to do anything at all. I have two of them and finally got one to start working after I ended up with a parent (controller) device and a child (dimmer) device.
I don't know what I did to end up with the parent and child devices, and struggled again setting up the second one. But now it "works" too, but there's a lot I don't understand.
It seems the white LEDS are controlled by the dimmer device and the RGB LEDS with the controller device. Does this seem right?
Many controls on the device pages don't seem to have any effect. Is there something that describes what each control does?
At a minimum, I want to be able to set a white brightness (and ideally some colors) then turn the strip on and off after that. Color or brightness changes would be infrequent, on/off changes would be several times a day.
I can get the brightness and color I want, but when I turn off then back on, the white LEDs go to full bright (maybe the color ones too, just haven't got that far).
Do I need to create virtual switches and rules to something this simple?
Is it the RGBW Controller or RGBW Controller 2? I installed the latter recently as I want to 'bling up' a few things in my rooms (started with RGBW strip in the curtain pelmet). Mine presents as a parent with two child devices as shown below:
Note that the parent device is 'Zooz RGBW Controller' even though it's Fibaro.
So I can switch either of the two child devices on/off and dim the white element. Obviously if I turn either on/off it'll just come on at its last settings (whatever is set in the preferences panels). In Rule Machine or Room Lighting you can use the actions to set specific levels etc. So you will be able to do what you want by tailoring the actions to suit times of day etc.
Quite possibly, I mean how else could the driver know how you want the strip to illuminate with regard to all of the different settings.
I used the Fibaro RGBW Controller driver. I'm trying the Zooz driver now. More things seem to be working!
Is it possible to set the white color temperature, or do I need to control a white level and separately some color to get something to match other "white" colors nearby?
I can't remember why I used Zooz - whether it picked it automatically or it may have been someone on here that told me to. I may have had to use the 'configure' after swapping the driver to get the child devices to work again (I think I also did a 'help me' post - I'll have a look to jog my memory)
As it's RGBW strip - white is just pure white, so only the level is adjustable. The temperature of the specific LED is dependant on whether you chose warm white or cool white (RGBW or RGBWW) when buying the strip. In that regard if you want a different white temperature you'll need to do that as a mix of RGB or a mix of RGB and W and note the values that give you what you want. From an energy point of view choosing the strip that has the 'W' at the temperature that you want is advantageous as the PSU is only powering 1 rather than 4 LEDs.
I just want it to continue to use the settings I configured--just turn on with the settings that were in effect when it was turned off.
It is doing that now that I switched from the Fibaro to the Zooz driver. I also excluded and re-included the device so that may have been the "magic" instead of the new driver.
I (think) the Fibaro driver had an entry on the device page for color temperature. I'm guessing that the RGBW levels were adjusted to get that "white" color temperature. Really, I just wanted to get a "white" that matched the other lighting in the room and I was able to do that by adding in it the right amount of red and green.
Now, I can just turn off the parent device and things work like I want. I don't have to turn off both the parent and child devices)
I doubt the power is different for the same light output. Yes, only one LED need be on if white comes from a single white LED. But, (roughly) only 1/3 the current would be required from each of a red, green, and blue LED for same lumens.
Actually, maybe even more efficient with three separate LEDS, since typical LED alpha results in a non-linear relationship between LED current and light intensity. For example, you have to more than double the current to get double the light intensity. The lower the LED current, the higher "lumens per ma".
I have an automation that turns my pelmet strip to pure red at 10% once the curtain closes and that works fine. The issue I get is that I don't have it configured that way in the preferences (as yet). If the automation doesn't work for some reason and I turn it on manually it comes on at 100% (and looks like an Amsterdam brothel )
If you ever accidentally change something or the preferences somehow get lost that could be a pain if you can't remember your settings. You could use a virtual switch and a rule that sets all of the specific values.
Yeah possibly. I was just going on the LED strip manufacturers info which goes on which LEDs are lit and assumes 100%. I think when you look at the strip the sizes of the LEDs are different - RGB is 3 pixels but is only the same total size as the white pixel.
It probably depends on the LED strip. The one I'm using has the same number of white LEDS as RGB LEDS.
So, you can get (approximately) the same LUMENS by running 100% current in all the white LEDS, or 1/3 the current in each of the RGB LEDS.
(Unless the light efficiency--(as seen by the human eye) of a white LED is much different than Red, Green, or Blue. It's been a while, but I think the human eye is more sensitive to green wavelength than red or blue, but red LEDs generate more light per ma. (Lot of factors!).
Anway, way off topic and more about trying to resurrect technical memories two decades old--when I was really into that stuff.
But, it doesn't do anything--in fact, nothing seems reliable using either the Fibaro Dimmer as the child device or the Fibaro RGBW controller as the parent.
BTW, my C8 discovered the Fibaro RGBW Controller 2 as a Generice RGBW controller.
What's the best way to figure out what HE driver should be used with a device? Ask here?
Again, I was having trouble getting the parent and child devices to show up. I figured out the "magic".
I was changing the driver by using Under 'Devices'->Device Info->Type. After excluding and re-including I did that and changed to the Zooz RGBW Dimmer. But, I only got a parent device with limited controls (yes, I did configure).
I thought Device Name was arbitrary--but it's not what shows up for the name of the device in the devices page. It stayed at what it was when I changed the driver--something like generic DT RGBW Controller.
When I changed device name to be same as the driver, I got the child device and everything works much better.
Was this a coincidence, or is it supposed to work like this? What is device name in the details page used for? (Again, it is NOT the name of the device).
Unusual. I wouldn't have thought that the Device Name would make a difference - it should be changeable without affecting operation. I usually leave the Device Name set as is to match the driver name but I do occasionally alter them to differentiate if it's a community driver, or where there are multiple child devices beneath a parent (like the Fibaro Implant with multiple inputs and outputs). In most cases I'm just altering the Device Label to a friendly name.
I'd have thought the parent driver could handle the child Device Name being altered without breaking anything.
I now have five Fibaro RGBW controller. Using the Zooz RGBW Dimmer for the parent device and "Generic Component RGB" for the color child device and "Generic Component Dimmer" for the white child device.
Is this correct?
Things seem flaky, but I can finally get the shade of white my wife insists much match other lights in the room.
Alexa can turn them on or off, but says something like "device doesn't support that", when I try changing the color of the parent device with a chant like "Alexa, turn picture blue" (picture is the device label).
But, let's say I get that working. I see "playing" with changing the lights to different colors, but I will want to go back to the warm white color I dialed in. Will I be able to do that with Alexa?
I'm thinking I'll have to set up a rule to send a lower level command to set R, G, B, and level when a virtual switch turns on. Is this the best approach?
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