LIFX bulbs won't work anymore since this morning

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#1

Hello, I have been using LIFX for ages without issue. This morning they all stopped working and no longer respond to Hubitat, yet they work fine in the LIFX app. Hubitat's logs all just show:

Error occured with UDP message: SocketTimeoutException: Receive timed out

Once in a blue moon it does respond, but 99.9% of the time it just gives that error, and does so on every single light. Hubitat Package Manager says everything is up to date. I've updated my hub, rebooted numerous times but nothing works. Most my lights are LIFX so this is a huge inconvenience, anything else I can try?

#2

LIFX built-in integration is coming in the next release. You can join the beta going on now..

2 Likes
#3

Thanks but I've been using LIFX with Hubitat for over a year now and it just stopped today so I'm trying to find out why that is.

#4

I think @bcopeland is offering you access to a method that is guaranteed to get them working again. And is built-into the platform, as opposed to being a community integration.

1 Like
#5

Yeah I know but I'm not really keen on being a beta tester or running anything beta when it comes to my home automation as I have hundreds of devices. I've been using the community plugin for over a year without any issues and now as of a few hours ago it just doesn't work at all which is super frustrating. I submitted the request for the beta group, but ideally I was hoping to have my lights working tonight vs waiting for a beta invite as we have many LIFX bulbs. I might just look to switch them all back to Philips Hue since it seems to be more supported, even though I really dislike their white colour options. :confused:

#6

That's your call. Both my hubs are enrolled in the beta program. With a total of ~270 devices. And LiFX bulbs among them.

If you're really keen on getting your existing integration working, the best place to request assistance would be in @rob's parent thread for his community integration. Although I'm under the impression that he is using the beta built-in integration right now (or at least testing it).

If I were you, I would stick with LiFX; they will be as compatible as Hue when 2.3.0 is released.

3 Likes
#7

Thanks I requested the invite. I was just able to make them work by fully uninstalling the LIFX app and reinstalling it. Luckily I had created groups for every bulb like the developer suggested, so it was just a matter of adding the LIFX bulbs back to their groups and all is well. But I agree, I'd much rather use the official version! And that's great to you know you have 270 devices as I'm not far off from that.

I'll keep the LIFX as they are my preference. I seem to have bad luck with Philips as every 8-10 months or so my bridge just completely dies and I lose all my config. I buy another one, works for 8 or so months and then dies again. It got so bad that I actually have 3 bridges now, one for outdoor lights, one for downstairs, and one for upstairs. Did that a year ago, and of course I've never had one fail now so who knows. I like how LIFX skips the annoying bridge all together.

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#8

I once looked into going with LIFX rather than Hue. What put me off is that the illuminated part is no wider than the solid part, so the light isn't as even as the more traditionally shaped Hue bulbs.

#9

For what it's worth I've never seen all bulbs drop off like that with my code so I'm quite puzzled.

I can heartily recommend the native integration though, seems pretty solid and very fast.

Given that you've created groups per my recommendation it should be relatively trivial (although time consuming) to update them to use the native drivers.

2 Likes
#10

That only really applies to the old style A19 LIFX bulbs, the current LIFX Mini bulbs are much more similar to traditional bulbs

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#11

I have about 75 Hue bulbs and then 15 or so LIFX and to be honest I've never experienced this and doubt I'd be able to tell any difference if doing a blind test. The reason I prefer LIFX is because they do better whites. Hue white bulbs don't get as orange as I like (like at night when I have the lamps set to 1% or so and want them to look like Halogen), the LIFX ones can practically go red, even though it's just the white bulb. Hue it looks like is 2200-6500K but the LIFX white ones are 2000-6500K and that was the only reason I stuck with them. Not having a bridge though is super bonus.

#12

It's super weird, I just came home from work and when pressing a RA2 keypad button only one LIFX light came on. I press it again and it turns off, press it again nothing happens. Press it over and over, and the odd time a different light would turn on but not the others, and then the logs kept showing those socket errors. I rebooted, updated the hub, nothing would work until I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it and then it was fine, so no clue. Using the beta one now though and it seems to work well also!

#13

Your router is effectively the bridge though, and like the bridge, most consumer routers only support around 50 devices at a time (unless you're using business-class gear or a mesh network).

#14

FYI...The built in Lifx integration is now available in the latest version. Check out the release notes here:

2 Likes
#15

Download the Hubitat app