Lutron, Pico and LifX bulbs

[steve1]

Anyone tried using Pico remotes with Lifx bulbs?

Let me say that I have Lifx bulbs connected to Alexa too for voice purposes. I grouped them and voice command through Alexa work perfectly. there is maybe a 1 second delay. So, even though there is a cloud situation with Lifx, it doesn't seem to be a challenge for Amazon Echo.

I set a pico button 1 to turn on two lamps and two ceiling bulbs in my theater room. I just want them all to come on at 100 percent white. For some reason, when they come on, it takes about 3 seconds for them to start coming on and then they all come on about 1-2 seconds after each other. Taking 6-8 seconds. Not a total deal killer, but certainly not elegant.

Button5 turns them off. This is quite worse. It takes about 7 seconds to even start turning them off. This means I actually walked out of the room thinking the button wasn't working.

Is this to be expected? Can it be sped up? Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way for Hubitat to use the pico to trigger the command through Alexa, so it works faster like the Echo voice command?

Also, I'm using a Pico to turn on some Hue lights and that works well. No real delay. This is disappointing because I really like the colors on the LifX better than the colors on the Hue and just invested quite a bit of money on Picos and Lifx thinking this would be a good solution.

Button setup attached.

Thanks for any help!

[stephack]

If all of these lights need to come on together, you should create a group in the lifx app. Then add the group as a single device in HE (eg Theater Lights). This way you are only sending one command to all the devices at the same time. They "should" all turn on/off together.

[steve1]

Thanks for the suggestion @stephack.

I did have a group already set up. It includes the two lamps and two lights in the ceiling fan fixture.

I applied this to the button and it did not seem to have any effect. Same problem.

-Steve

[stephack]

Just confirming, the Theater Lights group is configured in the Lifx mobile app and NOT in Hubitat Groups and Scenes.....correct?

[steve1]

Yikes! Thanks for confirming. No, I was using a group created with the Hubitat Group app.

I went to look at the LifX and it seems to indicate that a bulb can only be a part of one group.

This creates a challenges, but it's possible I don't understand everything or have my Lifx integration set up correctly.

I have seven Lifx bulbs set up in the Lifx app. But I also have each of them in their own group. Example, Theater Ceiling A the bulb, the the group is also Theater Ceiling a. I did this because I seem to recall that the Hubitat Lifx Integration device is set up with the group and not by device. So to give singular control over each bulb, I set them up each with the same group name as the bulb name. Perhaps this was not the best route and I can certainly rework this.

I have 4 Lifx bulbs in the theater room where I'm setting up the Pico. I often only want the lamp bulbs on and not the ceiling bulbs, so a Theater Lamp group is useful that does not include the ceiling. But to be honest, I usually use use the Amazon Echo in the room to turn just the lamps on.

I am only setting up the lutron button on the wall in the theater to turn all 4 lights in the theater room on via button for people who walk my dogs, or are visiting and don't know the Alexa Commands.

So, given all this, I'm not sure how to create the Theater Lamp group as well as the Theater Lights group, the former including the lamps as well as the latter.

I may be able to sort it out. Is it a fact that

[stephack]

It's probably better to have all the bulbs in one Lifx group.

If you need to control them individually in HE as well, then they need to stay the way they are (each bulb in a group by itself). What you can do is add all the "single bulb groups" into one LifxGoG device.

Group 1 would be the group for bulb 1
Group 2 would be the group for bulb 2
Etc.

[steve1]

Thanks @stephack

I think I understand better.

I went ahead and moved the lights in the LifX app to two groups, one for the lamps and one for the ceiling lights.

I created lifegog devices in HE so that I have those two groups, lamps and ceiling. I also created a device called Theater Lights using LIFXGOG which includes the two groups added in group 1 and 2 slots for the Lifx groups lamps and ceiling.

I set up the button to turn on the device theater Lights which turns both lamps and ceiling on and off. Things are better in that the awkward lights coming on at different times is gone. However, it is taking 2-3 seconds for them to come on and 3-4 seconds for them to turn off, albeit simultaneously. It's a fairly big delay.

Is this normal?

Thanks again!

[stephack]

I do see a bigger delay than my hue lights but only a slight one. The delay you see, is with Alexa or with turning the lights on/off from the device page?

Edit: and what version of the driver are you using?

[steve1]

Thanks again!

I ran some tests for the theater lights group, which includes all 4 theater lights, 2 lamps and 2 in the ceiling fan fixture:

Alexa Voice command: about 1 second delay, both on and off. This seems reasonable.

From the device page in HE: Using the LIFExGOG group I created for all 4 lights. I go to that device and turn it on and off in a second or less. To be honest it seems a little faster than Alexa.

Using the Pico remote: I assigned the theater Lights lifexgog to a pico remote button. This is where the delay becomes pretty bad. 2-3 seconds for on, 3-4 seconds for off.

So, it definitely seems related to the Pico remote. UGH! I spent$120 for the Lutron bridge remote and another $80 or so on picos.

I am using the LifeGOG from april or so. I see there was a new one on 11/27/18. I can update it.

Thanks again.

[drew]

If you watch the log, how log does each of the steps take? Look at all the steps in the log to see where the delay is happening.

When I press a button it's almost instantaneous that I see the "rcvd: DEVICE" entry in the log and it takes about 1 second to turn on a virtual switch, have that virtual switch be evaluated by a rule, that then the rule turns on the device.

[steve1]

Here is the log. I turned them on, then turned them off from the Pico Remote.

dev:8712018-12-10 04:10:14.385 pm infoLIFX-GoG -- Theater Lights -- 4 of 4 bulbs returned ok.

dev:8712018-12-10 04:10:13.144 pm infoLIFX-GoG -- Theater Lights -- Turning off...

dev:8712018-12-10 04:10:13.041 pm infoLIFX-GoG -- Theater Lights -- 4 of 4 bulbs returned ok.

dev:8712018-12-10 04:10:12.925 pm info200

dev:7722018-12-10 04:10:12.521 pm info200

dev:8012018-12-10 04:10:12.505 pm info200

dev:682018-12-10 04:10:12.111 pm infoFamily Playbar Sonos playing: The Heartache Can Wait by Brandi Carlile from Winter Songs

dev:4492018-12-10 04:10:11.999 pm info200

dev:4812018-12-10 04:10:11.822 pm info200

dev:8712018-12-10 04:10:11.812 pm infoLIFX-GoG -- Theater Lights -- 4 of 4 bulbs returned ok.

dev:6442018-12-10 04:10:11.769 pm info200

dev:8662018-12-10 04:10:10.504 pm infoTheater Pico button 5 was released

dev:5472018-12-10 04:10:10.481 pm inforcvd: DEVICE,3,4,4

dev:8662018-12-10 04:10:10.369 pm infoTheater Pico button 5 was pushed

dev:5472018-12-10 04:10:10.337 pm inforcvd: DEVICE,3,4,3

dev:8712018-12-10 04:10:06.197 pm infoLIFX-GoG -- Theater Lights -- 4 of 4 bulbs returned ok.

dev:8712018-12-10 04:10:05.245 pm infoLIFX-GoG -- Theater Lights -- 4 of 4 bulbs returned ok.

dev:872018-12-10 04:10:02.308 pm infoTheater Motion is active

dev:8662018-12-10 04:10:01.961 pm infoTheater Pico button 1 was released

dev:5472018-12-10 04:10:01.931 pm inforcvd: DEVICE,3,2,4

dev:8662018-12-10 04:10:01.831 pm infoTheater Pico button 1 was pushed

dev:5472018-12-10 04:10:01.785 pm inforcvd: DEVICE,3,2,3

[drew]

When you press the button how long until you see rcvd: DEVICE entry? If almost instant, then the delay is not related to the pico or Lutron.

I don't have LIFX, sorry I cannot help there, what are the 200 entries?

[kilowatts]

@drew

what are the 200 entries?

Cloud calls

[kilowatts]

Because LIFX are WiFi bulbs that still rely on a cloud connection they are slower than local bulbs. Mine take 1-2 seconds to turn on directly thru Hubitat, so it would make sense that occasionally it might take a little longer if you put a Lutron hub in the middle.

Some heroic individuals elsewhere on this forum are looking into developing local LIFX integration, which would take the latency to near-zero.

[steve1]

Yeah. I was afraid of that. Disappointing. May just have to replace with hue.

Whoever created local Lifx integration would be my hero.

Thanks for your comments.

[kilowatts]

I use my LIFX bulbs for lighting that isn't triggered by motion or doors. For motion/door triggering, other bulbs would be better, at least until integration comes along. I really like their Day/Dusk bulbs with the range of 1500K-4000K. No other bulb goes that low, so I'm hanging onto them.

[steve1]

I like the bulbs too. I think the color is better. I also like the added 950nm infrared capabilities. In most cases I can get them $10 per bulb cheaper too.

It's a mystery to me that neither Hue nor LifX make a switch that fits in a modular wall plate like Lutron does. Just dumb.

Guess anywhere I need button control, I'll replace with Hue and store the LifX for a rainy day when the delay isn't so bad.

Thanks for your comments.