I just put 3 sengled bulb in my bathroom. I was excited to try them on with my new Hubitat hub and wanted to just test them out, WHILE I am waiting for my motion sensors to arrive from China
If the bulbs are on (becuase I am testing from another room), and wife passess by, she flicks the light bulb switch off out of habit as no one is in the washroom. Next time, when I turn on the light switch for those 3 bulbs, they do random stuff. Sometimes, all 3 turn back on just like a dumb bulb, sometimes 1 or 2 of them turn on but then turn off, sometimes they turn on and off as if to go into pair mode.
What is happening here, and what is expected? If the Sengled bulbs (On state) are turned off from the main wall switch, then what is expected when the switch is later turned back on? Also, while I am waiting for my motion sensors, any way to make my sengled bulbs mimic a dumb bulb, so that they can be turned off from the switch, and they remember their state, or just all turn on when the switch is turned on?
A few options. I think both Zooz and Inovelli make switches that you can set a parameter in the switch letting it know it is connected to a smart bulb. So when you turn them off they don't actually kill power they just have the hub turn them off.
Another solution hard wire the switch in the box and then use a something like a Zen34. That is actually what I did for a group of smart bulbs on my front porch.
I also believe there are some apps out there for your described scenario. I know there was on in ST and I think I saw there is one in HE. I never used it but you it is supposed to make sure bulbs come back on as you expect.
I have seen people post that turning off a smart bulb is not good for it, but I never worried about that. I really don't have many left.
Lutron makes a dimmer which covers an existing switch (keeping it in the “on” position) to allow you to control the bulb from the switch location while preventing the switch from being turned off.
It's probably not great for the bulb's electronics, but I believe the issue you may have seen posted is that some smart bulbs try to serve as repeaters. When powered off, they don't do that so well.
Some bulbs, if not most, have some way of setting what state to be in when powered on. You can usually choose from on, off, or state they were in when switched off. But you may have to use their native apps to do that. Otherwise it will be whatever default they left their manufacturer set to.
No someone posted, and I can't remember where, may have even been back on the ST forum, but they said turning them off shorten the life of the bulb. I believe some agreed, but I have never seen anything like that stated on any of the Smart bulbs I have purchased. Just food for thought, but your point about them being zigbee repeaters and turning them off is a much bigger issue and definitely an issue to consider.
Don't know which Sengled bulbs the OP has but I know the ones I have are not repeaters, and I specifically bought them because of that.
Sengeld do not act as repeaters, that's why they are great to use in a ZB environment.
The Sengle Element driver has a preference to set the state to on or off after a power cut; I have mine set to On when a stranger flips my switch
Most of my wall switches are covered (removed) when they are fully automated and in common areas to avoid the "turn the light off when you leave the room" screaming from me for 30 years.
Sengled bulbs are actually designed to be turned on and off via a manual switch without reducing their life, nor impacting your Zigbee mesh (as they are non-repeating devices.)
The cool thing about Sengled bulbs, is that they will actually transmit a last gasp message when turned off at the switch, which lets the hub know that they are now powered off. When they are powered on, they will always turn on and transmit another message to make sure the hub is kept up to date. These are the only Zigbee bulbs that I know of that behave in this way.
Now, to get the above behavior with Hubitat, you may need to change the Driver Type for the bulbs to the ‘Sengled Element Classic (legacy)’ driver, instead of the ‘Advanced Zigbee Bulb’ driver. After changing the driver type, and clicking Save, be sure to then click CONFIGURE (make sure the bulb is powered on!)
I believe the Advanced Zigbee Bulb driver implements the power restoration feature within the driver (not the bulb itself), which is why users seem to report strange behavior sometimes with this driver.
In my experience they do send a 'last gasp' off message but bizarrely do not send any on message when power is restored. Anyone seeing the on messages being sent or the device updating immediately to on in HE ?
@kevin - you made me curious... so I pulled out a Sengled Element Classic soft white dimmable bulb from my drawer of spare devices and paired it with my C7 hub. It was discovered immediately. I assigned it the 'Sengled Element Classic (legacy)' driver, clicked SAVE, and then clicked CONFIGURE. I was then able to power on and off the bulb via the Hubitat device page without issue. Likewise, when I removed power from the bulb, it reported an OFF status to Hubitat. When I powered the bulb back on, it illuminated immediately and reported an ON status back to Hubitat. Thus, it seems to still behave exactly as I remember. Note: I also tried the 'Sengled Element Classic' driver and it worked as expected as well.
I think I have a Sengled RGBW Bulb as well. I will attempt to test that one as well.
Update: The Color bulb worked as expected as well, using the 'Sengled Element Color Plus (legacy)' driver, as well as the 'Sengled Element Color Plus' driver. Manually powering on and off resulted in Hubitat seeing the status changes.
Update 2: As noted below by @aaiyar, I am using the older models of the Sengled bulbs for my testing, so YMMV with the newer revisions.
Interesting, will have a look at what version mine are and what driver I used. They are not color. I actually bought them for this feature and the 'off' worked fine but not the 'on'. Let me dig further as I would like for this to work.
Let us not gloss over this point. If my wife had developed this habit, then I doubt that I would have been as motivated to automate everything.
I have Sengled bulbs in a number of locations specifically because they behave nicely when power is turned off/on. I do use the native Sengled driver, if that matters. It will behave as expected for a naive visitor (or family member). If it happens a second time, then I improve the automation and install the aforementioned switch cover.
