Controlling LED strips with RF

[skribb]

Is it possible to control LED strips from EG?

I'm looking for a cheap way to replace my LIFX, as the reliability of LIFX is like 85% rather than 99.9% which is what should be expected from a quality device. I figure RF is much more reliable than Internet.

In that case I'll put LED strips on my ceiling instead of the pesky LIFX bulb.


thanks

[krambriw]

Is it possible to control LED strips from EG?

It all depends on the brand & type and if they are possible to control at all. You are not specific enough if you have a certain product in mind. Regarding reliability using RF, I would say it is only two-communication that is really reliable. Like z-wave and similar. But they are comparable very expensive if compared with "standard" RF devices.

Regardless, you need a controller attached to the computer suited for the purpose. I thing the RFXtrx has support for some LED strips (for the one-way RF path). There are also such for z-wave http://www.fibaro.com/us/the-fibaro-sys ... controller. The RFXtrx and z-wave are supported by EG plugins.

[skribb]

Is it possible to control LED strips from EG?

It all depends on the brand & type and if they are possible to control at all. You are not specific enough if you have a certain product in mind. Regarding reliability using RF, I would say it is only two-communication that is really reliable. Like z-wave and similar. But they are comparable very expensive if compared with "standard" RF devices.

Regardless, you need a controller attached to the computer suited for the purpose. I thing the RFXtrx has support for some LED strips (for the one-way RF path). There are also such for z-wave http://www.fibaro.com/us/the-fibaro-sys ... controller. The RFXtrx and z-wave are supported by EG plugins.

I wasn't specific because I have no idea what to ask about.

It seems that something like RFXtrx would work. I could buy RFXtrx plus an MDREMOTE led strip.

https://www.kjell.com/se/sortiment/el-v ... ler-p88433

Won't be doing this for a while since I need the money first, but I like to shop around first so that I know what to do once I can start the project, thanks Walter

[WoLpH]

There are several solutions. If you're not scared of a little soldering and/or manual work than I'd recommend giving espeasy a try. It takes care of a lot for you

If you're looking for a simple out of the box solution you could try the H801 controller. It's about $10 on aliexpress and can control quite a lot of leds. Additionally, it is reprogrammable with a tiny bit of soldering: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/RGBWW-S ... 07408.html



The device is easy enough to control using a bit of Python:

Code: Select all

import time
import socket
import colorsys

# Only change the 192.168.0 part, the 255 is the broadcast address which is
# what we want
IP = '192.168.0.255'
PORT = 30977
# Light IDs (hint, the last few characters of the wifi name: HCX_<id>). Don't
# forget to add the 0x before
IDS = 0x235817,
# Wait for 10ms between setting colours
DELAY = 10
# Rainbow steps
N = 0xAFF


def set_color(r=0, g=0, b=0, w0=0, w1=0):
    message = [0xFB, 0xEB, r, g, b, w0, w1]
    for id_ in IDS:
        # The mac is in reverse order
        message.append(id_ >> 0)
        message.append(id_ >> 8)
        message.append(id_ >> 16)
        message.append(0x00)

    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
    sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_BROADCAST, 1)
    # Convert to characters and cut the numbers to 0xFF
    sock.sendto(''.join(chr(c & 0xFF) for c in message), (IP, PORT))

    time.sleep(DELAY / 1000.)


r = g = b = 0
# I like rainbows
for i in range(N):
    # Generate HSV colours
    h, s, v = i * 1. / N, 1., 1.
    # Convert HSV to RGB integers
    r, g, b = [int(0xFF * c) for c in colorsys.hsv_to_rgb(h, s, v)]
    # Set the colour
    set_color(r, g, b)

# Turn the lights off again
set_color()

[skribb]

There are several solutions. If you're not scared of a little soldering and/or manual work than I'd recommend giving espeasy a try. It takes care of a lot for you

If you're looking for a simple out of the box solution you could try the H801 controller. It's about $10 on aliexpress and can control quite a lot of leds. Additionally, it is reprogrammable with a tiny bit of soldering: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/RGBWW-S ... 8.htmlcode]

Thanks for your enthusiasm

but the point for me was to move to RF isntead of wifi because it feels too unreliable. Or are you saying that this H801 light is sufficiently reliable? my LIFX has to be reset every few days/weeks because it stops responding to commands, and the creator for the LIFXtend app for windows stopped developing it because he found LIFX way too unreliable. So it is definitely important that it has to be as close to "set it and forget it" as possible. I've reconfigured my entire lighting setup about 5 times in 2 years just because I've had to try different apps/implementations to minimize disconnects with LIFX.

Optimally I'd use a wholly cable-backed automation system but I wouldn'tk now where to start with that

[WoLpH]

Thanks for your enthusiasm

but the point for me was to move to RF isntead of wifi because it feels too unreliable. Or are you saying that this H801 light is sufficiently reliable?

can't say I've tried it for enough time to be certain. My guess is that's it's similarly unreliable to be honest as it's most likely related to the wifi network of disturbances around your house.

If you really want a fire and forget option that's reliable than I'd recommend zwave devices. I've got my entire house running on zwave with some extra hardware for the fun lights. But even in that case it depends on the brands. I've found fibaro and qubino very reliable. Aeotec fairly reliable. But tkbhome is very unreliable.

Additionally, zwave is very expensive but since I've got it built into my walls I need a fire and forget solution. Replacing the modules is a pain.

[skribb]

Thanks for your enthusiasm

but the point for me was to move to RF isntead of wifi because it feels too unreliable. Or are you saying that this H801 light is sufficiently reliable?

can't say I've tried it for enough time to be certain. My guess is that's it's similarly unreliable to be honest as it's most likely related to the wifi network of disturbances around your house.

If you really want a fire and forget option that's reliable than I'd recommend zwave devices. I've got my entire house running on zwave with some extra hardware for the fun lights. But even in that case it depends on the brands. I've found fibaro and qubino very reliable. Aeotec fairly reliable. But tkbhome is very unreliable.

Additionally, zwave is very expensive but since I've got it built into my walls I need a fire and forget solution. Replacing the modules is a pain.

When it comes to LIFX it seems the API or something is very buggy. Third party apps have trouble maintaining connection (again, devs have said this, not just me).... and even official app has some trouble with this.

I'm not sure if there are any disturbances around my house, the channel Im' running on isnt populated by more than a few other people here (I can see like 3 other APs on that channel).

[WoLpH]

Didn't know that. In that case perhaps an espeasy or the h801 could work. But I can't say I've tested either of them enough to say that they are stable. At least the espeasy project is quite popular so I expect it to be fairly stable.

They're cheap enough to try though, a basic usb-programmable ESP8266 chip is about $4 or something: https://www.wemos.cc/
Or one of the ready-made devices: https://www.itead.cc/smart-home.html

Those still require some manual work to flash them to software such as espeasy or mysensors.

[kgschlosser]

you can also pick up something like an apa102 strip there are many choices and it pretty much has n unlimited number of leds, get yourself a computer power supply something cheap. a raspberry pi. and some freeware software for the pi called hyperion and there is also an app for phones to control it.

There is some reading to go this route. but it works. you will also need to get a small WiFi USB for the pi or wire an Ethernet cable to it. I use this exact solution as a way of adding Ambilight to my theatre screen.

it always alot of fun tinkering with this stuff anyways. and the hyperion program does have an api and i am sure it wouldn't be that hard to get EG to chat with it.

[skribb]

thanks guys

[kgschlosser]

attached are some 3gp videos i made with my cell phone of what i did for LED's i don't have anything more recent and this is before i redid my media room. so the ambilight examples are when i had them on my samsung 55 but it shows you what can be done. there is also one example you will see when i had the LED's kinda laid out that is when i had them connected to an arduino. with the arduino it's super easy to get them running even over wifi and cheap as well. the apa102's or anything of the like are what is called an addressable led they have a driver (an SPI communications chip) attached to the back of each pixel (RGB LED actually 3 LED's) so what you have the ability to do is say pick one led out of a string of 1000 and turn just the one on and any color you want at any brightness. the ambilight examples you will see there are only 20 LED pixels doing the display. and they update against the video one the TV screen something like 120 times a second.

the pricepoint when using the arduino it becomes extremely cheap the controller is 5.00 USD, power supply is 10 USD and if ordered on the internet you can get the LEDS for about 7 USD per meter and a wifi card for the arduino is 2.50 USD you can also add an ir receiver for 50 cents or even a zigbee attachment for 20-30 dollars and they do make 433 mhz receivers as well that are around 5 USD. and all the software is already made. all you have to do is to flash the arduino with the software 4 wires for the LEDS and if you spend a little extra loot you can get shields (plug in boards) for the rest of the attachments.

[WoLpH]

Here's another example made by a friend of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EwAcWeaYHw

PS: if you need help with setting up hyperion I might be able to help, I help out at the hyperion project as well

[kgschlosser]

I thought the hyperion project was dead

[kgschlosser]

and that link looks awesome. but the colors are off. took me a ling time to get mine dialed in so the colors patched. i would sit there with the app on my phone and change the settings and then write them down so i could enter them into hyperion.

[Aquila]

Phillips Hue has light strips, they can be controlled with the PhillipsHue plugin. But Hue is a bit expensive.