LIFX Smart Bulb & OpenHAB

[papa]

        LIFX Smart Bulb & OpenHAB, Introduction
                (Pronounced "Life X")

I was looking for a smart bulb that did not need a hub or bridge & could work with openHAB 3.

I got this LIFX White bulb (model E26 base) for a standard U.S. bulb socket. Other types of bulbs (including color & other types of sockets) are available.

These bulbs use an ESP32, but I have no plans so far to put new firmware on it. It uses 8.5 watts & can give a 50 watt equivalent of illumination (650 lumens). It seems to be fixed at a ("warm") 2700 Kelvin temperature/appearance.

My LIFX White bulb can be set up & controlled with a smart phone, but I mainly used my phone to link the LIFX to my WiFi & update firmware (settings via the gear icon).

I found some tricks for the WiFi & openHAB setup that I'll give below. Later on, I'll offer a rule that on a schedule will pulse the light as a possible wake-up alarm.

        Next, Connect the LIFX Bulb to WiFi

[papa]

            Connect the LIFX Bulb to WiFi

On your smart phone, search for & install the LIFX app for your phone's operating system.

Important: The following works better if in your phone's settings, you temporarily turn off Mobile Data. Of course, have WiFi on & connected.

It may also help setup to power the bulb temporarily near your WiFi router. Use a light socket that has a switch.

In the LIFX app near the bottom right, click the "+" sign to add new device. Then click "New Device" & then "New Light."  On the Setup page, click the green arrow at the bottom right. When the app finds your bulb, click "connect." Continue through the screens. For our openHAB purposes, you can stop when the bulb is connected to your WiFi.

Sometimes the LIFX app tells us to "try again." In that case, switch the bulb socket on & off five times with each switch being about 1 second apart. This resets the device. Start over with instructions in the previous paragraph.

Once the LIFX bulb is connected to WiFi, you can turn on the phone's Mobile Data.

        Next, Prepare OpenHAB for the LIFX Bulb

[papa]

            Prepare OpenHAB for the LIFX Bulb

Go to localhost:8080/settings/addons/binding. There click the "+" icon & then search for & install the LIFX binding.

After that, I fussed long over successfully creating a LIFX White Thing for the LIFX binding, both via the inbox & manually. I did more research & found reference to LIFX using UDP port 56700. Oh, I wondered, does that port needs to be opened in the firewall?

The following is VERY important for openHAB success. It's for Linux, but in parallel, you can check Windows Firewall rules & create a new rule if necessary.

In Linux Terminal, execute sudo ufw status

        From installing Mosquitto & openHAB, you may then see:

To             Action          From
--               ------              ----
1883          ALLOW     Anywhere
8443         ALLOW     Anywhere
8080         ALLOW     Anywhere
1883 (v6)   ALLOW     Anywhere (v6)
8443 (v6)   ALLOW     Anywhere (v6)
8080 (v6)   ALLOW     Anywhere (v6)      [Note that UDP port 56700 is not open]

To open UDP port 56700, in Linux Terminal, execute sudo ufw allow 56700/udp

        Then sudo ufw status should display these added lines:

56700/udp         ALLOW         Anywhere
56700/udp (v6)  ALLOW         Anywhere (v6)

            Next, Create LIFX Thing in OpenHAB

[papa]

        Create LIFX Thing in OpenHAB

Go to localhost:8080/settings/things/add. Click LIFX Binding.

At the top, click the (inbox) Scan button.

At the bottom, you should see that the inbox has a new addition. Click on that.

Accept the LIFX Thing.

Go to localhost:8080/settings/things. Click the LIFX Thing.
     In those properties, you may add an optional location (like location in the home).
        For sure in the host field, add the LIFX's IP address.
            (Log into your router & get IP from the DHCP client list.)
   Click Save at the upper right.

After the above, in the Things list we should see the LIFX Thing & we hope to see a green ONLINE button beside it. Perhaps because my openHAB is very full or peculiar to the LIFX, until much later, my LIFX Thing stayed offline even with rebooting openHAB (with & without clearing the openHAB cache).

However, even with the LIFX Thing labeled "OFFLINE," I was able to proceed to the next step. (Eventually the ONLINE status showed up.)

        NEXT, Configure LIFX Channels & Link to Items

[papa]

            Configure LIFX Channels & Link to Items

For the LIFX White bulb, Brightness & Signal Strength are the main channels. A (Color) Temperature channel is also offered, but since the LIFX White's Temperature seems fixed, no point in using this channel. Temperature & other channels may be usable in other types of LIFX bulbs (especially color bulbs).

Click on the LIFX Thing then the Channel tab. Then click on the Brightness channel. Click Add Link to Item. You could create a related Item in an .items file & link to an existing item. However, it's easier to click beside Create a New Item. You may edit what openHAB offers or accept as is. When ready, scroll to the bottom & click Link. Do the same for the Signal Strength Channel.

To use for the next post, make note of the Items' names linked to the Brightness & Signal Strength channels.

        Next, Display/Control LIFX Bulb in HABPanel

[papa]

        Display/Control LIFX Bulb in HABPanel

In your browser, go to localhost:8080/habpanel. At the upper right, click the gear icon. Scroll down to an existing dashboard to receive LIFX widgets OR scroll to the bottom & at the bottom left, click Add new dashboard. Click on the dashboard you want to use.

In your chosen dashboard, add a slider widget for Brightness & a dummy widget for Signal Strength. For each widget's "openHAB item" field, find & select the items you linked in the last post. Save & run the updated dashboard.

After success with the above, you can click or slide the select point on the Brightness widget to change the LIFX bulb's brightness.

        Next, An Alarm Clock Light via a Rule

[papa]

            An Alarm Clock Light via a Rule

The pulselight rule shows some possibilities of controlling the LIFX bulb with openHAB.

     LIFX-pub.rules (1.58 KB)  << Forum members, download this rule into your /rules folder (Linux: /etc/openhab/rules).

            These lines indicate where you adapt the rule's function:
// Edit all instances of "LIFXWhiteUpBR_Brightness" to the name of your brightness Item

var Number minBright = 1 // minimum value (%) of brightness
var Number maxBright = 100 // maximum value (%) of brightness
var Number repeatPulses = 4 // # of pulse repetitions
var Number brightnessHop = 9 // brightness (%) jump for each i loop

As is, at 4:58am & 6:03am, for 4 repetitions (& with 9% hops), this rule ramps the brightness from 1% to 100% & then from 100% to 1%. It ends with the LIFX turned off completely. I have the LIFX bulb in a switched light socket mounted on a jar lid which I place on the floor on my side of our bed. When the rule triggers, it produces four quick "sunrises/sunsets" on the bedroom ceiling, gently waking me up (sometimes).

I have a back up sound alarm which I prematurely turn off if the light wakes me. If the first set of pulses wakes me, I also turn of the light socket. My spouse (who wants to wake up later than me) says the light disturbs her less than the sound alarm.

[papa]

        Some Helpful Options in the LIFX App

Tap on the Device name of the LIFX bulb. At the upper right, tap on ...  At the bottom, tap on Light Settings. That gives buttons for updating the firmware & connecting/disconnecting the cloud.

By switching the LIFX bulb off & on five times with one second between the switches, we can reset the bulb to connect to a different WiFi. If our phone & bulb are connected to the same WiFi, we can use the phone's LIFX app to control the bulb.

In the Home screen, at the upper right is a calendar icon to access scheduling the LIFX bulb. Using that we could schedule bulb events as long as our phone & bulb are connected to the same WiFi.