Chowmain - LIFX Wifi Lighting Driver

[alanchow]

Chowmain -LIFX Wifi Lighting driver 

LIFX (pronounced Life-X) is a line of energy-efficient, multi-color, Wi-Fi enabled LED lighting products that can be controlled via a Wi-Fi equipped device such as a smartphone or smartwatch. The LIFX driver for Control4 allows for two way control and feedback of all LIFX products including bulbs, strips, beams, tiles and more.

With our new Control4 OS 3.3 V3 driver, Chowmain's driver now uses local connections, supports ColorWheel and white temperature selector and includes our one-touch setup in agent.

Features

• Direct Control using Network (V3 only. V2/V1 requires cloud)
• Two way control and feedback.
• Automatic Detection of Devices
• Brightness control
• Color Temperature control
• Color control
• One Touch Install and Configuration of lights (V3 only / OS3.3+ Required)
• ColorWheel Support (V2/V3 Driver Only / OS3.3+ required)
• Graphical White Temperature Selection (V2/V3 Driver Only / OS3.3+ Required)
• Infrared Light Brightness Control (V3 Driver Only / OS3.3+ Required)
• HEV disinfection support (V3 Driver Only / OS3.3+ Required)

FAQ 

What is the difference between V3 and our V2 driver?

• As per popular request, V3 has been completely rewritten from the ground up, to support control via LAN instead of relying on LIFX's cloud servers.
• Faster performance. Latency of commands is reduced from seconds to milliseconds
• More reliable communication with the ability to resend unacknowledged commands
• Infrared light brightness support via command (compatible hardware required)
• HEV disinfection support to kill bacteria and sanitise surfaces (compatible hardware required)
• Modern Diagnostics / Troubleshooting infrastructure
• Significantly faster deployment. New AutoSetup system will automatically install drivers for devices, and Personal Access Token is no longer required.
• Similar to V2, V3 also supports the new ColorWheel and white temperature selector (requires OS 3.3 or later)

Please note:

• Because of the breadth of the LIFX changes, LIFX V3 is not compatible with LIFX V2/V1, and it is strongly recommended to replace all old drivers
• Due to deficiencies in the LIFX Group LAN/UDP protocol, native LIFX groups are not supported. Advanced Lighting scenes may be used as an alternative (and native C4 scenes are expected to be implemented in the future)

What is the difference between the V2 driver and the depreciated group and light drivers

LIFX V2 Driver requires OS3.3+ to operate correctly and is recommended for both current and future installations

• Native ColorWheel Support
• Native Color Tempearature Support
• Improved Color Scene support
• Support for both LIFX Groups and individual LIFX Lights. Separate drivers are no longer required.

Why is this better than other RGB solutions?

• This is an extremely affordable solution which does not require an additional hub to operate.
• We have control over color, saturation, temperature, brightness.
• Two way control / feedback. If the customer uses the original application Control4 gets the changes

Where can I purchase this product from?

LIFX can be purchased from various retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon.

https://www.lifx.com/

What hardware will this work on?

This will work on all LIFX models.

How do I find out more information about the driver? 

Please see the links below for more information about the driver. 

https://chowmain.software/drivers/control4-lifx

How do I buy the driver? 
This driver can be purchased from our distributor driverCentral. 
Download Driver / Purchase Licence 

Who do i contact for technical support? 
We have two support desks. One in Australia and one in the US. Click on the link below for details. 
Support 

Do you provide trial licences? 
All Chowmain drivers for Control4 come with a 90 day trial. 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by alanchow

[drmark12pa]

Alan,

My dealer just recommended the LIFX bulbs instead of buying additional Phillips Hue bulbs which I already have.  My question is with the LIFX bulbs (and the current HUEs I have) being on a C4 light switch,  the switch has to remain on all of the time for driver and bulbs to work correctly I assume?  I'm assuming it stands to reason that is the case but how do you turn lights on and off at a switch for the circuit in that case making the bulbs quickly responsive?

Can you show some of the programming available in Composer with your driver as I currently have programming for Hue using the Alexa with the native C4 Hue driver which is clunky and cumbersome/primitive....

[msgreenf]

Lifx bulbs are not meant to be used w light switches. They are meant to be on wifi 24/7

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[alanchow]

2 hours ago, drmark12pa said:

Alan,

My dealer just recommended the LIFX bulbs instead of buying additional Phillips Hue bulbs which I already have.  My question is with the LIFX bulbs (and the current HUEs I have) being on a C4 light switch,  the switch has to remain on all of the time for driver and bulbs to work correctly I assume?  I'm assuming it stands to reason that is the case but how do you turn lights on and off at a switch for the circuit in that case making the bulbs quickly responsive?

Can you show some of the programming available in Composer with your driver as I currently have programming for Hue using the Alexa with the native C4 Hue driver which is clunky and cumbersome/primitive....

Copy and paste of answer in the PM i replied to for reference.  Please don't double post / pm.

Quote

Yes you need power to power the bulbs.  As such the circuit will always need to remain on.

Depending on which switches you are using you may be able to un-attach the buttons from the lighting load.  This will essentially turn it into a keypad which you can program against to turn your bulbs on and off.

We are about to release a new version of the LIFX driver which will support groups and scenes so this will make it a bit easier to control systems with large amounts of LIFX lights.

Your dealer can program this up for you.

 

[alanchow]

Major Update

Version #20190116 - 16-JAN-2019
⦁ Added support for groups (New slave driver)
⦁ Added support for scenes (Master Driver - programming tab)
⦁ Added support for RGB command via (Light Driver - programming tab)
⦁ Added support for Color Temp command via (Light Driver - programming tab)
⦁ Fixed issue with ramp rates
⦁ Fixed issue where driver would unhide proxies in all rooms (now it only hides proxies).
⦁ Fixed issue with CLICK_RAMP_RATE_UP, CLICK_RAMP_RATE_DOWN, PRESET_LEVEL

[drmark12pa]

For some reason my LIFX lights and groups in my project keep reverting to the name of room and BRIGHTNESS.  I've changed the names 2x and again the names have changed by themselves.  How is this possible?

[alanchow]

On 2/9/2019 at 3:29 PM, drmark12pa said:

For some reason my LIFX lights and groups in my project keep reverting to the name of room and BRIGHTNESS.  I've changed the names 2x and again the names have changed by themselves.  How is this possible?

The driver is only designed to update the name when the connection is bound.

[drmark12pa]

I have the lights and groups bound to their respective lights and have had the names changed in Composer but for some reason 2 of the 3 groups revert back (ie Master bedroom LIFX goes back to Master bedroom brightness)

[Byshop303]

On 1/2/2019 at 8:23 PM, alanchow said:

Chowmain -LIFX Wifi Lighting driver 

LIFX (pronounced Life-X) is a line of energy-efficient, multi-color, Wi-Fi enabled LED lighting products that can be controlled via a Wi-Fi equipped device such as a smartphone or smartwatch. 

The LIFX driver for Control4 allows for two way control and feedback of all LIFX products including bulbs, strips, beams, tiles and more. 
Features

• Two way control and feedback. 
• Automatic import of lights upon customer's LIFX account login. 
• Automatic configuration of lights. Hides unused functionality (eg Day & Dusk models will not show color sliders). 
• Brightness control 
• Color Temperature control 
• Color control 
   

 

It looks like LifX just added the ability to trigger Effects through their API recently in addition to scenes. Any chance of getting that added to the driver as well?

Thanks!

[alanchow]

On 3/16/2019 at 1:45 AM, Byshop303 said:

It looks like LifX just added the ability to trigger Effects through their API recently in addition to scenes. Any chance of getting that added to the driver as well?

Thanks!

We can add it to our feature request list but at the moment we have about 13 contracts we need to finalise before CEDIA Expo.

[Byshop303]

On 3/17/2019 at 8:07 PM, alanchow said:

We can add it to our feature request list but at the moment we have about 13 contracts we need to finalise before CEDIA Expo.

Understood, thanks. Is anyone else having trouble getting this driver to turn LifX devices off? On seems to work great, but no so much the other way. Reducing all the levels to zero turns the light off, but then it turns itself back on a second later (even if no devices apps are controlling it). Turning it off via programming doesn't appear to work either. Both of these functions work from the popup control panel in composer though.

Triggering LifX "scenes" works like a champ, though. My workaround is I have created a scene that turns off the lights but the actual off functions of the drivers do not work for me at all. My account/API access seems fine, and I can make the lights do whatever I want with a few Postman calls.

[drmark12pa]

I initially was having that issue but if I remember I deleted the lights and re added them and connected to lights in Composer.

[Byshop303]

I'll give that a shot. Thanks.

[TexasBill]

I installed the ChowMain driver for LIFX last evening and it works great so far.  The lights are a 9 foot run in my kitchen.  Several questions/issues:

1. the only way I can turn the lights off is by setting the brightness to ZERO. That has been mentioned and there seems to be no other work around.

2. I have several ways that the kitchen lights are turned on:

     a. voice command - three levels of lighting by voice

     b. motion sensor/movement

     c. time of day (scheduler)

     each of these have always been done using the advanced lighting so it has been no issue. Now I have to go to each place and manually enter what I want to happen.  Is there a better way? This also means that I have to set the color that I want in each of these scenes and level.  The application has much more control on my phone that control4 has over the lights. I must not see the "vision" yet for how to do this really nicely.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Bill

[drmark12pa]

I use Alexa tied to LIFX which is fantastic because you can tell Alexa to set a room or specific light to a level or color. I use the Chowmain driver to have C4 turn on and off via buttons, remote control, etc

[TundraSonic]

A couple of questions:

- How does a homeowner add a new lamp, move a lamp to a new location (e.g., rename, reassign room), etc?

- Is it possible to have a light group rather than individual lamps? E.G., a hallway with 4 LIFX lamps that should mostly be controlled together and not show up individually taking up screen space?

- Can the sliders for color and color temp be changed to use meaningful labels rather than 0-100?

- Will the new LIFX v4 app and lamp firmware provide any better integration w/ Control4?

Thanks,

[zaphod]

Regarding your first question - only a dealer can add hardware to your system and move it from room to room.  There is a rename driver that does let you change the names of devices once they are in your system.

[alanchow]

On 2/18/2020 at 1:28 AM, TundraSonic said:

A couple of questions:

- How does a homeowner add a new lamp, move a lamp to a new location (e.g., rename, reassign room), etc?

- Is it possible to have a light group rather than individual lamps? E.G., a hallway with 4 LIFX lamps that should mostly be controlled together and not show up individually taking up screen space?

- Can the sliders for color and color temp be changed to use meaningful labels rather than 0-100?

- Will the new LIFX v4 app and lamp firmware provide any better integration w/ Control4?

Thanks,

Hey sorry for the late reply.  I don't frequent this forum as much as i used to due to high demand of our services.  In future its better to reach out through our support desk if you have any questions.

How does a homeowner add a new lamp, move a lamp to a new location (e.g., rename, reassign room), etc?

Only Control4 integrators (deemed smart home pro) can add new devices, move devices and add rooms into Control4

Is it possible to have a light group rather than individual lamps? E.G., a hallway with 4 LIFX lamps that should mostly be controlled together and not show up individually taking up screen space?

You can install individual lights or install groups.

Can the sliders for color and color temp be changed to use meaningful labels rather than 0-100?

At this stage Control4 have not released an official color wheel.  When they do we will implement this into our software.  As an alternative your Control4 dealer can program in specific RGB values into experience buttons.

Will the new LIFX v4 app and lamp firmware provide any better integration w/ Control4?

The API has not changed as such no changes to the driver is required.

[TexasBill]

Looking for a few answers when using your driver for LIFX bulbs and rope lights.

1. If I wanted a specific color - How do I go from RGB to your driver and get that color?

2. Knowing that I have 4 LED LIFX rope strips and approximately 30 light bulbs, If I wanted to have let's say ten standard colors is there a way to have these "colors" R,G,B stored somewhere and then have the lights change to that color?

For example: I would like Red, White and Blue for patriotic holidays.

I would like all blue for showing support for healthcare workers, I would like Easter colors for easter holiday, I would like to have Dallas Cowboy colors (if we ever have sports again).

What is the best way to handle this standard color setting?

Bill

 

 

[alanchow]

On 4/13/2020 at 11:17 AM, TexasBill said:

Looking for a few answers when using your driver for LIFX bulbs and rope lights.

1. If I wanted a specific color - How do I go from RGB to your driver and get that color?

2. Knowing that I have 4 LED LIFX rope strips and approximately 30 light bulbs, If I wanted to have let's say ten standard colors is there a way to have these "colors" R,G,B stored somewhere and then have the lights change to that color?

For example: I would like Red, White and Blue for patriotic holidays.

I would like all blue for showing support for healthcare workers, I would like Easter colors for easter holiday, I would like to have Dallas Cowboy colors (if we ever have sports again).

What is the best way to handle this standard color setting?

Bill

 

 

1. Its probably best for you to utilise the experience button drivers and program it to fire a preset in programming.  Control4 provides a color picker for composer's programming which we utilise to set RGB values.
2. You can utilise groups rather than individual lights for programming multiple lights to work in unison.  Again use the above method for the color picker in composer to get exact colors.

[TundraSonic]

We have 64 LIFX lamps in the C4 system of a new house and are experiencing some critical problems with sliders; returning to prior setting, and moving on their own. We saw this with some testing a couple of years ago but then for no known reason went away and never reappeared so somewhat stupidly we chalked it up to a once-off anomaly. 

For instance. I change the Color from 69 to 31. It stays at 31 for a second or two and then moves back to 69.

Same for saturation. It's @ 50% and if I change it to 84% it stays for a few seconds and then reverts back to 50%.

Sometimes I'll get totally phantom movement. At some point the color was 82% (can't get it back to that now). When I moved it down to 35% it stayed for a few seconds and then moved back to 82%. Then maybe 20 seconds later jumped to 69% where it now seems to want to be regardless of what we tell it.

This seems somewhat like there is something else forcing this but we can't find anything.

We'll keep playing with it on Monday to see what else we can learn.

[TundraSonic]

On a related note. There needs to be a way for homeowners to add their own lamps. You can't tell someone that every time they buy a new light bulb that they have to pay an integrator $300 to turn it on. That's where Alexa and similar systems will beat out C4 and make it obsolete.

[tdougray]

4 minutes ago, TundraSonic said:

every time they buy a new light bulb that they have to pay an integrator $300 to turn it on.

$300!!!!! Time to find a new dealer

[msgreenf]

Yeah. That is crazy...I don't charge that much. I must be doing it wrong

[Amr]

They can always add a number of Lifx lamps using native app and get a dealer to integrate them in patches to C4, this seems odd but it’s a workaround and for sure need a new dealer!