Chowmain - TP-Link Wifi Smart Home Driver Suite

[alanchow]

30 minutes ago, time2jet said:

Alan - I definitely got the update. My LB Bulbs (all 11) are misbehaving. They do not show the proper state (if at all) on the SR Remotes and I cannot turn them off or on from the C4 app. Hit or miss. Not trying to bring you grief, really trying to be helpful.


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I just tested again to be sure that its working.  LB bulbs we have here are working fine (we have three - one per type).

It is poll based so it does take time (depends on your poll rate).  The new protocol is UDP rather than TCP and UDP is not as reliable for getting data back.  I would check your network to make sure that UDP packets are being routed correctly.

[Time2Jet]

State feedback seems to be working (bulbs), but the C4 App will only turn off bulbs, not turn on. The slide bar works, however. Pressing the bulb icon on or off from the app in the lighting tab used to work great.

I can send a vid or you can tell me that’s the way it’s going to be now. Again, just trying to help.

The ALS I have setup for each room with a toggle on a custom button on the SR’s also now works. Because of the fact that you mention there’s no way to have an SR remote turn the bulbs off or on (with feedback) from “select” I think I could create an ALS for each bulb, but it would unfortunately show up in the Scenes tab and not with the other lighting.

Just trying to make this intuitive for guests. No one knows to press “0” or “1-9” to turn bulbs off or on. I have a loft that family stays in when they visit. I like things to be intuitive. Nothing as painful as not knowing how to turn on or off lamps. And using the lamp’s mechanical toggle isn’t the best idea. Sort of tarnishes my bragging about how smart this home is.


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[rea]

I did a quick check this morning and my bulbs seemed to have been fixed. I will run through a few more troubleshooting scenarios when I get home and provide any feedback if I find anything out of sorts. 

The only thing I noticed this morning was my dimmer switches (HS220) were not responding to dimming commands from the C4 app. I also had a slight issue where they seemed to have lost synchronization with C4 and were screwing up the ALS I have them on, but this was likely due to me shooting too many commands too quickly and the polling not having a chance to catch up. Your comment on the UDP protocol likely explains this. I'll run a better test on this when I get home too. 

Thanks for addressing this so quickly, Alan!

[eggzlot]

1 hour ago, time2jet said:

State feedback seems to be working (bulbs), but the C4 App will only turn off bulbs, not turn on. The slide bar works, however. Pressing the bulb icon on or off from the app in the lighting tab used to work great.

I can send a vid or you can tell me that’s the way it’s going to be now. Again, just trying to help.

The ALS I have setup for each room with a toggle on a custom button on the SR’s also now works. Because of the fact that you mention there’s no way to have an SR remote turn the bulbs off or on (with feedback) from “select” I think I could create an ALS for each bulb, but it would unfortunately show up in the Scenes tab and not with the other lighting.

Just trying to make this intuitive for guests. No one knows to press “0” or “1-9” to turn bulbs off or on. I have a loft that family stays in when they visit. I like things to be intuitive. Nothing as painful as not knowing how to turn on or off lamps. And using the lamp’s mechanical toggle isn’t the best idea. Sort of tarnishes my bragging about how smart this home is.


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put a $20 dot in the room and have them say alexa turn off lamp and it will go off or even just alexa room off or whatever to turn off the room?  

[msgreenf]

Or Google mini

[Time2Jet]

16 minutes ago, eggzlot said:

put a $20 dot in the room and have them say alexa turn off lamp and it will go off or even just alexa room off or whatever to turn off the room?  

@eggzlot@msgreenf@alanchow

 

Guys, I already have Alexa in each room.  Works perfectly with Alexa.  It's just the C4 App and the SR remotes.  The C4 app worked perfect before the 11th.  The SR is just an issue with the way the driver is designed.  It sends a "toggle" command when the bulb is "selected" in the lighting menu on the SR's.  It doesn't technically "toggle" like an ALS would. So, the bulbs can only be technically turned off or on when the bulb is highlighted in the SR lighting menu, then with the numeric keys on the SR "0" for off, "1-9" for on at whichever brightness is selected.

I really want to figure this out.  Alan seems to think C4 might have a solution, but I am leaning towards an ALS scene for each, but then that puts the bulbs in "Scenes" versus the standard lighting device menu.

[eggzlot]

6 hours ago, time2jet said:

@eggzlot@msgreenf@alanchow

 

Guys, I already have Alexa in each room.  Works perfectly with Alexa.  It's just the C4 App and the SR remotes.  The C4 app worked perfect before the 11th.  The SR is just an issue with the way the driver is designed.  It sends a "toggle" command when the bulb is "selected" in the lighting menu on the SR's.  It doesn't technically "toggle" like an ALS would. So, the bulbs can only be technically turned off or on when the bulb is highlighted in the SR lighting menu, then with the numeric keys on the SR "0" for off, "1-9" for on at whichever brightness is selected.

I really want to figure this out.  Alan seems to think C4 might have a solution, but I am leaning towards an ALS scene for each, but then that puts the bulbs in "Scenes" versus the standard lighting device menu.

I don’t want to hijack the thread.  But c4 makes a dimmer and switch outlet device. You can control it natively within c4 on remotes and navigator.  Higher price point and physically larger.  Pros and cons.  But as a dealer you probably knew of this device?

[rea]

@alanchow I played around with the lights and plugs a little more since I've been home this evening. My bulbs are working great now with full two communication. HS1xx plugs are all responding appropriately and my outdoor plug is working great. 

I am noticing that the HS220 dimmers are still having some issues. It seems to likely be a polling issue. The switches respond to C4 commands and C4 picks up changes from the Kasa app (some of the time) but it's routinely not recognizing that the light is either on or off. It's probably not something you would even notice unless you have the light tied to an advanced lighting scene (and are paying attention to light levels in the app) because the HS220s seem to respond to the commands. It kind of kills the ALS as C4 doesn't see the load as active. Bulbs and other plugs seem to be polling nearly instantaneously so it seems odd that my network would only be misbehaving with the HS220s. 

I just turned off tracking for the HS220s in my scene and that cured the issue with the ALS but figured I'd let you know to see if you could replicate. 

[Time2Jet]

1 hour ago, eggzlot said:

I don’t want to hijack the thread.  But c4 makes a dimmer and switch outlet device. You can control it natively within c4 on remotes and navigator.  Higher price point and physically larger.  Pros and cons.  But as a dealer you probably knew of this device?

The LB130 Bulbs seemed like an inexpensive solution to deal with 11 lamps and the added idea of color amused the kids @eggzlot

I already owned the driver for some energy monitoring outlets.  I'm fully aware of what's out there and sometimes kick myself for short-cutting to save a few $$.

We don't know each other, but my background was in design and sales of multi-screen commercial theater A/V.  I trained in C4 only as a result of investing in a decades old A/V company that was moving more towards automation versus straight A/V and HiFi. The investment was probably more because of passion for the direction home automation had taken.  I don't know what you do, but I do follow your posts and feel you add a lot to this forum.  Thank you for that.

 

[eggzlot]

13 minutes ago, time2jet said:

The LB130 Bulbs seemed like an inexpensive solution to deal with 11 lamps and the added idea of color amused the kids @eggzlot

I already owned the driver for some energy monitoring outlets.  I'm fully aware of what's out there and sometimes kick myself for short-cutting to save a few $$.

We don't know each other, but my background was in design and sales of multi-screen commercial theater A/V.  I trained in C4 only as a result of investing in a decades old A/V company that was moving more towards automation versus straight A/V and HiFi. The investment was probably more because of passion for the direction home automation had taken.  I don't know what you do, but I do follow your posts and feel you add a lot to this forum.  Thank you for that.

 

Well I wouldn’t suggest 11 outlet switches unless you demand perfection.  That said you were talking about 1 area with guests. Likely worth the investment for that one use case

My background - c4 user for about 5 years.  That’s it.  I can do basic programming with c4 but nothing extreme.  Just a hobby to frustrate myself - it’s my golf.  Expensive and headaches galore!

[rea]

2 hours ago, rea said:

@alanchow I played around with the lights and plugs a little more since I've been home this evening. My bulbs are working great now with full two communication. HS1xx plugs are all responding appropriately and my outdoor plug is working great. 

I am noticing that the HS220 dimmers are still having some issues. It seems to likely be a polling issue. The switches respond to C4 commands and C4 picks up changes from the Kasa app (some of the time) but it's routinely not recognizing that the light is either on or off. It's probably not something you would even notice unless you have the light tied to an advanced lighting scene (and are paying attention to light levels in the app) because the HS220s seem to respond to the commands. It kind of kills the ALS as C4 doesn't see the load as active. Bulbs and other plugs seem to be polling nearly instantaneously so it seems odd that my network would only be misbehaving with the HS220s. 

I just turned off tracking for the HS220s in my scene and that cured the issue with the ALS but figured I'd let you know to see if you could replicate. 

Will add one more thing I've found: my HS110 is no longer doing energy monitoring in C4. I can turn the plug on/off and it recognizes on/off state, but is not picking up wattage. It looks like my HS300 power strip is monitoring energy still so just the HS110. Not sure if anyone else is experiencing this either. 

[Time2Jet]

Same issue with my HS110.

And my bulbs are still not working properly (or, as they were before the update). In the C4 iOS app one used to be able to press the bulb icon for each in the lighting menu to simply turn on or off and showed feedback. Now I have to use the slide to turn on or off. This is now the same problem in C4 OSD.

Then, the SR remotes do not show the proper state and don’t function as they had prior. I’m still so perplexed as to why one couldn’t hover over a bulb and press select to change its state. Still have to use the numeric keys. So the “Select” button doesn’t serve any purpose pertaining to the TP Bulbs?

Anyone else have bulbs and can replicate the above?

Also, anyone have Hue Bulbs in their project? I’m baffled because I really thought I remembered Hue allowing one to hover over and press select to turn the bulb off and on (my Hues were white only). I swear that the TP bulbs worked that way in the past. My Hues are in a box. The setup of my home was so spread out that many were too far from the bridge, so instead of running a Cat cable and installing a more central outlet, I moved to Wi-Fi bulbs.

Chowmain Tech support had me send them LUA output from the bulbs a month or two back when when I could no longer turn them off or on via “Select” on the SR remotes. They kept asking me why I was sending a toggle command versus on or off. I explained I was pressing select and had done no further programming against the driver. Eventually, I got an email stating this is simply how they’re designed. I swear the worked the way I’m wanting them to when first installed. Alan and I talked and he said they’ve never worked via “select” and no bulb does. Can someone ease my mind here? I know I’m nuts, but this might prove to what degree. I swear these worked differently 2-3 months ago. Looking at the change logs now.

Without the HS110 monitoring energy and the bulbs not allowing a simple select for on or off, the driver seems either broken or was a waste of money in my case. I always think Alan gets upset when I ask over and over, but I swear the TP bulbs used to allow a simple “select” press on the SR’s to turn off or on and always displayed the correct state. I’m really in no way being disrespectful. The driver was completely awesome, but I feel it changed. I’ve triple checked to make sure I wasn’t blocking any UDP, etc. ughhh...




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[tdougray]

Have a couple of hue bulbs in my project for bedside lamps and can confirm select on my sr260 remote will turn them off an on 

[Time2Jet]

Have a couple of hue bulbs in my project for bedside lamps and can confirm select on my sr260 remote will turn them off an on 

Thank you @tdougray

So you’re just scrolling on your SR to highlight the bulb and pressing select? It’s works with a single press every single time and shows feedback?

If so, I swear that’s how mine used to work. And I loved it. Simple/Straightforward. I felt I was losing my mind, when I was told they don’t work that way.

Do you use the C4 app? iOS version?Are you able to just chose the bulb and press the bulb icon to turn on or off? I could before, but now cannot. I have to use the progress scroll bar.


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[tdougray]

@time2jet yes it works by pressing select every time with feedback whilst using the remote.

also using iOS c4 app it also works by either pressing the little on/off bar to the right of the light name or by using the slider. 
just a note thou I am not on os 3 ! 

[coredyn]

I am on OS3 and toggle or the select method used to work on my remotes, t3, iOS and Android.

[Time2Jet]

I am on OS3 and toggle or the select method used to work on my remotes, t3, iOS and Android.

But it’s not working now, correct? But it did work on iOS 3 prior? Just trying to understand if our situation is the same.


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[Time2Jet]

[mention=143219]time2jet[/mention] yes it works by pressing select every time with feedback whilst using the remote.
also using iOS c4 app it also works by either pressing the little on/off bar to the right of the light name or by using the slider. 
just a note thou I am not on os 3 ! 

That’s very good info!


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[coredyn]

But it’s not working now, correct? But it did work on iOS 3 prior? Just trying to understand if our situation is the same.


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Correct.

[coredyn]

Correct.

I also found out in the middle of the night that for some reason right now when I open the app on my iPhone it instantly turns on some lights just from opening the app.

[LollerAgent]

1 hour ago, tdougray said:

Have a couple of hue bulbs in my project for bedside lamps and can confirm select on my sr260 remote will turn them off an on 

I can control my Hue bulbs directly from a SR260 as well.  It also shows feedback.

[alanchow]

20 hours ago, eggzlot said:

I don’t want to hijack the thread.  But c4 makes a dimmer and switch outlet device. You can control it natively within c4 on remotes and navigator.  Higher price point and physically larger.  Pros and cons.  But as a dealer you probably knew of this device?

@time2jet used to work for a dealer but has since left the dealership.  No need to be snarky.

6 hours ago, time2jet said:

Same issue with my HS110.

And my bulbs are still not working properly (or, as they were before the update). In the C4 iOS app one used to be able to press the bulb icon for each in the lighting menu to simply turn on or off and showed feedback. Now I have to use the slide to turn on or off. This is now the same problem in C4 OSD.

Then, the SR remotes do not show the proper state and don’t function as they had prior. I’m still so perplexed as to why one couldn’t hover over a bulb and press select to change its state. Still have to use the numeric keys. So the “Select” button doesn’t serve any purpose pertaining to the TP Bulbs?

Anyone else have bulbs and can replicate the above?

Also, anyone have Hue Bulbs in their project? I’m baffled because I really thought I remembered Hue allowing one to hover over and press select to turn the bulb off and on (my Hues were white only). I swear that the TP bulbs worked that way in the past. My Hues are in a box. The setup of my home was so spread out that many were too far from the bridge, so instead of running a Cat cable and installing a more central outlet, I moved to Wi-Fi bulbs.

Chowmain Tech support had me send them LUA output from the bulbs a month or two back when when I could no longer turn them off or on via “Select” on the SR remotes. They kept asking me why I was sending a toggle command versus on or off. I explained I was pressing select and had done no further programming against the driver. Eventually, I got an email stating this is simply how they’re designed. I swear the worked the way I’m wanting them to when first installed. Alan and I talked and he said they’ve never worked via “select” and no bulb does. Can someone ease my mind here? I know I’m nuts, but this might prove to what degree. I swear these worked differently 2-3 months ago. Looking at the change logs now.

Without the HS110 monitoring energy and the bulbs not allowing a simple select for on or off, the driver seems either broken or was a waste of money in my case. I always think Alan gets upset when I ask over and over, but I swear the TP bulbs used to allow a simple “select” press on the SR’s to turn off or on and always displayed the correct state. I’m really in no way being disrespectful. The driver was completely awesome, but I feel it changed. I’ve triple checked to make sure I wasn’t blocking any UDP, etc. ughhh...




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I want to make some corrections to this statement.

Firstly I was never upset.  I pointed you at the correct support channel when you emailed me a second time after a few days after an initial email I did not respond to due to backlog.  We have multiple support tiers and staff with driverCentral covering level 1 support and multiple people in the Chowmain team covering level 2 and 3.

i understand it can be frustrating to not get a response but the attitude in your emails doesn’t make it any faster (I get about 300-500 emails a week directly to me personally).

The question you asked was why does the SR-260 send a toggle command when you select a light where you want selection to specifically turn the light to a specific state.

Our answer was that all lights do a toggle on selection of the light and if you wanted a discrete state you needed to press a number button (ie 0 for 0%, 1 for 10%, 2 for 20% and so on).

This effects all lighting in Control4 (Including hue though I’m not sure how that is at all related to this thread) and is not something we have control over.  If this is not acceptable the Neeo remote has a nicer interface for control over lights on their touch screen display.

These issues introduced by the new firmware released in the past few days has nothing to do with the above.  Like all issues we take them seriously and will work through them.  This may take some time so please be patient.

This forum is only monitored by me myself from Chowmain so support speeds via the forum are no where near as fast nor at the level should you go through official methods.  So please as discussed if you want support submit a ticket, call our office or driverCentrals offices.

[Time2Jet]

51 minutes ago, alanchow said:

@time2jet used to work for a dealer but has since left the dealership.  No need to be snarky.

I don't know who you are referring to above, but I am a partner in a dealership, though in my capacity I do not work hands on with C4 on a daily basis, yet I am trained and fully capable of what I need to know in my capacity.  More so, I am a a C4 end-user as well.  I'm not understanding who you were referring to when you mentioned "snarky", if it was meant for me, my apologies Alan... I never meant anything I said to come off that way. If you were referring to eggzlot, he's a great guy and I wasn't offended.  He's a big contributor to this forum and I appreciate his time here, much like I do yours.

Unfortunately, although automation is my passion, I have another business that consumes the majority of my time. As I mentioned, my relevant background was in the commercial multi-screen theater space.  I designed and sold A/V equipment for cinema auditoriums.  Other than my financial and consulting interest in the dealership, my core business for the past 2 decades has been entertainment focused construction finishes... lol, big difference, same industry.  I love the cinema business and can't get away from it!

51 minutes ago, alanchow said:

I want to make some corrections to this statement.

Firstly I was never upset.  I pointed you at the correct support channel when you emailed me a second time after a few days after an initial email I did not respond to due to backlog.  We have multiple support tiers and staff with driverCentral covering level 1 support and multiple people in the Chowmain team covering level 2 and 3.

i understand it can be frustrating to not get a response but the attitude in your emails doesn’t make it any faster (I get about 300-500 emails a week directly to me personally).

As far as this all goes, I sincerely hope that you weren't offended and honestly, I didn't realize I had "complained" about timely responses.  I was so frustrated over a number of things (unrelated to C4) and that issue was just one more thing that I was stressing over.. I know you already know that I think you are a great guy that represents a great company and any driver I have of yours is top notch and I use and refer people to Chowmain.  I'm really sorry if in any way I offended you, that was never my intention.  I don't feel any angst towards you, complete the opposite Alan.  I'm sorry for any misunderstanding.

51 minutes ago, alanchow said:

The question you asked was why does the SR-260 send a toggle command when you select a light where you want selection to specifically turn the light to a specific state.

Our answer was that all lights do a toggle on selection of the light and if you wanted a discrete state you needed to press a number button (ie 0 for 0%, 1 for 10%, 2 for 20% and so on).

This effects all lighting in Control4 (Including hue though I’m not sure how that is at all related to this thread) and is not something we have control over.  If this is not acceptable the Neeo remote has a nicer interface for control over lights on their touch screen display.

These issues introduced by the new firmware released in the past few days has nothing to do with the above.  Like all issues we take them seriously and will work through them.  This may take some time so please be patient.

As for the ongoing issue I am having, please read some of the posts above.  Others are saying they can absolutely control TP-Link Bulbs on an SR remote with your driver in the manner I am hoping to.  (Highlight the bulb and press select - Off or On with feedback).   Your technical department was very good with responding, absolutely no complaints.  They asked me to replicate the problem and send them the Lua output.  When I did that, the initial response was "what exactly are you doing to achieve this outcome?  For some reason you are sending a "toggle" rather than an on or off command".  This is exactly why I continue to stress over it, seems that they too thought this was possible.  If you read the thread, others are reporting that they are able to have the bulbs perform precisely this way (in this thread, in fact), using your driver and TP bulbs... so that's why I am frustrated.   As for the mention of HUE, I replaced my HUE system with the TP Bulbs because I was having issues staying connected to the HUE Bridge because of the layout of my home.  It wasn't centrally located, so it wasn't performing ideally.  I moved to WiFi bulbs to solve that issue.  I was only commenting that the HUE's did work the way I am wanting so badly for the TP Bulbs to be controlled. Sorry for the confusion.As for Chowmain working on the issues introduced by the new firmware, I fully trust that it will be resolved timely.  In this business, things break.  I was reporting behavior only in an effort to help.

51 minutes ago, alanchow said:

This forum is only monitored by me myself from Chowmain so support speeds via the forum are no where near as fast nor at the level should you go through official methods.  So please as discussed if you want support submit a ticket, call our office or driverCentrals offices.

 

[rea]

Have we established if the loss of energy monitoring on the HS110 is an inherent issue in the driver update or only affecting a few systems? I keep forgetting to change over my laundry now without my helpful reminder

[msgreenf]

It's broken for me too