Mi-Light controller for Mysensors

[Cliff Karlsson]

I just ordered four 9w rgbww bulbs to try your script out. But when reading the reviews one of the main disadvantages I found where that it was not possible to query the bulbs for the current state/color/dim-level.
But if the bulbs are wired so that they are always on then the script/repeater-node or the controller keep track of all the states, right?

Also is it possible to connect an battery powered arduino/nrf to the existing non powered wall-switch and have the arduino to send the switch-commands directly to the mi-light-repeater-node for faster reaction times for turning the bulbs on/off?

[ted]

@Cliff-Karlsson

Yes, it is possible to keep track of the bulb state from the controller.

As to the switching speed, it is almost instantaneous (<<1 s). You can for sure add another node, but that will make the whole thing much more complicated to build.

[Cliff Karlsson]

@ted

Thanks, I forgot to ask but if the node(s) have the full capability as the original remote controler. That means that I can also control ledstrips using the mi-light led dimmers like this: Led controller right?

[ted]

Assuming the on-air protocols are the same, yes.
I only have the RGB-W light bulb and were able to control it without ever using the remote controller.
@Cliff-Karlsson

[Cliff Karlsson]

@ted said:

(1) turn the white light on/off using a light switch node

What does this mean? do I connect a light switch to the repeater-node? Or does it just mean that I can use another arduino to detect button-switches and send command to domoticz or other controller?

[Cliff Karlsson]

I have received my lamps now but no controller yet. Is it possible to pair/control the bulbs without controller?

[ted]

@Cliff-Karlsson
To pair, turn on the light switch, and send 'ON' command within 2-3 seconds. If successful, you will see the light flash on and off a couple of times.

The repeater-node simply relay any command it receives from the controller (I use openhab) to the light wirelessly. There is no physical wire connection between the node and milight.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Ok, I meant to say that I had not got any bridge for the mi-light yet. In the first post it is mentioned that you need to pair using a bridge.

[ted]

@Cliff-Karlsson
thanks, the original post was updated to clarify this.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Thanks, next stupid question. How do I control the rgb/dimming features of the lamp? I got a ordinary on/off lamp under device in domoticz.

[ted]

@Cliff-Karlsson
You have to program your controller to produce the command string and send it to the node. The command string is transmitted as a ASCII string to the 'custom' node. See https://hackaday.io/project/5888-reverse-engineering-the-milight-on-air-protocol for the command format. Sorry I don't use domoticz.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Do I need to unpair the bulbs if I want to try pairing again? It got paired as a regular on/of bulb the first time. But I think I found out that I could add mi-lights using a dummy switch. But The bulb are not pairing.

[ted]

@Cliff-Karlsson
I don't know. Let us know what you find out. :)
To unpair, you turn on the power to the bulb and send 'off' command within seconds.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Ok, I tried with several bulbs now. First time I managed to pair as on/off switch but after that I had no luck. If anyone is using this with domoticz please describe the procedure of how to add the bulbs.

[Cliff Karlsson]

@ted

I forgot to ask, but what controller have you been trying them out on? And are there any limitation to how many bulbs one repeater-node can control? I recall reading something about one original controller only being able to control 4 bulbs or similar.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Ok, I think I found a clue :), S_CUSTOM seams not to be supported by domoticz so I changed it to "gw.present(0, S_RGBW_LIGHT);"
So now everything looks ok with a RGB selector and everything. But I still can only turn on and off the bulb and am not able to dim or set colors. So I guess there is some more serious witchcraft going on thats over my head.

[ted]

@Cliff-Karlsson

The milight uses a speical command, it is not likely to be compatible with the standard RGB light module in domoticz. The information about the milight protocol can be found here: https://hackaday.io/project/5888-reverse-engineering-the-milight-on-air-protocol

I used openhab to assemble the command string for S_CUSTOM. Using the S_CUSTOM, you can control as many bulb as you want (by using different remote ID field in the milight protocol), although I only have 1 bulb. The node receives the milight protocol in plain ASCII string and convert the string to HEX before sending it out to the bulb. Hope this helps.

[Cliff Karlsson]

Ok, thanks for the help but it seams that I will have to use the standard-wifi bridges for now until someone smarter than me fixes the domoticz support.

[Łukasz Kostrzewa]

Thank You for this solutin. Everythin works great but...

I was able to pair with one bulb but I I do not know what to do to pair with others?

Any idea?

Best regard

[ted]

@Łukasz-Kostrzewa
Each bulb is associated with a particular 'remote ID'. Bulbs having the same remote ID will repond to all commands having the same remote ID. Therefore, you can simply pick a different(or the same) remote ID to pair with a second bulb, and the second bulb can be controlled separately(or simultaneously) with the first one. I have not tried it but that should work according to the mi-bulb protocol.