I funded the very first LIFX bulb on Kickstarter and had about 20 of their bulbs running on HA for years. They were great bulbs - for all the reasons set out above. But in the last year or so I found that they kept becoming unavailable in HA, though still working in the LIFX app. Had to reset my router to fix the problem and that got annoying. Might have been something about my setup.
Hoping you have better luck.
I still have eight Lifx bulbs in lamps around the house. None of them have connection issues.
I’m not surprised the problem was something to do with my setup.
I was a real fan of their products.
Yeah me too. My guests never could get the hang of not touching the light switches though. So I pulled out all my Lifx down-lights and replaced them with dumb down-lights and smart dimmers. However lifx had a much wider and more linear brightness range, and they could flash different colours when things like the doorbell were pressed.
My personal experience with their smart switches has been mixed. The earlier ones have been great - I have 3 PC289HA’s, circa 3 years old, plugged in 24x7 and they’ve never skipped a beat.
A newer PC44HA failed after ~6 months due to a faulty capacitor (this issue is well documented in various forums, even the Bunnings reviews indicated a high failure rate). It was an easy fix with a soldering iron and a good quality capacitor, but that’s obviously beyond the reach of most.
With their lights I’ve had zero issues. ~50 downlights of varying models and a handful of BC/E27 type.
All are (now) running ESPHome, all have a max brightness set to 90%. This is where heat comes into the equation. At 90% and below they barely get warm. At 100% they get hot… the BC/E27 types get too hot to touch.
I attribute the zero failure rate, in part, to limiting the power output and therefore heat.
In this case yes. I found driving at low levels (eg 10%) would cause the light to flicker badly.
With ESPHome I set the frequency attribute on the PWM output channel to a lower value (200Hz in the case of the bedrooms) and it stopped the flickering problem at low light levels.
EDIT: SOLD
I have a couple of Tubes zigbee routers (NOT coordinators) surplus to requirements, $10ea. If anyone wants them to boost their network coverage hit me up in private.
More info: https://tubeszb.com/product/zigbee-router/
anyone try legrand excel buttons with home assistant does it work with z2m? considering using clipsal wiser buttons buttons for a new house build (I have used them before and they work great with z2m) however the button feel could be better, its fine not as bad as everyone says but not amazing either.
Anyone know of an Australian standard certified ZHA zigbee 4 socket powerboard with inbuilt power monitoring ?
Thanks
^Bump…
@solarjunkie I am sure there are plenty like me who would love to know if/when you find one. Especially one that monitors each sockets power consumption separately.
Off on a tangent, why do manufacturers think we want no individual switches or all individual switches ? Most of my 4- or 6-way power boards have one or two devices permanently on, and only a couple whch I turn on/off at the power switch.
What is the best Zigbee colour LED bulb we can buy (certified for use in Aus) that can be controlled directly in HA (chose colours, dim etc) without a hub? I’d need a bayonet connection. Thanks
Mercator? Anyone tried one? thanks!
IKEA ones are ok and cheap.
^ Is there full control of colours and dim?
yep, just like any colour bulb really. I have a couple of the GU10 ones
I can’t see any Ikea LED bulbs that are Colour ie RGB?
Sure I think we have our wires crossed I meant “globe” 
I did say GU10… I think all of the ‘bulb’ style are only white shades
Not Tuya (avail from aliexpress and a few rogue ebay stores) and Mercator…
I aint going down the aliexpress import route. been there done that with the zigbee plugs
If I don’t get an answer I will try a mercator or Hue
(Someone has to) I guess…
I’ve got a couple of the E27 version of these and they work well in Z2M. I would assume the B22 will also work.
