Color Loop and Hue woes

Configuration
1

I just started playing with color loop via HA (not using the Hue app), and thought it was pretty cool, so I decided I wanted to create a few automations, scenes, scripts, etc to make it more automated.

I discovered some odd behavior, so I was wondering what other peoples experience is.

So I have about 13 total hue lights. Some color bulbs, lightstrips, and some white bulbs.

The group I’m trying to automate consists of 3 color bulbs, and 5 lights strips all in the same area.

I tried running color look against a group that I created

downstairs_color_hue_lights:
  name: Downstairs Color Hue Lights
  view: no
  control: hidden
  entities:
    - light.living_room_lamp_one
    - light.living_room_lamp_two
    - light.left_shelf_lights  #lightstrip
    - light.tv_backlights   #lightstrip
    - light.right_shelf_lights   #lightstrip
    - light.alcove_light
    - light.kitchen_cabinet_tops   #lightstrip
    - light.kitchen_cabinet_bottoms   #lightstrip

The thing was all the bulbs worked, and one of the lightstips worked (light.tv_backlights), the others did not. They just stayed on. Actually as I’m typing this, the lights that did not work, were already on, and the ones that did work, were off, then turned on and started the color loop.

Also, when I went onto the UI to start color loop on the strips that were already on, I had to change the color, a few times manually, and then the color loop seemed to start.

Anyone else have these issues? I guess I could turn off the lights, then turn them back on for color loop, but I suspect that if everything was working correctly I should not have to right?

2

Well, tried turning off lights and then starting color loop. Mixed results, but still not fully working via script.

tried breaking it up, and adding a delay, but no dice

downstairs_colorloop:
  alias: Downstairs Color Loop
  sequence:
    - service: light.turn_off
      entity_id: group.downstairs_color_hue_lights
    - delay: '00:00:02'
    - service: light.turn_on
      data:
        entity_id: light.living_room_lamp_one, light.living_room_lamp_two
        effect: colorloop
        brightness: 150
        transition: 5
    - service: light.turn_on
      data:
        entity_id: light.left_shelf_lights, light.tv_backlights, light.right_shelf_lights
        effect: colorloop
        brightness: 150
        transition: 5
    - service: light.turn_on
      data:
        entity_id: light.alcove_light, light.kitchen_cabinet_tops, light.kitchen_cabinet_bottoms
        effect: colorloop
        brightness: 150
        transition: 5
3

Just replying to myself in case someone else has this issue. For me setting all the hues to a random color before starting colorloop has worked 100% of the time.

downstairs_colorloop:
  alias: Downstairs Color Loop
  sequence:
    - service: light.turn_on
      entity_id: group.downstairs_color_hue_lights
      data_template:
        hs_color:
          - "{{ range(360)|random }}"
          - "{{ range(80,101)|random }}"
        brightness_pct: 100
    - delay: '00:00:02'
    - service: light.turn_on
      entity_id: group.downstairs_color_hue_lights
      data_template:
        effect: colorloop
        brightness: 190
        transition: 5

Only downside, is when I start another scene, it stops the colorloop, but does not start the scene properly, so all the lights end up being the “random” color that was part of this script. If I initiate the scene a second time, its good to go. Since color loop is something I’ll rarely do, I’m ok with this for now

4

Came across this thread and am having the same issue. My 3 hue bulbs stay in the same randomised colours when I switch to a scene that should be setting them to white. If I trigger the scene twice, it works the second time. Did you ever find a fix for this @ptdalen?

5

Setting to a random color before kicking off the color loop. This has workers for me perfectly every time