ControllerX. Bring full functionality to light and media player controllers

xaviml · June 15, 2020, 6:11am

What you are experiencing is a known problem from HUE integration. They cannot be used with a transition attribute to turn on/off their lights. So the problem is that ControllerX sends the transition attribute in all calls by default. However, you can change this by adding to each of the configurations:

add_transition_turn_toggle: false

This will remove the transition attribute from thr calls when turning on/off. In fact, you can experience the same if you go to “Developer Tools > Services” and turning on the light using the transition attribute. You can read more about this problem in Section 6 from the FAQ.

Let me know if this solved your problem

Amardeep · June 15, 2020, 3:10pm

Hi @xaviml - that fixed it, thank you!

Great addon, saved so much time and effort!

htvekov · June 20, 2020, 8:46pm

Great release, Xavi

Just want to direct attention for other users to the MASSIVE speed improvement using newly introduced direct MQTT integration in ControllerX

Ciao !

xaviml · June 29, 2020, 7:33pm

v3.0.0 is now released

This major change contains a breaking change.

Features

Add color_wheel attribute. Read more about it in here. [ #86 ]
Support for white_value attribute in light controllers [ #93 ]
Add max_loops attribute for hold-release controllers

Fixes

Change deCONZ mapping for Niko91004LightController, from X000 to X002 for click press
Change default value for add_transition_turn_toggle from true to false (BREAKING CHANGE)

expeacer · June 30, 2020, 9:55am

Thank you, tested it a lots of time, and I can say it’s working like a charm!
And thanks a lot for direct MQTT integration, it’s speeded up the things.

I updated everything, and I just realized, sometimes the AppDaemon get killed, with this warning:

Excessive time spent in utility loop: 2549.0ms, 14.0ms in check_app_updates(), 2535.0ms in other

I made a bigger log, and pasted here: ErrorLog - Pastebin.com
Disabled everything else, and only ControllerX running with 2 integrations. Anyway didn’t noticed any fallback with this problem, only the log is not nice

xaviml · June 30, 2020, 10:33am

Hi @expeacer,

You can see a topic about that in here. The creator of AppDaemon summarises the problem. You can do what he says about the utility_delay or you can directly add production_mode to true. The latter will not check for changes in the apps.ya and you will need to restart the addon everytime. And the former will change the delay to something larger than 1 second, to check the config every 5 or 7 seconds for example.

Let me know if that fixed the problem Thanks for letting me know about the fix and I am glad that the MQTT integration works better for you, I do recommend using it too, there is a significant difference.

Cheers,
Xavi M.

carsten_h · June 30, 2020, 10:42am

This is only possible with ZigBee2MQTT I think? With deCONZ it won’t work, correct?

xaviml · June 30, 2020, 10:57am

Hi @carsten_h,

The mqtt is has a generic purpose, you don,c,t have to use it for z2m. If you for example already have a device that comunicates through mqtt, then you can use that. However, deCONZ does not use MQTT, but its speed is comparable to using MQTT already. The problem with the z2m integration is that listens to the state change of the sensor and that slows down the communication. deCONZ uses events and that is much faster.

carsten_h · June 30, 2020, 11:27am

Ok, thank you for the detailed description!

Your integration is really good and easy to configure! It is fun to use it!

xaviml · June 30, 2020, 11:33am

Thanks @carsten_h

ztox · June 30, 2020, 2:28pm

Does ControllerX work with the SmartThings Integration? It seems this approach would need a webhook integration?

I have an IKEA E1810 remote paired with a smartthings hub, I’d prefer to consolidate scene control and scripting logic in HA. The scenes defined in HA are not visible in the smartthings app. Only the IKEA Remote battery appears as an entity in HA from the smartthings integration.

Any suggestions on a workaround if this is outside the plan for ControllerX?

Note: I am running HASS and not using nabucasa.

thanks!

Jan_D · July 1, 2020, 10:16am

Hi,
thanks for great solution, but I have some issue with WXCJKG13LM and IKEA Tradfri 1000 - double click bottom right button should increase the light temperature to max, but my bulb is getting cold. Holding this button works good.

xaviml · July 1, 2020, 10:30am

Hey @Jan_D,

You are right, there is a typo in the code for this device. It is doing the same as double clicking the bottom left. I will get this fixed asap

xaviml · July 1, 2020, 4:26pm

Hey @Jan_D,

I just released v3.0.1 with the fix, now it should go to full color temp :slight_smile

tikob25 · July 1, 2020, 4:34pm

Hey @xaviml

Found your post on reddit and it was perfect timing as I bought the Ikea ICTCG1 controllers for half price.

Set this up last night and set up was a breeze. I do have a few issues though with this controller.
I find the actions aren’t smooth or they aren’t reading correctly. Whether I am turning left or right sometimes it doesn’t read or it is very delayed. Same goes for the quick turns. I have tried both MQTT and Z2M integrations and I find Z2M to be more responsive but still not 100%. Would you have any suggestions?

Hope you can help. I love these rotating dimmers but not liking how choppy they are. Hope I can fix them.

Edit: Had a problem with using media player integration but I figured it out. Didn’t realise the class changes as well

xaviml · July 1, 2020, 4:51pm

Hey @tikob25,

If I undertood well, you integrated this controller with z2m, right? As far as I know these controllers are a little bit more laggy than the symfonisk ones (E1744) which are like the “new” version of the one that you bought. However, I would recommend you to set it up with the MQTT integration, something like this:

example_app:
  module: controllerx
  class: ICTCG1Controller
  controller: zigbee2mqtt/my_controller/action
  integration: mqtt
  light: light.my_light
  automatic_steps: 15
  delay: 200

This will change how often ControllerX will call HA to change the brightness of the light and the steps for the change. By default these 2 attribute are much “laggy” since depending on the network, this could be too much. So you can play around with those 2 parameters. Also, you will need to check the mqtt topic of that controller on the zigbee2mqtt logs, it normally finishes with /action or /click.

Regarding the use of this controller for a media plaer is not yet implemented. I will add support to it, since this controller does not have click action, I will leave as default that quick right will call the play action and quick left will call pause action.

Cheers,
Xavi M.

tikob25 · July 1, 2020, 4:59pm

I tried both Z2M and MQTT and I found Z2M more responsive. I will try this out right now and report back

xaviml · July 1, 2020, 5:09pm

I just created a beta release with the support for the MediaPlayer controller for the ICTCG1 dimmer. You won’t see yet the documentation for it since it is not a stable release. You can mark “Show beta” in HACS and you will see v3.1.0b0.

The configuration should look like:

example_app2:
  module: controllerx
  class: ICTCG1MediaPlayerController
  controller: zigbee2mqtt/my_controller/action
  integration: mqtt
  media_player: media_player.my_media_player
  volume_steps: 15
  delay: 200

Let me know if you try

tikob25 · July 1, 2020, 5:12pm

@xaviml

So It is better but not 100%. The dimming is better but sometimes when Im rotating and I stop, it will continue to dim. The other issue I have is If I do a quick rotate left or right, it takes me a couple of tries for it the light to turn on and off.

I think you’re right and I will have to play with the the 2 parameters to find that sweet spot.

Just noticed you made the beta! Thank you so much. I will try that out shortly.

To all the Canadian’s out there, Happy Canada Day!

Again, Thank you for making this release! You have saved me lots of time trying to wrap my head on integrating these dimmers/switches.

xaviml · July 1, 2020, 5:18pm

Thanks @tikob25

I am not Canadian, but happy Canada day I think the problem you are experimenting with the light dimming down without stopping it is ecause the controller sends a lot of rotation actions and it might happen that the last one is no a rotation_stop. I will recomend you to check the logs on z2m logs, so you will see the events that the controller fires, this is shy the symfonisk one is much better for this.

Good luck with it and let me know about the media player controller integration, you might have the same problems with the media player volume that you have with the brightness of the light, the idea behind is the same one.

Cheers,
Xavi M.