ControllerX. Bring full functionality to light and media player controllers

expeacer · June 11, 2020, 10:45am

Thank YOU for figuring out this fast

carsten_h · June 11, 2020, 4:10pm

I managed to get it to work after installed everything which is necessary to get VNC to run, so I can start the deCONZ program. Now after 2 hours the update process is at 14%, I think it will take really long.

xaviml · June 11, 2020, 4:59pm

It took a while for me too… but not that long. I must say that Iam still experiencing the problem even removing the battery… I will have to keep looking at this, but I do not get the same behavior with z2m.

carsten_h · June 11, 2020, 8:03pm

In the end it were six hours.
But now I have this info on the website:
webversion

This is in the deCONZ program:
programversion

and this is the file I choose for the update:

So it is not clear to me if the newest version is flashed.

But the buttons are still working with hold!

xaviml · June 11, 2020, 8:31pm

That happened to me. I had to restart the addon to see the correct version.

carsten_h · June 11, 2020, 8:53pm

I already started my Pi (I have deCONZ running on a extra Pi Zero W) again, but nothing changed in the display on the website. But that should make no difference in function.

xaviml · June 13, 2020, 7:34pm

v2.8.0 is now released

This minor change does not contain breaking changes.

Features

Add MQTT integration. Read more here. [ #82 ]
Add supported features for volume_set [ #84 ]

Fixes

Fixes “Toggle direction requires the button to be held twice” [ #81 ]
Fixes “Smooth_power_on for Hue integration broken since ControllerX v2.5.0” [ #85 ]
Fix “get_entity_state called from initialize causes a crash in the app initialization if the state cannnot be read” [ #88 ]

New devices

E1743 - add Media Player controller for E1743 (z2m, deconz, zha) [ #87 ]
ICTCG1 - add deCONZ support
Niko91004 - add device with deCONZ support [ #89 ]

Docs

Update tasmota-switchmode11 @htvekov [ #83 ]

xaviml · June 13, 2020, 7:38pm

Hey @expeacer,

You can find the fix for your problem on ControllerX v2.8.0

Let me know if the app does not crash after the restart. So now the supported_feature check is done when the first event is fired, so the app will crash if the entity is not yet available when the event is fired, however, it will not make the app terminate (which was the problem).

Amardeep · June 14, 2020, 4:53pm

I just found this app yesterday and I already have it working on my Hue Dimmer and a few Tradfri remotes, amazing!

The only problem I have is that the light always turn on at the lowest brightness, whatever they were previously set to before they were turned off. This only happens with the remotes/dimmer I am using with this app, and not when turning the lights on using the Home Assistant front end.

Has anyone else had this issue? Sorry if I’ve missed someone else reporting this already.

All my bulbs are Hue color bulbs. All bulbs and remotes are connected via deCONZ (Conbee II). Running Home Assistant on a RPI 3b+.

xaviml · June 15, 2020, 6:11am

Hi @Amardeep,

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!