Hi everyone! I’m super new to this. After finally getting home assistant set up on my rpi3, and getting my sengled bulbs connected to HA I’m hoping someone can help me with getting some automation set up.
I figured out how, using the newbie friendly HTML interface, to activate my lights at a specific time.
So it’s obviously super simple. But it’s super abrupt! It goes off like a bit of lightning and isn’t helping me wake up with any amount of grace… so what I’d like to do is have it fade in 15 or so minutes before my wake up time (5:30am) and then turn off immediately around 6:30 after I’ve left
These are Sengled Element classic bulbs, not colored, and I can dim them individually through the light panel.
I have 4 sengled bulbs connected to HA using Aeotec z-wave/zigbee stick. Good, solid response for on and off. Still trying to figure out how to add dimming capability.
Did I send the wrong link? Sorry, here’s the correct one. The first one I bought 2 years ago and then realized they have a combo (z-wave & zigbee). I purchased the 2nd one after.
I actually have both of those, also. I use the Aeotec for zwave and bought that one first then I bought the Nortek later for the Sengled bulbs. At the time I didn’t know which way I was going to go - zwave or zigbeee (and still don’t since I still use both).
So sengled bulbs don’t support fade in/out or transitions.
They are great simple bulbs. I have many and never have any connection issues and they’re inexpensive. BUT they don’t have any special features or effects that I have found. It’s a real bummer.
The sylvania+ bulbs fade on and off automatically. Also the gledopto devices as well (I only have an led strip but I assume they’re bulbs would work the same)
My Sengleds all support fading in/out over time using the transition property. Using the below syntax, you can actually get any bulb to fade in or out.
Wow I wonder if there was a firmware update. I’ll have to check this out with mine… When I first switched to home assistant last year, they didn’t support transitions.
If they aren’t linked to the sengled hub, is there a way to get firmware updates installed?
I’ve never done any firmware updates on mine and I’ve been using the “transition” property for well over a year now. I’ve heard people state that the SmartThings hub can do Sengled firmware updates as well, but I’ve never had a need for any updates on mine. AFAIK, the transition property just sends commands to the bulbs to dim/raise over a specified time period. The longest I’ve tested with was 5 minutes (300 seconds) and that was dimming from 50% brightness to 0.
I tested it today and it does work but the transition on mine is pretty choppy. It happens in little bursts every second or so. Not nearly as smooth as the hue bulbs and the sylvania+ bulbs.
One thing i noticed also is that anything below 20% or so, just jumps straight to off or up to 20%.
Example: transition from 0-25% over 3 seconds pretty much jumps straight to 25% with little to no transition. Doesn’t really bother me as I don’t use the transition much but I figure someone may be interested in it if they are thinking about these bulbs.
Yeah, when using brightness_pct, they are pretty choppy, but quick transitions work pretty well for my bulbs. I’ve also switched all mine from brightness_pct: to just brightness: and it seems to help the transition speed.
Oh cool… I’ll have to look into that… Many of mine are setup as circadian lights so they change every half hour or so in the mornings and evenings… Most times its barely noticeable. But from 6p to 10p, some of the jumps are a little bigger so it would be nice to ease that transition… Pun definitely intended.
Have you tried just a straight service call from the developer tools menu? Just to see…
Otherwise your action data looks fine to me… You could also try doing just brightness (0-255) instead of brightness_pct (0-100).
I don’t have any reason to believe these suggestions would work but it’s worth a try
So I’ve found that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The commands are the same, but it’s just not consistent. Even from the dev tools page, sometimes yes sometimes no.
I found on another page that if you do this in 2 steps it works reliably.
Step 1. Turn the bulb on to brightness of 1
Step 2. Turn the bulb on again to your desired brightness with a transition so that it goes from 1 to x instead of off to x.
I read that there is an issue with the order of the commands that are sent. The transition is sent before the on command, and if the bulb is off it just kind of ignores it.