How to flash Hue bulb a colour?

Configuration
1

Hi,

I’m trying to flash one of my Hue bulbs red. I’m using ‘flash’ as it retains the previous light settings following the flash (I’d like to flash different colours for different events).

Testing in Developer Tools/Service I’ve got this:

light.turn_on

{
  "entity_id": "light.office", "color_name":"red","flash":"short"
}

This flashes the bulb successfully, but it flashes it in whatever colour it was previously set to. Not red.

This turns the bulb on red successfully:

light.turn_on

{
  "entity_id": "light.office", "color_name":"red"
}

But obviously doesn’t flash it.

Am I missing something or can you simply not use ‘flash’ in conjunction with a colour?

If not does anyone have any good examples of how to save state before flashing the bulb and switch it back afterwards? I’ve seen a few threads but they suggest doing things I’ve no experience using (newcomer to HA) - some sample code would be awesome. I’ll be automating things through node-red if that makes a difference.

Thanks

2

Not sure if pure luck here, but could you try to add transition?

{
  "entity_id": "light.office",
"transition":"0",
"color_name": "red",
"flash":"short"
}
3

Sorry - doesn’t help … still flashes white.

4

That’s wierd. It works fine here. Had the same issue as you without the transition, but as soon as I added that it worked fine.

5

Ahh, I see my issue. The lamp was already on. Then it works. If I try from off-state, I have the same issue as you.

6

Hmm, thanks. Maybe I can turn it on, flash it, then turn it off.
That might work depending how quickly it all comes through.

7

Yeah, I was thinking the same. You could test it at least. :slight_smile:

8

Just tested it.

If you do ON > FLASH > OFF then it seems to flash the light perfectly, but then it stays red next time you turn it on. Maybe flash doesn’t preserve the state of the light (I’d read somewhere that it did, but have no proof).

I guess I need to capture the state, flash it, then reset the state.
Would anyone be able to suggest the easiest way to do that (either in HA or NR)?

9

Maybe have a look at this post:

10

That looks perfect! - My searches didn’t throw that up.
I’ll give that a go tonight … thanks

2 Likes
11

Were you able to resolve this @Crs?

12

No, sorry. Never managed to get it working in the end.