What does the colorloop effect do by default?

Configuration
1

I have an LED switch that is accessible by Home Assistsant:

  • Home Assistant running in Docker on a Linux machine
  • Home Assistant 2023.9.0 Frontend 20230802.1
  • Zigbee Home Automation via HubZ USB stick
  • GLEDOPTO GL-C-007 zigbee controller
  • LED strip with RGB and White channels

It presents two entities for the RGB and White channels, and these entities can be consumed by Home Assistant with no concerns. The RGB channel exposes the effect:

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If I enable it the LED strip gently cycles through some colours.

What are the default colours selected to cycle through? What is the transition period? How can this be adjusted? Is there any documentation around this in the light integration that I’m missing?

2

Here’s my understanding of how it works:

The screenshot below shows the list of built-in effects available for a Philips Hue Color bulb.

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In other words, the Effect list represents the light’s native capabilities. Philips Hue doesn’t support a native colorloop effect (FWIW, it did in the past) so that effect doesn’t appear in the list.

All this to say that your LED strip supports a native colorloop effect and the effect’s behavior is determined by the light itself (not Home Assistant).

3

Thank you, that answered my question!

Now to research how to create a custom colorloop effect :slight_smile:

4

I would use a repeat - while that sets the color based on a list of colors with a delay of a few seconds between each iteration of repeat.

The while needs a sane condition because you don’t want repeat to loop indefinitely nor without the ability to stop it on demand.

At a bare minimum, the condition should allow looping while the light is on, so the moment you turn off the light, the repeat stops (and the script it’s in finishes gracefully).

5

I used these concepts to implement a flow in Node-Red:

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It uses the following palette nodes:

Step 1 - timerswitch

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This started the flow at 08:00 and ends the flow at 16:00, sending a payload message of either “start” or “stop”.

Step 2 - weekday-gate
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Passes the message through only on weekdays

Step 3 - light-transition

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Over an 8 hour period, transition from Green through Blue to Red (the nice transition way) with 480 steps, which is a transition every 60 seconds

Step 4 - call service

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Turn on the RGB light and pass the transition details:

{
    "brightness_pct": payload.brightness_pct,
    "rgb_color": payload.rgb_color
}

When the transition is complete, turn off the lights

I’ll be testing this over the next few weeks.