Support for Virtual Dimmer Group

Posted on
Tue Apr 27, 2021 8:54 am
rbdubz3 offline
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Location: San Diego, CA

Support for Virtual Dimmer Group

Anyone aware if there is a plugin or Indigo support for a Virtual 'Group' of Lights? Ideally with enhanced support for the color temp / RGB support in the Indigo Dimmer device type?

I'd like to be able to interact with a group of these lights for creating customized scenes.. A couple of examples:
* set all dimmer types in the group to the same color temp / RGB / brightness / etc
* set dimmer types in the group to different color temp / RGB / brightness / etc - basically be able to iterate over the collection and manipulate these independently

I automate because I am lazy :D - My Plugins: https://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=309

Posted on
Tue Apr 27, 2021 9:35 pm
whmoorejr offline
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Location: Houston, TX

Re: Support for Virtual Dimmer Group

rbdubz3 wrote:
Anyone aware if there is a plugin or Indigo support for a Virtual 'Group' of Lights? Ideally with enhanced support for the color temp / RGB support in the Indigo Dimmer device type?

I'd like to be able to interact with a group of these lights for creating customized scenes.. A couple of examples:
* set all dimmer types in the group to the same color temp / RGB / brightness / etc
* set dimmer types in the group to different color temp / RGB / brightness / etc - basically be able to iterate over the collection and manipulate these independently

Brainstorming....

For something that customized... I think a virtual device with actions would be the solution. So a virtual device "Party Mode" would turn on an action that would set your RGB lights to bright colors, turn on the disco ball, etc." You can then tweak the actual physical devices in the actions that are called by the virtual device. I do something similar for Christmas and virtual "Christmas" devices. "All Christmas", "Outside Christmas", "Inside Christmas". Every year I have different physical devices associated with these, but the virtual devices stay the same and therefore the control pages and the button on my wife's phone stays the same. I'm in the background updated which plugin devices and RGB devices.

If you are talking about having a singular virtual device that would control all the sub devices attached for full RGB control.... that would be pretty bad-ass. ("Blue" and all the RGB devices in that group turn "Blue") There are a few RGB plugins... none of them are specific to the RGB strands/bulbs I have https://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/?keywords=RGB... so I haven't tried. So it may depend on what devices you have and if one of those plugins will work for you.

Another thought.... Pick one device as the "Master" or buy a cheep-o RGB device to be the "Master". Then use triggers and such to then watch that RGB device for changes and to mirror those changes with the other devices in the "group". Not a "Virtual" device group in the traditional sense, but something like that may work until a formal plugin comes along.

Keep posting on your progress... I'm really curious now to see where this goes.

Bill
My Plugin: My People

Posted on
Wed Apr 28, 2021 12:06 am
rbdubz3 offline
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Location: San Diego, CA

Re: Support for Virtual Dimmer Group

@whmoorejr thanks for the ideas

I've extracted the Scenes functionality from another plugin that allows users to create custom light scenes - see https://github.com/rbdubz3/sylvania-lig ... iki/scenes . It executes against the IndigoDimmer type - this allows it to be used with other plugins such as Hue. These other plugins expose a Group of lights as a single IndigoDimmer, and manipulate all bulbs in the group to be the same color/temp/brightness/etc. This doesn't allow something such as a 'Party Mode' - in which each bulb can be a different color

I was thinking of a new device type - call it DimmerGroupType - it'd support the same thing as the current IndigoDimmerType PLUS allow manipulation of each bulb individually. I'm sure there are many compatibility items and gotchas to pull this off.

For now I'll likely submit my new LightScenes plugin minus the 'Rotate Color/Temp' scene type, as this one requires each bulb to potentially be a different color/temp/brightness/etc. The 'Circadian' and 'Match Color/Temp' scene types work fine though, since they operate against the current IndigoDimmerType.

I automate because I am lazy :D - My Plugins: https://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=309

Posted on
Wed Apr 28, 2021 10:21 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Support for Virtual Dimmer Group

Seems like a great idea, right?

However, when you actually start implementing it, you quickly determine that it's a fairly complicated/complex undertaking to do it right, and that's leaving aside the color settings (adding those makes it almost exponentially more complex). So the balance between the time it takes to implement it right vs the demand (particularly given the various workarounds) becomes very one-sided, and not in the direction of decent ROI. This is the primary reason why it's not currently implemented in the Virtual Devices interface.

We do have a feature request for it, and if it ever floats to the top of the priority list we'll definitely look at it.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:07 am
rbdubz3 offline
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Re: Support for Virtual Dimmer Group

@jay - totally agree that it is a complex problem to solve. Many Smart Bulb vendors have their own proprietary hubs as we know that focus on these problems. Attempting it in Indigo is very challenging, esp. if trying to make it work well cross-vendor, etc

I may take a shot at it one of these days.. At least a basic version that works for my own selfish needs :wink:

I automate because I am lazy :D - My Plugins: https://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=309

Posted on
Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:21 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Support for Virtual Dimmer Group

rbdubz3 wrote:
I may take a shot at it one of these days.. At least a basic version that works for my own selfish needs :wink:


It's definitely doable, just complex and time consuming. I would definitely welcome a 3rd party solution!

Jay (Indigo Support)
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