Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

Posted on
Mon Feb 22, 2016 10:33 pm
gtreece offline
Posts: 171
Joined: Sep 26, 2011

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

Awesome, I appreciate it!

Posted on
Thu Feb 25, 2016 9:46 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

gtreece wrote:
Awesome, I appreciate it!
Thanks for testing the fix :D

I have now released a new version (the same as you already have) but the download link now contains updated documentation in a PDF: LIFX Controller (V3.2.2) Information

Posted on
Tue Mar 15, 2016 4:11 pm
rekmira offline
Posts: 6
Joined: Mar 15, 2016

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

Hi
I was just wondering whether you had had the time to have a look at the plugging working with the Color 1000 globes? I have 4 and they don't seem to communicate with the plugin at all. Just some details : I am running Indigo 6.1.7 and plugin version 3.3.2. The globes were at firmware version 1.8 and are now at 1.10 as of today (apparently the v2 firmware only applies to the original globes, the newer ones have a different firmware sequence)

When I first start the plugin it creates the LIFX folder in Indigo but that is all that happens. I have enabled debugging and this is what I see:

09:06:28 [POL]: DEBUG POLLING: Now polling at 300.000000 second intervals
09:06:28 [DET]:
09:06:28 [DET]: <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
09:06:28 [SND]: Dequeued Send Message to process: ['STATUSPOLLING']
09:06:28 [SND]: Dequeued Send Message to process [LIFXCOMMAND]: STATUSPOLLING
09:06:28 [SND]: Processing STATUSPOLLING
09:06:28 [SND]: Sending Native Message GET [101], Header = 24000034 000000000000000000000000000000000000 00 00 0000000000000000 65 00 0000, Payload =
09:06:28 [RCV]: Bailing out as message not a LIFXV2 message! FrameLIFXV2 = ''

I am happy to test anything if you like

thanks for all the work

Posted on
Tue Mar 15, 2016 5:43 pm
autolog offline
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Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

rekmira wrote:
I was just wondering whether you had had the time to have a look at the plugging working with the Color 1000 globes? ...

I thought they were were working OK in the latest version. I believe user gtreece is using them successfully but I could be wrong?

Do you have any older bulbs and if so do they work with the plugin?

I think maybe I should get one of these bulbs so that I can test with it.

Posted on
Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:32 pm
rekmira offline
Posts: 6
Joined: Mar 15, 2016

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

Hi
I don't have any of the older ones, but I'll see if I can find one somewhere and let you know

My network setup is something like <LIFX> -wireless->< Wireless Access Point> --cable--> router --cable --> <indigo>. There are a couple of switches in there too

I dont suppose passing through intermediate devices would cause the problem? I can see the globes on the network and can ping their IP addresses from the indigo server

Posted on
Tue Mar 15, 2016 10:38 pm
manwithavan offline
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Posts: 76
Joined: Jan 14, 2014
Location: Melbourne Australia

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

I have a mix of globes from the oldest Kickstarter edition ones to the newest models.
All running through a convoluted network of various switches and routers set up to form a roaming network.
All works fine. :)

Posted on
Tue Mar 15, 2016 11:15 pm
rekmira offline
Posts: 6
Joined: Mar 15, 2016

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

ok thanks

I guess its not the network then

Posted on
Wed Mar 16, 2016 12:28 am
gtreece offline
Posts: 171
Joined: Sep 26, 2011

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

I have one of the original color bulbs, and 3 of the new ones (as well as some white-only models), and they all seem to be working OK following that last plugin update. My network consists of multiple switches and access points.

One thing I do notice, is that using the Lifx app on my iOS device, at the same time I'm working with the lights in Indigo, sometimes create some temporary communication issues with the bulbs.

Posted on
Wed Mar 16, 2016 3:49 am
autolog offline
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Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

rekmira wrote:
ok thanks

I guess its not the network then
OK - It looks like it should work - what we need to workout is why it isn't working for you. :)

My setup is working through multiple wi-fi access points and multiple switches.

Maybe you could provide a few more details of your setup and check the following assumptions:
  • You have just installed the plugin and it detects no lamps?
  • The LIFX lamps can be controlled OK from the LIFX APP?
  • Maybe it is a firewall issue? Can you try disabling it (temporarily) and reload the plugin?

Failing any of the above, you could turn on all debugging options, save the config and then reload the plugin, wait for a few minutes and then PM me the output log and I will take a look at it. :)

Posted on
Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:11 am
rekmira offline
Posts: 6
Joined: Mar 15, 2016

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

The lamps are on one VLAN (192.168.7.x) which is connected to the router and they obtain their IP addresses via DHCP. The indigo server is a virtual Mac hosted on an Xserve along with a number of other VMs including the DHCP server. The Xserve and the VMs are all on the same VLAN as each other (192.168.4.x). The router is the default gateway for each VLAN and passes traffic between them.

<LIFX> --- wireless ---- <Access Point>----cabled-----<Router>-------cabled--------------<XServe>---- host internal network----<Indigo VM>
|<---------VLAN 192.168.7.x------------------------------>|................|<--------------------------------VLAN 192.168.4.x------------------------------------>|

1. The plugin creates the LIFX folder and nothing else seems to happen
2. The lamps are detected and can be controlled by the IOS app
3. There are no internal firewalls between the lamps and the Indigo server except
[*] the indigo server itself - and that is off
[*] the host server (Xserve) - and that is off

I have disabled the plugin, and rebooted the indigo server(you never know your luck :) )
I then enabled the plugin, turned on all the debugging options, saved the settings and reloaded the plugin

I can manually create new devices but they have no link to actual lamps

I will send you the debug log

Just a thought : Does the plugin rely on broadcast traffic of any sort, either from the Indigo server or from the lamps? If it does perhaps the router is blocking it.

thanks for your help

Posted on
Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:12 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

In the interests of supporting my plugin I have just purchased and installed a LIFX Color 1000 lamp and it is working perfectly with the plugin - so that is the good news. :D

Thanks for the debug log. It looks like the plugin is sending out the status message request and getting no reply from the lamps.

Your setup is a a little bit more complicated than most users I suspect. I have all my lamps on the same LAN. The plugin uses socket processing and does use broadcasts so I suspect that there is a communication problem of some sort between your 192.168.7.x and 192.168.4.x VLANs.

Unfortunately I am not that knowledgable in this area so I am not sure what to suggest.
The lamps communicate using UDP and I think the port is 56700 if that helps :?:

Maybe there is some setting that you need to define in your router to allow the lamps to communicate across the VLANs :?:

Posted on
Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:48 pm
rekmira offline
Posts: 6
Joined: Mar 15, 2016

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

Hi - good news :D

After checking the VLAN settings on the router for the 192.168.7.x subnet I was able to add 2 lines which allows the Indigo server - and the plugin - to be able to communicate with the lamps.

For anyone else who might run into the problem, you need to add the following lines to the settings in your router for the VLAN that the lamps are connected to (this is the one that receives the broadcast from the lamps). In my case this is the 192.168.7.x subnet (VLAN 70 in my config)

iphelper-address 192.168.x.y
ip forward-protocol udp 56700

In the first line replace 192.168.x.y with the IP address of your Indigo server

The first line tells the router to forward broadcast traffic on specific ports to the address you specify, and the second line tells the router that you want UDP broadcasts on port 56700 to be sent to the address you have in the first line

There is one caveat, using the iphelper-address statement means that the router will forward broadcasts on a number of ports by default. So unless you add additional lines to block forwarding of the other traffic the router will forward broadcast traffic on these ports:

37 - Time Protocol
49 - TACACS
53 - DNS
67 - BOOTP Client
68 - BOOTP Server
69 - TFTP
137 - NetBIOS
138 - NetBIOS Datagram

If this doesn't matter in your environment, you do not need to do anything, but if you would like to block forwarding of these ports you need to add a line for each protocol, like this:

no ip forward-protocol udp 37
no ip forward-protocol udp 49
etc

Making this change has allowed the plugin to find the lamps and add them to Indigo in the LIFX folder, and I can control them as dimmable lamps (on/off/brightness)

Here is a copy of the section of my router configuration for the 192.168.7.x (VLAN 70) which is where the lamps connect

NOTE : This is for a Cisco 881 router, but settings should hopefully be similar for other devices

interface VLAN70
description Wireless
ip address 192.168.7.1 255.255.255.0
ip helper-address 192.168.4.12
ip forward-protocol udp 56700
ip nat inside

I haven't added the no ip forward-protocol lines yet but will post again if there are any issues with them when I have updated the router

don't forget to change the IP addresses to match your environment

thank you very much for your help

Autolog - Since you bought the Color 1000 lamp for support, is there any way I can make a donation/contribute to the cost?

Posted on
Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:53 pm
rekmira offline
Posts: 6
Joined: Mar 15, 2016

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

There is one more thing and it doesn't seem to be causing a problem but the debug log is showing some 'unknown type' and 'ignoring message' entries

12:48:39 [RCV]: Bailing out as message for 192.168.7.156 with payload type Unknown Type [111] in discard list
12:48:41 [RCV]: TYPEPAYLOAD = 13
12:48:41 [RCV]: Ignoring Message received from 192.168.7.156 [d073d5122c89] with payload type = STATEHOSTINFO [13]
12:48:43 [RCV]: TYPEPAYLOAD = 17
12:48:43 [RCV]: Ignoring Message received from 192.168.7.156 [d073d5122c89] with payload type = STATEWIFIINFO [17]
12:48:45 [RCV]: TYPEPAYLOAD = 406
12:48:45 [RCV]: Ignoring Message received from 192.168.7.156 [d073d5122c89] with payload type = Unknown Type [406]

I don't know whether anyone else with Color 1000 lamps receives these? and it all seems to work anyway

so I just thought I would pass them on for your info

Posted on
Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:02 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

rekmira wrote:
Hi - good news :D

After checking the VLAN settings on the router for the 192.168.7.x subnet I was able to add 2 lines which allows the Indigo server - and the plugin - to be able to communicate with the lamps.

Excellent news - I am glad you have got them working :D

Thanks for providing the detailed explanation on how you resolved the problem.

rekmira wrote:
Autolog - Since you bought the Color 1000 lamp for support, is there any way I can make a donation/contribute to the cost?


That is a very kind offer but I have found a use for the bulb so I couldn't accept anything - I am just glad it is now working for you :)

Posted on
Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:22 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Autolog LIFX Controller Discussion

rekmira wrote:
There is one more thing and it doesn't seem to be causing a problem but the debug log is showing some 'unknown type' and 'ignoring message' entries

[SNIP]
I don't know whether anyone else with Color 1000 lamps receives these? and it all seems to work anyway

so I just thought I would pass them on for your info

The 13 and 17 messages are providing detail about signal strength and number of bytes received and sent - I can probably update to the plugin to save this as state info.
The 111 and 406 messages are undocumented and so not sure what these are. It might be related to communication with the LIFX Cloud?
The LIFX LAN protocol documents say:
Using undocumented message types or field values, sending poorly formed messages or excessive message rates to LIFX devices and/or LIFX services may result in unexpected device or protocol message behavior.

As you surmise, ignoring these messages will have no affect on the operation of the Plugin. :)

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