LIFX Binding

This binding integrates the LIFX LED Lights (opens new window). All LIFX lights are directly connected to the WLAN and the binding communicates with them over a UDP protocol.

Supported Things

The following table lists the thing types of the supported LIFX devices:

Device Type	Thing Type
Original 1000	colorlight
Color 650	colorlight
Color 1000	colorlight
Color 1000 BR30	colorlight
LIFX A19	colorlight
LIFX BR30	colorlight
LIFX Candle	colorlight
LIFX Downlight	colorlight
LIFX GU10	colorlight
LIFX Mini Color	colorlight
LIFX+ A19	colorirlight
LIFX+ BR30	colorirlight
LIFX Beam	colormzlight
LIFX Z	colormzlight
LIFX Tile	tilelight
White 800 (Low Voltage)	whitelight
White 800 (High Voltage)	whitelight
White 900 BR30 (Low Voltage)	whitelight
LIFX Candle Warm to White	whitelight
LIFX Filament	whitelight
LIFX Mini Day and Dusk	whitelight
LIFX Mini White	whitelight

The thing type determines the capability of a device and with that the possible ways of interacting with it. The following matrix lists the capabilities (channels) for each type:

Thing Type	On/Off	Brightness	Color	Color Zone	Color Temperature	Color Temperature Zone	Infrared	Tile Effects
colorlight	X		X		X
colorirlight	X		X		X		X
colormzlight	X		X	X	X	X
tilelight	X	X	X		X			X
whitelight	X	X			X

Discovery

The binding is able to auto-discover all lights in a network over the LIFX UDP protocol. Therefore all lights must be turned on.

Note: To get the binding working, all lights must be added to the WLAN network first with the help of the LIFX smart phone applications (opens new window). The binding is NOT able to add or detect lights outside the network.

Thing Configuration

Each light needs a Device ID or Host as a configuration parameter. The device ID is printed as a serial number on the light and can also be found within the native LIFX Android or iOS application. But usually the discovery works quite reliably, so that a manual configuration is not needed.

However, in the thing file, a manual configuration looks e.g. like

Thing lifx:colorlight:living [ deviceId="D073D5A1A1A1", fadetime=200 ]

The fadetime is an optional thing configuration parameter which configures the time to fade to a new color value (in ms). When the fadetime is not configured, the binding uses 300ms as default.

You can optionally also configure a fixed Host or IP address when lights are in a different subnet and are not discovered.

Thing lifx:colorirlight:porch [ host="10.120.130.4", fadetime=0 ]

Channels

All devices support some of the following channels:

Channel Type ID	Item Type	Description	Thing Types
brightness	Dimmer	This channel supports adjusting the brightness value.	whitelight
color	Color	This channel supports full color control with hue, saturation and brightness values.	colorlight, colorirlight, colormzlight, tile
colorzone	Color	This channel supports full zone color control with hue, saturation and brightness values.	colormzlight
effect	String	This channel represents a type of light effect (e.g. for tile light: off, morph, flame)	tilelight
infrared	Dimmer	This channel supports adjusting the infrared value. Note: IR capable lights only activate their infrared LEDs when the brightness drops below a certain level.	colorirlight
signalstrength	Number	This channel represents signal strength with values 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4; 0 being worst strength and 4 being best strength.	colorlight, colorirlight, colormzlight, whitelight, tile
temperature	Dimmer	This channel supports adjusting the color temperature from cold (0%) to warm (100%).	colorlight, colorirlight, colormzlight, whitelight, tile
temperaturezone	Dimmer	This channel supports adjusting the zone color temperature from cold (0%) to warm (100%).	colormzlight

The color and brightness channels have a "Power on brightness" configuration option that is used to determine the brightness when a light is switched on. When it is left empty, the brightness of a light remains unchanged when a light is switched on or off.

The color channels have a "Power on color" configuration option that is used to determine the hue, saturation, brightness levels when a light is switched on. When it is left empty, the color of a light remains unchanged when a light is switched on or off. Configuration options contains 3 comma separated values, where first value is hue (0-360), second saturation (0-100) and third brightness (0-100). If both "Power on brightness" and "Power on color" configuration options are defined, "Power on brightness" option overrides the brightness level defined on the "Power on color" configuration option.

The temperature channels have a "Power on temperature" configuration option that is used to determine the color temperature when a light is switched on. When it is left empty, the color temperature of a light remains unchanged when a light is switched on or off.

MultiZone lights (colormzlight) have serveral channels (e.g. colorzone0, temperaturezone0, etc.) that allow for controlling specific zones of the light. Changing the color and temperature channels will update the states of all zones. The color and temperature channels of MultiZone lights always return the same state as colorzone0, temperaturezone0.

LIFX Tile (tilelight) supports special tile effects: morph and flame. These effects are predefined to their appearance using LIFX application. Each effect has a separate speed configurable.

Full Example

In this example living is a Color 1000 light that has a colorlight thing type which supports color and temperature channels.

The porch light is a LIFX+ BR30 that has a colorirlight thing type which supports color, temperature and infrared channels.

The ceiling light is a LIFX Z with 2 strips (16 zones) that has a colormzlight thing type which supports color, colorzone, temperature and temperaturezone channels.

Finally, kitchen is a White 800 (Low Voltage) light that has a whitelight thing type which supports brightness and temperature channels.

Either create a single Color item linked to the color channel and define Switch, Slider and Colorpicker entries with this item in the sitemap. Or create items for each type (Color, Switch, Dimmer) and define the correspondent entries in the sitemap.

demo.things:

Thing lifx:colorlight:living [ deviceId="D073D5A1A1A1" ]

Thing lifx:colorlight:living2 [ deviceId="D073D5A2A2A2" ] {
    Channels:
        Type color : color [ powerOnBrightness=50 ]
}

Thing lifx:colorirlight:porch [ deviceId="D073D5B2B2B2", host="10.120.130.4", fadetime=0 ] {
    Channels:
        Type color : color [ powerOnBrightness=75 ]
}

Thing lifx:colorirlight:porch [ deviceId="D073D5B2B2B2", host="10.120.130.4", fadetime=0 ] {
    Channels:
        Type temperature : temperature [ powerOnTemperature=20 ]
}

Thing lifx:colorirlight:porch [ deviceId="D073D5B2B2B2", host="10.120.130.4", fadetime=0 ] {
    Channels:
        Type color : color [ powerOnColor="120,100,50" ] // Deep green, 50% brightness
}

Thing lifx:colormzlight:ceiling [ host="10.120.130.5" ]

Thing lifx:whitelight:kitchen [ deviceId="D073D5D4D4D4", fadetime=150 ]

demo.items:

// Living
Color Living_Color { channel="lifx:colorlight:living:color" }
Dimmer Living_Temperature { channel="lifx:colorlight:living:temperature" }

// Living2 (alternative approach)
Color Living2_Color { channel="lifx:colorlight:living2:color" }
Switch Living2_Switch { channel="lifx:colorlight:living2:color" }
Dimmer Living2_Dimmer { channel="lifx:colorlight:living2:color" }
Dimmer Living2_Temperature { channel="lifx:colorlight:living2:temperature" }

// Porch
Color Porch_Color { channel="lifx:colorirlight:porch:color" }
Dimmer Porch_Infrared { channel="lifx:colorirlight:porch:infrared" }
Dimmer Porch_Temperature { channel="lifx:colorirlight:porch:temperature" }
Number Porch_Signal_Strength { channel="lifx:colorirlight:porch:signalstrength" }

// Ceiling
Color Ceiling_Color { channel="lifx:colormzlight:ceiling:color" }
Dimmer Ceiling_Temperature { channel="lifx:colormzlight:ceiling:temperature" }
Color Ceiling_Color_Zone_0 { channel="lifx:colormzlight:ceiling:colorzone0" }
Dimmer Ceiling_Temperature_Zone_0 { channel="lifx:colormzlight:ceiling:temperaturezone0" }
Color Ceiling_Color_Zone_15 { channel="lifx:colormzlight:ceiling:colorzone15" }
Dimmer Ceiling_Temperature_Zone_15 { channel="lifx:colormzlight:ceiling:temperaturezone15" }

// Kitchen
Switch Kitchen_Toggle { channel="lifx:whitelight:kichen:brightness" }
Dimmer Kitchen_Brightness { channel="lifx:whitelight:kitchen:brightness" }
Dimmer Kitchen_Temperature { channel="lifx:whitelight:kitchen:temperature" }

demo.sitemap:

sitemap demo label="Main Menu"
{
    Frame label="Living" {
        Switch item=Living_Color
        Slider item=Living_Color
        Colorpicker item=Living_Color
        Slider item=Living_Temperature
    }

    Frame label="Living2" {
        Switch item=Living2_Toggle
        Slider item=Living2_Dimmer
        Colorpicker item=Living2_Color
        Slider item=Living2_Temperature
    }

    Frame label="Porch" {
        Switch item=Porch_Color
        Slider item=Porch_Color
        Colorpicker item=Porch_Color
        Slider item=Porch_Temperature
        Slider item=Porch_Infrared
        Text item=Porch_Signal_Strength
    }

    Frame label="Ceiling" {
        Switch item=Ceiling_Color
        Slider item=Ceiling_Color
        Colorpicker item=Ceiling_Color
        Slider item=Ceiling_Temperature
        Colorpicker item=Ceiling_Color_Zone_0
        Slider item=Ceiling_Temperature_Zone_0
        Colorpicker item=Ceiling_Color_Zone_15
        Slider item=Ceiling_Temperature_Zone_15
    }

    Frame label="Kitchen" {
        Switch item=Kitchen_Toggle
        Slider item=Kitchen_Brightness
        Slider item=Kitchen_Temperature
    }
}

Caught a mistake or want to contribute to the documentation? Edit this page on GitHub (opens new window)