Looking for RGB controller that I can integrate

[larryllix]

I have the feeling there's an idea here that I haven't thought of. 

 

I'm beginning to fit out an artists studio with controllable bulbs (LIFX 3rd generation BR30 bulbs are preferred at the moment).  The test bulb I have installed works fine with the ISY, the LIFX node server and with Alexa (as well as with the LIFX app), but I'm curious as to how you're using a SwitchLinc dimmer in this sort of application?

 

Thanks.

I prefer the control of having ISY as a central control.

The Insteon SwitchLinc Dimmer is plug and play with ISY, and can create 6 different commands, natively. With some thought another 4 or 6 commands can be extracted from combinations..eg. Off command while already Off etc..

Just need to get control of each lighting device from ISY using Network resources, preferably without a bridge computer such as RPi.

 

ISY is your friend to put it all together.

[n8huntsman]

preferably without a bridge computer such as RPi

I agree.  I don't like running separate computers.  I could probably make it work with an arduino or particle proton instead but I'd have to weigh the cost of my time.  There is a larger user base for the pi and would take less time to get it functioning on the pi but the arduino has the benefit of not being a computer, just an instant on piece of hardware, no OS to boot (or crash).  I think for the $150 extra dollars Im better off just getting the wifi-104 and R4-5A controller.  

[futuretechguy]

I like the LEDENET DX8 it has a sleek look, however since it uses the DMX512 protocol (the receiver is a DMX512 decoder) you will not be able to control the strip from any other device not sending DMX. My wife needed a wall controller as well, and my solution ended up being an old IPhone 3 (in a wall mount). It is entirely possible to still control the DMX512 receiver (since you already mentioned Arduino, Particle Proton and RB PI) for $10-20 more and a little effort.

 

[larryllix]

I agree.  I don't like running separate computers.  I could probably make it work with an arduino or particle proton instead but I'd have to weigh the cost of my time.  There is a larger user base for the pi and would take less time to get it functioning on the pi but the arduino has the benefit of not being a computer, just an instant on piece of hardware, no OS to boot (or crash).  I think for the $150 extra dollars Im better off just getting the wifi-104 and R4-5A controller.  

In view of the hardware wanted, I guess my path might be bilding a bi-directional bridge with python3 and a RPi. Your time would be great, depending on your skills.

 

I have code written to receive NR sends from ISY in python3 if that would help. Not sure what DMX would look like over Ethernet.

 

http stuff is not real time. I have had trouble with packets passing each other in drivers and routers. SCADA systems have trouble with this as well so event are time stamped so they have a recording of the actual event time but that doesn't help real-time events. DMX must have this worked out somehow or not be Ethernet channel protocol sharable.

[futuretechguy]

Actually the solution is much simpler than you may think, This is because someone has already done the heavy lifting, he even sells the hardware ($18) and provide the open sourced  RGB to DMX software. The solution it to take the http RGB (websocket) request and output DMX to your network using an ESP8266 and a RS485 driver chip (below). You will only need to know the IP and the Universe/Channel of the DMX receiver (LEDENET support may provide it), this can be obtain using Wire-shark if necessary. The ESP8266 is $4 and the RS485 driver chip is ) $0.50  if you want to do it yourself. This in theory means that you can send HTTP commands to the R4-5A controller from a browser or from your HA software.

 

 

 

[larryllix]

Actually the solution is much simpler than you may think, This is because someone has already done the heavy lifting, he even sells the hardware ($18) and provide the open sourced RGB to DMX software. The solution it to take the http RGB (websocket) request and output DMX to your network using an ESP8266 and a RS485 driver chip (below). You will only need to know the IP and the Universe/Channel of the DMX receiver (LEDENET support may provide it), this can be obtain using Wire-shark if necessary. The ESP8266 is $4 and the RS485 driver chip is ) $0.50 if you want to do it yourself. This in theory means that you can send HTTP commands to the R4-5A controller from a browser or from your HA software.

 

 

I don't think this resolves anything for the OP.

How does this DMX controller get converted to http/ REST protocol or DMX to RGBW and back.

 

 

For the rest of the HA stuff, it comes back to... why would one want to convert everything to DMX from any most Etherenet protocols that ISY can put out, and then convert DMX to some other controller protocol driving RGBW LED's?

 

The LEdenet controllers I have (23 units), cost about $11-$12 Plus PS and cables (~ $25 total) and ISY can drive them directly without conversion back and forth to/from DMX.

[n8huntsman]

Actually the solution is much simpler than you may think, This is because someone has already done the heavy lifting, he even sells the hardware ($18) and provide the open sourced  RGB to DMX software. The solution it to take the http RGB (websocket) request and output DMX to your network using an ESP8266 and a RS485 driver chip (below). You will only need to know the IP and the Universe/Channel of the DMX receiver (LEDENET support may provide it), this can be obtain using Wire-shark if necessary. The ESP8266 is $4 and the RS485 driver chip is ) $0.50  if you want to do it yourself. This in theory means that you can send HTTP commands to the R4-5A controller from a browser or from your HA software.

 

 

 

The R4-5A doesnt receive DMX.  It recieves the proprietary 2.4Ghz signal from the wall panel

[futuretechguy]

I was looking at this diagram:

 

[n8huntsman]

Gotcha.  Thats a different controller; not the r4-5a.  If i understand correctly, i think that gizmo is basically a SACN to DMX bridge.  My first concern would be ISY's ability to send SACN packets.  Second would be that I'd essentially have two masters and a slave on the bus.  The bridge would be a master and the wall control panel would be as well.  Not sure they'd play nice together.  There seems to be a little interest in making it work on the pi using FPP.  I believe it can already receive DMX as a slave device and can send PWM via the GPIO's.  I would need to come up with a script to do something with some TCP packets but should be doable.  Here's the thread where Ive begun to float the idea. http://falconchristmas.com/forum/index.php/topic,7303.msg70453.html#msg70453

[futuretechguy]

Yes, I was not sure if it was the R4-5a, but I thought it offered a simple wired option (opposed to hacking the 2.4 GHz with a NRF24l01). The function of the Komby RF1 Serial depends on the installed firmware, the version I have is flashed with the firmware titled E131_DMX_tx_Node, so you are correct it does function as a SACN to DMX bridge as well. The firmware I was referring to is RGB_DMX, which takes the RGB intensity values (0 - 255) and converts them to DMX packets. If you use the "LEDENET DX8" for example, you would connect a network cable to the RJ45 port and connect the first two wires (1 and 2 from the cable) to the same pins the LEDENET DX8 is connected to on the DMX decoder. So in theory, (I need to test), both the LEDENET DX8 and the LEDENET DX8 can send commands to the same DMX decoder. The FPP is a good option as well but I think it requires a little more effort, this is why I went the Komby RF1 Serial route instead, to control my Christmas floods (E1.31 from LOR). I will order a LEDENET DX8 and test the possibilities with the RF1 Serial. 

[n8huntsman]

Gotcha.  The nRF24L01 looks like a cool gadget.  I could possibly figure out the transmission but the parts and time would cost more than just buying the WIFI-104 (which I  did last night)  I learned that the FPP can't yet use software PWM to bit-bang the GPIO's.  Therefore, that course started to appear daunting and I don't have time to invest in it.  I get the new stuff on Sunday (amazon prime)  I'll try to get it connected and see if I can use my pfsense router to do some packet captures to see it looks like.  Hopefully it's easily recognizable.  

[n8huntsman]

Got the wifi-104 today.  Everything hooked up and working as expected including the ipad app and touch panel.  The wifi-104 actually has its own ouputs to control LED's directly but unfortunately, the wall-pad can only control the R4-5a controllers.  For a minute I thought i might be able to return the r4-5a.  Now onto the fun stuff.  Figuring out wireshark and the data being sent.  I discovered that there is an undocumented webserver running on the device.  I was able to log in using admin admin. There is a button to change from chinese to english.  there are some network settings and a firmware update page.  In the netowrk settings it appears the device is using tcp port 8899.  Once I get a little more info I'll report back.

[larryllix]

Got the wifi-104 today.  Everything hooked up and working as expected including the ipad app and touch panel.  The wifi-104 actually has its own ouputs to control LED's directly but unfortunately, the wall-pad can only control the R4-5a controllers.  For a minute I thought i might be able to return the r4-5a.  Now onto the fun stuff.  Figuring out wireshark and the data being sent.  I discovered that there is an undocumented webserver running on the device.  I was able to log in using admin admin. There is a button to change from chinese to english.  there are some network settings and a firmware update page.  In the netowrk settings it appears the device is using tcp port 8899.  Once I get a little more info I'll report back.

Very nice! Good sleuthing!

 

IIRC Port 8899 is the same the MiLight controller hubs use.

 

In the end I think we will find most of these gadgets are made by the same company, or at least the firmware is.

[n8huntsman]

Has anyone checked if the milight runs a webserver?

[larryllix]

Has anyone checked if the milight runs a webserver?

Only enough to setup the SSID and security, IIRC, then it goes away. I think I have run into it some time back but I could not get past the security. I don't like devices that require hubs and use proprietary protocols and have been going away from MiLight and Philips to Ledenet.

[n8huntsman]

Kinda stuck.  I tried packet capture on my pfsense router but dont see any thing going to or from the IP of the wifi-104.  Thinking maybe it couldnt see it because the traffic is routed through my WAP, I SSH'd into the WAP and did a tcpdump.  All I saw there was a few ARP requests.  I'm probably doing something wrong.  I don't know much about packet sniffing.  I've used wireshark a couple times for some very basic stuff like seeing what command the webserver of my autelis pool controller was sending, but that was local traffic so it was more straightforward.

I've tried all the apps I could find; magic home, magic ufo, mi-light (all versions) and even a PC based program, LimitlessLEDv6.  Only magic home and LimitlessLEDv6 were able to see my controller when I scanned.  But neither could do anything control wise.  The others failed to detect anything.

Any pointers to get me started?

This controller can and does turn on white and RGB at the same time by the way! 

[futuretechguy]

It is easier if you target a specific NIC (if you have multiple) and use a filter e.g (ip.addr == 192.168.4.121) for the destination endpoint you are trying to capture. You must engage some activity (http ot tcp for example) between your (WireShark) machine it there is no other activity. You will see several lines with source and destination, selecting each line will expose the text and HEX content in the panes below.

[n8huntsman]

If the traffic is between the ipad and wifi-104, will my windows laptop still be able to pick it up? Is it able to see traffic that is not destined for it?

[futuretechguy]

Yes, it the devices are on the same network (subnet), you should be able to see the activity. I can see the initial connection and cross-talk details when my phone (or my Home Automation PC) connects to my RGB controllers. 

[n8huntsman]

I don't think wireshark will work for this purpose on windows at least.  Something about winpcap and enabling monitor mode. All the traffic Im seeing in wireshark is from or to my laptop.  Either way, I think my wap is capable because when I get the tcpdump from my WAP, I do at least see events associated with the app.  If I let the app sit idle, I get no traffic.  As soon as I change a color, I get an ARP request and response as follows.  Subsequent color changes dont give any additional packets.  I have to let it sit idle for a while before it will at least generate another ARP request.

...212 is the ipad and ...154 is the wifi-104.

 

BZ.v3.7.29# tcpdump -n host 192.168.1.212 -vvv -XX

tcpdump: WARNING: eth0: no IPv4 address assigned

tcpdump: listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes

12:37:10.313911 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 192.168.1.154 tell 192.168.1.212, length 28

        0x0000:  ffff ffff ffff 74e1 b604 710b 0806 0001  ......t...q.....

        0x0010:  0800 0604 0001 74e1 b604 710b c0a8 01d4  ......t...q.....

        0x0020:  0000 0000 0000 c0a8 019a                 ..........

12:37:17.930716 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 192.168.1.1 tell 192.168.1.212, length 28

        0x0000:  689e 198b f57c 74e1 b604 710b 0806 0001  h....|t...q.....

        0x0010:  0800 0604 0001 74e1 b604 710b c0a8 01d4  ......t...q.....

        0x0020:  0000 0000 0000 c0a8 0101                 ..........

12:37:17.930909 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Reply 192.168.1.1 is-at 68:9e:19:8b:f5:7c, length 46

        0x0000:  74e1 b604 710b 689e 198b f57c 0806 0001  t...q.h....|....

        0x0010:  0800 0604 0002 689e 198b f57c c0a8 0101  ......h....|....

        0x0020:  74e1 b604 710b c0a8 01d4 0000 0000 0000  t...q...........

        0x0030:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000            ............

^C

3 packets captured

3 packets received by filter

0 packets dropped by kernel

[futuretechguy]

I ran the installation for WireShark, it (installed Winpcap) and configured what was necessary, when the installation completed, I click the "Capture options" selected a NIC and click "Start". I am running Windows10 on a desktop.

 

[mwester]

Yes, it the devices are on the same network (subnet), you should be able to see the activity. I can see the initial connection and cross-talk details when my phone (or my Home Automation PC) connects to my RGB controllers. 

 

Not unless you use a network *hub* or have a managed switch that you've set up to duplicate traffic to the monitoring port.

 

The issue is that all modern network devices are "switches" at heart, which means that aside from broadcast traffic, as soon as the switch learns which devices are on which ports (based on ethernet MAC addresses), it directs traffic to only the target port.  The result is that wireshark will only see broadcast packets, and traffic to/from the device on which it is running.  As for wifi -- slightly better, but the hidden transmitter problem can also make a full capture difficult.

[futuretechguy]

Gotcha, My home network is a little complex; I have several 24 ports unmanaged switches, a Cisco router and several Wireless access points, there are over a hundred wireless/wired sensors/clients and a few servers on multiple subnets. I have always  manage my network from my desktop client with software that alerts me of any nefarious activity on the network.