upstatemike Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 24 minutes ago, Bumbershoot said: I noticed a few more homes with similar setups in my area this Halloween, but most homeowners haven't made the investment, yet. Are you using any of the BR30 + (infrared) bulbs, and if so, how much do they help with your cameras? Not yet. My spotlights and floodlights are still just standard LED bulbs. I only used Lifx bulbs in lamp posts, porch fixtures, and outside wall sconces.
lilyoyo1 Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, upstatemike said: Regarding Hue another factor for me is retrofit applications. It is typical in 100+ year old houses to have rooms with no light switches; only sconces and ceiling fixtures with pull chains. Easiest way to add a light switch is stick a Hue switch on the wall and put the cheaper white Hue bulbs in the ceiling, walls, and lamps (figure 5 bulbs per room typically, maybe 10 in a master bedroom or other large room). Even without introducing color effects you burn through the available bridge capacity pretty fast with Hue. I'm talking about general use not situations where it's almost required. When coupled with the Isy, the additional bridge doesn't bother me. If a person is using that many bulbs, the cheapest way to go about it is to get a kit so most likely one would have an extra bridge anyway Edited November 5, 2019 by lilyoyo1
Bumbershoot Posted November 5, 2019 Author Posted November 5, 2019 57 minutes ago, upstatemike said: My spotlights and floodlights are still just standard LED bulbs. Mine as well, but I have two locations where the lights are adjacent to cameras. Now, I have to leave them lit, though at low levels. It would be nice to have no visible light at these locations unless motion is detected by the cameras. I'll probably give this a try later in the month.
larryllix Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Bumbershoot said: I noticed a few more homes with similar setups in my area this Halloween, but most homeowners haven't made the investment, yet. Are you using any of the BR30 + (infrared) bulbs, and if so, how much do they help with your cameras? The first I have ever heard of the iR feature was in a LIFX advert about 1 month ago. Interesting idea! Not much of a security thing though as the kids know iR shows up in any cam sensor. I had some BR-30 Hue bulbs, but my fixtures take BR40 that overheat the bulbs in an insulated ceiling. For those that think LEDs don't get hot, I burnt my hand on an LED bulb two years ago after it started blinking on and off. Face was cool and I removed it, only to find the sides extremely hot froma fixture with no air circulation. Yeah I was standing on a ladder and made the call to not drop and smash it. I have my decks, porches (1/2 house) populated with RGBWW bulbs in potlight fixtures. I am going to do a lot less Christmas lighting this year, outside. The LED lights strings have become the worst reliability of any type of Christmas lighting for me. Green strings seem to last just over ne season. I have fixed sockets repeatedly but the trick is nothing is compatible with other or even their own brands from year to year so they end up being garbage. I have a few strings with taped off ends in order to salvage half the string lengths. My light animator hasn't been bothered wit for a few years now. I am sure it was annoying the neighbourhood but I ISYed it for only select times. With an extension cord end repair from a mouse eating off the receptacle under the snow last year, I am slowly giving up, and don't want to spend the full week of wiring and running cords, using 100-200 tie warps. One time usage plastics? At least these are guaranteed to be turtle-nose proof! Edited November 5, 2019 by larryllix
Bumbershoot Posted November 5, 2019 Author Posted November 5, 2019 15 minutes ago, larryllix said: The first I have ever heard of the iR feature was in a LIFX advert about 1 month ago. Interesting idea! Not much of a security thing though as the kids know iR shows up in any cam sensor. Understood, but the point would be to not have visible light creeping in through the blinds at night unless motion is detected. If I can get one of these in the next day or two, I'll run a test and see how it does. 1
upstatemike Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 1 hour ago, Bumbershoot said: Mine as well, but I have two locations where the lights are adjacent to cameras. Now, I have to leave them lit, though at low levels. It would be nice to have no visible light at these locations unless motion is detected by the cameras. I'll probably give this a try later in the month. I will probably try some as well so I can turn off the built-in IR on my cameras because it attracts spiders like crazy. Just have to prioritize them on a very long list of HA toys that I want to play with.
lilyoyo1 Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 4 minutes ago, upstatemike said: I will probably try some as well so I can turn off the built-in IR on my cameras because it attracts spiders like crazy. Just have to prioritize them on a very long list of HA toys that I want to play with. Do what I do....with Christmas coming up, some of the wife's presents are really my presents. Lol 1
Bumbershoot Posted November 5, 2019 Author Posted November 5, 2019 1 minute ago, lilyoyo1 said: Do what I do....with Christmas coming up, some of the wife's presents are really my presents. Lol Smart! The cameras are there for her peace of mind... 11 minutes ago, upstatemike said: it attracts spiders like crazy ... and she HATES spiders! ?
larryllix Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 Do what I do....with Christmas coming up, some of the wife's presents are really my presents. Lol Slap! She gets peace of mind and... You get a piece of her mind too. Sent using Tapatalk
lilyoyo1 Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 2 minutes ago, larryllix said: Slap! She gets peace of mind and... You get a piece of her mind too. Sent using Tapatalk She does the same so I'm good. As long as it's something she can technically use she doesn't complain
larryllix Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 She does the same so I'm good. As long as it's something she can technically use she doesn't complain I thought it had to be totally nonfunctional and show eons of thinking to make WAF. Sent using Tapatalk
lilyoyo1 Posted November 5, 2019 Posted November 5, 2019 12 minutes ago, larryllix said: I thought it had to be totally nonfunctional and show eons of thinking to make WAF. Sent using Tapatalk Luckily not with mine. She doesn't understand it but she enjoys it 1
Bumbershoot Posted December 1, 2019 Author Posted December 1, 2019 Update to this thread: I purchased a reconditioned LiFX + BR30 Night Vision Enabled bulb to place in an outdoor soffit fixture. It's controlled by an Insteon SwitchLinc dimmer switch. I set the dimmers "On Level" to 100% and the "Ramp Rate" to 0.1 seconds. The purpose of this light is to illuminate an area at the rear of the house that is covered by cameras. The previous LED that was in the fixture needed to be sufficiently bright for the cameras. This caused a fair bit of light leakage around the window dressings in a bedroom. The LiFX light, however, emits infrared when turned to very low light levels (currently, I have the light set to approx. 2% illumination at night), which noticeably helps the cameras, and greatly reduces the light leakage into the bedroom. The light is controlled by the LiFX Polyglot nodeserver. The light turns on to full brightness under certain conditions when motion is detected by the cameras, and the response to motion has so far been rapid and acceptable. The color temperature of this bulb has been set to match the rest of the LED soffit lights, so the exterior lighting all looks uniform. The SwitchLinc dimmer controls this light perfectly, as long as the "On Level" is set to 100%. I haven't tried setting the "Ramp Rate" to anything other than 0.1 seconds. The switch is completely controlled by the ISY, and is almost never physically touched. In any event, this setup works fine.
Recommended Posts