Smart Light Bulb - how to configure it to be always on, no toggle button of control from toggle

Question

Hopefully a simple question :) I need to have some smart light bulbs to be always on when I press the ON button on a smart light switch. I also need the light bulb to remember its last brightness, temperature, color, etc. And the third requirement is NOT to have an ON/OFF toggle switch, but...

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

That's a very strange requirement. I don't think it's supported out of the box. Why do you want to hide the toggle button of the bulb? Maybe I could add a flag for this, this would not be hard, but it would require changing code in few places (on/off display, commands, etc), and I need to know first what is the use case for that, there must be some motivation for us to support it. What are the chances that someone else will need this feature? Also... This can be very easily if you use manual YAML integration instead of the Home Assistant Discovery.

MnM1 · Answer

For me, there is a use case for this - and maybe there will be more in the future from other people too.

As you can see from my OP, I have smart lights and smart switches.
The smart switches are Zigbee, so no OBK controls on these devices.

While there are multiple reasons, the main reason is to keep the family happy. They are used to walking into a room and telling Alexa to turn the lights on or off.

With smart switches and smart lights, one cannot toggle the smart lights off as the smart switch expects load/resistance on the electric wire (I don't have/use neutral wires).

I already had some issues where I have dimmed the smart light to the lowest possible value, then the switch turned off. When I tried to turn the light on (from the switch), nothing happened. The light acts like it's dead - no Wi-Fi, no AP rescue mode (I tried many times to get it into rescue mode but no luck).
I know the light is not actually dead (it has been used only for about 2 months) and I have many other lights that were bought at the same time and they work fine. Other family members managed to do the same thing by asking Alexa to turn off the light that was dimmed by about 30%. Alexa turned off the light and the switch turned off. Lights never came back to life.

I managed to rescue a couple of dead lights (by turning off/on a few times all the buttons from a 4-way configuration - 3 buttons controlling one light). 2 lights eventually came back with all the settings that they had. But I still have a couple that are not coming back. Have moved the :dead: lights in the same place as the rescued lights and tried again. But nothing happened.

So my request will sort out the above issue and keep my lights alive.

Another issue is that the family is used to turning on the lights by saying "Alexa, turn on lights" when they walk into a room.
As lights are assigned to rooms, Alexa knows which lights to turn on. This can't work anymore with the smart switches, if I want the smart switch to control the on/off for lights.
While there is an option to add a switch to a light group in HA and have the switch turn on the light/s, it might create a similar condition like the one above when the lights are turned off. If the command issued to Alexa is to turn off the lights and the lights respond first, then it will create the exact above scenario all over again.
If the switch responds first, then it should be OK. But there is no way to control which device responds first.

So for me, the best option is to have the switch in control and turn off/on the lights. It will eliminate a lot of issues.

Hope all this makes sense.

You have mentioned that through YAML integration, I can have lights in HA without the option to turn them off. Would you have an example of such YAML that I can test with?

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

Ok, so we can try to start with this YAML and later I will add necessary changes, if they are required.

I think the basic yaml is here:
https://www.elektroda.com/rtvforum/topic3880540.html
I think the basic YAML is also generated on Home Assistant page in obk.
but HA will not accept it, you will have to convert it to new format:

MnM1 · Answer

OK - I will do this a bit later on (at work now).Thank you for working with me on this.

MnM1 · Answer

OK - I have added a new test downlight to HA via mqtt template as opposed to auto discovery. Please note that I have many other downlights integrated in HA via the auto discovery method.
I can see it in HA - and it has the ON/OFF toggle still there (just like all the other downlights added with auto discovery).

What should be the next step?

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

What is your current YAML? Let's try remove the state topic so it is always on. I am not sure how will HA react in this scenario.

MnM1 · Answer

This the code I am using:

mqtt:
  light:
    - unique_id: "DownLight-80_light"
      name: "Downlight-80"
      rgb_command_template: "{{ '#%02x%02x%02x0000' | format(red, green, blue)}}"
      rgb_value_template: "{{ value[0:2]|int(base=16) }},{{ value[2:4]|int(base=16) }},{{ value[4:6]|int(base=16) }}"
      rgb_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_basecolor_rgb/get"
      rgb_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_basecolor_rgb"
      command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_enableAll"
      state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_enableAll/get"
      availability_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/connected"
      payload_on: "1"
      payload_off: "0"
      brightness_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_dimmer"
      brightness_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_dimmer/get"
      brightness_scale: 100
      color_temp_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_temperature"
      color_temp_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_temperature/get"

So this is the line you want me to remove:

state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_enableAll/get"

Anything else I should remove?

How about the light config in OBK? Anything I should do there before I make changes in the YAML?

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

I would suggest removing everything with "led_enableAll" in the MQTT topic. Then save, reboot HA and check if it's still possible to turn it off.

Nothing to do on OpenBeken, well, maybe except adding something like:


led_enableAll 1

to short startup command or autoexec.bat

As I said, I didn't check it on my side, so we're experimenting together. Try what I said and we'll see how it goes.

MnM1 · Answer

I understand

Will do the suggested steps now. Will let you know shortly

Added after 8 [minutes]:

OK so I commented out like below

mqtt:
  light:
    - unique_id: "DownLight-80_light"
      name: "Downlight-80"
      rgb_command_template: "{{ '#%02x%02x%02x0000' | format(red, green, blue)}}"
      rgb_value_template: "{{ value[0:2]|int(base=16) }},{{ value[2:4]|int(base=16) }},{{ value[4:6]|int(base=16) }}"
      rgb_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_basecolor_rgb/get"
      rgb_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_basecolor_rgb"
      #command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_enableAll"
      #state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_enableAll/get"
      availability_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/connected"
      payload_on: "1"
      payload_off: "0"
      brightness_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_dimmer"
      brightness_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_dimmer/get"
      brightness_scale: 100
      color_temp_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_temperature"
      color_temp_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_temperature/get"

I think that's all I need to do?

However as soon as I comment out command_topic I get an error:

And of course the configuration is invalid message in HA's Check and Restart page

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

Oh no, it looks like that the Home Assistant guys are forcing us to have command topics for every light! This is not good.

Your use case is so unique that they didn't expect nobody to try that...

Well, the docs confirm:
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/light.mqtt/

Maybe we can try to do the work around.

So:
- keep state_topic set like it always was
- set "command_topic" to something like "this/topic/does/not/exist" etc etc so it goes into the ether... so light never receives the commands for ON or OFF...

MnM1 · Answer

One question - should the light be configured to connect to mqtt? in the Config>>Configure MQTT page?

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

Of course, otherwise there will be no communication at all.

MnM1 · Answer

OK the new YAML is like this now:

mqtt:
  light:
    - unique_id: "DownLight-80_light"
      name: "Downlight-80"
      rgb_command_template: "{{ '#%02x%02x%02x0000' | format(red, green, blue)}}"
      rgb_value_template: "{{ value[0:2]|int(base=16) }},{{ value[2:4]|int(base=16) }},{{ value[4:6]|int(base=16) }}"
      rgb_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_basecolor_rgb/get"
      rgb_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_basecolor_rgb"
      command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/this/command/topic/is_not_Used"
      state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_enableAll/get"
      availability_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/connected"
      payload_on: "1"
      payload_off: "0"
      brightness_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_dimmer"
      brightness_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_dimmer/get"
      brightness_scale: 100
      color_temp_command_topic: "cmnd/Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_temperature"
      color_temp_state_topic: "Home/DownLights/Spare/Downlight80/led_temperature/get"

Rebooted HA and the light is there. Turn it on/off does nothing. I can toggle it ON or OFF from the OBK device web page.
All the other options seem to work OK in HA - brightness, rgb, temperature

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

So maybe now we can script OBK page to... to automatically turn it on once it's turned off?

That could be done with change handler.

Something like:


When Users Turns Light Off -> Turn It On

MnM1 · Answer

So what you mean is to allow users to turn it off and then OBK page will turn it on actually?
Will there be small delay between the off and on? Cause that will freak out the smart switches.

If there is a way to have the light on all the time in OBK that will be best. As one of the pre-rqs (as far I can tell from my use cases) is for OBK to always have the light ON - so when a switch turns it ON light will always be ON without user intervention. But is also good to remember all of the last setting (rbg, temp, dim values).

Added after 4 [minutes]:

Thinking about it now - if the toggle is on the OBK page can can only be used from there that is not a bad thing. Switches and bulb wont be able to use it via Alexa or HA so it OK.
Just need a way to figure the always on option.

Added after 2 [minutes]:

Did a quick test - changed to red in HA and then rebooted the light from OBK page.
After it started the light was back to white. So is not remembering rgb, dim, temp.[/line]

Actually disregard the above - still testing.

Added after 20 [minutes]:

I have enabled Flags 10, 12 and 37.
Last values for rgb, temp, dim are remembered after a cold start (to simulate what a smart switch will - it will just cut the power the light).
The device turns on after a cold boot but I suspect that is because flag 12 enables that.

Should I set a startup value of 1 in Start Values - I think that is what will always have the light on after a cold boot regardless of the last state?

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

I don't think start StartValue will work for the light. It's better to execute led_enableAll from autoexec.bat or short startup command:

p.kaczmarek2 wrote:
Nothing to do on OpenBeken, well, maybe except adding something like:
Code: text Expand Select all Copy to clipboard
led_enableAll 1
to short startup command or autoexec.bat

If we enable smooth transitions on light, and set change handler to the turning light off to turn it on, then the blink will not be visible.

Futhermore, as you said, in most cases it won't turn off anyway, because it's already blocked at HA level.

MnM1 · Answer

OK, I already had led_enableAll 1 in the startup command - so now I know why the light comes back on after a reboot/power cut.

Still struggling to understand why you want to have "the turning light off to turn it on" - is this so one can bring the light value in HA to an off position (without the light being actually off?) Just want to understand the rationale behind that because the way the device is configured right now seems to be the correct way to work for my use case. Wondering what I am not seeing by using the turning light off to turn it on option.

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

No, it's just a precaution for a situation where user accesses OBK WWW panel directly and turns off light there. It's just to be sure.

MnM1 · Answer

Aha, got it. Yes, it makes sense now :)Now the next question - the changes that we worked on for the device in HA - the YAML config for it - is there an option that you can build in OBK HA Auto Discovery to set up a zombie command topic? Will be much better that way so one can use HA auto discovery rather than manually add YAML config in HA. Or OBK auto discovery doesn't work that way?

p.kaczmarek2 · Answer

The feature you are asking about is the HA Discovery customization. This is something that is planned for months already, but I haven't had time to look into it yet.

The basic idea would be to display the HA Discovery Yaml before publishing it to MQTT. This could be done most likely trough our Web App.

Usage would be the following: first, you go to the Web App, to the new HA Discovery tab, where you can press button "Generate Discovery". Then you get the Discovery yaml in the text field, where you can review it and make the changes as you wish. Finally, down below you'd have a "Send modified Discovery" button that would ultimately publish changed device description to HA.

I am hoping to add this feature in the following weeks. Currently I also have a DS18B20 request from several users, I have your Alexa request and I was also planning to test SPI individually-addressable LEDs on my side, namely the WS2812Bs which I mentioned in the SM16703 thread. We'll see how it goes.

Please stay around and check Elektroda every now and then, I'll post an update on the forum once the HA custom discovery is done.

Anyway, except that discovery thing, what else is left to do for your "no toggle" setup?

I am creating multiplatform open source firmware (Tasmota replacement), right now supporting BK7231T, BK7231N, XR809, BL602, W800, W600, LN882H and soon supporting RTL and W701:
https://github.com/openshwprojects/OpenBK7231T
If you like my work, support me at: https://paypal.me/openshwprojects

Helpful post? Buy me a coffee.

MnM1 · Answer

Ok, no worries - I am here every day to check new posts and learn about devices and what people are doing, so I will also check every now and then to see when the HA Discovery Update field is ready for testing.

The other thing was your suggestion for "When Users Turn Light Off -> Turn It On."

Also, after further testing, I have noticed the following - sometimes (not always) when I turn on the smart light from the smart switch, the light does not come on at all (this happens with OBK and with the original firmware). Most of the time, the smart light does show up in AP Rescue Mode on the Wi-Fi.

I am not sure why this is happening - my guess is that the smart switch sends pulses of electricity to turn on a light. And this puts a smart light in AP Rescue Mode.

I was thinking that it would be good to have an option (if possible) in the GUI for a user to specify after how many on/off/on cycles to put a device in AP Rescue Mode. I think right now it is hard-coded at 3 or 5, and whatever the smart switch is doing is triggering that limit when a smart light is turned on. What do you think?

Smart Light Bulb - how to configure it to be always on, no toggle button of control from toggle

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