'WIFI' controlled LED bulbs

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › 'WIFI' controlled LED bulbs - Limitless LED

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#1086596 10-Jul-2014 18:54

There is an interesting article about how an aussie brand of wifi lights can expose your home network:
https://www.powerretail.com.au/multichannel/lifx-exposed-wifi-password/

I suppose the more stuff that is wifi enabled the greater the potential risks of hacking.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

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Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

LimitlessLED

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Master Geek

#1086892 11-Jul-2014 07:59

LimitlessLED does not bounce wifi passwords between bulbs.. so is not effected by the same security flaw as LIFX bulbs. only the LimitlessLED wifi bridge securely stores and holds the wifi password, and that can not be accessed by passer bys in the street.

Cheers,
Hamish.

robjg63

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#1086942 11-Jul-2014 09:32

I am actually quite keen to replace some regular downlights with a set of these.
I have an open dining kitchen area that has 8 downlights (regular 75w incandescents). So thats 600w of lighting for a not terribly large area!
4 of the lights are on a dimmer (we never use the dimmer to be honest), and the other 4 are just on a plain switch.
Would the dimmer on the light switch have to be removed - Or would they be ok with the dimmer just left on full and do any dimming via the wifi?

Also - your website shows US dollars - where are the items shipped from and is freight included in the prices? - I couldnt see mention of freight costs.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

rscole86

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#1086944 11-Jul-2014 09:38

Freight was USD 7.50when I bought mine, and they were shipped from Tauranga.

Leave the dimmer in place, and just do not use it.

robjg63

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#1086949 11-Jul-2014 09:41

rscole86: Freight was USD 7.50when I bought mine, and they were shipped from Tauranga.

Leave the dimmer in place, and just do not use it.

Thanks - good to know.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

robjg63

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#1087033 11-Jul-2014 12:05

As I have the dual white bulbs in mind, I was wondering.....
(based on the 'if you dont ask you wont find out' policy)

The usual suggestions are that cool white is best for daytime and the warmer white shade is more appealing after dark.

I can see a few software apps floating around - I suppose I was thinking - are there any that already 'know' about local sunrise/sunset times that could automatically change the colour temperature to match sunrise/sunset?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Klathman

291 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1087047 11-Jul-2014 12:27

The usual suggestions are that cool white is best for daytime and the warmer white shade is more appealing after dark.

I find it depends on what the area is for as well. I set the office, kitchen and hallway to cool white all of the time, but the lounge and sitting room is a warm white. We do turn the lounge up some of the time which is normally during the day if lights are required but don't find that the other area are ever turned from cool white to warm white.

richms

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#1087081 11-Jul-2014 13:02

robjg63: As I have the dual white bulbs in mind, I was wondering.....
(based on the 'if you dont ask you wont find out' policy)

The usual suggestions are that cool white is best for daytime and the warmer white shade is more appealing after dark.

I can see a few software apps floating around - I suppose I was thinking - are there any that already 'know' about local sunrise/sunset times that could automatically change the colour temperature to match sunrise/sunset?

You can't change the brightness or colour of the limitless leds unless they are on so things like that can't really be done.

Richard rich.ms

tchart

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#1087088 11-Jul-2014 13:14

I find it depends on what the area is for as well.

Me too. Warmish white for lounge/living area. Cool for outside/garage.

LimitlessLED

216 posts

Master Geek

#1087472 11-Jul-2014 20:06

richms: change the colour of the limitless leds unless they are ON

within 5milliseconds you can immediately set the brightness or color after turning them ON is fine in most cases...

you could have a Night Time scene button that DIMs it just before you go to bed,then switches it OFF, and then at the start of the day it would start from Dim and then go brighter...

LimitlessLED

216 posts

Master Geek

#1087475 11-Jul-2014 20:11

robjg63: I couldnt see mention of freight costs.

Hi Rob, once you select the country you are from, that's when the shopping cart calculates the freight cost, because it is based on table weight shipping. the more weight the cheaper it gets per gram. we only charge it out at cost from New Zealand Parcel Post/EMS/DHL.

Cheers
Hamish.

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1087566 11-Jul-2014 23:11

Richms:If it was wired then there would be no issues like that.
Has anyone tried pulling the wireless module out of it, and instead feeding it from a raspberry pi or other platform that can host interesting things directly?

Since my earlier posts, I've had a script pinging my V4 wifi bridge every minute for the last couple of days and have found that my bridge alternates between being reachable or unreachable every few hours. I am now truly sick of this thing's flaky wifi performance so am going to use ethernet instead.

So far, I've identified a signal line inside my old Limitless bridge (V2) between what I suspect is a micro that talks to the wifi module, and another micro that drives the RF transmitter circuit (both have had their part numbers polished off). Although my comms knowledge is a bit too rusty to figure out what encoding it uses, I can see just from looking at the waveform that there are 2 bytes plus a stop bit. The baud rate is 496. After firing a few codes through, I was able to easily identify that the first byte is the command code and the second is zero for the old white bulbs and the colour number for the old RGB bulbs. They are big endian/MSB first.

I then cut the trace and connected it to an Arduino and wrote a little bit-bashing function and now have the hallway light flashing on and off with the 0x35 and 0x39 codes.

When time allows, I plan to look into the commands used by the V4 bridge and wrap the bit bashing function with some ethernet handling logic. I don't have any spare Arduino ethernet shields though, so will have to wait for deal extreme to ship me one before I do much more. Also, I need to find out if the Arduino ethernet library can handle UDP packets, as this might allow the iPhone/Adroid apps to work without an intermediate computer.

richms

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#1087576 12-Jul-2014 00:04

PM me your address and I will ship you one of my shields and a few things to play with since I will not have any time to do anything with them in the near future.

Richard rich.ms

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1087620 12-Jul-2014 09:23

Wow, thanks richms.

My flatmate has just lent me an ethermega, so I should be able to do some more this weekend, depending on what else I need to get done.

RmACK

196 posts

Master Geek

#1087665 12-Jul-2014 12:14

I've got the ethermega receiving UDP packets from the old Limitless app and driving the white lights with the V2 bridge's RF transmitter. New RGBW bulb codes don't work, will probably have to use transmitter from V4 bridge for this.

Have to do other things now but will continue this project when time allows.

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