LIFX control node for Node-RED

With this node you can control LIFX light bulbs using Node-RED. The module is mostly a wrapper for unofficial (but great) lifxjs library.

Firmware Compatibility

This node depends on lifxjs library version 0.2.1, which should be compatible with the latest versions of LIFX firmware (1.5 was tested).

If you use older versions of firmware (probably before 1.2), use version 0.2.x of this package or v0.2 branch.

Installation

You can install latest release from npm. In your Node-RED directory run:

npm install node-red-contrib-lifx

Alternatively you can clone repository into nodes/ directory and install npm dependencies manually:

cd path/to/node-red/
cd nodes
git clone https://github.com/jnv/node-red-contrib-lifx
cd node-red-contrib-lifx
npm install

Once you restart Node-RED server, there should be a lifx node available in the nodes palette under output category.

Usage

On every received message node sends commands to all LIFX light bulbs.

Initial configuration can be set through node's configuration options, including debug mode for underlying lifxjs library, which dumps network communication. Node will send initial configuration to light bulbs each time the graph is deployed.

Parameters

Both initial configuration and message works with the following parameters, which are passed to lifxjs library:

• on (bool) – whether the light should be on, or off; true by default
• hue (uint16) – primary color of light; 0xCC15 by default
• saturation (uint16) – “how much of color” to use, generally 0x0000 for white and 0xFFFF for full color; 0xFFFF by default
• luminance (uint16) – light intensity; 0x8000 by default
• whiteColor (uint16) – color temperature (?); 0x0000 by default
• fadeTime (uint32) – how quickly the new state should be changed, 0 causes an immediate change, maximum is 0xFFFFFFFF; 0x0513 by default

Numbers can be passed as strings too.

Input

Node expects a message with the following structure:

{
    payload: {
        on: true,
        hue: 0xCC15,
        // etc…
    }
}

msg.payload is an object with none, some, or all parameters. Input parameters are stored and merged with previously passed parameters (or defaults) and then sent to light bulbs.

Therefore you can change only one parameter in the payload and the rest will be remembered and resent.

Output

On received message node sends a payload with its current stored state. E.g.:

{
    payload: {
        on: true,
        hue: '0xCC15',
        saturation: '0xFFFF',
        luminance: '0x8000',
        whiteColor: '',
        fadeTime: '0x0513'
    }
}

TODO

• Expose more LIFX functions as standalone nodes (e.g. waveform, relative and absolute dim)
• Allow targeting of individual bulbs instead of the whole mesh (i.e. through configuration node?)
• Connection sharing for multiple nodes (especially on close; there'll probably have to be a global connection singleton)

See also

• lifx-alert (Node-RED) lets you set red, green or orange color.
• hue (Node-RED) for Phillips Hue.