I can't believe how many hours I've spent over the past few years to get one bloody lightbulb to work.
I have a very simple setup. One lightbulb. Two outlets. That's it. The router is a Apple AirPort Extreme. It is extremely reliable. The Yeelight has a static IP address.
I am away from home quite a bit so I need a bulb that will stay connected and responding to automations without having to be power-cycled or reset all the time.
The first bulb I bought was a generic that was hopeless.
Then I bought a Yeelight 1S. It also turned out to be hopeless. It would constantly disconnect and have to be power-cycled to reconnect. I stuck it in a drawer and bought a KooGeek.
The KooGeek was also hopeless. After a power outage it would default to "ON". So, if I'm away from home and there is an outage the bulb would stay on at 100% bright 24/7 until I got home. Crazy. But, I put up with it. On Monday this week the KooGeek started continuously flashing and can't be reset. Into the bin it went.
So, I dug out the old Yeelight 1S. What a mess it is.
I was able to add it to HomeKit and then to the Yeelight iPhone app. I then recalled that I had installed HomeBridge on an RPi. I opened it up and there's the light. I also installed the yeecli and was happy to see that I could turn the light on and off from the command line. (Nothing else worked, just turn [on/off] and toggle.)
And then things started to fall apart. I could turn the bulb ON from HomeBridge. But not off. The cli stopped working. The light was shown as not responding on the YeeLight app. Oddly, it still worked via HomeKit, but not consistently. Sometimes it is shown as not responding.
This morning I'm out for coffee. When I left, the bulb was working with HomeKit. After finishing the newspaper and just to make myself angry I checked the Home app on my iPhone. Sure enough, the Yeelight is shown as not responding.
When I got home I checked to make sure it's connected to the network:
That's a scan from Apple's Network Utility.
The only way to get it back in HomeKit was to unscrew the bulb and then screw it back in again.
But, the cli still doesn't work. It just hangs forever no matter what command you use:
Yes, after waiting fifteen minutes I hit ^C.
Someone suggested the I try a Phillips bulb. But a single bulb costs about 2000 baht and the required hub another 2000. Do I really want to spent US$120 for a lightbulb?
The solution I've come up with is to screw a single ordinary LED bulb into my lamp outlet and use a HomeKit outlet to turn it on and off. And, surprise, surprise, the Koogeek HomeKit outlets seem to be 100% reliable. I've never had one stop responding.
Any better ideas?
I have a very simple setup. One lightbulb. Two outlets. That's it. The router is a Apple AirPort Extreme. It is extremely reliable. The Yeelight has a static IP address.
I am away from home quite a bit so I need a bulb that will stay connected and responding to automations without having to be power-cycled or reset all the time.
The first bulb I bought was a generic that was hopeless.
Then I bought a Yeelight 1S. It also turned out to be hopeless. It would constantly disconnect and have to be power-cycled to reconnect. I stuck it in a drawer and bought a KooGeek.
The KooGeek was also hopeless. After a power outage it would default to "ON". So, if I'm away from home and there is an outage the bulb would stay on at 100% bright 24/7 until I got home. Crazy. But, I put up with it. On Monday this week the KooGeek started continuously flashing and can't be reset. Into the bin it went.
So, I dug out the old Yeelight 1S. What a mess it is.
I was able to add it to HomeKit and then to the Yeelight iPhone app. I then recalled that I had installed HomeBridge on an RPi. I opened it up and there's the light. I also installed the yeecli and was happy to see that I could turn the light on and off from the command line. (Nothing else worked, just turn [on/off] and toggle.)
And then things started to fall apart. I could turn the bulb ON from HomeBridge. But not off. The cli stopped working. The light was shown as not responding on the YeeLight app. Oddly, it still worked via HomeKit, but not consistently. Sometimes it is shown as not responding.
This morning I'm out for coffee. When I left, the bulb was working with HomeKit. After finishing the newspaper and just to make myself angry I checked the Home app on my iPhone. Sure enough, the Yeelight is shown as not responding.
When I got home I checked to make sure it's connected to the network:
Port Scan has started…
Port Scanning host: 192.168.0.127
Open TCP Port: 55443
Port Scan has completed…That's a scan from Apple's Network Utility.
The only way to get it back in HomeKit was to unscrew the bulb and then screw it back in again.
But, the cli still doesn't work. It just hangs forever no matter what command you use:
MrMuscle:~ mnewman$ yee status
Bulb parameters:
^C
Aborted!Yes, after waiting fifteen minutes I hit ^C.
Someone suggested the I try a Phillips bulb. But a single bulb costs about 2000 baht and the required hub another 2000. Do I really want to spent US$120 for a lightbulb?
The solution I've come up with is to screw a single ordinary LED bulb into my lamp outlet and use a HomeKit outlet to turn it on and off. And, surprise, surprise, the Koogeek HomeKit outlets seem to be 100% reliable. I've never had one stop responding.
Any better ideas?
