Yeelight bulb

O got a bayonet to screw adapter today from my local builders /electric suppliers it was 80pence. So not that big of a deal unless your the queen.

It works with Google assistant , I’ve just written a ‘recipe’ but it didn’t work !  So I’m now looking at YouTube videos on how Google assistant works with ifttt. Something to do with putting a dollar sign in the correct place. I’m sure I’ll get there in a min.

Im living in the future. “Ok Google , turn the attic lights  on/off” , “the attic lights are now on/off Stephen”

It was very simple to do. I’ve been at ifttt for a while, ATM I have an applet that reports me the weather at 7am each morning . But with this one of selected the wrong type of if, with out noticing so couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t do what I wanted. It was waiting for a variable.

Anyhow it just works, and it’s poilite, well maybe I programmed the polite bit in lol). Just looking at the yeelight API and you can go quite quite a bit with IFTTT . Definitely worth the money just as a training /playing aid.

If friggin cool. Seriously thinking of getting a Google home now. I’ll set this house up so complex the kids and wife will be walking round in the dark shouting “f-ing turn the lights on goooooggglllllleeee, what was wrong with a f-f-ing switch”  :yahoo:

they wouldn’t get in, I’m going to hook the door up to  :yahoo:

Jokes aside, I’ve actually thought though about implementing an NFC activated lock. Thou I’d roll it out on my office door first.

This issue is. The majority of units that are out there are awfully insecure . There is a YouTube channel called BigClivedotcom iirc , he is a scottish bkoke that is a true electronic Wiz, and he tears everything apart and many NFC and Number pad locks have passed his desk , and not many he can’t by pass.

He may be a wizzard, but it takes him minutes to figure out the flaws, and he has a great knack of explaing them, and most are really simple. Alot for example have jumpers you just cross to put them into programming mode. And alot of then have the same factory preset master codes. And like most peoples routers they don’t change them. So it takes all of 30s for a burglar to look at your keypad, Google it’s model and get the master reset password, key it in and override your system.

Though we don’t even lock out door, so an insecure NFC box would be safer than our current set up.

I just love of the tinkering, when I get in the grove, it brings back the joys of what a PC brought 15 years ago. Now a PC to me is just a headache. It’s a shame that this winter was mild, and I was busy so I didn’t get hadly any gaming done, and zero aurdino action.

The previous winter me and my youngest lad, 13 then spend nights building our basic knowalge of aurdino , getinng LEDs , sevos and morors moving, thermometers reading and real-time clocks ticking . We was ment to out our nè still to the test, but never got around to it.

We’ll have to scrub up on the basics again, when we next pull out the breadnoards .

It’s amazing something as simple as a light bulb* has got the juices going again.

* Granted it’s quite an elaborate light bulb. I can bloody  speak to it. Well I can speak to all lightbulbs, but this one , unlike my kids (and dogs), agually does as it’s told.

I just cancelled my order, as I decided I’d rather have the bulbs on one app, so I can play with groupings etc. So there will be no review of the yeelight BT version .

Though being a xiaomi product, I have little doubt it would be good.

Also judging by how fast the eBay seller got back to me, and refunded my payment, I have no doubt he is above board. I couldn’t cancel the purchase the offial way, it said I was too late, so I used contact seller and explained idcoreded the wrong one. Within ten mins I had a refund notice of PayPal followed by an email off the seller. Thanking me for letting him know .

So feel bad now I never bought it.

The grouping of the wi-fi bulbs will have to wait till next month , as I can’t really justify another £22 on lights bulb, especally as I don’t really have a use for a second. A tenner is easier to swallow, £22 not so much.  But I think I’ll collect a had full of these over the next few months.

They would be great if you often get charged with turning lights on off while they are away. Just set a scedual and forget it.

The only issue I see with them is not with the actual device ,but with human behaviour. I’d have them all over the house, but the kids and wife, would forever be walking out of a room and instinctively turning the light of the traditional way cutting power to the bulb. Which would get old fast .

If you could convince your mum to just turn the bulb on and off with her phone, you’ll be fine. But unless you change all the bulbs, second nature would kick in every time, and she would eventually get fed up with it.

Once the bulb is set up, you can’t then turn it on via the switch , as the bulbs relay is incontrol. But I read last night,you can over ride the inner really , powering off 2s then on 2s or something similar that does a factory reset of sorts, which lets it be controlled by the physical switch again.

I’d imagine this is a flaw, as I’d say my kids walked in a room, they would click the switch, then back and too out of habit and that would reset the bulb, meaning I would need to set it again.

This is why I’m only deploying them in my spaces around the house.

What is great about the RGB bulb, with never crossed my mind, (I though RGB was over kill), is you can set the colour to exactly what you want, and have as many colour profiles as you wish. So last night we had the light on later than usual but a dims right orange colour, the Tim’s morning set it to come on with the alarm, running their preprogrammed ‘sunrise’ , which started red and very slowly got bright. It was great in the old eyes while sipping coffee.

Also it goes all the way up to ice white, so good for kitchens ,bathrooms (which we have ice white ) and we have an ice white I’m the lounge as the wife like to read under that colour, even though traditionally ice while is to cold for a lounge.

With bulb would be perfect of a lounge, as you can have reading mode, and relaxing mode. Sadly the bulbs are to large for my current lounge set up.  :negative:

I tried b&q and screwfix before I went the electrical supieres and they are cheap. It wasn’t untill I got home I realised I had 2 spare ones.

One live in the tourtouse cage (or under it) as the bulbs we use use Edison 27. And the connectors are roapy. If  you change out bulbs alot, reptile bulbs )Astra only 3 months. And the thin metal In the E27 socket can rip with fatigue . I also have another connector attached to a disco led bulb, that mimics a disco ball efect. Good for kids partys

So I didn’t have to go running around . But I do want to source some actual proper E27 sockets, as the connected adds length to an already above socket.

Today the wife installed the app on her phone and logged into my account (use Singapore server on set up. And not Hong Kong. HK apparently has lag and issues from time to time). All my settings just appeared on the wife’s phone and I set a simple one button toggle buttom to her home screen.

She said the bulb is staying in the bwdroom, and I need to buy myself another for the attic! I’ve never seen her be impressed with any of my geeky buys before.