DMX controlled moodlight panels

[Snelvuur]

Btw that picture of the buda, isn't that used in amsterdam living mall near the arena? i've seen those lights i think there too.

[Lennart]

Hi snelvuur,

Concerning the use of these kind of gadgets: I really don't know. It looks nice, and that's enough for me. I guess that's also the reason why people decorate rooms, buy wallpaper and enjoy paintings. If not for that reason, we would all be sitting under TL-lighting in our concrete finish living rooms...

But if you really press me, I would say: it's basically a 48 byte status indicator for your home automation system! The moodlight panels could turn from green to red depending on the number of unread messages in your mailbox. And if the dishwasher is overflowing, they could turn blue. And if the house is on fire, let's make 'm flickering orange. That definitely beats sending an SMS.

[Snelvuur]

They should be in the living room then, but i'am a bit concerned that its going to be disctracting at a certain amount of time. Dont get me wrong i really like the looks and idea. you could use 4 squares to indicate motion in or around the house, or when there is more then 10km traffic towars my work. yes its endless and fun, but the one use that would really make me go buy them right now is not in my head right now (so i would buy them later , once your done finetuning hehe)

[Bwired]

I have send Bert a offline mail about the Philips led light.
I somebody has a lamp for Bert to experiment on there is a good chance that he will do it, if he is not to busy.
Would be good for RFXCom if the Philips living colour fixtures led light is on the list of compatible devices
I'm very interested as well, good idea again Lennart.
Regards Pieter

[Lennart]

Hi Pieter,

I also contacted Bert and offered him one of my living colour fixtures and its remote for testing purposes. He replied and agreed to have a look at it (thanks Bert!). I'll make an appointment with him to drop it off.

[Snelvuur]

Now all we need is a home automated "maid" that can clean the house and we are all set keep us posted, i do like the perl interface. Any more info or nice pictures are welcome. We can start drooling more..

[Bwired]

Great!
Can you share your experience with us about the Philips living color fixtures led light.
About the brightness etc. I considered already several times buying a couple of these led lights.
If Bert is able to add it to the RFXcom transmitter I sure will!
Thanks Pieter

[MindBender]

I can provide a Philips AmbiLight, as used in their TV-sets...

[Lennart]

Hi Pieter,

Ok, some more info on the Philips LivingColors led fixtures.

The Philips LivingColors led fixtures are nice looking (opinions may vary on this lighting fixtures which can be controlled by the supplied RF-remote control. We liked the fixtures themselves and the light that they supply. That's why we bought two of them for mood lighting in our kitchen. I have installed them on top of half-size cupboards, directed at the white wall above it under an angle of approximately 45 degrees (up, towards the wall), 20 - 30 centimeters in front of the wall, which gives a very nice and bright lighting effect.

Some trivia:

- Each fixture contains 4 high power leds: 2 red, one blue, one green. The leds are behind an opaque diffuser which takes care of most of the colour mixing, but you do see the individual leds if you look into the fixture directly. It's fun to see the individual leds change their intensity while cycling through the colours.

- Brightness is very good. Again, these should not be used for primary lighting, but for creating a certain ambience they are perfect. It's amazing how, if well positioned, two of these fixtures can change the whole atmosphere of a whole room. I'd say that if you don't mind visible hot spots (i.e. homogeneous lighting is not your holy grail) and positioning these fixtures doesn't cause problems in your interior, you might as well see them as an alternative to the before mentioned colour beamers. Dimming is of course possible.

- Interesting feature of the remote control is its HSV colour space (Hue = colour, Saturation = intensity, Value = dim level) as opposed to the RGB colour space that you often find for controlling multicolour fixtures, such as in the DMX protocol. HSV provides a more intuitive and direct control of the colour that you want and shows that these fixtures are really targeted at a consumer audience.

- The remote control features an Ipod like scroll wheel to select the colour (Hue). You can select a colour directly by putting your finger on the desired colour on the colour wheel or you could scroll to it by continuously turning your finger around the wheel. Colour changes quite slowly when scrolling, so it will take several full circles to go round; this allows for fine tuning the exact colour. Saturation and value are controlled by two up/down buttons. Positioning of the saturation button within the scroll wheel is a design flaw, in my opinion: trying to find it with your finger, you frequently touch the scroll wheel itself, changing the colour unintentionally. Last but not least, the remote control features an on/off button. All buttons are "tiptronic"; there is no physical feedback when touching them.

- Multiple fixtures can be controlled by the same remote. You just step up to the fixture, hold the remote very close to its front, hold the on button, and after a second or so, the fixture will blink a few times to let you know that it is now coupled to this remote. I read somewhere that you can control up to 6 fixtures with one remote. This makes me wonder how the protocol works: in that case, the remote control must keep track of the fixtures it controls (otherwise there would be no limit, I guess). But then the fixtures should also have a transmitter to communicate their id and not only a receiver. Hmmm, interesting thing to check out when I bring the fixtures to Bert.

- When you install multiple fixtures, beware of colour differences: I bought a total of three (one as a present for my sister) and I put them all side to side to check for consistency and I noted that the moment that the individual leds go on or off while cycling through the colours differs from fixture to fixture, although they all receive the same remote control colour signal. I guess this is a normal artefact related to tolerance in led production, but it may effect your wall washing experience. I selected the two fixtures that were closest together. It's not a huge difference (most people would hardly notice), but something you should know. Related to this is the fact that the individual leds are positioned some centimeters apart. If you point them towards the wall in a mirrored setup (such as we did), different coloured leds are closest to the wall and that may magnify or cancel the colour difference that you experience.

- Range of the remote control is limited. This is may main compaint. It stops working at about 4 to 5 meters. This is especially unwanted if you have more than one fixtures controlled by the same remote: sometimes, only one will respond and you end up with two distinct colours.

- If you apply power to the power supply, the fixtures will cycle quickly through the whole colour spectrum to let you know they are operational. If you really like, this can be controlled by for instance a Xanura SAX1 .

- The shop display for these fixtures features a version that continuously cycles through the whole colour spectrum. This feature is not available on the regular consumer version (probably some difference in onboard firmware).

- I have the feeling that these fixtures sell quite well. When they first came out and I bought them, I noticed that the Bijenkorf in Utrecht went through two pallets in a day or so. Shops that sell them are Bijenkorf, Lampenier, Habitat, Karwei and probably some more. Recommended retail price is EUR 149,- per fixture, including a remote.

- User opinions vary: some people got bored by these lights quite quickly, others were disappointed by the lack of colour cycling capabilities, and some would like interaction with ambilight as MindBender already noted. I'm quite happy with 'm, just make sure that they are part of your general lighting scheme (as we did when remodelling our kitchen) and not some kind of gimmick. In that case they become normal lamps with a twist. We use them frequently and often put them to white/orange/yellow as well. What frustrates me (and they reason why I said earlier that these fixtures are not the way to go) is the current lack of computer control. It's one of the few fixtures in our house for which there is currently no solution.

- Some links:

Philips site:
http://www.lighting.philips.com/microsi ... ng_colors/

Manual (in Dutch):
http://www.lighting.philips.com/microsi ... 3_v1.0.pdf

Videos of Philips LivingColors in action:
http://www.youtube.com and search on philips living colors

User opinions on Tweakers.net (in Dutch):
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/lis ... es/1199871

I guess that's about all there is to say to this. Just some pictures of our setup to finish it off (I'm sorry they are not sharp; I did this rather quickly last night):













Best wishes,

LEDnart

[Bwired]

Lennart Thanks for the very detailed description and pictures, lets wait on Bert his findings about the exact frequency and protocol etc of the Philips living color led light.

Regards Pieter

[Lennart]

Meanwhile, Bert has had a look at the Philips LivingColor fixtures.

His findings are that communication between the remote and the fixtures happens in the 2,4 GHz band (the same that wifi operates in). Also, communication turns out to be indeed 2-way: both remote control and fixture are equipped with a receiver and a transmitter.

So, unfortunately, no luck: these lights will be on manual control for the time being. But at least we know now. Kudos to Bert for being so kind to have a look at it!

[Bwired]

Hi Lennart,
Yes I heard it from Bert this afternoon. It was to be expected from a company like Philips not to use 433 MHz or 868 MHz. Thanks for trying Lennart and Bert.
regards Pieter

[Snelvuur]

Btw, you use perl to work with dmx. Are you using xpl-dmx? I've seen that one at http://www.xpl-perl.org.uk/ if not, check it out maybe its handy for you

[Snelvuur]

Lennart, i've placed part of this on the wiki aswell. Check if its ok if you can (and if not adjust)

[Henk]

In case you can specify an interface of controlling colorlights for the consumer market - what kind of technology / protocol would you suggest ? ......
It should be inexpensive / easy technology and of course open so every vendor may used and support it ...


Henk