07-10-2018 06:15 PM
07-16-2018 04:37 PM
Makes sense, but this'll be a different problem than the one I've been complaining about. My app continually checks with the Wemo Link for zigbee device status - it's the link itself that reports the devices offline. It starts with short periods of reporting offline and then back online, which typically grow longer until the link decides enough is enough (actually I think it's a bug and the link stops checking).
It's usually but not always the furthest LED bulbs. I suspect it's the ones with the weakest signal due to distance + manufacturing tolerances (or lack thereof).
Once the bulb disconnects the belkin app can't (won't?) control it, though my rules engine sometimes can since it tries regardless of the link's reported bulb status. Eventually the troublesome bulb goes for good and only a power cycle of the bulb causes the link to begin speaking to it again.
All proven by switching to the osram lightify hub - same bulbs, same locations, never one lost. Belkin really should offer to buy back our wemo links and bulbs if they can't fix this bug.
07-16-2018 05:41 PM
07-16-2018 07:44 PM
It's not worth a beer to me to pair that crappy link and bulbs back up again. I'd need the entire case .
They might be the same hardware but the firmware is completely different. Belkin's is built from a bunch of cobbled together freeware (it's wrt based) and a different protocol/API from osram. I don't see any sign of evolution from a common ancestor.
I'm pretty sure the bulbs are interchangeble because they're following the zigbee standard - remember they'd declared cree as a partner for a short time and the GE bulbs work too. AFAIK osram has owned sylvania/lightify for decades. I'm sticking with assuming belkin stopped selling the link 'cause it was an overpriced piece of junk filled with bugs due to development outsourcing and the loss of their original design team .
I understand what you're saying about the search order but I wonder if you're seeing bulbs being marked as lost in the app if they can be recovered from there. The command set of the wemo link doesn't have a "recover bulb" command (the commands are advertised by the link itself using upnp). I tried all of the available connect, pair, and discover APIs and none work to reconnect a bulb once it's lost to the link. A power cycle of the link doesn't even bring it back, nor does an unpair/repair it as the link doesn't try to tell the bulb it's unpaired (so the bulb thinks it's still paired and won't accept a pairing request). Only a bulb power cycle brings it back.
OTOH the Osram hub doesn't lose the bulbs at all. I don't know the full lightify command set (which is very different from the link's web services API) and I haven't needed to implement any of the discovery or pairing APIs since the bulbs just stay found and paired.
I only use the osram and belkin apps for firmware updates and reconfiguring devices so it's not a poll/blocking sequence issue - my app uses multiple threads when talking to different wemos. And wemos don't poll - the wemo devices report status changes asynchronously using SDDP subscribe/notify.
Actually I didn't know you were having problems with link/bulbs - I was assuming that if the bulbs were close enough to the link they wouldn't go missing (mine are spread out a fair bit) - even more fuel that belkin needs to fix it or refund it.
07-17-2018 05:58 PM
So, th Cree Connected bulbs that are still for retail at Home Depot do still pair with the WeMo Link, for whatever credit that is worth. Most of my inside LED bulbs are those. My original 2 WeMo bulbs and one more that I was able to source in decent condition are in high-humidity areas like my porch, patio, and oven range, as they are fully enclosed.
I had had only one problem light, a GardenSpot on the porch that was a couple concrete walls away from the Link, but mere feet away from the porch WeMo bulb that was never a problem. The WeMo app would show that gardenspot as offline constantly, even though I could still control it fine with Alexa and my HomeBridge, so the Zigbee mesh was obviously working fine. I had to do a manual reset of the WeMo app to get it to show as available again, and it would only stay that way for a few minutes.
Recently I stopped bothering to care when the WeMo app reorganized all my devices again. The LEDs now show up at the top of the app and none ever get listed as unresponsive.
Sounds like the app is giving up on devices even more quickly than the Link!
Your success with the Osram Gateway makes me really want one. I would just hate to lose the convenience of a single app. Ugh!
07-17-2018 06:04 PM
07-17-2018 06:37 PM
07-17-2018 06:41 PM
07-17-2018 07:18 PM
To harp on the same old same old ... The AM Server supports the Lightify RGB bulbs including the gardenspot, and supports color control with Alexa/Voice. If you added the AM HomeBridge for the wemos the belkin bridge doesn't support (or replaced that bridge completely) you'd have everything (including color) in HomeKit and you won't need to use the belkin app except for firmware (or if you were asked by belkin support to "try a different handheld device"!).
My gardenspot was so often the first to be dropped by the wemo link that I seldom used it. The lightify gateway is now centrally located and further away from the gardenspot than was the link, and it always works now.
07-17-2018 07:21 PM