HomeSeer 463 MiLight Plugin for HS4 Instruction Manual

: June 5, 2024
: HomeSeer

Table of Contents

Introduction
Requirements
Installation & Setup
Noteworthy
Presets & Macros
Modify configuration
Support
Changelog
Documents / Resources

MiLight Plugin for HomeSeer HS4 Manual

Introduction

Thank you for using the MiLight Plugin for HS4! This plugin can be used to locally control MiLight LED lights via one or more MiLight W-Fi controllers. Please see Requirements for more info.

This is my second plugin of – now 3 – for HS4. My other plugins are the Horizon Remote Plugin and Volvo Plugin.

I have tested this plugin thoroughly, but if you find bugs anyway, please let me know.

Requirements

To use this plugin, you will need the following:

– HomeSeer HS4. The plugin has only been tested on Windows, but there is no reason why it should not work on Linux.
– A MiLight Wi-Fi controller and at least 1 light (a bulb, downlight, LED strip controller & strip, etc.). Other compatible systems should be LimitlessLED, AppLamp, EasyBulb, FutLight, AppLight, LEDme, Dekolight Rocket LED, s.LUCE, iLight, iBulb, Kreuzer, Home-Wize, ThorFire, SureCart. This list was composed of information collected from various internet sites. Please let me know if you think any brand does not work, so I can remove it from the list. Also, for this reason, I strongly recommend making use of the trial period before you buy the plugin.
– The controller has to be connected to the same Local Area Network (LAN) as your HomeSeer system. Follow the manual of the Wi-Fi controller to connect it to your Wireless LAN, if you haven’t done that already.
– You will need to know its local IP (IPv4) address. It’s useful if you can make sure the IP will not change in the future, for instance by fixing it. See your router manual on how to do this.

Installation & Setup

Install and activate the plugin like any other plugin. If you’re new to HS4, here is how:
• Go to your HomeSeer Web Control page.
• Use the Plugin dropdown and choose Add.
• Use the (2nd) Search bar, or scroll to MiLight Plugin.
• Choose Install.
• In Plugins > Manage use the toggle to turn on the plugin.
Configure:
• Go to Plugins > MiLight Plugin > Add a Wi-Fi controller.
• Follow the steps:
o, Choose to Continue at the introduction step.
o Enter the IPv4 IP address of your MiLight Wi-Fi controller and choose Continue.
o, select the combination of version, number of zones, and command set that matches your setup.
• Please check the settings you entered, as the next step can create up to 10 devices and 94 features(!). Then to confirm chose Create Devices.
• In the background the IP address you entered will be checked to make sure it is a valid IPv4 address (no typos, etc.). If it’s not valid, the devices/features will not be created. This process will NOT check if there is an actual MiLight Wi-Fi controller behind the IP address.
Also, this process checks to make sure that devices or features with the same version/IP combination do not already exist.
• In the next step you can either go back ‘home’ (Devices page) or to the Log, in case you want to check if everything went well.

Noteworthy

There is no config (.ini) file.
You can add as many Wi-Fi controllers as you want.
You can add a Wi-Fi controller more than once if the command set is different. This is also how you add controls for the bridge light.
You can modify the names and locations of the devices and features as much as you want. They will keep working. For instance, instead of Zone 1, 2, 3, etc., you could consider naming them Living Room, Bed Room, etc.
In case you deleted redundant feature values and you want them back, after all, you can find the values in Appendix A (iBox command sets) or Appendix B (Legacy command sets).
In case you created too many zones (8 instead of 4, or a bridge light) you can delete the devices/features you don’t need. If you’re not sure, consider hiding them instead. Renaming is safe, too. Do NOT delete the ID and Zone features of the 99 zone remote.
In case you can’t figure out how the colors work, consider an (HSV) color wheel. The colors correspond to the (H)UE component. But instead of 0-359°, the scale goes from 0-255. I choose to not convert this scale, so the result will be exact. If you find this confusing, you could consider adding the other scale under Status/Graphics and enter a scaled value as a status text for 0-255.
The Legacy MiLight color wheel seems to be rotated -120° (or 240°), while the V5/V6 (iBox) color wheel seems to be mirrored horizontally and then rotated 30° (or mirrored vertically and rotated 150°).
You may want to consider limiting access to the (Un)Link feature(s) by clicking on each feature and under User Access removes the Any checkmark, chose your admin account(s) instead and then Save.
Note that all traffic is one-way. In other words, you can only send commands and features will not be updated if you change lights outside the plugin (for example with a MiLight remote, or cut power).
Looking for link/unlink commands for V3/V4? Try the (Long) ON/OFF command after power on.
Confused about the values for Disco Effect modes? This plugin follows the documentation, which says 1-9. However, the app(s) seem to be using 0-8. But also, the mode pictures in the app(s) do not match the lights. So I figured the app uses the wrong values. If you found a mismatch, feel free to manually modify Mode 1 to value 0, Mode 2 to value 1, etc.

Long Key Presses

In version 1.0.0.4 long key presses were added. This act as if the button was held, like in the MiLight apps. Here is what you should know about long key presses:

In the app a long key press always only comes after the non-long key press. In this plugin this is not the case. So, if you need it, please build it with a macro.
The plugin only sends the long key press 1 time. If you need it more often, which could be the case when linking lights, please build a macro in which the long key press is repeated (or if you only need it once, press the Long button repeatedly).
Long On seems to be the same as White mode for several/most/all command sets.
Long Off seems to be the same as Night Mode for several/most/all command sets.
If you don’t see a Long button do anything, you may delete it. It will not break any If you need it back after all, please look it up in Appendix A for V5/V6 (iBox) command sets, or Appendix B for Legacy command sets.
Updating to version 1.0.0.4 from an older version will not automatically add the Long If you need them, please add their values manually. You can look them up in Appendix A or B.

Artificial extra zones

The Wi-Fi controllers are not actually quite limited to 4 (or 8) zones.

For example, the V5N6 Wi-Fi controllers (iBox1 and iBox2) seem to be able to each control:

Up to 4 RGBWW zones
Up to 4 WW/CW zones
Up to 4 RGBWW/CW full-color zones
Up to 8 RGB+CCT zones
(1 RGB zone)
Etc

This is possible because if you link a light within a certain command set, it will only listen to commands from that set, not from another set. In other words, these controllers can* virtually be 129 zones(!). This, of course, can only be achieved if you have these types of lights, or don’t care about some functionality (For example you can link an RGB+CCT light as RGBWW light). You can add a controller more than once and set command modes differently for each occurrence.

Controllers with older versions have fewer command sets and can therefore handle-less total zones. * Tested with available iBox2 hardware. Different versions may give different results.

Presets & Macros

The plugin does not support macros by default, but there are a few things you can do to make life easier:

Presets
If you’ve figured out which setting works for you for any of the slider features, you can add extra buttons so that you don’t have to remember the value and you can easily set the value in one go.

Preset example
Say you figured out that 4600K is the perfect setting for Zone 2 for dinner.

Click the feature name (in this case Zone 2 White Temperature) and go to the Status/Graphics tab.
Lookup the Value at the bottom of the page. In this case, it turns out to be 50.
Now chose New Single Value and Edit it to give this preset your value of 50 and a god name, in this case, Dinner. Consider editing the Rows of both the slider and the button, so they don’t end up on the same line (which would make the slider smaller and harder to manipulate). Don’t forget to save.

Macros

If you want to be able to set several features at “the same time” you can use a virtual device and an event to do so.

Macro example

Say while watching movies you want to dim Zone 1 lights to 10% brightness and switch Zone 2 and Zone 3 lights off.
Create a virtual device (from the Devices page + in the right top corner). Then create one or more features with unique macro names and values.

Now go to Events, add a new event (+). Name the event group, for example, MiLight Macros. Then add a New Event (+), name it (in this case Movie Time. Set the trigger to your Virtual button (Movie Time).

Then set all the features to the values you wanted:

Modify configuration

Modify IP address and/or port number
If you have already added a controller earlier and you need to modify its IP address and/or port number, because you’ve made a typo or you had to change the controller’s IP address, do the following:

Go to Plugins > MiLight Plugin > Modify IP address and/or port.
Follow the steps:
o, Choose to Continue at the introduction step.
o, select the controller you want to modify and choose Continue.
o, Select whether or not the room should be modified, too. Initially, when you added a controller, the plugin will set the room to the IP address and port number. But if
you have meanwhile modified the room you may want to set this to Leave the room(s) as they are. Choose Continue.
o, Enter the new IP address if applicable. Enter the new port number, if applicable.
Choose Modify.
o The controller settings will now be changed.

If you made a mistake you can use the page again to fix it.

Remove a Wi-Fi controller
You can completely remove a controller by manually removing its devices and features. But to make it easier for you, you can use the dedicated page. Note that this process is irreversible. To remove a controller:

Go to Plugins > MiLight Plugin > Remove a Wi-Fi controller.
Follow the steps:
o, Choose to Continue at the introduction step.
o, select the controller you want to remove and choose Continue.
o, Confirm if you are sure and choose Remove.

That’s it. The devices and features of the selected controller should now be removed. If you have made a mistake you will have to add the controller again and if events were tied to the deleted features you will have to modify these events.

Please note that to remove only 1 (or several) command set of a controller you will still have to delete its devices and features manually. So this is only the case if you have added a controller more than once, with different command sets. The easiest way to achieve this is to Enable Bulk edits and select the devices you want to delete. HS4 will automatically select all related features. Choose Bulk Action > Delete and confirm.

Support

If you have a question or want to report a bug, please use the dedicated sub- forum on https://forums.homeseer.com/

Changelog

Version	Remark
1.0.2.0	Implemented device polling

Added page to modify IP and/or port number of a controller
Added page to remove a controller
Updated manual accordingly
1.0.1.0| Reverse engineered and added all remaining (3x legacy, 7x V5/V6) command sets Optimized code
1.0.0.4| Added remote names to command set configuration
Added long presses of supported buttons (see chapter Long Key Presses)
Fixed Legacy RGB On
Fixed iBox Bridge Effect Modes
Renamed RGBWW/CW Full Color to RGB+CCT
1.0.0.3| Fix plugin enabling for Linux
1.0.0.2| Improved check for double devices, slightly better logging
1.0.0.1| Minor fix
1.0.0.0| Initial release

Appendix A: iBox command sets

Appendix B: Legacy command sets