LIFX Day and Dusk in a Container

This container image reproduces the LIFX Day and Dusk scheduling functionality locally but removes the dependency on the LIFX Cloud and adds fine-grained control over bulb selection, timing, kelvin value and power status.

Supported Platforms

This image is supported on the following platforms:

• amd64: 64-bit Intel or AMD processors including Intel-based Synology NAS devices.
• aarch64: 64-bit Arm processors including Raspberry Pi 3 Model B/B+ and Raspberry Pi 4.
• aarch32: 32-bit build made for Raspian which defaults to a 32-bit install.

This image is supported with the following OS/runtime combinations:

• macOS: Docker Desktop
• Windows 10/11: Docker Desktop using Windows Subsystem for Linux
• Linux: Docker CE and Podman

Usage

LIFX discovery relies on UDP broadcasts on the local network in order to find bulbs. This can be achieved using the --net=host parameter on Linux, but this does not work when using Docker Desktop for Mac or Docker Desktop for Windows.

However, as UDP broadcasts are only required for discovery, you can workaround this by using hardcoded_discovery instead, which only requires unicast UDP support and that works on all platforms. Hardcoded discovery can also be used to traverse VLANs.

The following command will start the container with the required mandatory configuration:

docker run \
  --detach \
  --name=daydusk \
  --net=host \ # Not required if hardcoded_discovery is used
  -e TZ=<Time Zone> \
  -v /path/to/config/:/config/ \
  djelibeybi/lifx-daydusk

Parameters

The following parameters can be specified on the command-line when executing docker run to start the container:

• -e TZ: for timezone information e.g. -e TZ=Europe/London (required)
• -v /path/to/config/:/config/ - Required: see below for details.
• --net=host: This is required to support automatic discovery but only works on Linux. On other platforms, use hardcoded_discovery via the lifx.yml configuration file instead of using this parameter.

IMPORTANT: You must set a valid TZ value otherwise the timezone inside the container will be set to UTC and your events will fire at the wrong time.

The --net=host option can be replaced by advanced users with an appropriate macvlan network configuration however the configuration of the network itself and modification of the docker run command to use that network is left as an exercise for the reader. For most users, using hardcoded_discovery is far easier.

Creating the daydusk.yml configuration file

The sample docker run command above maps the local /path/to/config directory to the /config directory inside the container. You should change /path/to/config to an actual directory on your host system and you must create at least the daydusk.yml file in this directory.

NOTE: the sample-daydusk.yml matches the default LIFX Day & Dusk configuration exactly including powering on the specified bulbs at the start of each event.

Syntax

The daydusk.yml file consists of one or more named events that define the time to start the transition, the end state of the bulbs, the duration of the transition and whether the bulbs should turn on automatically before the transition starts or turn off automatically after the transition ends.

In the example below, the event named wakeup will fire at 6:30am on Saturday and Sunday to trigger the bulbs to power on in whatever state they were in when they were previously powered off and then begin a 30 minute transition to 80% brightness at 4000 kelvin:

daydusk:
  schedules:
    wakeup:
      days:
        - SATURDAY
        - SUNDAY
      hour: 6
      minute: 30
      brightness: 0.8
      kelvin: 4000
      duration: 1800
      power: ON
      transform_options:
        transition_color: True

Multiple events can be included within the file, using the following syntax:

daydusk:
  schedules:
     wakeup:
     ...

     day:
     ...

     evening:
     ...

     nighttime:
     ...

Note the opening daydusk: and schedules: only appear once at the beginning of the file.

Tip: You can validate your YAML syntax online.

There is no limit to the number of events, though each event will add additional time to process when the container starts. To change the events, use docker stop to shut down the running container, modify the daydusk.yml file and then run docker start to start the container back up again.

Note: The container will rebuild the schedule from daydusk.yml at startup.

The following table documents each parameter and all parameters are required for each event:

Parameter	Required?	Value	Detail
days	No	List of either MONDAY to SUNDAY or 0 to 6	An list of days on which this event should occur. If not specified, the event will occur daily. If specified numerically, 0 is Sunday and 6 is Saturday.
hour	Yes	0 to 23	The hour at which the transition starts
minute	Yes	0 to 59	The minute after the hour at which the transition starts
task	No	theme	If you want to apply a theme to the selected bulbs, set this to theme.
hue	No	0 to 360	The target hue in degrees at the end of the transition. Must be set to 0 for temperature adjustment
saturation	No	0 to 1	The target saturation as a float, e.g. for 80% specify 0.8. Must be set to 0 for temperature adjustment
brightness	Yes	1 to 1	The target brightness as a float, e.g. for 80% specify 0.8
kelvin	Yes	1500 to 9000	The target kelvin value at the end of the transition. Ignored unless both hue and saturation are set to 0
colors	No	-	An optional list of colors to use when applying a theme. Only valid if task is set to theme.
duration	Yes	1 to 86400	How long the transition should run in seconds. Sixty minutes is 3600 seconds.
power	No	[on|off]	Used to turn the bulbs on at the start of the event or off when the event ends. If not provided the power state remains unchanged.
transform_options	No	-	An optional list of options to apply to each event.
override	No	-	An optional list of overrides to apply when applying a theme.
reference	No	-	Used to specify the bulbs to target for each event.

The sample-daydusk.yml file contains four events that replicate the default LIFX Day & Dusk times, brightness and kelvin values as well as the transition duration and power state changes.

The theme-daydusk.yml will set a rainbow theme across all devices.

Adding options for each event

There are two options that can be used to fine-tune the transformation that occurs for each event:

• transition_color: modifies the behaviour of the bulb if it's powered on by the event. By default if power is set to on, the target bulb(s) will be set to the target HSBK or color value before being powered on and the transition duration will only affect the brightness. By setting this to True, the target bulb(s) will power on with the existing HSBK values and the transition will affect all values, i.e. the bulb will transition both color and brightness over the duration. This is particularly useful for wakeup transitions so that the initial power on doesn't jump to a much higher kelvin value immediately.
• keep_brightness: modifies the transition to ignore any brightness value, i.e. only the HSK/color values are transitions over the duration while the brightness remains the same.

Example usage:

transform_options:
  transition_color: True
  keep_brightness: False

Specifying colors for a theme

The colors parameter is optional. If omitted, the default theme uses seven colors at 30% brightness.

To specify your own colors, use any combination of the following formats:

• Names: white, red, orange, yellow, cyan, green, blue purple, pink
• Hexadecimal: hex:#RRGGBB
• Red, green, blue: rgb:0-255,0-255,0-255
• Hue, saturation and brightness: hsb:0-359, 0-1, 0-1

Here is an example list of colors that uses each of these formats:

colors:
  - red
  - hex:#00ff00
  - rgb:0, 0, 255
  - hsb:120, 1, 0.7

Only the hsb option specifies brightness for each color. You can override the brightness globally using the override option.

Adding overrides for a theme

By default, Photons will use the current brightness of the target device(s) when applying a theme with specified colors that don't include a specific brightness value. This can be overridden by providing a brightness for all devices when applying the theme.

To specify a global brightness, add it as an override to your event. The following example sets the brightness to 70%:

override:
  - brightness: 0.7

Specifying bulbs for each event

The reference field is used to determine which bulbs will be targeted for each event. If an event does not contain a reference field, all discovered bulbs will be used. The reference field can be specified in any of the following formats on a per-event basis, i.e. you can chose to use one method for an event and a different method for another.

No validation is performed to ensure the serial numbers are valid or if any specified files exist. Likewise, no validation of the provided filters is performed, so it's possible for a filter to return no results or unexpected results if misconfigured.

The available formats are:

A single serial number:

reference: d073d5000001

A list of serial numbers:

reference:
  - d073d5000001
  - d073d5000002

A file that contains a list of serial numbers (one per line):

reference: file:/config/bulbs.conf

A filter that is dynamically evaluated on each run based on bulb-specific data:

reference: match:group_name=bedroom

The Photons documentation maintains a list valid filters that can be used with this option. Multiple filters can be combined using an ampersand, e.g. match:group_name=bedroom&power=on would match all bulbs in the group named bedroom that are currently powered on.

Additional Photons configuration

To provide additional configuration options, including hardcoded_discovery entries, place them in a file named lifx.yml file in the same directory as your daydusk.yml file.

Acknowledgements

• delfick for Photons upon which my code depends and for providing additional pointers on usingPhotons for configuration validation.