LimitlessLED WiFi Bridge 4.0 Conversion to Raspberry Pi

112 Replies

Recently I purchased a few “Smart” LEDs from a site called LimitlessLED due to positive feedback from a close friend. After all was said and done, I walked away with 3 RGB LED Bulbs, a remote control, and one of their cool WiFi Receiver Bridges. After waiting a few weeks everything showed up and was working fine out of the box, except the WiFi Bridge. Thus started my journey to figure out what in the hell was going on which ended with me converting the adapter to work from a Raspberry Pi.

So after receiving my stuff, I set off to setup the little WiFi receiver. When I first got it, I took it out and set it up with its companion android application which worked great, but once it was paired to my home network the problems started coming. The problem is I live in a somewhat high density area, so there are TON’s of wireless networks in my area, and for some reason this little receiver bridge loves to drop, ignore, or just plain not forward any packets sent to it over my network. I tried different areas, rooms, hell even WiFi channels, but no matter what I did it was impossible to get a consistent link to the unit.

So with that, I decided the hell with it, and tore the sucker apart. Inside of the thing, you won’t find very much:

The mainboard (Ignore the cables, we will get to that later)

The WiFi Bridge

Now normally these are soldered together, but I forgot to take beforehand pictures (sorry!). So, at this point, I started by researching both boards. I was unable to find anything on the mainboard, but I found quite a bit of documentation on the WiFi controller, which is a High-Flying HF-LPT100 unit. With that, I was able to get a pinout for the leads and was able to find UART on pins 5 and 6. So using my new Saleae Logic 8 I decided to hook up to those leads and see if anything was coming across the leads.

So this is where it gets interesting. During boot and normal operation nothing is broadcasted over UART, and it does not seem to accept any input, but as soon as a command is sent to the controller to control my lights, the packet data was displayed in my serial session. So we can conclude from this that the packet data sent to control the LED’s is sent over the UART directly to the mainboard where it is converted and transmitted vi RF to the bulbs!

So to recap what we know:

  • The WiFi bridge is powered by a basic HF-LPT100
  • The bridge passes all UDP packets on port 8899 to the UART TX port (9600 baud)
  • All UDP packets on port 48899 are used to interface with the HF-LPT100 (WiFi settings, etc)
  • The RF radio listens on UART, forwards commands to LEDs
  • Everything is powered by 3.3V

Now is where the fun starts. I soldered the WiFi receiver unit off of the mainboard, and hooked up the 3.3V, GND, and RX from the mainboard to a USB TTL device and opened a serial session on the interface. I then took the API Documentation from LimitlessLED, and mapped out the Hex value for “RGBW COLOR LED ALL OFF” to its ASCII character of A. I then turned the LEDs on in my room, sent A over my serial session… and the lights turned off! So from this I was able to confirm once again that the transmitter is directly using the UDP commands sent to the Wi-Fi receiver.

Now that everything was mapped, it was time to map it to the Raspberry Pi pinout. Here is the mapping I went with:

Pi to Transmitter
1 -> 2 (3.3V)
6 -> 1 (GND)
8 -> 6 (TX -> RX)

NOTE: If you do this you need to disable console from your Pi’s bootcmd, as you don’t want a console to be given over UART.

Once that was mapped, I tested again from the Raspberry PI to confirm things still work and as expected they did, but we still have some work to do. How do we go about getting native apps to work? Even better, how do we get it so the API documentation can still be used so all currently developed apps and API’s will run with this?

Well as the transmitter listens and runs off of raw UDP packet data, I coded up a little python listener to do the task! But wait, how about the auto discovery and setup in the iOS and Android apps? Don’t worry, that was taken care of as well! 🙂

Just download the source from my GitHub, change the variables to meet your requirements and hardware, run each script, and away you go!

And in the end, I now have a Raspberry Pi that controls my LED’s without any network issues, and works with Ethernet or WiFi!

112 thoughts on “LimitlessLED WiFi Bridge 4.0 Conversion to Raspberry Pi”

  1. Gary Riches

    First of all, thanks. My house is wired up with Milight and I had some Ardiuno set up that would kill the power to the bridge when it couldn’t be pinged, this “worked” but didn’t fix the issue.

    I had my devices added to my bridge, so the following isn’t a huge issue for me, but I’m unable to get the admin.py to work. Under python 2.7 is doesn’t like the bytes command, so I ran it under python 3.2. I uncommented the prints and it seems to be sending the Pi’s IP and mac address out but it does;t show up in the Milight app, any ideas why?

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Yeah, the scripts were designed for python 3+ so that is why it failed to run. As for the IP and mac address for the milight application, did you add your devices IP and MAC address to lines 10 and 11? If so, try wiping the application data for the Milight application on your device, and then try to re-scan for receivers. You may have to press it twice, but as long as you are on the same network it should work.

      Reply ↓
  2. Gary Riches

    I added the Pi’s IP and MAC to lines 10 and 11, copied and pasted to ensure no mistakes. I print out what I’m sending and to what address, I see:

    admin command: b’AT+Q\r’
    admin command: b’Link_Wi-Fi’
    admin return: 192.168.0.24, B827EB597AD8
    (‘192.168.0.3′, 48899)
    admin command: b’Link_Wi-Fi’
    admin return: 192.168.0.24,B827EB597AD8
    (‘192.168.0.3′, 48899)
    admin command: b’Link_Wi-Fi’
    admin return: 192.168.0.24,B827EB597AD8
    (‘192.168.0.3′, 48899)
    admin command: b’Link_Wi-Fi’
    admin return: 192.168.0.24,B827EB597AD8
    (‘192.168.0.3′, 48899)
    admin command: b’Link_Wi-Fi’
    admin return: 192.168.0.24,B827EB597AD8
    (‘192.168.0.3’, 48899)

    192.168.0.3 is the phone that’s running the milight app, 192.168.0.24,B827EB597AD8 is the IP and MAC of the Pi. I see that when the app tries to find the Pi it responds, but it only responds 5 times, is that correct? I removed the iOS and reinstalled it, what Milight app are you using? I can try that one as I have Android devices too. Thanks for your help.

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Interesting… It should respond each time a request is made as there is no loop or timeout, so that might be a limitation of the Milight iOS application. Sadly I do not own any apple products, so I am unable to test. Everything I use is Android.

      If you could, can you possibly get a packet capture of the Milight iOS app doing a handshake with the normal adapter? Then I can try to find what the variance might be and add it to the python script.

      Reply ↓
      1. Gary Riches

        I’ll test it with Android tonight so that I can establish if it’s iOS/app to blame or the Pi.

        I’ll also see if I can capture some extra info for you iOS side to give you an update. Thanks for your help with this.

        Reply ↓
      2. Gary Riches

        Just to follow up, I’m at work at the moment but can now sniff UDP packets from my iOS device. I’ll search for an unmodified device as well as a modified device and send you the logs too, should deb quite easy to spot the difference. Do you have an email address I could get to send them to you?

        Reply ↓
  5. Lukey

    I did a similar project last year. Instead of using a Pi i used a XPort Ethernet-to-TTL chip. Once configured, worked like a charm. No more drops or broken re-joins. Plain ethernet now! :/)
    I steered everything from openhab.org which is just perfect to use. After contacting futlight the actual manufactor of milight and all mutants, saying that their wifi sucks, they rejected the idea of coming up with a ethernet (heck, even PoE) device. So I started my own and interest is increasing (with PoE).

    Reply ↓
  6. Harry

    Nice work! Much better to use a rpi for this, I plan to then use it to store the state of my lights on the pi too, so my other web apps can poll for current state/colour etc

    Where you able to figure out what rf frequency it sends the commands to the lights on?

    Reply ↓
    1. broodro0ster

      I’m thinking about doing the same.

      Although I think it’s enough to just remember the on/off state since the lamps/led controllers remember the last used color and brightness.

      Reply ↓
  7. David

    Neatly done!

    I would like to ask if you know how the RF module and the Wifi module are linked together on a software level. I’ve managed to update the firmware of my milight and now its not completely functional and a bit out of ideas how to proceed with the fix. I think I uploaded an official hi-flying firmware and that might have overwritten something what actually would be needed to communicate. (No app is identifying the wifi bridge).

    Reply ↓
  8. sadless

    David:
    the wifi firmware is 100% stock. The one from the high-flying website has the same checksum as the one on the limitlessled sdk page..
    So whatever is wrong it ain’t that. You should probably try re flashing over serial!

    Reply ↓
  11. Andras

    Great article, man! This is the first project that I see about reverse engineering the MiLight bridge. I have one request: could you please add a picture in which we can see which pin of the WiFi receiver is connected to which pin of the RPI? Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  12. Alex

    Hi guys,

    I was hoping you could help me out. I’ve recently purchased exactly the same WiFi LED controller but my tablet is telling me port 48899 is unavailable. Do you have any idea why?

    Alex

    Reply ↓
  13. Jeroen

    Great stuff! Just added a cheap USB to TTL converter to the milight bridge. I’m running your daemon and controlling several RGB bulbs with openHAB now. Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  14. Bram van den Hout

    Hi,

    Tonight I modded the Milight WiFi bridge as described in your article.
    One thing I noticed after connecting to the Pi : The SYS LED doesn’t work anymore.
    Could it be I broke the board ?

    Anyway this happens when I search for a Milight device within the App :

    root@raspberrypi:/usr/local/bin/rfled-server/RFLED-Server.git/trunk/source# python admin.py &
    [2] 2442

    root@raspberrypi:/usr/local/bin/rfled-server/RFLED-Server.git/trunk/source# (‘admin command: ‘, ‘AT+Q\r’)
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “admin.py”, line 31, in
    adminsock.sendto(bytes(‘+ok’, “utf-8”),adminaddr) # Send OK for each packet we get
    TypeError: str() takes at most 1 argument (2 given)

    Any help is appreciated !

    Cheers,

    Bram

    Reply ↓
    1. Stefan

      Hi Bram, I hav this issue, too.
      Have anyone an idea why this happens?

      I also notices that the Pin 6 is evenually the +Pin cause its descibed with a + in the layout.
      Am I wrong?

      Reply ↓
  15. Adrian

    Thanks for sharing this! I just performed the mod, tonight! Such a simple mod, for such a huge stability gain! My V1 Bridge has been going strong for 2+ years with no dropouts. The V4 Bridge has never worked properly, so this was a very welcome find!

    Reply ↓
  16. Abhinav

    Brilliant stuff
    I have a V3 bridge that has worked without a glitch for 6+ months now
    Wanted to add more zones but after going through three V4 bridges , I was ready to give up till i found this
    Cherry on the cake – Just hooked up the main board to an existing RpI that was running xbian

    Reply ↓
  17. Micha

    Thanks for sharing. Really a nice article.

    Have you tried to go a step further and directly send the 2.4GHz WiFi signal? I have found, that the transmitter chip is a PL1167 and could communicate through SPI.
    I first tried with a logic analyzer but looks a bit weired for me. Basically this chip can send or receive and is really cheep, so I ordered some of them to see how far I get.

    But wondering if someone already tried this?

    Reply ↓
  18. diggs

    Great project. Doing it this way, are you still limited to controlling 4 groups as you are with the controller or does it allow you to expand the control group number?

    Reply ↓
      1. diggs

        OK. Thanks

        I was looking to have a dozen or so bulbs in the house and the requirement of one hub per 4 lights (if you want to control each lamp individually) was a bit of a limit. Looks like it will still be a limit, but thanks for the reply.

        Reply ↓
  19. Micha

    Just got some help with the logic and the correct spec of the PL1167 (I had an old spec with wrong pinout). So sniffing SPI communication was possible.
    The protocol seems simple. It’s not encrypted and seems to simply contain a 16bit controller ID.

    The data contains a frame counter and is send around 50 times on 3 channels to “ensure” it’s received. I did not found any answers from the bulbs, so really seems to be a one way communication and the color really seems to only be 8bit (was hoping for a 24bit field internally).

    The idea is to simply “emulate” multiple bridges by making the controller ID changeable.

    I’m still waiting to receive my orde (5 chips for ~$15) to test sending own signals, will come back and post results of the tests, as soon as I have more info.

    Reply ↓
  20. Sascha

    Hi,

    I like this idea and would also to contribute if possible. I have also multiple bulps (74) and multiple led strips (40) controllers. Would avoid to have 30 bridged.

    Is there any progress on the spi protocol?
    Regards

    Reply ↓
  21. Micha

    Hi,
    I first wanted to wait with the next response until I finished my tests. Unfortunately I’m currently stuck in work. So a short update.
    I received the chips and soldered a first test one. It worked well. I was able to send signals from a PI through SPI to the chip and the bulbs accepted the signal. Additionally I confirmed that the bridge code is coded in the message. I’m not 100% sure, but I think it’s a 8bit bridge code. I successfully linked my test bulbs with two pseudo bridges.
    Unfortunatelly I killed my first chip (not sure why/how) so I did not finished my tests.

    I additionally ordered a pack of LT8900 chips, that should be compatible, but are much cheeper. I will send some more infos, as soon as I find some free time.

    Reply ↓
  24. pronsta

    Hi,

    How can I fix this? I followed your instruction but when I want to connect trough the MiLight app this error shows up.

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/home/pi/RFServer/listen.py", line 35, in
    adminsock.sendto(bytes('+ok', "utf-8"),adminaddr) # Send OK for each packet we get
    TypeError: str() takes at most 1 argument (2 given)

    Reply ↓
  25. Germain

    Hi

    i just made tried your hack (awesome stuff) however i get an error message when starting rfled-server.

    /etc/init.d/rfled-server start
    root@freepbx:~/RFLED-Server-master# Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/local/bin/led.py”, line 4, in
    import serial
    ImportError: No module named serial

    the lights are not working either.

    Any clue what this could be ?

    Thanks

    Reply ↓
  26. Martin

    Very nice hack, thank you!

    Works perfect on my Pi 2 parallel with FHEM for home automation.

    Any idea how to use more then 4 channels on one bridge?

    Reply ↓
  27. Martin

    By the way, any idea how to fix this Error?

    pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo /etc/init.d/rfled-server start
    pi@raspberrypi ~ $ Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/local/bin/admin.py”, line 17, in
    adminsock.bind((UDP_IP, ADMIN_PORT))
    socket.error: [Errno 98] Address already in use
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/local/bin/led.py”, line 17, in
    sock.bind((UDP_IP, LED_PORT))
    socket.error: [Errno 98] Address already in use

    Reply ↓
  28. Ayden Beeson

    This guide is awesome, thanks heaps for putting this up.

    I found after this conversion my lag from the app -> my lights was gone as well as my reliability problems being solved. They need to just sell them as a wired device and save everybody the trouble of fixing it themselves, but at least it works 100% now!

    Thanks again!

    Reply ↓
  29. Csaba Aranyi

    Hello gents,

    Sorry for a stupid question …. How can I register a bulb to the wifi box, without a smartphone ? I would like to use direct API to handle the bulbs. I ‘m testing a java and a PHP api … but something is still missing. I think that I should have a link (registration whatever) between wifi box and bulb.
    Any suggestion ?

    Many thanks.

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Hello,

      Normally registration is just done by turning on the outlet switch for the bulbs, and holding on the Power On option on a remote for the LED group you want the bulbs to be in, so technically this can be done by sending on the Power On command for a group over the API when you apply power to the bulbs from the socket. If I remember correctly, there is a 5~ second window to pair.

      Reply ↓
      1. Csaba Aranyi

        Many thanks for the quick reply. I have tried to send “on” command using java api and power on the bulb… unfortunately no success… might be a trick .. or I did something wrong.

        Reply ↓
        1. Chris B - Admin Post author

          Hmm, well normally you need to use one of the 4 group “On” commands, and not the master “on” command. May want to make sure you were sending the right “On” command to the LEDs.

          Reply ↓
          1. Csaba Aranyi

            Many thanks advising me !

            Indeed, I was able to connect from api (based on Chris B advice) in the following way:
            I did a loop, sending “on” command to a certain group (3 in my case) and then I have connected the bulb to the power supply, wait until 3 flashes.

            No is all ok, I can switch on/off/change color, etc using java api.

            One more thing.. I have noticed a network traffic between the wireless module and internet with the TCP frame bellow:

            19:49:40.856003 IP 192.168.2.100.19814 > 208.113.204.254.38899: P 90:99(9) ack 1 win 1500
            E..1……Yc…d.q..Mf…….4..P….<..Li_Link

            Using AT commands (on port 48899) you are able to enable or disable functions, among that is something called "Cloud server" (TCP,38899,www.anymilight.com)

            Any idea ?? how can I access it ? I suppose that might be a cloud features … but i'm not sure.

            May thanks,

  30. adilson

    Hello,
    Please i wanted to know if you know how to find in the web the official milight bridge firmware. because i updated the firmware with LPB-100 hi-flying download page but its a raw firmware so it doesnt support milight anymore 🙁

    Thanks in advance

    Best regards

    Reply ↓
  31. Jeroen

    Is there a way to identify which version the wifi controller is? There are different color labels used but it won’t disclose the version

    Reply ↓
  32. Martin

    Hi!

    I love this Mod an had it running flawlessly on my RPI2 for some Time.

    Now I changed to the new RPI3 and the bridge won’t work on a clean installation.

    I did everything like last time, incl. disabling the serial console output.

    I can find the bridge via smartphone app, but syncing the lights to the Channels won’t work as it used to.

    Any idea what I can check or try to fix this?

    Starting the script I am getting this:

    pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo /etc/init.d/rfled-server start
    pi@raspberrypi:~ $ Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/local/bin/admin.py”, line 17, in
    adminsock.bind((UDP_IP, ADMIN_PORT))
    OSError: [Errno 98] Address already in use
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/local/bin/led.py”, line 17, in
    sock.bind((UDP_IP, LED_PORT))
    OSError: [Errno 98] Address already in use

    Thanks for your help!
    Martin

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Hey Martin,

      Did you update the admin.py and led.py script to bind to your new device’s IP and mac addresses? Normally the error you are seeing is a sign the service is already running, or is not configured correctly.

      Reply ↓
      1. Martin

        Hey Chris,

        thanks for your quick reply.

        admin.py has the correct IP and mac address and sits with led.py in /usr/local/bin/

        ####
        eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr b8:27:eb:d5:be:e2
        inet addr:192.168.1.69 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
        ###
        admin.py:
        !/usr/bin/env python
        import socket
        # Set admin server settings
        UDP_IP = ” # Leave empty for Broadcast support
        ADMIN_PORT = 48899
        # Local settings of your Raspberry Pi, used for app discovery
        INT_IP = ‘192.168.1.69’
        INT_MAC = ‘b827ebd5bee2’
        # Code Starts Here #
        .
        .

        led.py no changes.

        Do I need to change anything else?
        I did this once on my Raspi 2 and it worked out great. Did I forget anything?

        Martin

        Reply ↓
          1. Martin

            Hi Chris,

            I started the script as root and I think it should be running on startup.

            I checked init.d with grep -nrI Default-Start /etc/init.d:
            /etc/init.d/rfled-server:7:# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5

            Services with sudo service –status-all:
            [ – ] rfled-server

            Pins are connected like on my Raspi2 and the only thing running on it is FHEM.

            So I don’t get it why the lights won’t pair to a channel as they used to.

            Maybe something changed on Raspi3? Any idea what I can do to debug this?

            Thanks for your help!
            Martin

          2. Martin

            Hi Chris,

            I did some more tests with the bridge.

            1. I put it on a Raspi2 running jessie but it did not work
            2. I tested a second bridge to rule out a technical defect but it did not work ether.

            Do you have any clue why the bridge is not running on a Raspi3 with jessie?

            What can I do to solve this?

            Greetings, Martin

          3. Martin

            Hi guys, didn’t get it running on Raspberry 3 with jessie.

            Anyone got it running on this system? Maybe there need to be something adapted because of device tree in jessie?

            I am not good enough to figure this out by myself and would appreciate some help.

            Martin

          4. Chris B - Admin Post author

            Hey Martin,

            Sadly I don’t have a Pi 3 and I run this off of a Pi 1 B model, but if it helps I was able to get this going on Raspbian 8.0 using the following commands:

            # Update, install packages, and clone repo
            apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade -y
            apt-get install python python3 python3-serial -y
            git clone https://github.com/riptidewave93/RFLED-Server.git /opt/RFLED-Server

            # Edit the MAC/IP in /opt/RFLED-Server/source/admin.py
            nano /opt/RFLED-Server/source/admin.py

            # Remove ttyAMA0 (UART) Console in /boot/cmdline.txt
            nano /boot/cmdline.txt

            # Set permissions, and install files
            chmod -R +x /opt/RFLED-Server/source
            chmod +x /opt/RFLED-Server/rfled-server
            cp /opt/RFLED-Server/source/led.py /usr/local/bin
            cp /opt/RFLED-Server/source/admin.py /usr/local/bin
            cp /opt/RFLED-Server/rfled-server /etc/init.d/

            # Disable UART Console for good measure
            systemctl disable [email protected]
            systemctl stop [email protected]

            # Enable new service
            update-rc.d rfled-server defaults
            update-rc.d rfled-server enable

            # Away we go!
            reboot

            As for your error, have you made sure the service isn’t starting on boot already? (netstat -lnp | grep python)

          5. Martin

            Hi Chris,

            thanks for your help.

            I did everything exactly like you said, after clean removing my own installation (service & files) and reboot.

            But it still won`t work 🙁

            The service is running at startup and I can connect via App. But it is still not possible to sync individual bulbs with a channel.

            Again I tested two bridges (one worked already with RPI2 wheezy) and double- and triple-checked the wiring.

            I don’t know what else to do. Is there anybody who successful runs this on RPI3 with jessie?

            Martin

          6. Marcel

            Hi Chris & Martin,

            I think I have a similar issue.

            On my RPi model B (Raspbian Jessie) rfled-server is working, but it on my RPi 3 (also Jessie) it won’t

            Here’s what I got so far:
            – The serial port device for the RPi 3 is /dev/ttyS0 (instead of /dev/ttyAMA0)
            – Indeed, if I configure led.py to use /dev/ttyS0, short GPIO 14 & 15 (pin 8 & 10 on the pinout) and `screen /dev/ttyS0`, I can observe the MiLight commands being sent.
            – On the RPi3, the hardware UART of the Broadcom is used for Bluetooth. The GPIO 14/15 pins use a mini-uart port. The mini-uart clock is linked to the main CPU clock and is supposedly unreliable. (Source: http://www.briandorey.com/post/Raspberry-Pi-3-UART-Overlay-Workaround)
            – So, my guess that timing is off or some other spec has changed, which is incompatible with the MiLight bridge. Unfortunately, I don’t have any hardware to inspect the actual output of the UART port.
            – A workaround could be to disable Bluetooth en remap the hardware UART to the GPIO pins (see link above). However, I’d like to use bluetooth as well for another project.

            Chris, any ideas/other tests I could try?

            Kind regards,

            Marcel

          7. Chris B - Admin Post author

            Hey there,

            Thanks for the awesome info! As for a work around, you can always try adding a USB UART adapter, and then wiring that directly to the MiLight board. This will allow you to have the hardware UART for Bluetooth, and a UART adapter is cheap at around $5 shipped.

          8. Martin

            Hi guys,

            I am very happy someone has the same problems. No offense… 😉

            But this looks like a good plan to solve this.

            Today I ordered a PL2303 USB UART Board and will do some tests when it arrives.

            Martin

          9. Martin

            Hi,

            disabling Bluetooth and remapping UART works also.

            Found this on openenergymonitor.org:

            To disable onboard Pi3 Bluetooth and restore UART0/ttyAMA0 over GPIOs 14 & 15 modify:

            sudo nano /boot/config.txt

            Add to the end of the file

            dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt

            We also need to run to stop BT modem trying to use UART

            sudo systemctl disable hciuart

            Runs like a charm with no extra hardware 🙂

  33. alainrp

    Hello
    I’ve a raspberry B+…the scripts are working fine (debugging by print and testing with an iOS app) but I have to pair again my lights…and I try to do it with the app and it just does not work : the light do not blink whtn I push the on button on one channel…

    Is there something special to be done?

    Reply ↓
  34. crazygerry

    Hi all,

    great stuff here. Thank You Very Much !
    I like the former python script, and I can get a fine “go” solution here, now to.
    Maybe it’s a little bit of topic, because I use a FritzBox (Router) with FTDI chip,
    instead of the Raspi and the FritzBox with freetz has not that much memory.
    Therefore I installed socat over freetz, and the ftdi driver, too.
    Then I put the following stuff to my freetz -> rc.local.

    #!/bin/bash
    SERIALDEVICE=ttyUSB0
    cat > /tmp/milightresp.sh << 'EOS'
    #!/bin/bash
    #change ip and mac according to your device
    INT_IP='192.168.178.1'
    INT_MAC='x8x423x95f9x'
    read -t1 -N10 VAL
    if echo "$VAL" | grep -q 'Link_Wi-Fi'
    then
    echo $INT_IP,$INT_MAC,
    else
    echo +ok
    fi
    EOS
    chmod +x /tmp/milightresp.sh

    socat -v udp-l:48899,fork exec:'/tmp/milightresp.sh' &
    socat -v -b2 udp-l:8899,fork,reuseaddr file:/dev/$SERIALDEVICE,b9600,raw &

    Have fun !

    Reply ↓
  35. Brent Wingfield

    Hello,

    I am an industrial designer that has been using the milights in some wall art projects. I can run the devices off the remote, but cannot get the wifi bridge to work. I came across your posting, but I have no experience with Rasberry Pi devices. Would it be too much trouble to ask for a dumbed down version of this guide (complete with photos, and a detailed shopping list).

    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  36. Jasper

    Hi,

    Thank you for this.

    I tried to install version 1.1 of rfled-server on my Raspberry Pi 2, but when I run systemctl enable rfled-server, I get the following error:

    Failed to issue method call: Invalid argument

    Any idea what the issue could be?

    Thanks in advance!

    Reply ↓
  37. Alex

    Hello,

    I tried to follow each step of the topic and it works well using the default serial port /dev/ttyAMA0.
    I’m using AMA0 serial port for another project so I tried to connect a USB TTL (like this one : https://cdn.instructables.com/F0L/DZH2/HFD1F0NF/F0LDZH2HFD1F0NF.MEDIUM.jpg).
    I detected the USB TTL as /dev/ttyUSB1 when I plugged it to raspberry.
    But I was not able to replace the default serial port /dev/ttyAMA0 by /dev/ttyUSB1 in your program … :/

    Can you help me ?

    Thanks a lot 😀

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      If you are running the Go binary, you can change the UART port by using the application flags.

      Example:
      rfled-server -serial /dev/ttyUSB0 -baud 115200

      As mentioned in the Repo Readme, you can add the flags to /etc/default/rfled-server so they are ran if you are running this as a service.

      Reply ↓
      1. Alex

        I tried this command it works : rfled-server -serial /dev/ttyUSB0 -baud 115200
        So in /etc/default/rfled-server I added “RFLED_OPTS= -serial /dev/ttyUSB0”

        When I tried “/etc/init.d/rfled-server start” it says : “/etc/init.d/rfled-server: 6: /etc/default/rfled-server: -serial: not found”

        Maybe I made a mistake in the option file ?

        Reply ↓
        1. Chris B - Admin Post author

          Hey,

          You will want to make sure that your file has a line similar to the following:
          RFLED_OPTS=” -serial /dev/ttyUSB0”, as having the entire line in quotes will cause the issue you are seeing.

          Reply ↓
  38. Matthew Klinko

    Hello I am getting the error:

    pi@raspberrypi:~/rfled-server $ sudo rfled-server
    2016/10/05 07:44:34 too many colons in address fe80::497b:4d29:59e:2d6c:8899

    Any help?

    thanks

    Reply ↓
    2. Reid Neville

      I had this same problem. Did you set it up on one network interface then switched to another later?

      I had this same issue when I switched from eth0 to my wireless interface. It worked after I switched back. If you do a clean install you can go WiFi with no issues, switching to eth0 causes the issue to come back.

      Hope this helps!

      Reply ↓
  40. FH

    The one without coulours has is a combined “warm white” / “cold white” LED. Do you also use them?

    I tried to control them directly using an nRF24L01+ as described here:
    http://torsten-traenkner.de/wissen/smarthome/openmilight.php
    But I did not succeed. My guess is that my bulbs use a different protocol (I read about differences of the protocols between different MiLight bulbs, but do not recall the reference right now). So I wonder if this very difference might also cause problems using your approach or if it is more universal due to the partial use of the bridge.

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Hey there,

      As my code only emulates the WiFi bridge and not the transmitter, as long as your LED bridge uses the same ports then this method should still work for that version of the LEDs, but I do now own one of those combined mode lights to verify this for sure. In theory it “should” work as my approach does not mess with, or change the packet structure of data sent to the LEDs.

      Reply ↓
  41. Jason

    has anyone tried to adapt the led server code so you don’t need to salvage the radio out of a gateway, but just hook up an nrf24l01?

    Reply ↓
  42. Brandon

    Completed the soldering no problems using the exact same WiFi bridge as you on a Raspberry Pi. Did a clean restore to the latest Raspberrian.

    I run the following commands:
    sudo apt-get install update && sudo apt-get install upgrade
    sudo apt-get install golang
    sudo apt-get install git-all
    git clone https://github.com/riptidewave93/RFLED-Server.git /opt/RFLED-Server

    Then I try to follow your input below, but nano brings up “blank” documents, and I believe I’m failing to install RFLED-Server correctly. Would you mind posting the exact steps on a Rapsberry Pi for a total linux noob? Greatly appreciate the insight and this blog post, very cool! 🙂
    # Edit the MAC/IP in /opt/RFLED-Server/source/admin.py
    nano /opt/RFLED-Server/source/admin.py

    # Remove ttyAMA0 (UART) Console in /boot/cmdline.txt
    nano /boot/cmdline.txt

    # Set permissions, and install files
    chmod -R +x /opt/RFLED-Server/source
    chmod +x /opt/RFLED-Server/rfled-server
    cp /opt/RFLED-Server/source/led.py /usr/local/bin
    cp /opt/RFLED-Server/source/admin.py /usr/local/bin
    cp /opt/RFLED-Server/rfled-server /etc/init.d/

    Can’t get passed this point. Appreciate anyones input on where I’m going wrong, very new to Linux.

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Hello,

      From the commands you shared, it looks like you did it right but now that Go is used, those install instructions are no longer valid. To install the Go version of the service, you will want to download the release .tar.gz which is on the Releases page on GitHub, which will provide a compiled version of the application. One done, follow the install info in the Readme of the repo. https://github.com/riptidewave93/RFLED-Server

      Reply ↓
  43. Sarah Gardner

    Working fine with both the RGBW and plain white ones on my Pi2.

    You can go a tiny bit further and hack off the USB port to save some space, literally just chopped it off. The whole thing can fit neatly inside a Pi2 case: http://imgur.com/gallery/pLGUM

    Now we just have to wait for the V6 bridge to come out (able to control the new RGBWWCW bulbs) and hope this mod still works!

    Reply ↓
  44. ARK

    Hello

    what is the exact AT Command set for v4.0 limitlessled wifi bridges? it seems the API guide at the following url don’t work! pls hlp!
    AT commandset

    +ok\r //enter admin mode
    AT+WSCAN\r
    +ok= detected WIFIs…
    AT+WSSSID=mySSIDname\r
    +ok
    AT+WSKEY=WPA2PSK,AES,password123\r
    +ok
    AT+WMODE=STA\r
    +ok
    AT+Z\r
    +ok
    AT+Q\r //exit admin mode

    Reply ↓
      1. Niels

        I got one from a dutch MiLight webshop. But I’ve also seen them on alibaba.
        It’s sold as ‘Wifi iBox’ under the Milight brand, but I haven’t seen it with the other brand names yet.
        Works like a charm on my RGB+CCT downlights. I’m now trying to hook it up to an Arduino, trying to figure out what commands I have to send.

        Reply ↓
  46. Peter O.

    Hi Chris. Thank you for a great job for emulating the MiLight bridge.

    I have a weird problem that I hope I can get som help with. When I reboot the RPi v.1 it starts the rfled-server service as shown below:
    pi@milightrpi:~ $ sudo service rfled-server status
    ● rfled-server.service – LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/rfled-server)
    Active: active (exited) since Sun 2016-10-30 14:39:01 CET; 34s ago
    Process: 332 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/rfled-server start (code=exited, status=0/S UCCESS)

    Oct 30 14:38:59 milightrpi systemd[1]: Starting LSB: RFLED-Server for Milig…..
    Oct 30 14:39:00 milightrpi rfled-server[332]: Starting rfled-server: rfled-s….
    Oct 30 14:39:01 milightrpi systemd[1]: Started LSB: RFLED-Server for Miligh…s.
    Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

    BUT it doesn´t show the service on the MiLight iOS app. Therefor I stop the service:
    pi@milightrpi:~ $ sudo service rfled-server stop

    Check the status:
    pi@milightrpi:~ $ sudo service rfled-server status
    ● rfled-server.service – LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/rfled-server)
    Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2016-10-30 14:40:25 CET; 2s ago
    Process: 662 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/rfled-server stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 332 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/rfled-server start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Oct 30 14:38:59 milightrpi systemd[1]: Starting LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs…
    Oct 30 14:39:00 milightrpi rfled-server[332]: Starting rfled-server: rfled-server.
    Oct 30 14:39:01 milightrpi systemd[1]: Started LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs.
    Oct 30 14:40:25 milightrpi systemd[1]: Stopping LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs…
    Oct 30 14:40:25 milightrpi rfled-server[662]: Stopping rfled-server: rfled-serverstart-stop-daemon: warning: failed to kill 371: No such process
    Oct 30 14:40:25 milightrpi rfled-server[662]: .
    Oct 30 14:40:25 milightrpi systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs.

    And then start the service again:
    pi@milightrpi:~ $ sudo service rfled-server start
    pi@milightrpi:~ $ sudo service rfled-server status
    ● rfled-server.service – LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/rfled-server)
    Active: active (running) since Sun 2016-10-30 14:40:36 CET; 2s ago
    Process: 662 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/rfled-server stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 707 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/rfled-server start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    CGroup: /system.slice/rfled-server.service
    └─717 /usr/sbin/rfled-server

    Oct 30 14:40:36 milightrpi rfled-server[707]: Starting rfled-server: rfled-server.
    Oct 30 14:40:36 milightrpi systemd[1]: Started LSB: RFLED-Server for Milight LEDs.

    And this time the service shows in the MiLight iOS app as a bridge.
    The only difference I see in the two service status´ is the CGroup: /system.slice/rfled-server.service
    └─717 /usr/sbin/rfled-server
    So it seems that the RPi doenst start the correct service on startup/reboot but when the user stops and starts the service it starts the correct service.
    Im thinking this is a NOOB problem but Im going nuts because I cant solve it. So any help would be much appriciated 🙂

    Reply ↓
  47. Ronald

    Maybe off-topic, but you guys seem to have a lot of knowledge of this crappy Mi-light wifi box 🙂

    My mi-light bridge stopped working ( did not do anything with it. plugged it in right from the box and it worked for a year an d a half. Now both sys & link leds are off. Whem i plug it in a small tiny flash of both leds and then dead again. Can this be repaired ? I can solder..

    All hints apriciated
    Regards from The Netherlands, RadioRon.

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Hello,
      Sadly sounds like either the power circuitry on the main PCB is toast, or the actual wifi bridge unit is dead. Sadly the only way to check is to diagnose each part. For example, if you use jumpers to apply 3.3v to the wifi bridge manually does it boot then without issue?

      Reply ↓
  48. Travis

    What version of raspberry pi did you use?

    I’m using a 3 and I see that it is causing problems so I plan on getting a earlier model, which one did you use? Pi1, pi2?

    Reply ↓
    1. Chris B - Admin Post author

      Hello,

      For my project I repurposed an older Pi1. As for the issue, most issues with the Pi3 are due to the fact that the actual hardware UART is used for the bluetooth modem. You may want to try using the following to see if it helps resolve your issues. https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/45570/how-do-i-make-serial-work-on-the-raspberry-pi3

      Specifically in that post, the parts about the device tree to swap back the UARTs.

      Reply ↓
  49. Michael

    Hi,

    I want to run it on a RPI3 with Jessie. I already have set up the interfaces as described here:
    http://spellfoundry.com/2016/05/29/configuring-gpio-serial-port-raspbian-jessie-including-pi-3/

    I followed the installation steps on https://github.com/riptidewave93/RFLED-Server

    The options in /etc/default/rfled-server are set to: RFLED_OPTS=” -serial /dev/ttyAMA0”

    As I want to enable the server it doesn’t work:
    (#)~:$ systemctl enable rfled-server 17:44:11
    Synchronizing state for rfled-server.service with sysvinit using update-rc.d…
    Executing /usr/sbin/update-rc.d rfled-server defaults
    insserv: script rfled-server is not an executable regular file, skipped!
    Executing /usr/sbin/update-rc.d rfled-server enable
    update-rc.d: error: no runlevel symlinks to modify, aborting!
    [Exit 1 ]
    (#)~:$

    May you help?

    Reply ↓
  50. Ronnie Panken

    Hello, i am a newbie on raspberry
    but i think i got everything working only i dont see any milight box in the app on my phone
    what do you meen with: Configure your settings in /etc/default/rfled-server as needed
    where can i find these settings, i dont know my wifi box mc asdres nor ip adress.
    Raspberry pi2 is running on ip 192.168.1.53
    when i start; 4. Enable the init.d script systemctl enable rfled-server
    its says:
    executing /usr/sbin/update-rc.d rfled-server defaults
    executing /usr/sbin/update-rc.d rfled-server enabled

    And than:
    5. Start the service service rfled-server start
    it coms back with nothing ??

    please help

    Reply ↓
  51. Reid Neville

    Okay. So I’m having issues here…

    The first issue is that it is not starting up on the startup. I’ve done a fresh install 3 times now (fully new OS), and on the first setup inputting the commands….

    sudo systemctl enable rfled-server

    sudo service rfled-server start

    …creates a milight server visible to my phone which I can connect to. However when I restart (and every time I restart after) the server does not automatically start up. Even more troublesome, the commands

    sudo systemctl enable rfled-server

    sudo service rfled-server start

    don’t start the server again and my phone can’t connect.

    I’ve solved this by manually inputting

    sudo rfled-server – debug

    This gets the server up and running and is visible to my phone, even better I can see that the app is talking to the server nicely. But… there’s still issues. I’ve burned through 2 bridges now and neither are forwarding the commands onto the bulbs. I have been unsuccessful in pairing a bulb to the bridge thus far. I strongly suspect that there’s something wrong with my hardware, but I cannot pinpoint what.

    So I have a few questions. How can you view the output to the serial connections so I know the server is forwarding it’s commands properly, and what should I look for in the bridge? I’m reasonably certain there are no shorts, and I know I got the pins right, I matched it to the picture above (I’m on a pi 2b, and could take a picture of the bridge if it helps).

    Any help at all would be appreciated. I’m banging my head against the wall metaphorically.

    Reply ↓
    1. Reid Neville

      And another point…

      I’m seeing others mention admin.py files and such, yet I see no such file in any of the tar.gz area nor do I see them after installation. Am I missing files?

      Reply ↓
    2. Reid Neville

      Okay, so sorry about the string of comments from me but I figured I’d update what I found out just from my own further troubleshooting. Still nothing sadly :-/

      First, after browsing these comments I found someone who had the same issue as me in that the service is not auto starting and we both have the issue fixed by issuing the commands

      sudo service rfled-server stop
      sudo service rfled-server start

      Not a permanent ideal solution, and this has happened on 3 consecutive fresh installs of raspbian at this stage for me (on a pi 2b+).

      This does create a server which my phone connects to, and I’m confident the commands are being received because debugging is super responsive when I’ve run it, and the activity light is doing its thang.

      I’ve taken a multi meter to 1, 2, 6 on the wifi bridge and one of the known grounds on the PI, I’m reading 3.3volts to each. I have no idea how to read any output from the data connection, or any wireless output from the remotes.

      If anyone, and I mean anyone has any means of helping me out here I’d be forever in your debt.

      Reply ↓
      1. Reid Neville

        Used an arduino in serial monitor mode.

        Commands are not being sent from Pi’s serial. Receiving input fine though. Please advise, I’m honestly at a brick wall.

        Reply ↓
  52. Alex D

    Interesting article.

    So were you able to improve the speed commands are sent? I’d like to control the rate at which my lights dim but the only solution I’ve found has been to send numerous brightness commands and I don’t feel this is ideal. For starters, sometimes some commands get lost to the ether, and there appears to be a required delay of a noticeable amount of milliseconds (I think 20) between each command so I can not achieve the true smooth dimming that I want.

    I wonder if by passing wifi is the solution to my problem.

    Reply ↓
  53. Stefan

    Hello Chris,

    what about to rewrite your code to use the NRF24L01+ together with the PI?

    It would help so many people out here..
    Please consider it.

    Reply ↓
  54. Matt

    Just wanted to thank you for this excellent software and guide. After struggling with intermittent lights for almost 4 years I finally have a dependable system! Some notes for others who follow:

    -The current version requires systemd so that’s Raspbian Jessie at the least. Wheezy won’t work – you must upgrade.
    -the armv6 version is for original Pis. My Pi2 rev 1 model B took the armv7 binary. The 64-bit binary is for newer.
    -Removing the old WiFi board is by far the most difficult step. Removing *all* the solder so it’s loose, then lifting it straight off the pins so it doesn’t bind, is virtually impossible with a conventional soldering iron and only two hands. I ended up cutting the pins flush and then ripping it off after I removed as much solder as I could. Don’t worry about damaging the pins too badly because they also extend out the underside so you can attach your wires there. Just make sure nothing’s shorted.
    -Pin 1 is the inside pin.
    -This works very well with the milight utility (http://iqjar.com/jar/home-automation-using-the-raspberry-pi-to-control-the-lights-in-your-home-over-wi-fi/) just put your Pi’s IP address in the milight.conf file. local address – 127.0.0.1 – doesn’t seem to work.

    Reply ↓

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