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Wi-Fi Light Bulbs Shipping Soon
An anonymous reader writes "Computerworld has an interview with an Australian startup called LIFX, producing WiFi-connected LED light bulbs. Each light bulb is a small computer running the Thingsquare distribution of the open source Contiki operating system that creates a low-power wireless mesh network between the light bulbs and connects them to the WiFi network. The wireless mesh network lets the light bulbs be controlled with a smartphone app. Through a Kickstarter project, the company has already raised a significant amount of money: over one million USD. "
The same thing could be done with a screw in adapter. Adapter screws into the fixture, bulb screws into the adapter. Same feature set. More flexibility.
More WiFi clients == less RF flying around?
No, not really: Insteon (and X10) are dead silent unless commands are being sent. Meanwhile, WiFi devices are inherently somewhat chatty; they all spend a significant portion of their time broadcasting "Hey, here I am! I'm still here! I'm still here! I'm still here! Hey, everyone! I'm still here! Are you there? Good! Because I'm still here!"
Kid-proof tablet..
Erm sorry but that's false. TRIACs only result in dirty power if they are used to chop part of the sine wave such as in a dimmer circuit. If you connect it high via a transistor or optocoupler it will start conducting from the very start of each half cycle and will not result in any harmonic distortion.
The only time you'll see dirty power while a TRIAC is used as a simple switch is when it's not conducting. The leakage current is not constant. However if a few milliAmpers are likely to kill your ballast it was well and truly time to replace it anyway.
If you're still using incandescent lights an LED will save a few times its cost in electricity.
Since LEDs are a metric ass-load more expensive than incandescents, they'll need to last an appropriately metric ass-load longer than incandescents.
But since CFLs were also supposed to last 10-15 years but don't, color me skeptical in believing LED light manufacturers claims of light bulb nirvana.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
x10 .. x10
Somewhere in the recesses of my brain that sounds fami.. oh god.. OH GOD!
Kidding aside, I played with x10 for a while and if anyone is thinking about it, my suggestion is: don't
It's a terrible and outdated protocol. A quick "of the top of my head" list of the major problems:
- It's one way (for the most part). There was a kind of handshake thing out there but it was never used.
- The signals are easily lost in what were called "signal suckers" in many x10 circles. Basically any device using cheap filtering could kill a signal. This was a bad combination with the first one. It was common recommended practice to send a command 3 times at a 2s interval..
- False positives! The protocol is insanely simple and came from olden times when there were generally few noisy devices plugged in. The result is the right burst of noise can actually be a valid message and result in anything (but normally it was your bedroom lights turning on in the middle of the night).
- Slow. I don't know what the actual command throughput was.. but it wasn't good.
The whole thing was a terrible experience, and ultimately the novelty of it dies pretty quick. The very few useful implications are easily dealt with using much simpler technologies. One of the nicer things was always turning off the bedroom lights while laying in bed. Now I've got a self contained wall switch/remote dealie that works _perfectly_ and didn't even require a neutral ground wire or anything.. literally just swap and go.
I still have most of my old x10 gear. I will usually pull some of it out during christmas time.. few appliance modules controlling christmas lights and such.. but I'd never even think of trying to automate a home with it.. stuff is garbage.
The problem is most western lighting is really, really shit. We usually have one or two hanging bulbs to light up a room, and then put shades on them which prevent light reflecting off the ceiling. Rooms are unevenly lit and we need expensive compact bulbs with the electronics crammed into a tiny space.
In the far east, particularly Japan, they have big (~0.6m) diffuse lights that put out 5500lm (about 5x what a 100W incandescent produces). They are LED based and only consume 50W of power. They last a long time as the electronics are properly spread out and cooled. You get a remote control that adjusts brightness and colour temperature. They don't even cost any more than typical gaudy western light fixtures.
Over there they also have more small low wattage lights that are used for specific areas where people work.
LEDs are already excellent, we just don't use them very well.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
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Reactive loads are typically filtered with with small LCR circuits as used in any universal dimmer capable of dimming CFLs and LEDs without flicker. They just aren't very common yet as they have only been on the market for a few years. Also the mA leaking through the TRIAC will not provide sufficient fwd voltage to make it to the caps. TRIAC control is used widely in smart lighting configurations in commercial buildings, yet I've never seen a light randomly flick on.