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Bought a WiFi light bulb for fun years back, it died and they replaced it then it recent died again and I just went back to a standard bulb. Even when it worked

Bought a WiFi light bulb for fun years back, it died and they replaced it then it recent died again and I just went back to a standard bulb. Even when it worked it would periodically lose connection the the WiFi and need a reset, assuming the app worked correctly and paired. Not worth the hassle.

arp242 6y ago
Some of the colour changing WiFi bulbs seem pretty neat though. I used to have a Philips Hue (standalone, two of them) and mucking about with those remotes wasn't always that great either.
- donmcronald 6y ago
  I have 10 LIFX bulbs. Hardware wise they're really great. I don't mind having to connect them to WiFi. However, the app to control them is, bar none, the biggest piece of shit app I've ever used. I can barely control my lights. The scheduling is pretty handy though. I have half a dozen outside and they turn on / off with dusk / dawn. In addition to that I have them set to go to bright white and 30-50% at night (just enough to keep security cameras in color mode).
  - joombaga 6y ago
    Try https://remote.lighting https://remote.lighting if you haven't. It's a lot cleaner than the official app.
  - nixgeek 6y ago
    I’ve had an unacceptably high AFR with all LIFX bulbs, although I’ll concede their support is fantastic at shipping replacements to me. We’ve had about 20-22% failure rate of bulbs within 2 years of ownership, seen across ~60 of them. In addition to that about another 20% have needed factory resetting once or twice in the same period, because they stopped interacting with WiFi and the first-party application in ways that just turning off and on again at the light switch didn’t fix. In contrast to this we’ve had exactly one Philips Hue fail on us. Also cheerfully replaced for us. None of them have needed resetting and we have about the same # of light fixtures deployed. Probably the most annoying problem is Hue Play’s are prone to coil whine at 100% brightness on on certain scene colors, particularly those involving blue-white (6000K). Resolvable by going < 5000K or dropping to 90% brightness, I haven’t attempted to get warranty replacement for this issue but about 16/22 of my Hue Play’s are affected by the issue. Integrated with Google Home it’s also common that some % of LIFX bulbs won’t respond to a “turn off all the lights” command, whereas Philips is very good at on/off even when the command involves large numbers of bulbs...
    - anonfornoreason 6y ago
      I don’t know if I will ever understand how someone can write out a comment clearly indicating a massive pain in the ass (20 lightbulbs failing and requiring calls to tech support, RMA, etc), and not be using it to talk about how this whole industry is a nightmare.
      - arp242 6y ago
        Well, the previous poster said the Philips ones work much better, so clearly it's not "the whole industry".
        anonfornoreason 6y ago
        I’ll concede the point on a technicality, but will still stand by my motivation behind that comment - increasing the maintenance requirements for normal life sounds like a terrible way to spend money, environmental impact, and time...
        arp242 6y ago
        "It works well" doesn't sound like "a technicality", but okay. Humans remember negative experiences much stronger than positive ones, and "it just works" isn't really something you tend to notice in the first place. There's a lot of bias here.
      - tga 6y ago
        If you buy a car that keeps on breaking down, will you talk about how the auto industry is a nightmare or will you just pick a different manufacturer next time?
        anonfornoreason 6y ago
        I am clearly bringing bias to this conversation, but I have dabbled with some smart items (hub, locks), and have a friend who is into them. It’s non stop fiddling and fixing from all my actual experiences. You also have to remember the negative externalities of extra e-trash affect everyone, so to read about yet another iot failure, it’s easy for me to continue to trash the whole industry.
- neom 6y ago
  Neat until you have to reboot them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo
  - TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
    Thanks for posting that. I never thought I’d see a video from a manufacturer telling me how to “factory reset” a light bulb. How did we get here and when will it stop?
    - neom 6y ago
      You put your right foot in You take your right foot out You put your right foot in And you shake it all about You do the hokey pokey And you turn yourself around That's how you reset a GE connected lightbulb.
    - tga 6y ago
      We are talking about a full computer that is small and cheap enough to control a single light bulb. We got here through unbelievable technological development. Why would you want it to stop now, when the tech is both amazing _and_ rough around the edges? Better hope development continues and the end-user experience stabilizes to something much better.
      - sundarurfriend 6y ago
        I share your enthusiasm for how amazing our technology has gotten, but I'm also experienced enough to know that the technology will always be "rough around the edges" as you put it, because maximising profit doesn't require stable end-user experiences that are as good as they can be - they'll constantly be just barely good enough to make it into the shops, and then let the marketing take care of getting enough wallets to open up to make a profit on them. Capitalism continuously fails to deliver on its promise of "may the best win, and may all be incentivised to be the best" because companies have found several loopholes in its assumptions - constantly introducing flashy new features so the basic faults don't get the airtime they should, advertising with the best psychological manipulation money can buy, and flooding the market with enough barely distinguishable models that simple decision fatigue gets enough people giving up on research and buying the crappy models unwittingly.

arp242 6y ago

Some of the colour changing WiFi bulbs seem pretty neat though. I used to have a Philips Hue (standalone, two of them) and mucking about with those remotes wasn't always that great either.

donmcronald 6y ago
I have 10 LIFX bulbs. Hardware wise they're really great. I don't mind having to connect them to WiFi. However, the app to control them is, bar none, the biggest piece of shit app I've ever used. I can barely control my lights. The scheduling is pretty handy though. I have half a dozen outside and they turn on / off with dusk / dawn. In addition to that I have them set to go to bright white and 30-50% at night (just enough to keep security cameras in color mode).
- joombaga 6y ago
  Try https://remote.lighting https://remote.lighting if you haven't. It's a lot cleaner than the official app.
- nixgeek 6y ago
  I’ve had an unacceptably high AFR with all LIFX bulbs, although I’ll concede their support is fantastic at shipping replacements to me. We’ve had about 20-22% failure rate of bulbs within 2 years of ownership, seen across ~60 of them. In addition to that about another 20% have needed factory resetting once or twice in the same period, because they stopped interacting with WiFi and the first-party application in ways that just turning off and on again at the light switch didn’t fix. In contrast to this we’ve had exactly one Philips Hue fail on us. Also cheerfully replaced for us. None of them have needed resetting and we have about the same # of light fixtures deployed. Probably the most annoying problem is Hue Play’s are prone to coil whine at 100% brightness on on certain scene colors, particularly those involving blue-white (6000K). Resolvable by going < 5000K or dropping to 90% brightness, I haven’t attempted to get warranty replacement for this issue but about 16/22 of my Hue Play’s are affected by the issue. Integrated with Google Home it’s also common that some % of LIFX bulbs won’t respond to a “turn off all the lights” command, whereas Philips is very good at on/off even when the command involves large numbers of bulbs...
  - anonfornoreason 6y ago
    I don’t know if I will ever understand how someone can write out a comment clearly indicating a massive pain in the ass (20 lightbulbs failing and requiring calls to tech support, RMA, etc), and not be using it to talk about how this whole industry is a nightmare.
    - arp242 6y ago
      Well, the previous poster said the Philips ones work much better, so clearly it's not "the whole industry".
      - anonfornoreason 6y ago
        I’ll concede the point on a technicality, but will still stand by my motivation behind that comment - increasing the maintenance requirements for normal life sounds like a terrible way to spend money, environmental impact, and time...
        arp242 6y ago
        "It works well" doesn't sound like "a technicality", but okay. Humans remember negative experiences much stronger than positive ones, and "it just works" isn't really something you tend to notice in the first place. There's a lot of bias here.
    - tga 6y ago
      If you buy a car that keeps on breaking down, will you talk about how the auto industry is a nightmare or will you just pick a different manufacturer next time?
      - anonfornoreason 6y ago
        I am clearly bringing bias to this conversation, but I have dabbled with some smart items (hub, locks), and have a friend who is into them. It’s non stop fiddling and fixing from all my actual experiences. You also have to remember the negative externalities of extra e-trash affect everyone, so to read about yet another iot failure, it’s easy for me to continue to trash the whole industry.
neom 6y ago
Neat until you have to reboot them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo
- TedDoesntTalk 6y ago
  Thanks for posting that. I never thought I’d see a video from a manufacturer telling me how to “factory reset” a light bulb. How did we get here and when will it stop?
  - neom 6y ago
    You put your right foot in You take your right foot out You put your right foot in And you shake it all about You do the hokey pokey And you turn yourself around That's how you reset a GE connected lightbulb.
  - tga 6y ago
    We are talking about a full computer that is small and cheap enough to control a single light bulb. We got here through unbelievable technological development. Why would you want it to stop now, when the tech is both amazing _and_ rough around the edges? Better hope development continues and the end-user experience stabilizes to something much better.
    - sundarurfriend 6y ago
      I share your enthusiasm for how amazing our technology has gotten, but I'm also experienced enough to know that the technology will always be "rough around the edges" as you put it, because maximising profit doesn't require stable end-user experiences that are as good as they can be - they'll constantly be just barely good enough to make it into the shops, and then let the marketing take care of getting enough wallets to open up to make a profit on them. Capitalism continuously fails to deliver on its promise of "may the best win, and may all be incentivised to be the best" because companies have found several loopholes in its assumptions - constantly introducing flashy new features so the basic faults don't get the airtime they should, advertising with the best psychological manipulation money can buy, and flooding the market with enough barely distinguishable models that simple decision fatigue gets enough people giving up on research and buying the crappy models unwittingly.