API misbehavior

[dermalikmann]

So, I'm not quite sure if this is a bug, or I'm just not getting it.
I am currently building my smart home system and wanted to integrate an esp (nodemcu) with McLighting.
Currently I'm going with MQTT (mabe I'm going to switch to HTTP because of more detailed features)
In the WS API doc (wich should be the same as the MQTT) it is explained that the #<hexrgb> is setting a color and the *<hexrgb> is setting the color AND turning all lamps on

Payload: #<hexrgb>
Where is the color as HEX, e.g. 04d2ff
Set default color of the lamp.

Payload: *<hexrgb>
Where is the color as HEX, e.g. 04d2ff
Set default color of the lamp and light all LEDs in that color.

But this does not match with the behavior I'm experiencing. Although I call #<hexrgb> my LED strip is turned on.

So again: Am I interpreting this wrongly, or is this a misbehavior?

MfG / Greets
Malik

[debsahu]

The diff is: # sets only main color, so the animation can be anything, but the main color is changed without affecting the current mode. * sets the main color AND sets mode to static mode (old mode is replaced, mode=FX_MODE_STATIC).

[dermalikmann]

Oh yeah, I see that I was definitly unclear what I meant. Sorry for that.
I forgot to mention that my strip is turned off. Then I set the color via #<hexrgb>. The problem now is that the strip turns on again. I've done some very basic debugging via the API and found out that when I set the color the switch status gets turned to 1.

Here is some JSON

{
  "mode": 2,
  "ws2812fx_mode": 0,
  "ws2812fx_mode_name": "Static",
  "speed": 196,
  "brightness": 196,
  "color": [
    0,
    250,
    212
  ]
}

Result of http://myesp/status after sending =off via MQTT
http://myesp/get_switch returns 0

{
  "mode": 1,
  "ws2812fx_mode": 0,
  "ws2812fx_mode_name": "Static",
  "speed": 196,
  "brightness": 196,
  "color": [
    255,
    0,
    0
  ]
}

Result of http://myesp/status after sending #ff0000 via MQTT
http://myesp/get_switch returns 1

This is a missbehavior as far as I can tell from the pov of a generic API (I send one command and two things change) and from the docs, since this should only be the case when *<hexrgb> is used.

Again I apologise for being unclear as heck what my problem is.

[debsahu]

Ahh I see,

McLighting/Arduino/McLighting/McLighting.ino

Line 965 in 7a44a76

if (prevmode == SET_MODE) prevmode = HOLD;

is to blame. The prevmode is never set back to HOLD, or any value other than SET_MODE unless brightness is called. Its a bug, thanks for reporting!

[dermalikmann]

To make some Additions: This does not happen when setting the speed (neither via HTTP nor MQTT)
But it also happens if you set the brightness (both HTTP and MQTT).
The latter may seem counterintuitive but as I said befor: An API should be designed to send one command that changes one thing (except otherwise specified, of course)

No problem for reporting. Maybe I will contribute to this project too, if I can get my lasy butt to learn some proper C 😄

Greets

[debsahu]

Upon second thought, # is the only way one can turn on McLighting. There is=off but not on. We turn on by setting main values for RGB. @toblum am I right?

[toblum]

Exactly. Turning off is esentially setting RGB values to black. So there is no real turning on/off, just setting the colors.