Feature request: Add MQTT output

[HepoH3]

Hi there!
Thank you for your work — I tried to use built colorchord from original repo, but it didn't work out of box while yours did. Actually, I look for a way to add music mode to my light bulbs controlled via homeassistant and I think this is what I want. The problem is, I can't figure out how to make homeassistant deal with raw UDP packets, and it will be more convinient if there would be the MQTT output which is far more usual for homeassistant.
Is there a chance that it would be done?

[CaiB]

Hello and welcome!

Currently MQTT is not supported, but I’m not against adding support for it. However, I’m concerned that it may not work very well for what you are trying to do.

The extra hop through a server will add latency, especially when using MQTT, which I don’t think is optimized for low latency. ColorChord really needs a low latency connection to the light emitters in order for the effect to look satisfying.

Are there any other ways of interacting with your home assistant software, or perhaps even the lightbulbs themselves?

I was planning on adding MQTT support to control ColorChord.NET in the future (e.g. to turn output on/off remotely).

[HepoH3]

@CaiB, thank you for your reply!
Yeah, I'm afraid about extra latency too, but it's the easiest way to do it from homeassistant. I really don't know another way except writing some sort of addon for it, where I don't have any experience. Another way to do what I want is to use python library for my yeelight bulbs. And I think I can use your memory mapped file, but I can't figure out how to deal with it. May be you can share some example?

[CaiB]

I remember someone trying to use base ColorChord with some Yeelight bulbs a while back here: cnlohr/colorchord#112
They mention use of a TCP server and JSON commands, could you see if this may work on your lights as well? If so, I can probably implement this pretty easily.

As for memory mapping, note that it only works on Windows. There is a reference implementation of a receiver here, but I don’t use Python so I’m not sure how it would translate: https://github.com/CaiB/ColorChord.NET/blob/master/ColorChord.NET/Visualizers/MemoryMapReceiver.cs

[HepoH3]

Yeah, I think it would work at most of yeelight bulbs. If it would help, here is a document with yeelight API: https://www.yeelight.com/download/Yeelight_Inter-Operation_Spec.pdf

[CaiB]

OK, I can add this, probably within the next week. Do you have a way to enable music mode (and specify a server to connect to) in the software you use, or is this something I'd need to add to CC.NET? (This would mean I'd need to add bulb discovery as well)

[HepoH3]

Yeah just wanted to say it to you that there is such thing as music mode, and it's enabled on my bulbs. I'm not sure I can specify a server, I never seen something about it. Thank you very much!

[CaiB]

Hello again!

My apologies for the delay. I've made a very basic implementation of the Yeelight server. Could you please give it a try?

Start by downloading the latest autobuild, 114 or newer.

Here's a sample config file excerpt that will hopefully work:

...
    "Visualizers":
    [
        {
            "Type": "Prominent",
            "Name": "YeeSample",
            "LEDCount": 1,
            "FrameRate": 30,
            "SaturationAmplifier": 1.6,
            "Enable": true
        }
    ],
    "Outputs":
    [
        {
            "Type": "Yeelight",
            "Name": "YeeOut",
            "VisualizerName": "YeeSample",
            "Enable": true
        },
        {
            "Type": "DisplayOpenGL",
            "Name": "SampleDisplay",
            "VisualizerName": "YeeSample",
            "Modes":
            [
                {
                    "Type": "BlockStrip"
                }
            ],
            "WindowWidth": 400,
            "WindowHeight": 400
        }
    ],
...

Once you start ColorChord.NET, you should get asked by Windows to allow opening a port in your firewall. Make sure to accept this, otherwise the Yeelight can't connect to the TCP server.

Then you'll need to have your Yeelight connect in "music mode" to the computer you're running ColorChord.NET on by IP. This connection will need to be made via some other app you use to control your lights now. If you can't find a way to do this, I'll need to add that to ColorChord.NET, just let me know.

The default port is 14887, but you can change this by adding a "Port": 12345 line to the Yeelight output section.

To stop the music mode, simply close ColorChord.NET and your lights should connect back to however they were configured before.

[HepoH3]

[
        {
            "Type": "Yeelight",
            "Name": "YeeOut",
            "VisualizerName": "YeeSample",
            "Enable": true
        },
        {
            "Type": "DisplayOpenGL",
            "Name": "SampleDisplay",
            "VisualizerName": "YeeSample",
            "Modes":
            [
                {
                    "Type": "BlockStrip"
                }
            ],
            "WindowWidth": 400,
            "WindowHeight": 400
        }
    ],

Thank you very much for your work! So, I have downloaded the latest build, set up the config and enabled the port when firewall has been asked this. But I'm not sure how to connect Yeelight to my computer. Currently the computer and the Yeelight both in the same local network handled by my router. Is this enough? If that's so than something is not working, because I don't see any effect. I thought, I'll need to set the bulbs IPs into the config so the app will know how to find them.
The log says following:

[INF] Reading config for Prominent "YeeSample".
[INF] Reading config for Yeelight "YeeOut"
[INF] Waiting for Yeelight clients
[INF] Reading config for DisplayOpenGL "SampleDisplay".
[WRN] Display mode "ColorChord.NET.Outputs.Display.BlockStrip" does not support configuration.
[INF] Finished reading display modes under "SampleDisplay".

[CaiB]

Yes, getting the Yeelight to actually connect to the ColorChord.NET TCP server needs to be done separately.

I asked you previously:

Do you have a way to enable music mode (and specify a server to connect to) in the software you use, or is this something I'd need to add to CC.NET? (This would mean I'd need to add bulb discovery as well)

The Yeelight needs to initiate the connection to the server (CC.NET), not the other way around.

If you don't have a way to tell the Yeelight to initiate the connection, I'll need to add this to ColorChord.NET (which I was planning to do anyways), I was just hoping that you had a way around this for now so we could test the functionality first.

[HepoH3]

No, sorry. The only app I have is the yeelight android app. Actually there is a yeelight toolbox running on PC, from which I can send commands to my yeelights, but I didn't found list of that commands so maybe there is a way to connect them to the PC in music mode, but I don't now that particular command.

[CaiB]

OK, give me a bit more time and I'll implement Yeelight discovery and connection.

[CaiB]

Oh hold on, if you have that tool and can send raw commands, try this:

{"id":1,"method":"set_music","params":[1,"MYIP",PORT]}
Replace MYIP with the IP of your PC, and PORT with the CC.NET port (14887 default)

[HepoH3]

Oh hold on, if you have that tool and can send raw commands, try this:

{"id":1,"method":"set_music","params":[1,"MYIP",PORT]}
Replace MYIP with the IP of your PC, and PORT with the CC.NET port (14887 default)

Give me a minute (somehow I don't get a notify even if I subsribed to this issue 😞)

[HepoH3]

I think it doesn't work. I tried to run: {"id":1,"method":"set_music","params":[1,"192.168.1.34",14887]}, and then start your app, but don't see any changes in bulb behaviour. Unfortunately there is no log in the toolbox so I can't say was the command completed successfuly.