Saturday, August 16. 2014
Short Update
You probably noticed the lack of updates in the last few weeks concerning LIFXtend. There are some factors that led to that:
1) While trying to updated LIFXtend to the firmware 1.3, there were some issues that took longer than expected. Plus I was pretty sure a new firmware would come soon.
2) My bulbs had some more problems, even together with the official apps. That did not help my motivation. I actually didn't use my bulbs for the last few weeks due to the constant problems.
3) I had more motivation to work on some other projects in my free time, like me revamped photography page: striking.ch
4) I was travelling 5 weeks in total, visiting maroc and island.
5) Plus of course I was busy working (i.e. earning money), where we have some pretty big projects nearing deadline.
I am sorry that you as a user of LIFXtend or LIFXcl got left behind a bit. But there is a silver lining:
1) LIFX has released firmware 1.5 (although with no blog post? what is up with their communication?)
2) My bulbs are working again, and I have a new bulb just at my computers desk, that should help motivation me.
That means I am actually planning to dig into the changes made in firmware 1.5, to adjust for those and release an updated version.
I still don't really have time so I can not commit to any timeline. But I do hope to get something released before the summer ends (whenever that is).
If you made it until here: Congratulations!
You can help me:
1) If you write me an email with details how you use LIFXtend, what feature you would like, which features don't work and so on.
2) If you know of a good resource on the updated packages with firmware 1.5, that would speed things up greatly.
So thanks for the mails I receive almost daily, and hopefully my next post will have a new version.
Nate
Sunday, June 29. 2014
LIFX Firmware
UPDATE: According to the comment below, you only have to change the timings to make lifxtend work. I will check that out myself and release a new version to adress this little issue.
In the last few weeks there were some new versions of the LIFX firmware released. LIFX itself keeps public information about this to a minimum.
I suspect this is because the new versions are not yet final. I have a lot of requests about a version of LIFXtend that works with the firmware version 1.2, but I also have reports of version 1.3 beta release.
As I don't have too much time to develop LIFXtend, I will wait until the new firmware version seems final. Then I will start to work on the updated version of LIFXtend.
While I had no look at the new firmware yet, I suspect it will change the way the LIFX bulbs communicate together. This means I will either have to dig into their source code or try to capture the relevant packets myself. This will take some time.
I am not happy with the current situation, as the users of LIFXtend want to use their bulbs to the maximum possible, so probably a lot of you already patched their bulbs to a new firmware.
For those that haven't updated yet, if you want to continue using LIFXtend with your bulbs, you'd best wait with patching your bulbs until I release a new version of LIFXtend compatible with the current firmware.
On another note: I will change the layout of my site soon, as I am not really happy with it. The whole "blog" aspect will stay the same, but striking.ch will link to a new site more centered about photography, while blog.striking.ch will stay the same.
All the links to blog.striking.ch should continue to work.
In the last few weeks there were some new versions of the LIFX firmware released. LIFX itself keeps public information about this to a minimum.
I suspect this is because the new versions are not yet final. I have a lot of requests about a version of LIFXtend that works with the firmware version 1.2, but I also have reports of version 1.3 beta release.
As I don't have too much time to develop LIFXtend, I will wait until the new firmware version seems final. Then I will start to work on the updated version of LIFXtend.
While I had no look at the new firmware yet, I suspect it will change the way the LIFX bulbs communicate together. This means I will either have to dig into their source code or try to capture the relevant packets myself. This will take some time.
I am not happy with the current situation, as the users of LIFXtend want to use their bulbs to the maximum possible, so probably a lot of you already patched their bulbs to a new firmware.
For those that haven't updated yet, if you want to continue using LIFXtend with your bulbs, you'd best wait with patching your bulbs until I release a new version of LIFXtend compatible with the current firmware.
On another note: I will change the layout of my site soon, as I am not really happy with it. The whole "blog" aspect will stay the same, but striking.ch will link to a new site more centered about photography, while blog.striking.ch will stay the same.
All the links to blog.striking.ch should continue to work.
Saturday, June 7. 2014
How to use AmbientLIFX with games
A feature I (and many others) always wanted, was gaming with AmbientLIFX enabled. As you may know, currently the bulb will just dim to black when you start you game fullscreen. That is because the application uses a "exclusive" mode, in which no other program (as LIFXtend) take a screenshot.
It would be possible, but only with ugly hooks into the applications, and that is not something I have time for.
But as some users have informed me, it actually works if you play the game in a "borderless" windowed mode. It is basically not fullscreen, but it looks like fullscreen. It is enabled in some newer games like Battlefield 4. But some clever guys seem to have found a way to enable borderless windowed mode in almost any game: Steam Community Link
Try it out for yourself if you feel inclined. If anyone found a better way, I am always happy to report it here.
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