Hello
My name is Kai and i’m new to this forum. Since i didn’t find anything about it as i used the search function, i create this Thread. If i’m doing something wrong, please let me know!

I’ve got a Problem with the Johnny Five RGB LED function. The RGBLED is directly connected to my Pi without any resistors and is a common cathode type. The configured RGB device works withoud producing any errors but as i added it to the web ui, the only thing i was able to adjust was the brightnes. The color is just shown as “RGB #ffffff” which equals white. The Pins are definitely configured correctly because creating a pwm device for each color works just fine.! The whole thing should later be used for my RGB Stripe - of course with MOSFETs and 12V… Hopefully i don’t just forgot a little thing - or is it really supoosed to look like this?

This is how it looks like. Firefox and Chrome are showing the same results.

My config for the device, plugin and the page:

Plugin

  {
  "boards": [
    {
      "id": "2",
      "boardType": "raspi-io"
    }
  ],
  "plugin": "johnny-five",
  "active": true,
  "debug": true
},

Device

{
  "boardId": "2",
  "pins": {
    "red": "GPIO5",
    "green": "GPIO19",
    "blue": "GPIO26"
  },
  "isAnode": "false",
  "id": "rgbled",
  "name": "rgbled",
  "class": "JohnnyFiveRgbLed"
}

Pages

{
  "id": "testpage",
  "name": "TestPage",
  "devices": [
    {
      "deviceId": "rgbred"
    },
    {
      "deviceId": "rgbgreen"
    },
    {
      "deviceId": "rgbblue"
    },
    {
      "deviceId": "ledblue"
    },
    {
      "deviceId": "taster1"
    },
    {
      "deviceId": "rgbled"
    }
  ]
}

Thanks for your Help in advance

@khaki93 said in Pimatic Johnny-Five RGB LED can't choose Color:

I’ve got a Problem with the Johnny Five RGB LED function.

Hi. Welcome to pimatic! Actually, you have hit a weak point as the UI support for RGB LED is incomplete. Currently, there is no UI control for color. The only way to control the color currentyl is by creating a rule using the “j5 set color” action. To fill the gaps you may be able to use the DummyLedDevice as part of pimatic-led-light. Hopefully, I’ll find the time soon to add a color control for J5 (or we’ll have this a generic control for pimatic).

We definitely need a generic solution if you ask me. But maybe we can talk about it soon 😀

Hey thats really a fast reply Thanks

I found another entry in this forum Klick my LINK from @Patjee. Theres shown a really cool color picker. Since i’m not the brightest light when it comes to programming - is there any option to “steal” the Mi-light color picker and use it for Johnny-Five? However there seems to be no automated fading option. Is this a job for the Rules section? I’m not really in hurry with the RGB stripe since the Mosfets won’t arrive the next few weeks. So i can wait for it

Now i’ve got another problem with my Setup. Shall i make a new Thread for it? It’s about the 433mhz Receiver.

And by the way - i really appreciate your hard Work for Pimatic! You’re doing a great job!

@khaki93 said in Pimatic Johnny-Five RGB LED can't choose Color:

is there any option to “steal” the Mi-light color picker and use it for Johnny-Five?

Yes, as mentioned in my previous post I think you can use DummyLedDevice as part of pimatic-led-light. I’ll give it a try and try to get back to you with an example setup.

As promised, here is my example setup. The setup is pretty much straight forward. The only part which was a bit tricky was to define the rules. My advice to you is to use the mobile frontend editor rule editors for the setup including the creation of the rules.

  "plugins": [
    {
      "plugin": "led-light",
      "active": true
    },
   {
      "boards": [
        {
          "id": "1",
          "boardType": "raspi-io"
        }
      ],
      "plugin": "johnny-five",
      "active": true
    }
],
  "devices": [
    {
      "id": "dummyled1",
      "name": "dummyLed1",
      "class": "DummyLedLight"
    },
    {
      "boardId": "1",
      "pins": {
        "red": "27",
        "green": "28",
        "blue": "29"
      },
      "isAnode": true,
      "id": "j5led",
      "name": "j5led",
      "class": "JohnnyFiveRgbLed"
    }
  ],
  "rules": [
    {
      "id": "j5color",
      "name": "j5color",
      "rule": "when $dummyled1.color changes then j5 set color j5led to $dummyled1.color",
      "active": true,
      "logging": false
    },
    {
      "id": "j5switch-off",
      "name": "j5switch-off",
      "rule": "when $dummyled1.power changes and if power of dummyled1 is off then switch j5led off",
      "active": true,
      "logging": false
    },
    {
      "id": "j5switch-on",
      "name": "j5switch-on",
      "rule": "when $dummyled1.power changes and if power of dummyled1 is on then switch j5led on",
      "active": true,
      "logging": false
    },
    {
      "id": "j5dim",
      "name": "j5dim",
      "rule": "when $dummyled1.brightness changes then dim j5led to $dummyled1.brightness",
      "active": true,
      "logging": false
    }
  ],

Hey Thanks for your hard work
But now i’ve got a shitload of errors while the led-light plugin tries to install
I copied the part of the Logfile to my server. If you want to read through it KLICK ME
However i’d probably need the whole Weekend to debug this
Even tried deleting the my Config and using yours instead. This wo’nt work too

@khaki93 said in Pimatic Johnny-Five RGB LED can't choose Color:

But now i’ve got a shitload of errors while the led-light plugin tries to install

You need to install libudev-dev to install the plugin, unfortunately.

sudo apt-get install libudev-dev

See https://github.com/philip1986/pimatic-led-light#installation

Oh my how dumb could one possibly be
Tanks again for the hint. Guess i would have found it but after hours of searching.
Now the project can continue.

@mwittig
Hey There
I’m Sorry for replying this late on a old thread but I’ve got a strange thing going on here and Google won’t help me with this so i Hope you guys could help me

So I’ve made a central unit for automating my home and it works pretty good. Now i wanted to control my LED Stripe using the Smartphone. The plugins are working great and the trick you showed me earlier for changing the Color etc still works. But now comes the Problem. No matter which PINs i use for the RGB Part, they seem to interfere with some other stuff. Something like i turn on the stripe and suddenly the Pi registers a pressed button ( and follows the rule to turn off my PC). I’ve checked if i made a mistake with PIN configuration but every PIN is used just once.

Is Johnny - Five able to take over all of the Raspberry GPIOs and only allows using them itself? Do i have to re-arrange the whole configuration so my Pi uses only J5 for everything? By the way… Using the Arduino Nano isn’t possible because Homeduino is running on it I know there IS a PWM Function but i think it’s to slow since i’m not able to get full brightnes with it.

I Hope to not annoying anyone please help me

i’ve touble with the same, i couldnt resolve it still.

@khaki93 said in Pimatic Johnny-Five RGB LED can't choose Color:

Is Johnny - Five able to take over all of the Raspberry GPIOs and only allows using them itself?

Yes. By default, J5 takes over control of all pins if “raspi-io” is used. It is possible, however, to exclude some pins if needed.
Assuming your Arduino for Homeduino is connected via USB this should not cause any issues. I have the same setup here for testing.

Do i have to re-arrange the whole configuration so my Pi uses only J5 for everything?

No.

… I know there IS a PWM Function but i think it’s to slow since i’m not able to get full brightnes with it.

The PWM function is a software emulation. In my tests with a Raspi 3 board and a common anode RGB LED it worked reasonably fast and I could obtain full brightness. I don’t think the PWM function is causing an issue with the brightness here.

If you need further help it’ll helpful if you can describe your setup in more details. Also a hardware sketch will be useful for me to reproduce the behavior. You can draw the sketech using a tool like Fritzing, or simply take a photo of a drawn sketch.

But now comes the Problem. No matter which PINs i use for the RGB Part, they seem to interfere with some other stuff.

Apart from software related problems this might also be hardware problem. Thus it will be great if you can include the other parts (buttons etc) in the sketch too.

@ashbrlmd said in Pimatic Johnny-Five RGB LED can't choose Color:

i’ve touble with the same, i couldnt resolve it still.

It’ll be great if you can describe your configuration and the problem you have in some more detail. Please open a new topic for this. Thanks