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Changes to light color mode when lights display an effect

· 2 min read
Erik Montnémery

Background​

The primary reason for introducing light color modes was that a light's state should not be ambiguous. As an example, a light which supports color and white with adjustable color temperature must be in either color mode hs (for example) or color_temp.

However, effects complicate this because when the same light is rendering an effect, none of the hs_color, color_temp, or brightness state attributes may be meaningful.

Changes​

Requirements on color_mode are less strict when a light is rendering an effect​

More restrictive color modes than what's otherwise supported by the light are allowed when an effect is active:

  • A light which supports colors is allowed to indicate color modes on_off and brightness when controlled by an effect
  • A light which supports brightness is allowed to indicate color mode on_off when controlled by an effect.

For example, a light which has its supported_color_modes set to {"hs", "color_temp"} is allowed to set its color_mode to on_off when rendering an effect which can't be adjusted and to brightness when rendering an effect which allows brightness to be controlled.

A special effect EFFECT_OFF which means no effect / turn off effect has been added​

There was previously no standard way for a light which supports effects to show that no effect is active. This has been solved by adding an the pre-defined effect EFFECT_OFF to indicate no effect is active.

More details can be found in the documentation and in architecture discussion #960.