LIFX (LAN)

LIFX Wi-Fi color bulbs, BR30, beams, tiles, strips, and switches via the LIFX LAN protocol on UDP port 56700.

This driver does not require the LIFX cloud account. The bulbs are addressed directly on the LAN by their MAC and respond to a binary UDP packet protocol that LIFX has published as part of their open developer docs.

Prerequisites

• GEM and the LIFX bulbs share the same Layer-2 broadcast domain. UDP broadcast on 255.255.255.255:56700 (or the subnet broadcast such as 192.168.1.255) must reach the bulbs.
• Bulbs onboarded to the same Wi-Fi via the LIFX mobile app at least once. Cloud login is not required for ongoing control.
• No mesh APs or VLANs that block broadcast / multicast between the GEM host and the bulb subnet.

If GEM and the bulbs are on different VLANs, use the optional ip attribute to set a subnet-specific broadcast address (e.g. 192.168.50.255) and route that broadcast explicitly.

Setup

1. Create a device of driver type lifx_lan.
2. Optionally set ip to a subnet-specific broadcast (default 255.255.255.255).
3. Send the get_devices command. Each LIFX bulb on the LAN replies with its MAC, IP, and label within ~1 second.
4. Create one zone per bulb. Set zone.address to the colon-separated MAC (e.g. d0:73:d5:12:34:56). The driver caches the bulb's IP, so DHCP renewals are handled by the periodic re-discovery.

Attributes

Device

Name	Required	Type	Description
ip	no	string	Discovery broadcast address. Default 255.255.255.255.
port	no	int	UDP port. Default 56700 — only override behind a port-translating gateway.
discovery_interval	no	int (ms)	Re-broadcast cadence. Default 300000.
status_interval	no	int (ms)	Per-zone GetLight cadence. Default 5000.

Zone

Name	Required	Type	Description
address	yes	string	Bulb MAC as 6 colon-separated hex bytes.
duration	no	int (ms)	Default fade duration for on/off/level/color. Default 250.

The driver writes these zone attributes from inbound state packets:

Attribute	Type	Notes
state	string	on / off.
level	int	Brightness 0-100.
kelvin	int	Last reported color temperature.

Commands

Command	Args	Notes
get_devices	—	Broadcast discovery; returns the list of bulbs that replied within 750 ms.
on	address	Powers the bulb on with the zone's default fade duration.
off	address	Powers off.
set_level	address, level (0-100)	Brightness. 0 turns the bulb off.
set_color	address, hex	RGB hex such as #ff8800. Forces saturation to whatever the hex implies; preserves the zone's last kelvin.
set_kelvin	address, kelvin (2500-9000)	White color temperature.
set_hsbk	address, hue, saturation, brightness, kelvin	Native HSBK. h/s/b are 0-100 percent; kelvin 2500-9000.
get_status	address	Force a one-shot GetLight read for one bulb.

Zone address format

d0:73:d5:12:34:56 — six lowercase hex bytes, colon-separated. The MAC is shown in the LIFX mobile app under bulb settings, or returned by get_devices. Dashes and dots are tolerated as separators on input but are normalized to colons.

Known limitations

• Broadcast discovery does not cross subnets without a UDP relay.
• This driver implements core lighting commands only. Effects (waveform / pulse / breathe), HEV cycle, infrared on/off (LIFX+ models), and the multi-zone color-strip API are not yet supported.
• LIFX Switch (multi-button) is recognized as a discoverable device but its button-press events are not yet surfaced as triggers.

Troubleshooting

• get_devices returns an empty list — the bulbs are not on the same broadcast domain, or the host firewall is dropping UDP broadcast. Run tcpdump -ni any port 56700 while triggering discovery; expect to see packets going out and replies coming in. If outbound only, your subnet is dropping broadcast.
• bulb not discovered yet — run get_devices error on commands — the driver has not seen a StateService reply for that MAC. Either run get_devices, or wait for the next periodic discovery (default 5 minutes). New zones are not pushed commands until the bulb's IP is cached.
• Wrong color or brightness — verify the bulb is in HSBK color mode (not white-only). LIFX A19 / Color models support full HSBK; LIFX White and Filament bulbs honor only the kelvin + brightness fields.