Frustrated with connectivity, trust gone

I have been using 4 bulbs, gen 3 color EU E27, on my router for a about 3 weeks now.

Bought them in January and started using one single light in February on a MiFi, a mobile router by TP-Link. Experience was buggy but that was expected on a mobile router. Turning off battery/energy saving options on the MiFi went a long way. Still, lots of drop outs but again, I thought that was OK considering it was only a temporary setup.

In March, my DSL landline was installed and I invested in the solid router. It is a Made in Germany state of the art device by a reputable company called AVM, model number 7430. Check out the reviews on amazon.de, people admire the quality of the router and it is a true bestseller in Germany. In fact, it is the #1 router sold on amazon.de.

Using 4 bulbs now. Initial setup on the router was a breeze. I was so excited.

Daily use is horrible though. The Android App is NEVER treating all 4 bulbs in a predictive way. Lights are shown as on when they are not, and vice versa.

Honestly, I work full time and do not have the time for further testing. I spent hours figuring out that channels 12 and 13 are not supported and the like.

It’s just not something that my wife appreciates, spending all this time on something that is simply EXPECTED to work seemlessly. Quite honestly, it is almost embarassing and I feel like a tool to have invested in these toys.

It is just not something I feel confident in. I do not feel lile “presenting“ this product to friends and frankly, my wife is really put off by this geeky stuff.

No white reset from wall switch raises an eyebrow, too. Guests think we’re suicudal. The thought of the lights turning on in a dimmed state during an emergency is irritating.

When I was a young bachelor I might have put up with integrating this unreliable product into my lifestyle. But honestly, this is not something for grown men, or women for that matter.

Lo and behold, when you dive deeper into the web, i.e. checking out articles beyond promoted links, every source basically says that Philips Hue is not as high performing but more reliable than Lifx. This video on YouTube speaks volumes:

I feel dumb because I based my buying decision on an older video review of the gentlemen, who initially was in favor of Lifx. But alas.

Will contact sales support for a refund. This beta testing at full price has to go. If customer support delivers, I will keep an eye on future products and may re-commit.

Sorry, don’t have much more to say.

1 Like

This, 100%. I regret ever purchasing my Gen 3 bulbs.

You are both correct, and LIFX has done an absolutely horrific job of public relations. They know what the problem is, and they should have it plastered on the front of their web site. But I am afraid they are already going out of business with all the connectivity issues.

That being said, when they DO work, they are the best bulbs on the market, hands down. SO… If you want to hang in there with them until the fix the protocol problem, here is a very simple, but annoying fix…

TURN OFF THE WIFI ON YOUR PHONE and then try the app. It will work almost 100% of the time. If not, let me know.

You also can achieve this by putting the bulbs on a separate VLAN from your phones - but that requires a bit of technical expertise. I did that, and the app now works all the time, unless their cloud servers go down - which they usually fix very quickly.

I know this is not a solution, but a temporary breakfix. But, I like rooting for the little guy, and hate to see them gobbled up by conglomerates like philips. I am going to stick with them (but not buy any more bulbs) to see if they can pull it off and fix what is a pretty simply problem technically. If they can fix the problem before going out of business, I will consider it a HUGE win for these pioneers of technology and a huge win for small business.

EDIT: After reading a few more threads - it appears there is a different bug with the Gen 3 bulbs related to DHCP, so my fix may not work for those. I chose not to buy any Gen 3 until they get all the kinks worked out, but would love to know if turning off WIFI on the phone has any effect nonetheless.