LIFX Switch and LAN Protocol

Will the LIFX Switch support the LAN Protocol, specifically in the sense of it emitting the LAN proto packets to LIFX lights? The FAQ on the product page states

Q. Will the switch work if my internet connection is disabled?

A. Your non-smart lights will still work, but controlling your smart lights via Switch will require internet connectivity.

This implies that it won’t, so I want to double check.

Hi,

At this time the switch will control your smart lights over the cloud rather than directly on the network, but we will be looking at this as a future enhancement.

I wish that had been made clearer in the pre-release documentation. I guess that’s why it doesn’t have HomeKit support either (because HomeKit requires local control).

Is it possible to get a refund? To be honest, I have little interest in $300 of cloud-based smart switches. For that money, I can get Arteor by Legrand devices that are already HomeKit certified.

When you say homekit support do you mean configuring a button to execute a homekit command or using homekit to change one of your dumb lights via the relay?

I assume the former, which might come in the future, but I can’t give any promise around timeline.

As for a refund, I’ll take that conversation offline.

I mean the switches appear in the Home app as Homekit-enabled switches and I get to define what each one does completely independently of any LIFX app. So the latter.

So, the LIFX switch has relays that control dumb lights by physically controlling the power to whatever is connected. You can make a button either change the state of this relay or instead control a smart light without changing power to it.

Given you have 50+ lights I imagine controlling dumb lights is not what you want. What I was talking about is using homekit to control smart devices when you physically press a button on the switch.

I just realised that’s what you said.

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This is very disappointing. The internet protocol is unreasonably slow and unresponsive. How LAN protocol was not a foundational feature is beyond me.

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