LightwaveRF (Gen 1) via PHP

Overview

A while ago I bought some home automation products using the LightWaveRF protocol from B&Q - a couple of lights, and a ‘hub’.

It works great, is cheap, and is very easy to setup. Great. But, their mobile app sucked. No two ways about it. They’ve posted images on their website of a new, better app… but it’s never materialised. I have tweeted them, and they have said they are ‘working on it’ but it’s been some time now. Still nothing.

So, in an effort to make a better interface I endeavoured to find a solution for myself. I did some digging online and found a few tutorials on how to use PHP to control it.

I created a bunch of PHP on a simple Apache web server with file names in a syntax: room_device_on/off.php (e.g. bedroom_light_on.php)

Code

Here’s an example for the bedroom light on:

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    <?php
    // Set ROOM Parameters
    $room = “bedroom”;
    $code = “000”;
    $id = “R2”;
    $state = “on”;
    $status = “F1”;
    $device = “lights”;
    $node = “D1”;
    // ====================

    //$room = $_GET[“room”];
    //$device = $_GET[“device”];
    //$state = $_GET[“state”];

    if (!isset($room)) die(“No Room Set ?!”);
    if (!isset($device)) die(“No Device Set ?!”);
    if (!isset($state)) die(“No State Set ?!”);

    $broadcast_string = $code . “,!” . $id . $node . $status . “|”;
    $port = 9760;
    $sock = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, SOL_UDP);
    socket_set_option($sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, 1);
    socket_sendto($sock, $broadcast_string, strlen($broadcast_string), 0, ‘255.255.255.255’, $port);
    socket_close($sock);

    ?>
    You turned it on!