Add a factory reset support?

[olek-osikowicz]

Hi @flip-dots,

Thank you for your work on this project!

The documentation states that the putting the lightbulb into a pairing mode requires:
Settings -> Voice Assistants -> Amazon Alexa or Google Home -> Make Discoverable

Or alternatively, go in to Philips Hue App, and "Remove" a bulb there.

In fact, I discovered all the app does is sending a "factory reset" message to one of the bulb characteristics that wipes its state and puts in to pairing mode.

I would consider adding this feature to HueBLE lib, so that user can factory reset the bulb when stopped using it with the current device.

If you approve, I am happy to do the PR for this.

Best regards

[flip-dots]

Sure go for it. I am not sure if I would want the Home Assistant integration to wipe a bulb on removal but I suppose it could be optional. Does that completely factory reset the light and put it in pairing mode or just put it in pairing mode.

Also in case you did not know there is another way to put it in pairing mode which I plan on adding to the HA integration docs eventually which is to use a Hue remote to reset the light.

[flip-dots]

Oh also I assume you used an Android phone with debug mode to get a Bluetooth log of what the app was sending/receiving and open it in Wireshark (That's what I did), you wouldn't happen to have a better idea of how the QR code pairing works would you?

Using logs I captured I was able to figure out that it uses something called OOB pairing which allows you to pair to the light without it being in pairing mode (which would be quite useful) and I was able to find values in the QR code using my phone but I haven't been able to figure out how the data in the QR code is used, it doesn't seem to just send the value, there is something funny going on. If that's something you could also help with that would be very much appreciated, no pressure though, my guess is its going to be too hard to reverse engineer without firmware/docs but I am not super experienced at this kind of stuff.

[olek-osikowicz]

Hi, answering to your questions below:

1. Yes, I am using the Bluetooth capture, nRF Connect and Wireshark to read the messages.

2. To be honest, I am not sure where is the line between "reset" state and "pairable" state. During my experimentation, I noticed that the only reliable way to connect the Bulb to the other device (phone or PC) was to do the factory reset (either by Philip Hue app or by my code), and then pair on the other device. Side effect of using the factory reset, is that MAC address is reset as well and it appears as a wholly new device for the Phone's OS. If there is other programmatic way to put bulb in the "pairable" state without doing the factory reset, I am all ears.

3. I am not sure how the HomeAssistant integrations works, but I guess factory reset method can be a part of the Python library (with a note in the docs that it resets bulbs state) and not to be included in the HA plugin.

4. I didn't play with pairing using QR code, but I am interested and happy to collaborate more closely on that :)

[flip-dots]

Hi, answering to your questions below:

1. Yes, I am using the Bluetooth capture, nRF Connect and Wireshark to read the messages.

2. To be honest, I am not sure where is the line between "reset" state and "pairable" state. During my experimentation, I noticed that the only reliable way to connect the Bulb to the other device (phone or PC) was to do the factory reset (either by Philip Hue app or by my code), and then pair on the other device. Side effect of using the factory reset, is that MAC address is reset as well and it appears as a wholly new device for the Phone's OS. If there is other programmatic way to put bulb in the "pairable" state without doing the factory reset, I am all ears.

3. I am not sure how the HomeAssistant integrations works, but I guess factory reset method can be a part of the Python library (with a note in the docs that it resets bulbs state) and not to be included in the HA plugin.

4. I didn't play with pairing using QR code, but I am interested and happy to collaborate more closely on that :)

So my experience with it is that you can always pair to the light without factory resetting using the QR code and the Hue app and the make discoverable function in the app seems to work most of the time, but factory resetting the light also puts it in pairing mode and is more reliable, but at the cost of resetting any ZigBee networks or other connections the light might have had and also changing its Bluetooth address. I was thinking you might have been referring to however the phone puts the light in the pairable state without resetting it rather than however the phone factory resets it.

I assumed you were here because you wanted this feature added for the Home assistant intergration (That got merged a few days ago and controlling Hue over Bluetooth had'nt gotten much attention before that) but if you just want this feature added to the underlying library for another use thats less effort for me.

I am keen to find a way to get QR code pairing to work in this library as in my testing its been 100% reliable and does not require any prior setup (you can Bluetooth pair to an already setup light using it without disrupting existing connections) and that would be pretty useful. What I did was enable the Bluetooth log on my phone and pair using the QR code on the Hue app and then looked at the log in Wireshark and I could see the pairing request and that its using OOB pairing but I wasnt able to figure out how its sending the OOB info to the light or in what format, so if you could have a go at trying that and seeing if you see anything there that would be very much appericated.

[flip-dots]

@olek-osikowicz I hope I didnt scare you away or anything, I have just been hoping to find someone who might know more about Bluetooth stuff and how the QR code thing works, its totally cool if you just want to add a factory reset function or just let me know the UUID so I can add it.

[MR-kartoshki]

figured out the QR/DLC flow (#15)