Lights App Integration for Home Assistant

This integration allows you to control Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) light strings typically managed via the mobile "Lights App". This version is specifically optimized for stability, non-blocking startup, and a modern Home Assistant user experience.

🌟 Key Features

• Light Entities instead of Switches: All operational modes (Wave, Phasing, etc.) are created as native light entities. This allows for clean dashboard integration using light cards, groups, and native brightness sliders.
• Non-Blocking Startup: Home Assistant's boot process is never delayed. The connection to the hardware is established asynchronously in the background.
• Self-Healing Engine: Features a built-in Watchdog Timer that checks the connection status every 5 minutes and automatically triggers a reconnect if the device is offline.
• Stability Optimized: Uses the bleak-retry-connector, disables fragile service caching, and aggressively cleans up "zombie connections" to preserve your system's Bluetooth slots.
• RSSI Monitoring: Monitors signal strength and provides helpful debug information in the logs.

🛠 Installation

Manual Installation

1. Download this repository.
2. Copy the custom_components/lights_app folder into your Home Assistant custom_components directory.
3. Restart Home Assistant.

Configuration

1. Navigate to Settings > Devices & Services.
2. Click Add Integration and search for Lights App.
3. Enter the MAC address of your Bluetooth device.

💡 Supported Functions

• Main Light: Turn On/Off & Brightness control.
• Effect Modes: Each mode can be toggled as an individual light:
  • Stay on
  • Fast twinkling
  • Fade away
  • Twinkling in phase
  • Fade away in phase
  • Phasing
  • Wave

⚠️ Troubleshooting & Performance

Signal Strength (RSSI)

Bluetooth Low Energy is sensitive to interference. For reliable operation, the RSSI value should be better than -75 dBm.

• Tip: USB 3.0 ports often cause significant interference. Use a USB extension cable for your Bluetooth dongle to drastically improve reception.
• Tip: If you experience range issues, using an ESP32 Bluetooth Proxy (via ESPHome) is highly recommended.

Debug Logging

If you encounter connection issues, enable debug logging in your configuration.yaml:

logger:
  default: info
  logs:
    custom_components.lights_app: debug