Automatic "On-Air" WebEx/Zoom Light

That’s it. Much simpler. I created a Mac Automator app that runs this script on login.

#!/bin/bash
trigger=0

while true; do
     ps -ef | grep T33_64UMC_40.11.5.11 | grep -v grep | grep -v standby > /dev/null
     result=$?
     if [ $result -eq 0 ] && [ $trigger -eq 0 ] 
     then
#        echo "WebEx in Progress…"
	python3 "/Users/faucherd/pywizlight/red.py"
	trigger=1
     elif [ $result -eq 1 ] && [ $trigger -eq 1 ]
     then
#	echo "WebEx Ended..."
	python3 "/Users/faucherd/pywizlight/warmwhite.py"
	trigger=0
     fi
     sleep 5
done

I am sure this could be easily modified for Windows. You can see that I debugged my rusty if statements with echo statements until everything was working. The sleep statement can be made longer if you like. A 5 second sleep means that it will take a max of 9 seconds to change the light color. I then added the calls to python scripts to change the light color. More on those python scripts below.

Recognize Zoom

Just like for WebEx, for Zoom I ran a ps -e before joining and a ps -e after leaving a Zoom webinar. What I found on my Mac was that the difference between having the Zoom client running and not running (I quit Zoom after every meeting) was one process. This process has the unique string “/Applications/ zoom.us.app/ Contents/ Frameworks/ cpthost.app/ Contents/ MacOS/ CptHost” If I could trigger on the entrance and exit of that string, I would be all set. I created this shell script, check_zoom.sh to do just that:

#!/bin/bash
trigger=0
while true; do
     ps -ef | grep CptHost | grep -v grep > /dev/null
     result=$?
     if [ $result -eq 0 ] && [ $trigger -eq 0 ] 
     then
#        echo "Zoom in Progress…"
	python3 "/Users/faucherd/pywizlight/red.py"
	trigger=1
     elif [ $result -eq 1 ] && [ $trigger -eq 1 ]
     then
#	echo "Zoom Ended..."
	python3 "/Users/faucherd/pywizlight/warmwhite.py"
	trigger=0
     fi
     sleep 5
done

Change Light Color

Now, how to programmatically change the color of a Philips Wiz WiFi bulb? I initially sent a notification to my phone which Tasker picked up on and made changes in the Android Wiz app. Very kludgey. I then started looking for REST APIs for these Wiz bulbs. Luckily, I found this excellent GitHub repo based on some Wiz reverse-engineering. As is the case with most consumer-grade IOT devices, these Wiz bulbs are wide open and do not require any authentication to control them. All one needs is their IP address or MAC address. Throw some JSON at them over the network and Bob’s your Uncle!

Steps to Use the Repo

This GitHub’s repo ReadMe is very clear as to the simple installation:

git clone –resursive https://github.com/sbidy/pywizlight.git
pip install pywizlight
That’s it 🙂

Sample Python Code

I used the code right in the repo ReadMe Example section. I changed the IP address to the IP address of my bulb and then commented everything out except the lines that I needed. My two python scripts look like this (with commented lines removed)

red.py

import asyncio

from pywizlight.bulb import wizlight, PilotBuilder, discovery

async def main():
    # Set up a standard light
    light = wizlight("192.168.86.37")

    # Set bulb brightness (with async timeout)
    timeout = 10
    await asyncio.wait_for(light.turn_on(PilotBuilder(brightness = 255)), timeout)

    # Set RGB values
    # red to 0 = 0%, green to 128 = 50%, blue to 255 = 100%
    await light.turn_on(PilotBuilder(rgb = (255, 0, 0)))

loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(main())

warmwhite.py

import asyncio

from pywizlight.bulb import wizlight, PilotBuilder, discovery

async def main():

    # Set up a standard light
    light = wizlight("192.168.86.37")

    # Set bulb brightness (with async timeout)
    timeout = 10
    await asyncio.wait_for(light.turn_on(PilotBuilder(brightness = 255)), timeout)

    # Set bulb to warm white
    await light.turn_on(PilotBuilder(warm_white = 255))

loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(main())

That’s it. I run check_webex.sh and check_zoom.sh in the background with the & suffix and everything works like magic. My next step is to add these two shell scripts to Mac startup using launchd.

Recognize WebEx