Aputure lights or Sidus Link app

[QNCthomas]

Describe the feature Looking to control Aputure lighting via streamdeck with color presets or effects. Lights such as the Amaran MC series. The sidus link app allows for presets, and full adjustments. I don't see an API though to the app, plus it's phone or tablet based.

Usecases Changing mood lighting or switching scenes or highlights using any aputure lighting setup.

[chron0]

https://fccid.io/2A96J-SLT8232 might give us some clues...

i could try to dump BLE traffic and GATTs on my amaran 200x if someone would clue me in what I specifically need to look for.

[kissu]

I've seen that tweet reply: https://twitter.com/AputureLighting/status/1610359184985579520 Sent them an email because I find it borderline to promise something and not deliver on it. The post is also a year old. If they do not wanna release a public API or something, just do not promise it.

[nicksimoneau]

Any update on this case? I have some 200 and 300 light I would like to control from API or PC

[kissu]

Not gonna happen anytime soon I guess. Faster to reverse engineer it at this point tbh... 😒

[marnovo]

Reverse engineering bluetooth lights is indeed a thing, not sure how feasible in this particular case.

• How To Reverse Engineer A Bluetooth Device - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIBmiPtCDdM
• Building a new Home Assistant integration in Python - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3VwPb72Bbg

Aputure last year said they were considering a PC app for this year, and recently when announcing Sidus Link Pro and Sidus One, have mentioned PC control for Sidus Link lights again, and about other forms of interoperability "not at release".

https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/comments/1bzz7wq/aputure_release_sidus_link_pro_and_sidus_one/

My questions and their answers:

1. Will Sidus Link continue and stay BT only, and SLP will be BT + DMX? Yes.
2. Is it going to be available to PC/Mac desktops? That is part of the roadmap
3. Any expectation of interoperability with physical controls of any sort? Remotes, DMX controllers, MIDI controllers, Stream Deck…? Or some sort of software control/API. For Sidus link Pro? Not at release.
4. Will this app be able to keep BT and DMX connected lights from "sleeping" (and disconnecting, taking some time to reconnect once app is reopened)? DMX connected lights yes since they are externally paired to Sidus One they'll work instantly, you can quit the up and as soon as the scene loads you have full control of all your lights. Bluetooth mesh lights will face the same limitations and reconnect tab as experienced with Sidus Link.

[kissu]

Hm, got a no. Nice.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cinematography/comments/1bzz7wq/comment/l9267sq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[AliasDjimy]

Damn Bro ! ..... When is this API coming out ? the SLP app seems promising and the App works on Mac ... all is left is to iiiintegrate it with Bitfocus Companion app & StreamDecks ... Hope They do so before this year is over ...

SidusLink #SidusOne #bitfocus #companion

[kissu]

@AliasDjimy they will probably not do it anytime soon. Even 2025 doesn't sound reasonable considering how silent and low-caring they are about the whole subject.

[kissu]

Alright, here we go! Not sure why or how but we got something. 🎊🎊 https://youtu.be/zwG-uT6kXHo

[chron0]

that would be really awesome to finally be able to seamlessly control the lights properly.

[clarkezone]

Any updates on companion integration for Aputure? Is anyone working on it?

[marnovo]

I have spent little time on this, but findings from the released Apps + SD plugin so far:

Plenty of app versions available here across platforms: https://amarancreators.com/pages/amaran-app-download

I guess an easy starting point is to reverse engineer the Amaran stream deck plugin, although that would still require the desktop app running in the background as the current plugin requires (so far pretty responsive by the way, seems to use websocket communication). But at least we're not limited by their plugin interface implementation, and could use Bitfocus interface instead.

The stream deck plugin seems like a regular compressed zip with a JS app inside, and the main logic seems inside bin/plugin.js. Elgato provides an SDK with documentation and templates here (pretty sure folks here know that backwards): https://docs.elgato.com/sdk/plugins/getting-started

Reverse engineering the desktop app itself is more involved, but now more viable than before. Opening the contents of the .app desktop Mac application reveals something Python & QT based but ultimately compiled to a binary—although some interesting info available in JSON configs, and likely more people will figure out over time.

It could make more viable though to reverse engineer the bluetooth (as I exemplified in my earlier comment) given the exposed logic of the plugin, and app assets / JSON, but honestly it might not be necessary anymore with what we have now.

I think that's going to be the baseline we can work with for quite a while, maybe our best bet as next step would be asking to open source part of the app (they won't give away the Sidus part) and the plugin itself. My thoughts why:

Based on their recent Sidus devices and Pro apps released, I believe their strategy is to own the software platform and be "the one to rule them all" bringing in control of devices from their + other brands via DMX, etc. and not get control out of the platform. If they ever provide some sort of API, it will be very pro-centric and handsomely paid. I think the Amaran app + stream deck is as far as they will go here on giving "third-party" control.

Their competitive moat then becomes the software platform, where they play a role as the more reputable brand which can provide a feature-packed, mature, secure (?) and stable platform, very valuable to customers who then become locked in—as the alternative is a myriad of random new brands with amateurish half-baked apps.

E.g.: on the budget end, Neewer gets hardware out every few weeks and nowadays even fairly good; on the prosumer end, Godox is catching up, Zhiyun is bringing awesome hardware at good price. All have apps, but very basic and amateurish. Neewer seems the most committed to software and app/wireless/BT/SD control.

This way they aren't as pressured in margins from hardware manufacturing, something with longer and more expensive development cycles since the budget/prosumer lighting hardware market itself is getting pretty competitive with constant innovation.

[quinnqiusidus]

If you have any API and other needs, you can provide them to me. We have some plans in this regard.