Hi all. I recently bought a Philips hue smart plug to control a lamp.
I quite quickly realized that it was more complex than I thought.
Not only did I need to install the DIYHue add-on to simulate a Hue bridge, I also needed to download the Philips Hue app, or some 3rd party app called Hue essentials, to connect the smart plug (via the DIYHue bridge add-on?) to the home assistant?
I don’t want to install any app from Philips.
Also it didn’t work.
Isnt there a way to simply control a bulb or plug from the home assistant, running on a Raspberry pi, without having to install any corporate bullshit?
Sorry for the swearing. Im just frustrated that this all turned out to be so complex.
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Afaik most hue devices use zigbee. If you have a zigbee stick for your pi you should be able to directly connect the plug to home assistant (using the zha integration or zigbee2mqtt) without any hue hub or app. https://zigbee.blakadder.com/Philips_LOM004.html
I’ve got a couple Hue bulbs connected through Zigbee2MQTT and haven’t had any issues.
Confirmed. I have a simple USB zigbee hun and use zigbee2mqtt and it all works. You do need to also purchase the hur remote to reset the bulbs though if they’ve already been paired to a bridge, but even if you need it it’s zigbee too so you then just have a remote
AFAIK you don’t need the remote, there’s a combination of turning the bulbs on/off a couple of times to reset them, and then you can add them using touchlink. The process is a bit tedious, but it works.
I think I tried that, few years ago now, and just couldn’t get the timing right.
In my experience a toddler can get the bulbs back into pairing mode reliably, whether you want it or not
Can confirm. It was not that hard.
Thanks. I have a Zigbee connection now, and it works well!
You can buy a zigbee USB dongle and use the ZHA integration to control (most?) Philips Hue products. I can at least confirm their light bulbs and motion sensors work. You add them like any other zigbee device.
Thirdreality might be a better fit than Hue if you’re using HA, as they advertise HA compatibility right on the product page. I started home automation with Hue bulbs right after they first came out, so my HA setup was very much brown field.
This is the zigbee dongle I use. It came in a 2-pack for some reason.
Thanks for the reply! What Philips Hue motion sensor are you using?
A mix of brands. Sonoff, Thirdreality, and Hue’s own motion/light/temp sensor. The current Amazon listing for the Hue motion sensor says the Hue bridge is required, so I don’t know if they’ve locked it down.
Not only did I need to install the DIYHue add-on to simulate a Hue bridge, I also needed to download the Philips Hue app, or some 3rd party app called Hue essentials, to connect the smart plug (via the DIYHue bridge add-on?) to the home assistant?
So, here’s where Home Assistant (HA) can get confusing - there are multiple ways to accomplish multiple things.
The integration you installed is meant to integrate an existing Hue ecosystem with HA. You don’t have (nor want, I presume) a Hue ecosystem. You want direct control of the bulb via HA.
Phillips devices generally utilize a wireless protocol called “ZigBee”. It’s similar to wifi and Bluetooth in that it runs within the 2.4 GHz frequency band, but it requires a ZigBee antenna, also known as a “coordinator”. One of those can be picked up for around $30, and you only need one - ZigBee is a “mesh” network. Mains-powered ZigBee devices act as repeaters to automatically expand the network. It works exceptionally well, but you will feel it if you have lots of ZigBee devices and use 2.4GHz wifi.
Thanks for the elaborate explanation.
