Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

If the important part of the bulbs to you is the remote control (and not the color changing part), any generic ZigBee Light Link or Z-Wave light bulb paired with a home automation hub (like Wink or SmartThings) will work fine.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#6

Post by rythie » Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 9:00 PM UTC

Surely with the Pi Zero selling at $5 there has got to be way to do this without Philip's locked in, expensive system?

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#7

Post by Someone1234 » Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 9:05 PM UTC

I always wondered about smart bulbs... How much, per year, do they cost to run idle? Since they appear to use wireless to operate, so there must be at least the draw for that.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#8

Post by JshWright » Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 9:07 PM UTC

rythie wrote: post #6

Surely with the Pi Zero selling at $5 there has got to be way to do this without Philip's locked in, expensive system?

Even more relevant is the ESP8266 at $2. The Pi Zero doesn't have WiFi, and has _way_ more computing power than you would need to run a few RGB LEDs.

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#9

Post by jfoutz » Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 9:13 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #7

I always wondered about smart bulbs... How much, per year, do they cost to run idle? Since they appear to use wireless to operate, so there must be at least the draw for that.

the hue bulbs use zigbee, so way less than, say, wifi, but it looks like about .4W/bulb/day 2.8W for the starter kit (base has to be on as well)

http://greenmonk.net/2014/02/20/internet-things-connected-ph...

Re: Philips Hue blocks 3rd party lights

#10

Post by orionblastar » Mon, Dec 14, 2015, 9:16 PM UTC

endgame wrote: post #4

Defective by design.

DRM is defective by design.

I first saw the Hue lightbulbs on SyFy with the 12 Monkeys show. It syncs up lighting to your show. I knew I didn't need that and it would be trouble later on. Now I know the devices lock out third party bulbs.