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Hue Light Hack

atomic14.com

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Re: Hue Light Hack

#51

Post by AnotherGoodName »

johtso wrote: post #45
maxbaines wrote: post #23

I have found Hue to be a rare example of how IoT can be good, they have a pretty open platform using the bridge and api, with good quality if a little pricey product. Be great if hue made a devkit for the kind of projects in the post.

I mean, I'm sure there's worse out there.. but the fact that I have to wait for my phone to connected via bluetooth before I can turn on my lights is such bad UX, often taking multiple attempts to connect to all the lights. Just let me flick the switch, and then turn the lights on as and when you manage to successfully connect, don't make me wait.

Uhh you can just flick the light switch off and on and it takes that as a signal to turn on.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#52

Post by xxpor »

input_sh wrote: post #28
maxbaines wrote: post #23

I have found Hue to be a rare example of how IoT can be good, they have a pretty open platform using the bridge and api, with good quality if a little pricey product. Be great if hue made a devkit for the kind of projects in the post.

You missed the most important ones in my book: you don't need an account to use it and things work fine if you block its access outside your home network.

It also works find with other zigbee stuff (in both directions, you can pair MUCH cheaper Ikea bulbs to the Hue bridge, and pair Hue bulbs to other zigbee coordinators), even if they don't really advertise that.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#53

Post by slickdork »

johtso wrote: post #45
maxbaines wrote: post #23

I have found Hue to be a rare example of how IoT can be good, they have a pretty open platform using the bridge and api, with good quality if a little pricey product. Be great if hue made a devkit for the kind of projects in the post.

I mean, I'm sure there's worse out there.. but the fact that I have to wait for my phone to connected via bluetooth before I can turn on my lights is such bad UX, often taking multiple attempts to connect to all the lights. Just let me flick the switch, and then turn the lights on as and when you manage to successfully connect, don't make me wait.

I don't understand your use flow there.

I have a hue bridge with a static ip in my house that controls my lights. Management through a third party app is instant.

Are you individually connecting to each light through Bluetooth?

Re: Hue Light Hack

#54

Post by humanistbot »

I got a chill of terror when I saw this at #1 on the front page, thinking it was the other meaning of "hack" and that it was some massive vulnerability that is going to ruin my morning while I take my bridge and bulbs offline and make me regret ever buying into it.

I know this is Hacker News, but the classic hackers lost that linguistic battle or at least achieved stalemate decades ago. If you're going to use the word "hack" in a post about something internet-connected, in a way where either meaning of the word is equally plausible, please use a more descriptive title. I note the author of this post did that for their YouTube video linked at the bottom: "Hacking a Philips Hue Light - Teardown and Reuse"

Re: Hue Light Hack

#55

Post by xxpor »

johtso wrote: post #45
maxbaines wrote: post #23

I have found Hue to be a rare example of how IoT can be good, they have a pretty open platform using the bridge and api, with good quality if a little pricey product. Be great if hue made a devkit for the kind of projects in the post.

I mean, I'm sure there's worse out there.. but the fact that I have to wait for my phone to connected via bluetooth before I can turn on my lights is such bad UX, often taking multiple attempts to connect to all the lights. Just let me flick the switch, and then turn the lights on as and when you manage to successfully connect, don't make me wait.

Connecting over BT is the worst possible way. If you really want to make heavy use of the bulbs you should really have a bridge and real remotes. Zigbee is much, much faster.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#57

Post by jabroni_salad »

johtso wrote: post #45
maxbaines wrote: post #23

I have found Hue to be a rare example of how IoT can be good, they have a pretty open platform using the bridge and api, with good quality if a little pricey product. Be great if hue made a devkit for the kind of projects in the post.

I mean, I'm sure there's worse out there.. but the fact that I have to wait for my phone to connected via bluetooth before I can turn on my lights is such bad UX, often taking multiple attempts to connect to all the lights. Just let me flick the switch, and then turn the lights on as and when you manage to successfully connect, don't make me wait.

You are judging the Hue based on its worst mode of operation. Get yourself a zigbee bridge.

It's nice that the BT function is there, as a failover, but day to day I would not rely on it.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#59

Post by thomble »

maxbaines wrote: post #23

I have found Hue to be a rare example of how IoT can be good, they have a pretty open platform using the bridge and api, with good quality if a little pricey product. Be great if hue made a devkit for the kind of projects in the post.

I've used the API to modify my lights based on the album covers of the currently playing track on my Spotify: https://gist.github.com/tvldz/1210619db98302be3e9c972737e979.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#60

Post by Operyl »

xxpor wrote: post #52
input_sh wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed the most important ones in my book: you don't need an account to use it and things work fine if you block its access outside your home network.

It also works find with other zigbee stuff (in both directions, you can pair MUCH cheaper Ikea bulbs to the Hue bridge, and pair Hue bulbs to other zigbee coordinators), even if they don't really advertise that.

The only caveat with this is that they don't expose them over Homekit if you do this, you'll need to use Homebridge to get that going.
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