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Hue Light Hack

atomic14.com

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Re: Hue Light Hack

#101

Post by Karawebnetwork »

skhm wrote: post #71

When I say "Hey Google, turn off all the lights" and it says "Okay, turning 55 lights off" I always recoil. No significant regrets, though. The app was awful a few years ago but they took the feedback in stride and made something responsive and usable (lots of headroom for improvement but I can't overstate how bad the app was on launch).

Same, but I also have ones that are turned off due to switches or outright not plugged in but still configured. So every night when I ask it to turn everything off it goes "Ok, turning off 15 lights and the 4 lights are not available" which is quite the mouthful. I've been waiting to try to configure Hue scenes via keywords using IFTT thinking this might bypass this but I never made it that far.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#103

Post by bee_rider »

katbyte wrote: post #70
bee_rider wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are pretty convenient for the owners. It would be sort of nice if the hub would provide a convenient website. Visitors don’t want to use an app to turn on my lightbulbs. There are button peripherals, which work fine of course, but then it is not much more convenient than a light switch or a remote.

The tap switch is pretty great, can be placed anywhere, four action buttons, and doesn’t need batteries. For the most part I use motion sensors and timers and rarely need a switch

I really like the tap switch, and an electronic device that operates by harvesting button push energy or whatever is just magical.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#104

Post by xp84 »

Operyl wrote: post #60
xxpor wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is a really annoying limitation that I genuinely don't understand the need for. It seems a really irritating place to throw up an arbitrary wall. If they're going to let me use the bulbs with their system in the first place, why cripple them by not bridging them to HomeKit with whatever level of functionality they already support them for?

I bought two cheaper bulbs and won't buy any more of those because of this. So I guess if the reason is "money grab" i have to grudgingly admit it was successful.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#105

Post by xp84 »

ericzawo wrote: post #36

I have about 10 hue bulbs throughout my apartment, which I've only purchased on Black Friday sales (they tend to go up to 50% off, I've found, which puts them more in line to what I feel is a reasonable price.) My biggest gripe is the unserious development of their iOS app, which has really been a hurdle to get them setup correctly. The app underwent a rebuild maybe 18 month ago, which forced users to allow for phone…

Yes, their app is pure trash now. So much fiddling to do things that were easy before. I almost don't use it at all. I need to learn how to make scenes on my Home Assistant.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#106

Post by xp84 »

marcellus23 wrote: post #94
ericzawo wrote: post #36

I have about 10 hue bulbs throughout my apartment, which I've only purchased on Black Friday sales (they tend to go up to 50% off, I've found, which puts them more in line to what I feel is a reasonable price.) My biggest gripe is the unserious development of their iOS app, which has really been a hurdle to get them setup correctly. The app underwent a rebuild maybe 18 month ago, which forced users to allow for phone…

Their reasoning was probably that most people just use HomeKit.

Then they could have still left their app alone as it was with the minimal necessary updates. Instead they invested a lot of effort into rewriting it completely, into complete trash

Re: Hue Light Hack

#107

Post by Operyl »

xp84 wrote: post #104
Operyl wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is a really annoying limitation that I genuinely don't understand the need for. It seems a really irritating place to throw up an arbitrary wall. If they're going to let me use the bulbs with their system in the first place, why cripple them by not bridging them to HomeKit with whatever level of functionality they already support them for? I bought two cheaper bulbs and won't buy any more of those because of thi…

Homebridge with the Hue plugin is incredibly simple and easy to put together, can put it on a Raspi. I’d recommend trying it.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#108

Post by ChainOfFools »

nfriedly wrote: post #43
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.

As far as IoT goes, I too am relatively happy with my hue bulbs. In particular I appreciate the fact that they still work if my internet goes down. However, if I was starting from scratch today, I'd probably just install dimmer switches in the wall and skip the IoT aspect entirely.

There is exactly one device on the market (that I have found) which seems to satisfy both sides of your interests here: a rotary dimmer by a somewhat obscure company called Martin Jerry which functions perfectly well as a dumb dimmer but also can be fully controlled as an iot device.

The only downside (apart from the idiosyncratic physical knob design) is that it's a tuya platform device, but the manufacturer also markets a DIY version which is trivially flashable to open source tasmota or ES32Home, severing the connection to the mothership entirely while retaining all functionality.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#109

Post by taneq »

Nextgrid wrote: post #6
taneq wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that bad? If you're turning AC into DC you're gonna have to rectify it somehow.

I believe the parent was referring to the "full bridge rectifier" joke by a popular electronics content creator: https://electroboom.fandom.com/wiki/Full_Bridge_Rectifier .

Ohhhhh damn I've watched a bunch of his stuff in the past but not run across this particular one. He's great.

Re: Hue Light Hack

#110

Post by taneq »

mindslight wrote: post #89
methyl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might have been a reference to Electroboom [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI5Ftm1-jik

I know his entire shtick is doing dumb stuff and getting hurt (or at least pretending to?) in the style of "Ow! My balls!", but he wouldn't have been able to touch across 170VDC without flinching (@ 1:55). I've felt ~48VDC in the summer with my hands a bit sweaty. And both those terminals were actually still bouncing between +/- 170V along with the AC supply. Then at 3:55 he gets shocked from touching those same term…

That 'hands a bit sweaty' affects the outcome way more than you'd think. I've had a seriously unpleasant nip from a mere 24VDC (while drenched in sweat) and only a mild tingle from 90VDC (in an air conditioned office).

In this case I'd guess he's got some decent calluses and any leakage current isn't going through any nerves. Also he's only touching it lightly so won't be making very good contact.

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