Philips Hue FAQ

conor-mr2

iHungry wrote: »

Hi, I got 4 of the Philips hue white bulbs. 1 in the hall, 1 in the landing, 1 in a bedroom and 1 in a conservatory. If I buy 1 remote can i switch each light on and off separately or do I need 4 remotes? Thanks

As Bren says, you can put all 4 into one "group" and then be able to switch them all on/off.
However if I think what you actually possibly mean is can you go around to each room and switch them on and off independently with the remote/dimmer.
The answer to this is no.

Hall = Hall group
Landing = Landing Group
Bedroom = Bedroom Group
Conservatory = Conservatory group

Test Group = Hall + Landing

You can associate your remote/dimmer with one of the groups so it controls only that group.
I've put the test group there as an example because as you can see you could associate your remote/dimmer with the Test group and then it would control the lights in the Hall+Landing.
Essentially you just associate a group of lights to the remote/dimmer.
Check out my pic where I use the remote for the Living room. It wouldnt make sense to include the kitchen because Id' be turning those lights on/off as well even though I'm in the living room.

bren2001

conor-mr2 wrote: »

As Bren says, you can put all 4 into one "group" and then be able to switch them all on/off.
However if I think what you actually possibly mean is can you go around to each room and switch them on and off independently with the remote/dimmer.
The answer to this is no.

Hall = Hall group
Landing = Landing Group
Bedroom = Bedroom Group
Conservatory = Conservatory group

Test Group = Hall + Landing

You can associate your remote/dimmer with one of the groups so it controls only that group.
I've put the test group there as an example because as you can see you could associate your remote/dimmer with the Test group and then it would control the lights in the Hall+Landing.
Essentially you just associate a group of lights to the remote/dimmer.
Check out my pic where I use the remote for the Living room. It wouldnt make sense to include the kitchen because Id' be turning those lights on/off as well even though I'm in the living room.

With Hue Labs can you not set each button to control a different light (or set of lights).

Someone in one of the threads was saying they have 6 GU10's, they put the dimmer horiztonal and the first 3 buttons control 2 lights each and the 4th them all.

flangemeistro

I may have asked this awhile back when contemplating buying sensors but I can't remember if I got an answer.

Anyway I bought the sensors and set then up last night, one on the landing for the landing light and bathroom light if anyone gets up to use the toilet at night and I have the other one set up in the kitchen to control the kitchen and sitting room which are connected through interleading doors.

So I walk in the front door, my front door light is on a routine, I have a hue dimmer switch inside the front door to turn on the hall light I then walk through the door to the kitchen and my sensor turns on three kitchen lights to relax and turns on the sitting room to movie time which is a nice yellow/orange hue on my TV light strip and a floor lamp.

Here's my issues, when we settle down at night in the sitting room I want my kitchen lights to go off and to come on if anyone walks through for a glass of water or what not but I also want my movie time scene in the sitting room to stay on and not go off when my kitchen sensor senses no movement.

Also my sensor on the landing controls the landing light and bathroom light but when the kids are bathing I obviously don't want the bathroom light to go off because the bathroom door will be locked so the sensor won't sense motion.

Does the sensor overrule the hue app and Alexa or vice versa? So say we're in the sitting room and the kitchen sensor senses no motion the kitchen lights and sitting room lights go off, if I say Alexa turn on movie time will the kitchen sensor then turn this scene off again after sensing no movement in the kitchen?

I had a look in the hue Labs but both the formulas that I read about I think will also leave on the kitchen lights which I don't want to happen.

Thanks.

thecivvie

iHungry wrote: »

Hi, I got 4 of the Philips hue white bulbs. 1 in the hall, 1 in the landing, 1 in a bedroom and 1 in a conservatory. If I buy 1 remote can i switch each light on and off separately or do I need 4 remotes? Thanks

I haven't used it but according to the specs of the Trust ZYCT-202 compatable remote, it can control 5 groups of 4 lights.
I have one on the way so will confirm or deny hopefully tomorrow

conor-mr2

bren2001 wrote: »

With Hue Labs can you not set each button to control a different light (or set of lights).

Someone in one of the threads was saying they have 6 GU10's, they put the dimmer horiztonal and the first 3 buttons control 2 lights each and the 4th them all.

Ill confess I've not played wit the labs too much but what I see in there is the ability to add Formulas.

I do reckon anything is possible with their API and no doubt something like All4Hue or another 3rd party app probably can support it.
Indeed... https://www.huedynamic.com/index.php/advanced-hue-dimmer-hue-tap-programming/

Hmm actually this might do it... https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hue-lights/id762009425?mt=8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yDmvT8nnlA
Check the video..

368100

Can anyone tell me if i got an Amazon echo plus can I do away with the hue bridge and will it control scenes for me?

I've had awful trouble logging into hue account from alexa app, never finds the bridge on the network even though it finds it for other things so I can only do on/off & dimming, no scenes. Hoping the echo plus might sort it

talking_walnut

Is it possible to wire the Hue strips directly to existing lighting wiring? I've an old fixture that needs replacing and these would look nice there. I could potentially wire up a outlet instead of the light fixture but not sure if that's wise to do on a lighting circuit.

Anyone out there tried something like this already?

bk

368100 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if i got an Amazon echo plus can I do away with the hue bridge and will it control scenes for me?

I've had awful trouble logging into hue account from alexa app, never finds the bridge on the network even though it finds it for other things so I can only do on/off & dimming, no scenes. Hoping the echo plus might sort it

If you get an Echo Plus you can do away with the Hue Bridge, however I really don't recommend it.

You will end up with a much worse experience, the Echo Plus doesn't support a lot of the things that the Hue Bridge support, such as motion sensors, Hue dimmers,various routines, colour bulbs, etc.

Think about it, the issues you are having are likely due to Amazons poor software and coding. Giving them even more control isn't going to fix it, likely to make it worse IMO. To be honest, I'd just recommend giving up on Alexa and getting Google Homes instead, works much better with everything including Hue IME

Northern Monkey

A quick one for light strip owners. When you first turn it on does it display the same colour the whole way across? The first 2/3 of mine are white and the final 1/3 is blue/green. If I go to extremes of colours they all seem to be the same but the more subtle scenes aren't uniform. I'm assuming there is a fault but just checking before I go down the replacement route.

Atomic Pineapple

Northern Monkey wrote: »

A quick one for light strip owners. When you first turn it on does it display the same colour the whole way across? The first 2/3 of mine are white and the final 1/3 is blue/green. If I go to extremes of colours they all seem to be the same but the more subtle scenes aren't uniform. I'm assuming there is a fault but just checking before I go down the replacement route.

Yeh sounds like a fault, mine was bright white the whole way across when first turned on

Northern Monkey

Thanks for that. I had another look at the strip and the difference is right after a cut point so there must be something wrong in the connection from there onward.

AndyBoBandy

Definitely a fault with the strip, send it back.

xckjoo

Anyone know if the Ikea GU10 bulbs in Dublin are the latest firmware that's compatible with the Philips Hub?

The Philips Dimmer Switch is compatible with these isn't it? I'm hoping for basic functionality of on/off and dimming.

bren2001

xckjoo wrote: »

Anyone know if the Ikea GU10 bulbs in Dublin are the latest firmware that's compatible with the Philips Hub?

The Philips Dimmer Switch is compatible with these isn't it? I'm hoping for basic functionality of on/off and dimming.

See the post here which tells you how to identify if they are the latest firmware:

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=105484936&postcount=29

If paired through the Hue hub, all the hue accessories work (to my knowledge). I personally have found the Phillips bulbs to be worth the extra few quid.

368100

bk wrote: »

If you get an Echo Plus you can do away with the Hue Bridge, however I really don't recommend it.

You will end up with a much worse experience, the Echo Plus doesn't support a lot of the things that the Hue Bridge support, such as motion sensors, Hue dimmers,various routines, colour bulbs, etc.

Think about it, the issues you are having are likely due to Amazons poor software and coding. Giving them even more control isn't going to fix it, likely to make it worse IMO. To be honest, I'd just recommend giving up on Alexa and getting Google Homes instead, works much better with everything including Hue IME

Thanks. So you think the problems I have are echo related rather than hue? I'll need to think about that and see about Google home

dendof

With the lightstrips, does anyone know if you can plug extension into power first and then add main lightstrip?
I ordered 2 sets from amazon.es, one set has lightsrip connected to power can't remove, the other you can.
So I was wondering if I can do this:
Power --> 1m Ext --> Ext Cable --> 2m Orig LightStrip --> Ext Cable --> 1m Ext

bk

xckjoo wrote: »

Anyone know if the Ikea GU10 bulbs in Dublin are the latest firmware that's compatible with the Philips Hub?

The Philips Dimmer Switch is compatible with these isn't it? I'm hoping for basic functionality of on/off and dimming.

I've two Ikea €7 GU10's from Dublin. I was able to pair them with my Hue hub out of the box, they seem to have the latest software.

We'll sort of, one bulb paired with the Hue hub straight off. Unfortunately the second wouldn't and took nearly three hours of me switching it on and off trying to reset it to get it paired. Finally worked but pretty frustrating.

Once paired with the Hue hub, it works fine with the Hue dimmers and motion sensors.

Here is my advice for pairing these bulbs
- switch off at the wall or unplug all Hue bulbs and lights
- Only try and set up one Ikea bulb at a time
- try and move the bulb being setup as close to the hub as is physically possible

bk

368100 wrote: »

Thanks. So you think the problems I have are echo related rather than hue? I'll need to think about that and see about Google home

I think so. For months I've been using both an Echo and Google Home side by side. I found the Echo to be very buggy and I'm not impressed by Amazons software quality.

Google Home has been WAY more reliable by comparison and in the last month I've pretty much given up on the Echo and gone all in on Google Home and I'm much happier since doing that.

I also find the Hue Hub and their apps to be rock solid, which is again why I think the problem likely lies with Amazon then the Hue Hub.

xckjoo

bk wrote: »

I've two Ikea €7 GU10's from Dublin. I was able to pair them with my Hue hub out of the box, they seem to have the latest software.

We'll sort of, one bulb paired with the Hue hub straight off. Unfortunately the second wouldn't and took nearly three hours of me switching it on and off trying to reset it to get it paired. Finally worked but pretty frustrating.

Once paired with the Hue hub, it works fine with the Hue dimmers and motion sensors.

Here is my advice for pairing these bulbs
- switch off at the wall or unplug all Hue bulbs and lights
- Only try and set up one Ikea bulb at a time
- try and move the bulb being setup as close to the hub as is physically possible

Cheers. Apparently they had none available though so left with the bog standard GU10 LEDs.

No rush anyway. The price of the Gateway/Hub went back up to ~£50 and not willing to pay that. I'll wait for a better deal to appear.

illdoit2morrow

There was an update on the official hue app with a few Christmas scene's in the hue labs.

There is a choice of three scenes, something to keep us amused and to show off our light set-ups to any visitors (provided you have colour bulbs) over the Christmas.

bk

xckjoo wrote: »

Cheers. Apparently they had none available though so left with the bog standard GU10 LEDs.

No rush anyway. The price of the Gateway/Hub went back up to ~£50 and not willing to pay that. I'll wait for a better deal to appear.

They had hundreds of €7 GU10's in Ballymun just a few days ago. I doubt they sold out of them. They were in the lighting department downstairs, under a display of some smart bulbs

I suspect the Hue gear will be reduced again in the post xmas sales.

xckjoo

bk wrote: »

They had hundreds of €7 GU10's in Ballymun just a few days ago. I doubt they sold out of them. They were in the lighting department downstairs, under a display of some smart bulbs

I suspect the Hue gear will be reduced again in the post xmas sales.

It wasn't me that was in so couldn't investigate too much. Just tried to order them online out of curiosity and they'd only let me put 3 in the basket for some reason. Maybe they did a stock reshuffle or something.

I'm tempted to get the Colour Ambiance starter pack that comes with an Alexa and then trying to flog the Alexa but not sure it's worth the cost/risk. Otherwise I'll be waiting and watching. The only rush is my own impatience

bk

I think the Ikea online sales thing is very variable, lots of complaints about it over on the Bargain Alerts forum.

The high horse brigade

I got a one for all voucher for Xmas. Is there anywhere has good deals on his that takes it?

Optimus Prime

The high horse brigade wrote: »

I got a one for all voucher for Xmas. Is there anywhere has good deals on his that takes it?

You can buy amazon vouchers on the one4all website. Add them to your amazon account.

The high horse brigade

Optimus Prime wrote: »

You can buy amazon vouchers on the one4all website. Add them to your amazon account.

That is perfect, didn't know you could do that

The high horse brigade

Optimus Prime wrote: »

You can buy amazon vouchers on the one4all website. Add them to your amazon account.

This isn't working, I can't find anywhere on the oneforall website to buy Amazon vouchers and Amazon are not accepting it as visa debit to buy on theirs. FWIW Revolut and Paypal didn't accept it either

Edit: it seems this ended in October, you can no longer buy Amazon vouchers. Another option is that oneforall offer a vplus prepaid MasterCard but the top up fee is extortionate at €8 per €100

bren2001

Bit of an extremely simple question, anyone know how to mount a motion sensor in a corner? I've played around with a few positions and found the corner the best but no idea how to mount it. Its currently delicately balanced on the top of my sweeping brush.

Davy

bren2001 wrote: »

Bit of an extremely simple question, anyone know how to mount a motion sensor in a corner? I've played around with a few positions and found the corner the best but no idea how to mount it. Its currently delicately balanced on the top of my sweeping brush.

Just use a small spacer and stick the sensor to that?

wexfordman2

bren2001 wrote: »

Bit of an extremely simple question, anyone know how to mount a motion sensor in a corner? I've played around with a few positions and found the corner the best but no idea how to mount it. Its currently delicately balanced on the top of my sweeping brush.

Be carefull, not to have it facing a window with bright sunlight through it, and also not towards an open fire, as both of these will cause false alarms.