Philips Hue FAQ

downtheroad

Stupid question here but does this only work through the app when connected to the house Wi-Fi? I bought the starter kit last week and thought it would be like my Kasa smart plugs, which I can turn on and off from anywhere. But with Hue I can't seem to operate the bulbs unless I am on my house Wi-Fi (tried from across the street on 4G and nothing happened)

peteb2

You need to turn on the option i think to use from outside. I do it with no problems.

irelandrover

downtheroad wrote: »

Stupid question here but does this only work through the app when connected to the house Wi-Fi? I bought the starter kit last week and thought it would be like my Kasa smart plugs, which I can turn on and off from anywhere. But with Hue I can't seem to operate the bulbs unless I am on my house Wi-Fi (tried from across the street on 4G and nothing happened)

You need to into your hue account.



Go to the setting and you'll see an "out of home control" at the top.
Sign in there and then you can access from anywhere.

downtheroad

irelandrover wrote: »

You need to into your hue account.



Go to the setting and you'll see an "out of home control" at the top.
Sign in there and then you can access from anywhere.

Well that was straightforward! Done. Thanks lads.

ablelocks

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

swap it around to some other GU10 fittings, perhaps closer to the hub and try it.

failing that, delete it, and try to re-add it (take note of the serial number as you might need to search by SN)

that didn't work so contacted Amazon and hey presto, the current price of buying a single bulb put in my account as a gift card...(£39).

pity i didn't contact them last week and i'd have got 3 x new gu10s for £41!

ablelocks

all the "new" gu10's successfully installed in the eaves of the house...is there a way of getting them flash or chase like christmas tree lights? have looked in the hue and the iconnecthue apps but they have slower animations...

ablelocks

impulse buys don't always work out- the hue playlight bar and extension only has one plug? I assume that there would be 3 or at least a 2 + 1 arrangement, but no, all of them are tied to the one power source.

does anyone know if there are third party plugs that are compatibile?

I'm also struggling to find a place for them, either as a group or individually if that turns out to be possible....

downtheroad

Has anybody worked out how to get the most out of their sensors? I have 2 and with 1 I wanted to have it set up on the landing to turn the night light on during the night if anybody steps into the landing. I also want to have it do nothing during daylight and turn on fully during the evening, but the sensor settings only seem to allow 2 time periods. Any way around this?

wonski

Set the hue bulb to switch on at your desired time in the evening, when that is up the sensor should switch it off after the set time in sensor routine.

Basically set your sensor as desired to do nothing during the day until 6pm and to switch light on after let's say 10pm, and set the light to be on all time between let's say 6 and 10pm.

That should work.

irelandrover

downtheroad wrote: »

Has anybody worked out how to get the most out of their sensors? I have 2 and with 1 I wanted to have it set up on the landing to turn the night light on during the night if anybody steps into the landing. I also want to have it do nothing during daylight and turn on fully during the evening, but the sensor settings only seem to allow 2 time periods. Any way around this?

In hue labs you have a routine called three times a charm. You can set 3 time periods using that.

Alkers

downtheroad wrote: »

Has anybody worked out how to get the most out of their sensors? I have 2 and with 1 I wanted to have it set up on the landing to turn the night light on during the night if anybody steps into the landing. I also want to have it do nothing during daylight and turn on fully during the evening, but the sensor settings only seem to allow 2 time periods. Any way around this?

Where is the sensor?

We have it set to come on "bright" before 10pm and "nightlight" after. During the day, the sensor doesn't trigger the bulb as the room is already bright. You can tweak the daylight sensitivities in the accessory setup.

downtheroad

irelandrover wrote: »

In hue labs you have a routine called three times a charm. You can set 3 time periods using that.

I have set this up and will report back later when I've tested it out. Thanks a million.

downtheroad

Alkers wrote: »

Where is the sensor?

We have it set to come on "bright" before 10pm and "nightlight" after. During the day, the sensor doesn't trigger the bulb as the room is already bright. You can tweak the daylight sensitivities in the accessory setup.

1 in the hall and 1 upstairs in the landing. When they work they are fantastic. I find that after the light triggers on then switches back off the sensor goes "inactive" according to the app and takes a good while before it triggers again with movement. I have the motion sensitivity set to highly sensitive and the daylight sensitivity set to low.

copacetic

Anyone used the outdoor strip in the kitchen? Want to replace 3.4m strip to get a more even effect, on special offer in amazon, but concerned it will look too bulky and be difficult to trim down exactly as supposedly not possible.

FlorenceDude

What about Outdoor Hue....

The high horse brigade

Hue led strip lightning deal. I just got the 3m led strip, that's a 2m with 1m extension for £44.99

Philips Hue Lightstrip 3m Bundle [Base Kit + Extension] White and Colour Ambiance Smart LED Kit (Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XC2MPSG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_i1Z9Db1TY3JJ0

scamalert

wonder can anyone give advice for troubleshoot.


had power outage in estate few days back, was like every 5- 10 min intervals for an hour, so all lights went on full white in rooms, anyway after few times switched em off and went to bed.


now in my room i have 3 gu10s , but if i say turn on room or change room to whatever color only one bulb responds.


tried changing names, deleting groups, searching for new devices on alexa and on hue app and even creating new group bounces back to same issue. cant figure if its alexa app thats not syncing properly - most likely or smth else.
as in hue app i can control themes colors and all lights respond ok and can be grouped or single selection for color. but once i ask alexa to change only one responds.


now tried almost everything but seems only thing that works on all lights if i ask alexa to dim em to 10-50 % all react otherwise as colors go only single bulb react via commands but on app all work fine

edit: went into alexa app, deleted each light individually ran discovery and re assigned each light to room group, and all work together now.

Stewball

Thinking about giving these a try in one of the bedrooms. Technology isn't my strong point so I've a few Qs.
If I purchase these
bulb
dimmer

Will I be able to dim the light in the room at night using the switch?
Will it also be possible to dim the lights using voice control?

I'm not looking for anything too fancy.

The high horse brigade

Stewball wrote: »

Thinking about giving these a try in one of the bedrooms. Technology isn't my strong point so I've a few Qs.
If I purchase these
bulb
dimmer

Will I be able to dim the light in the room at night using the switch?
Will it also be possible to dim the lights using voice control?

I'm not looking for anything too fancy.

You will need a Hue bridge unlock smart features such as linking to Google assistant/Alexa

Stewball

The high horse brigade wrote: »

You will need a Hue bridge unlock smart features such as linking to Google assistant/Alexa

So I wouldn't be able to use voice control without a Hue Bridge, but would I still be able to dim the lights using the dimmer switch?

The high horse brigade

Stewball wrote: »

So I wouldn't be able to use voice control without a Hue Bridge, but would I still be able to dim the lights using the dimmer switch?

I'm not sure about that exact bulb but some of the newer ones yes. Someone else may know more

scamalert

its an interesting question, as alexa app does have feature to detect lights devices etc, but without bridge as main control unit might not work - as my understanding that bridge would provide exact figures for say dimming lights to 50% etc, where alexa would be more like on off, functions sort of like using wifi plug for light , so most likely voice control or even using dim switch alone might not work properly, but as mentioned with new bluetooth lights maybe the switch and light could be synced, but alexa would prob only provide on/off capabilities.

OU812

Have a blown E14 (candle bulb). Bought in Dec 2017.

Any ideas what the options are on it? Will it be covered by warranty do you think?

laros

Stewball wrote: »

Thinking about giving these a try in one of the bedrooms. Technology isn't my strong point so I've a few Qs.
If I purchase these
bulb
dimmer

Will I be able to dim the light in the room at night using the switch?
Will it also be possible to dim the lights using voice control?

I'm not looking for anything too fancy.

Just so you know ... tesco have a kit with a single bulb and a dimmer which is sold for around €25 quite a saving on currys pricing....

Stewball

laros wrote: »

Just so you know ... tesco have a kit with a single bulb and a dimmer which is sold for around €25 quite a saving on currys pricing....

Thanks, I'll have a look at those.

namloc1980

Having a bit of trouble with my set up in the last few weeks. Have sensors and wall switches as well as the bulbs. The sensors/switches are not behaving - randomly becoming unreachable or inactive, sensors not triggering lights when they should and switches not working when pressed (but sometimes work if pressed multiple times).

The bulbs themselves are fine (I think) and respond with no issues to routines, voice command via Google and through the hue app. It's the accessories that are acting up. Tried to delete and reset them and it's okay for a short time before acting up again. Changed zigbee channel too and no good. Starting to get on my nerves now and the missus is very unimpressed!

Any ideas or anyone suffer similar issues? Up until before Christmas everything was perfect.

Alkers

namloc1980 wrote: »

Having a bit of trouble with my set up in the last few weeks. Have sensors and wall switches as well as the bulbs. The sensors/switches are not behaving - randomly becoming unreachable or inactive, sensors not triggering lights when they should and switches not working when pressed (but sometimes work if pressed multiple times).

The bulbs themselves are fine (I think) and respond with no issues to routines, voice command via Google and through the hue app. It's the accessories that are acting up. Tried to delete and reset them and it's okay for a short time before acting up again. Changed zigbee channel too and no good. Starting to get on my nerves now and the missus is very unimpressed!

Any ideas or anyone suffer similar issues? Up until before Christmas everything was perfect.

I've been having very similar issues since Christmas but really in the last few days - lights very slow to respond to sensors and switches not working at all. I had put it down to new BB and router which we got in November (was working fine initially) as our WiFi speeds seem to have dropped right off also. We've also moved from one Alexa speaker to three google nests so thought it may have been related to that either but voice commands are responded to quickly.

sticker

I just bought a light strip plus with 1 meter extension, but the insatllation is looking for a "bridge"?!

Do I ned to buy a bridge for this thing to work?

Thanks!

RobbieTheRobber

sticker wrote: »

I just bought a light strip plus with 1 meter extension, but the insatllation is looking for a "bridge"?!

Do I need to buy a bridge for this thing to work?

Thanks!

Yes to control the light (set colour, brightness etc) or set routines you will need a bridge.

sticker

RobbieTheRobber wrote: »

Yes to control the light (set colour, brightness etc) or set routines you will need a bridge.

Bugger - Thanks!