It leaked about a month ago - but this is the official news from Plillips/Signify + one additional device that hadn't leaked at the time the other 2 did.
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Philips Hue Announces New Wall Switch Module, Dimmer Switch, and Outdoor Light Bar
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It leaked about a month ago - but this is the official news from Plillips/Signify + one additional device that hadn't leaked at the time the other 2 did.
My older house also doesn’t have neutral wires, so I installed Lutron Caseta switches. Don’t require neutrals (not sure what black magic they use since there aren’t batteries either) and work great.
I think you’re getting thrown off by the shape. You’re likely seeing the octagon shape UK wall box and thinking about a 4 inch electrical box like this - RACO 4 in. Drawn Octagon Electrical Box with Raised Ground-8125 - The Home Depot as it would be the most common occurrence of an octagon box in North American wiring.
Your typical wall box (like this - RACO 4 in. x 2 in. Drawn Handy Electrical Box, Raised Ground-8660 - The Home Depot) is going to be 2 inches wide. It’s more than wide enough to accommodate this Hue device which is 1.7 inches wide (43.3mm). It’s also only 1.5 inches tall where your box is 4 inches tall, so it could be possible to fit all the wires and marionettes in the 2.5 inch area above this.
It creates a separate circuit that's at a low enough power it doesn't also turn on the light.
The inline switch could be a game-changer for the UK where there is almost zero available of any neutral-wire free solutions. We also have a lot of G4 and G9 capsule bulbs so cannot currently use Hue with these.
Edited to add:
Oh drat, can only control other Hue bulbs making it pointless! Shame.
Do I need a neutral wire?
The Philips Hue Wall Switch Module is powered by a coin cell battery that is expected to last at least five years. Therefore, the module does not need its own power supply and consequently also no neutral wire. This also made it possible to reduce the size of the module.Edited to add:
Can conventional lamps also be switched with the Philips Hue Wall Switch Module?
No, only lamps that are paired with the Philips Hue Bridge can be controlled with the in-wall module. You cannot make “dumb” lamps smart.Oh drat, can only control other Hue bulbs making it pointless! Shame.
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I don’t get the surprise - it’s a slight fashion makeover of their existing battery-powered dimmer switch. I have a few. They work well, if their capabilities and limitations fit your environment.
Yes, they should make a proper in-wall hard-wired switch as well.
"Philips Hue has announced a new wireless dimmer switch module that lets Hue bridge owners directly control the smart lighting from their standard wall switches."
What took them soooooo long....
And then the price, there are far cheaper options, like shelly.
What took them soooooo long....
And then the price, there are far cheaper options, like shelly.
Definitely.
The battery gets around the UK issue of not having a neutral wire. Unfortunately they've chosen not to let it actually control the switched power but rather only to act as a switch to Hue bulbs.
They trickle a small amount of power through the circuit. It's low enough that it's below the threshold of what the lights would need to actually work but enough to power the switch.
It's not possible to use standard dimmer switches with Hue bulbs. They don't like it. You need to control the brightness of the bulbs using the Hue app, or using HomeKit (Home on Mac, etc).
Thing is, there is a way around this issue without a battery. There are many no neutral required in wall switches on the market. Off the top of my head; Lutron, Aqara, Inovelli all offer in wall switches that don't need neutral.
Even if you can't figure it out, at least make the battery rechargeable and able to sip power from the line while the light was on. Most people want things inside their walls to be set it and forget it type devices - not ones that require battery changes.
Yes, it is not straightforward when you have a home that is using Hue bulbs (or something similar, smart bulbs) that can be controlled and dimmed using an app, but the bulbs are still (also) controlled (on-off only) with wall switches. In practice most of the time I simply leave the wall switch 'on' at all times, and control the bulbs solely using the app, but this is not always something that everyone in a household will be equally comfortable with.
Eventually I'm sure we'll evolve to a more integrated way to handle these smart lights, but with today's homes the existing wiring and switching is 'dumb'. I also don't like having to both replace bulbs and replace switches (not to mention plugs) to get the whole thing working in the best way . . .
Can't express this enough! I went from an apartment where I paid a pretty penny for some standard Hue bulbs to a house where most of the bulbs are ceiling flood bulbs. Imagine having to drop $585 on just lighting! Granted, I don't have to fill every room with Hue bulbs, but that price point is sheer insanity for wireless control and colors.
Yeah, it's a massive paradigm shift - from mechanical switches controlled at a point or points to "digital" switches that can be operated from anywhere, so long as you have the controller. The problem is the point location switch still plays a valuable role - simplicity and universal accessibility (you don't need to have a phone connected to the device network).
Not sure Hue really does the merging of the two particularly.
Not Hue related but that's one of the reasons I use Inovelli switches. I set them so that the switch doesn't control the load locally. I only use the switch as a trigger for my automation. Generally the on/off on the switch will trigger certain lights to turn on/off. In this way it makes it look like a normal switch. It just doesn't cut power to the circuit like a normal switch.
My system has gone deeper than that. Now almost all lighting is controlled by motion sensors and mode settings (mostly time of day). I haven't had to use a light switch in about a year. The switches are just there to act as a guest UI.
The only exception is my exterior light switch. Normally the lights set themselves based on time of day. They then double up as security lighting that is controlled by motion and contact sensors. If you press the on/up on the interior switch it will override the motion lighting and turn the exterior lights on full. Pressing off/down resets the override and returns the lights to security mode. Double tapping the up also overrides the motion but sets the lights to a colored scene. A triple tap sets a different scene.So in short I use the switches so that guests can manually turn lights on and off without disconnecting power from the smart bulbs.
With home assistant, there was nothing 'new to me' I had to do on the hardware end so It wasn't a big deal. The videos I watched for flashing involved soldering pins to create the connector and a bunch of other stuff that was just too far past what I was comfortable with.
Yup, that's why I went with Sylvania/Sengled bulbs for my A19s. You can sometimes get them for $10 each. For the track lighting in my living room I currently have 30 fixtures installed. They use GU10 lamps and it would have been nuts to get the Hue lamps at $55 each. I went with MiLight bulbs but that created another issue. I had to build a small device to connect them to my automation hub. At $8 a piece shipped directly from the manufacturer it was worth the added hassle.
https://github.com/mongoose-os-apps/shelly-homekit/blob/master/README.md
1. Copy URL from the linked place for the shelly device, note there are several different ones.
2. Paste it in Safari, replace A.B.C.D with the Shelly IP number.
3. Done Flashing.
4. Setup Homekit, takes a minute, flashing needs mere minutes.
There's also a video explaining the process on that page.
Could you describe how to get a Shelly integrated into the Hue ecosystem? I didn’t find any reliable way so far, but I would love to be able to use iConnectHue for programming a Hue dimmer switch to also control the Shelly in my kitchen. I am currently programming the dimmer switch with Apple’s Home App so I can integrate my HomeKit-enabled Shelly, but iConnectHue would allow me to more precisely/easily program the dimmer switch...
Thanks. All the stuff I saw on youtube involved physically connecting through a console to GPIO connector (which you are also supposed to solder on your own) then flashing through a console (i guess SSH).
When I was first installing LED bulbs in my home, I was using ecosmart bulbs from Home Depot in the locations where I didn't need a smart bulb but just wanted an LED bulb.
Then I started having ecosmart bulbs burn out after less than a year. So much for the claimed 5 or 10+ year lifetime! (I know, it depends on how many hours/day they are used, etc).
That led me to slowly install more Hue bulbs, which so far have been totally satisfactory and I have not had any Hue bulbs require replacement (yet).
Hah, came to say the exact same thing!
I think we are all so damn sick of multiple radio protocols and hubs!!!
Except for the light bulb flicker...
I have three (of nine) hue bulbs now showing slight flicker. I can suppress it (mostly) by running them at 90% rather than 100% brightness, but I don't consider this acceptable.
I won't be buying any more bulbs. Which is a shame, because Hue are indeed (including their smart buttons, motion detector, and smart socket) pretty reliable.