Philips Hue Discussion

[gtg465x]

Are one or both of your Apple TV units setup to never go to sleep? I get the no response every once in a great while but that is usually it. Normally everything works great. I have about 18 Hue Bulbs right now and some Hue Dimmers and a couple iHome outlets and everything seems to work pretty well together.

I don't think you need to do that. I can still control my HomeKit accessories remotely even though my Apple TV is always asleep. I think "Sleep" is really just a low power mode that turns the TV and lights on the front of the unit off, but inside it's still on and able to control things.

 

[hokiepokie07]

I'm trying to set my Hue bulbs to turn on at 2700K like an old incondescent bulb. What I've currently done is powered off my lights and then powered them on. I created a scene called "Normal" and am using that. For instance, I'm in my living room I'll tell Siri, "Set living room normal" and I get what I'm thinking is the default and 2700K. Am I correct? Is this the best way to do it?

I eventually want to purchase in wall dimmer switches that are compatible with Apple HomeKit, but before I do that, I want to make sure I have a scene that looks like an incondescent bulb's color as my go-to "default".

Thanks!

 

[boston04and07]

Are one or both of your Apple TV units setup to never go to sleep? I get the no response every once in a great while but that is usually it. Normally everything works great. I have about 18 Hue Bulbs right now and some Hue Dimmers and a couple iHome outlets and everything seems to work pretty well together.

Yeah, one of them is set to stay awake all the time. This might be a dumb question but is it possible/necessary to set up a static IP address for a Hue bridge? I set up static IPs for all my other HomeKit devices and that seemed to help quite a bit. However I was never able to do that for my Hue bridge since it obviously didn't show up in the list of connected wireless clients. Is it even possible to set a static address for an Ethernet connected device? Clearly I know very little about networking, especially with Ethernet devices

 

[gtg465x]

I'm trying to set my Hue bulbs to turn on at 2700K like an old incondescent bulb. What I've currently done is powered off my lights and then powered them on. I created a scene called "Normal" and am using that. For instance, I'm in my living room I'll tell Siri, "Set living room normal" and I get what I'm thinking is the default and 2700K. Am I correct? Is this the best way to do it?

I eventually want to purchase in wall dimmer switches that are compatible with Apple HomeKit, but before I do that, I want to make sure I have a scene that looks like an incondescent bulb's color as my go-to "default".

Thanks!

I use Hue dimmer switches and have them set up so that a normal press of the On button just turns the lights on and sets the brightness to 100%, keeping whatever color they are set to, but a press and hold of the On button resets them to the default color by setting the default Bright scene. If you use an app like iConnectHue, the Hue dimmers and motion sensors are great because they are infinitely customizable. You can have different actions for single press, double press, triple press, press and hold, etc, for all four buttons, and each of those actions can do any number of things from controlling single lights to setting scenes to controlling lights in other rooms even. Also, the buttons can do different things depending on the time of day. I feel as though going that route over wired smart switches gave me more flexibility. My traditional wired switches are all covered.

 

[steve knight]

You want access to the switches though because if the power goes out and then comes on in the middle of the light it is a bad way to wake up with all the lights coming on 100% all of a sudden.

 

[hokiepokie07]

I use Hue dimmer switches and have them set up so that a normal press of the On button just turns the lights on and sets the brightness to 100%, keeping whatever color they are set to, but a press and hold of the On button resets them to the default color by setting the default Bright scene. If you use an app like iConnectHue, the Hue dimmers and motion sensors are great because they are infinitely customizable. You can have different actions for single press, double press, triple press, press and hold, etc, for all four buttons, and each of those actions can do any number of things from controlling single lights to setting scenes to controlling lights in other rooms even. Also, the buttons can do different things depending on the time of day. I feel as though going that route over wired smart switches gave me more flexibility. My traditional wired switches are all covered.

Is it possible for a Hue dimmer remote to only control one light in a room? For example, in my bedroom, out of habit, my wife and I continue to cut our lights off by the switch on the lamp. If I could get a remote on our night stands, we may get in the habit of cutting them off that way. Or is there a better way to do it besides telling Siri Goodnight? It's just sometimes my wife will go to bed and I'm watching TV or reading, and if I'm reading I'd like to keep my lamp on. Thanks!

 

[gsmornot]

Is it possible for a Hue dimmer remote to only control one light in a room? For example, in my bedroom, out of habit, my wife and I continue to cut our lights off by the switch on the lamp. If I could get a remote on our night stands, we may get in the habit of cutting them off that way. Or is there a better way to do it besides telling Siri Goodnight? It's just sometimes my wife will go to bed and I'm watching TV or reading, and if I'm reading I'd like to keep my lamp on. Thanks!

Maybe put each lamp in its own room. I know technically they are not but software does not know.

 

[boston04and07]

Is it possible for a Hue dimmer remote to only control one light in a room? For example, in my bedroom, out of habit, my wife and I continue to cut our lights off by the switch on the lamp. If I could get a remote on our night stands, we may get in the habit of cutting them off that way. Or is there a better way to do it besides telling Siri Goodnight? It's just sometimes my wife will go to bed and I'm watching TV or reading, and if I'm reading I'd like to keep my lamp on. Thanks!

I've been wondering this as well. There are three sets of ceiling lights in my den and I'd ideally like to control them separately with my wall switches.

Maybe put each lamp in its own room. I know technically they are not but software does not know.

Yeah, I thought of that, but I think it'd annoy me after a while to have three rooms in the Home app for one real life room. Hopefully they'll fix this oversight soon. It seems like a pretty straightforward feature.

 

[chuyn]

Could try manually connecting the dimmer switch to the light. They can function without the hub. I'm not sure if it'll affect a bulb that is connected to the hub though.

 

[gtg465x]

Is it possible for a Hue dimmer remote to only control one light in a room? For example, in my bedroom, out of habit, my wife and I continue to cut our lights off by the switch on the lamp. If I could get a remote on our night stands, we may get in the habit of cutting them off that way. Or is there a better way to do it besides telling Siri Goodnight? It's just sometimes my wife will go to bed and I'm watching TV or reading, and if I'm reading I'd like to keep my lamp on. Thanks!

Why not just keep them ungrouped in HomeKit so you can control them individually from iOS control center or the Home app? Hue dimmers can control only one light, yes. No need to add the lights to separate rooms.

 

[hokiepokie07]

Maybe put each lamp in its own room. I know technically they are not but software does not know.

That was my only idea, but that's annoying to have a light in its own room. I'd like to have my bedroom but then be able to use the Hue dimmer on the nightstand to cut off ONLY my light or have my wife to have a Hue dimmer ONLY cut off her light.
[doublepost=1487174506][/doublepost]

Could try manually connecting the dimmer switch to the light. They can function without the hub. I'm not sure if it'll affect a bulb that is connected to the hub though.

How do you do that?
[doublepost=1487174590][/doublepost]

Why not just keep them ungrouped in HomeKit so you can control them individually from iOS control center or the Home app? Hue dimmers can control only one light, yes. No need to add the lights to separate rooms.

That's my other solution too. So I'd keep them out of a room and I could assign a Hue dimmer to connect to my light and another Hue dimmer connect to my wife's? So she could cut hers on and off and I could cut mine on and off separately with our own Hue remotes? I guess if they fix it in the future I could group them back to "bedroom". And I could still tell siri to cut my lamp on or off as well.

 

[chuyn]

Why not just keep them ungrouped in HomeKit so you can control them individually from iOS control center or the Home app? Hue dimmers can control only one light, yes. No need to add the lights to separate rooms.

I don't believe he has them "grouped". You can have any number of lights in a "room" (I have 4 lamps in my living room for example) that are still listed in the home app as individual lights. They're ungrouped but are located in my living room. I can turn on my floor lamp using Siri/control centre separate from the table lamp. But I can also ask Siri to turn on the living room lights, which will then have them turn on together. I can group them using the home app as say.. "lamps", and then all four lamps will behave as one unit and be seen in control centre as one item.

In the current Hue app, you can't assign a Hue dimmer to a single light. It has to be assigned to a room. The on button is then assigned to 5 scenes (1st press, 2nd press, etc). The off button turns off the lights of the room you assign it too. One rough work around could be to create a scene "wife's lamp on" so pressing on can activate just her lamp. However, since pressing off turns off all the lights in that room, you can't press off to turn only her lamp off. You'd need to make a scene "wife's lamp off" in this case. And then assign it to the second press of the on button. Not very elegant so a different app will need to be looked into to program that Hue dimmer.

To pair the dimmer remote manually with a bulb, you would turn the bulb on and then hold the remote near it. The manual states <15cm. Then hold down the on button until the light blinks indicating it's paired. This is how you add lights to a remote when you don't have a hub, so again, I'm not sure how this will affect a bulb that is connected to your Hue hub.

 

[gtg465x]

So I'd keep them out of a room and I could assign a Hue dimmer to connect to my light and another Hue dimmer connect to my wife's? So she could cut hers on and off and I could cut mine on and off separately with our own Hue remotes? I guess if they fix it in the future I could group them back to "bedroom". And I could still tell siri to cut my lamp on or off as well.

You don't need to keep them out of a room. You just need to assign each to its own group in the iConnectHue app. Can't do it in the official Hue app though.

In the current Hue app, you can't assign a Hue dimmer to a single light. It has to be assigned to a room.

Yeah, not with the official Hue app, but you should be able to with a third party app like iConnectHue. iConnectHue lets you add lights to groups, which are different than rooms. A light can be assigned to both a room and groups at the same time. Similarly to rooms, you can set up scenes for groups.

So what he would need to do would be to create a new group in iConnectHue that contains just the light he wants to control with the dimmer, create a few scenes for that group (On, Off, Dimmed, whatever), and then the iConnectHue app will let you program the buttons on the Hue dimmer to control that group / light.

But my original question for hokiepokie07 was... why do you want a dimmer remote to control a single light from your bedside or whatever when you can just use your phone, which is presumably by your bedside as well, as the remote to control that single light. If you have HomeKit set up, you don't even need to unlock your phone. Just swipe up and bam, control it from control center. I have Hue dimmers mounted on my walls that control all of the lights in the room in place of dumb switches, and if I want to control an individual light within the room, I just use Siri or iOS control center.

 

[hokiepokie07]

You don't need to keep them out of a room. You just need to assign each to its own group in the iConnectHue app. Can't do it in the official Hue app though.



Yeah, not with the official Hue app, but you should be able to with a third party app like iConnectHue. iConnectHue lets you add lights to groups, which are different than rooms. A light can be assigned to both a room and groups at the same time. Similarly to rooms, you can set up scenes for groups.

So what he would need to do would be to create a new group in iConnectHue that contains just the light he wants to control with the dimmer, create a few scenes for that group (On, Off, Dimmed, whatever), and then the iConnectHue app will let you program the buttons on the Hue dimmer to control that group / light.

But my original question for hokiepokie07 was... why do you want a dimmer remote to control a single light from your bedside or whatever when you can just use your phone, which is presumably by your bedside as well, as the remote to control that single light. If you have HomeKit set up, you don't even need to unlock your phone. Just swipe up and bam, control it from control center. I have Hue dimmers mounted on my walls that control all of the lights in the room in place of dumb switches, and if I want to control an individual light within the room, I just use Siri or iOS control center.

I'm fine with that, but it makes it easier for my wife. She's not as tech savvy and is more into just using a simple switch.
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I don't believe he has them "grouped". You can have any number of lights in a "room" (I have 4 lamps in my living room for example) that are still listed in the home app as individual lights. They're ungrouped but are located in my living room. I can turn on my floor lamp using Siri/control centre separate from the table lamp. But I can also ask Siri to turn on the living room lights, which will then have them turn on together. I can group them using the home app as say.. "lamps", and then all four lamps will behave as one unit and be seen in control centre as one item.

In the current Hue app, you can't assign a Hue dimmer to a single light. It has to be assigned to a room. The on button is then assigned to 5 scenes (1st press, 2nd press, etc). The off button turns off the lights of the room you assign it too. One rough work around could be to create a scene "wife's lamp on" so pressing on can activate just her lamp. However, since pressing off turns off all the lights in that room, you can't press off to turn only her lamp off. You'd need to make a scene "wife's lamp off" in this case. And then assign it to the second press of the on button. Not very elegant so a different app will need to be looked into to program that Hue dimmer.

To pair the dimmer remote manually with a bulb, you would turn the bulb on and then hold the remote near it. The manual states <15cm. Then hold down the on button until the light blinks indicating it's paired. This is how you add lights to a remote when you don't have a hub, so again, I'm not sure how this will affect a bulb that is connected to your Hue hub.

I had the scenes, "Wife's Lamp on" and Wife's Lamp off....but like you said, turning it off on the Hue dimmer cuts both lamps in the room off.

I'm fine with that, but it makes it easier for my wife. She's not as tech savvy and is more into just using a simple switch.

Now she says she'd rather use the phone to reduce clutter, so I'm setting her favorites up to make it simple.

 

[Arran]

Or you could buy a couple of Hue Taps and put one on each nightstand? Program both units the same:

• Right button = Turn wife's light on
• Left Button = Turn your light on
• Center button = Both lights on
• Top button = All off

Say you start off with both lights on. She wants to sleep and you want to read. Just hit "All Off" followed by the left button (your light on).

I have this setup and it works well. I have a 3rd tap at the bedroom door and use that to turn everything on or off as we enter or leave. At $60 per Tap it seems expensive, but its cheaper than having an electrician rewire. And we can take it all with us if we sell the house.

 

[The Martian]

Yeah, one of them is set to stay awake all the time. This might be a dumb question but is it possible/necessary to set up a static IP address for a Hue bridge? I set up static IPs for all my other HomeKit devices and that seemed to help quite a bit. However I was never able to do that for my Hue bridge since it obviously didn't show up in the list of connected wireless clients. Is it even possible to set a static address for an Ethernet connected device? Clearly I know very little about networking, especially with Ethernet devices

Yes, you can set a static IP on the Hue bridge by going into the Hue App on your iPhone then go to Settings then to Hue bridges then click on i with the circle around it and then select Network Settings and then turn DHCP to off and you can fill in the IP information.

Just about any Ethernet connected devices can have a static IP address.

Let me know if you are able to set it.

 

[pesos]

Anyone done much with lightstrips? We just remodeled our kitchen so I picked up two of the 80" Lightstrip plus units plus a 40" extension at the apple store locally.

The first one installed great, looks good. Yesterday I got around to putting in the second one with the extension and while the install went fine, the colors are SIGNIFICANTLY off the first one. I was hoping it was somehow a firmware thing but by today the 2nd unit had updated to a matched firmware and the colors are still very off. Reds and blues are the most noticeable (very orange and green respectively on the 2nd unit).

I've reached out to Phillips but haven't heard anything yet.

 

[LiveM]

Are they the same generation? The second-generation bulbs have different hues and the same might be true for the second-generation light strips.

 

[pesos]

Yep I made sure they were both 2nd gen.

 

[Arran]

I've seen this before. One of them is damaged or has a loose connector.

When I first installed strips by my stove (just like you) I cheaped-out and cut one strip in half. I thought I'd insert a few yards of multicore wire between the two halves to connect them. The idea was that the wire would run up behind the extractor fan (out of sight above the stove) and would save me buying a second strip.

It took me a few attempts to get the connections perfect (there are something like 5-6 conductors) but when they weren't, I got exactly the effect you're seeing.

 

[chuyn]

I've seen this before. One of them is damaged or has a loose connector.

When I first installed strips by my stove (just like you) I cheaped-out and cut one strip in half. I thought I'd insert a few yards of multicore wire between the two halves to connect them. The idea was that the wire would run up behind the extractor fan (out of sight above the stove) and would save me buying a second strip.

It took me a few attempts to get the connections perfect (there are something like 5-6 conductors) but when they weren't, I got exactly the effect you're seeing.

Great info to know. I was planning to do the exact same for my kitchen. I was planning to solder the sections together. How did you connect yours?

 

[pesos]

Heard back from Phillips and the guy said to just try a color instead of a "scene."

If I tell Siri to "turn the kitchen lights blue" or manually choose a color (not easy to match exactly since it's a color picker and not simply a selection) they match.

I don't understand his reply regarding how scenes "won't match due to the ambiance of the scene." I asked him for clarification but haven't heard back on that.

At least I know there is no physical issue and I don't have to tear them out!

 

[Arran]

Great info to know. I was planning to do the exact same for my kitchen. I was planning to solder the sections together. How did you connect yours?

Solder. When I upgraded my gen 1 lights strips with gen 2, I put the power supply in the cabinet above the stove and soldered a length of wire onto one section only (the other section already had the wire it came with). Then I just cut into the low voltage wire coming out of the power supply control box and spliced the new wire in.

It's been fine for a year or so (or however long the gen 2 strips have been out).
[doublepost=1490322416][/doublepost]

Heard back from Phillips and the guy said to just try a color instead of a "scene."

If I tell Siri to "turn the kitchen lights blue" or manually choose a color (not easy to match exactly since it's a color picker and not simply a selection) they match.

I don't understand his reply regarding how scenes "won't match due to the ambiance of the scene." I asked him for clarification but haven't heard back on that.

At least I know there is no physical issue and I don't have to tear them out!

OK, I know what's going on now.

In the built-in scenes that are based on a photo, all the bulbs and strips are assigned a different color from the photo. If you want these two strips to look the same, you'll need to create your own scene manually and set both of them to the exact same color.

 

[chuyn]

Solder. When I upgraded my gen 1 lights strips with gen 2, I put the power supply in the cabinet above the stove and soldered a length of wire onto one section only (the other section already had the wire it came with). Then I just cut into the low voltage wire coming out of the power supply and spliced the new wire in.

It's been fine for a year or so (or however long the gen 2 strips have been out).
[doublepost=1490322416][/doublepost]
OK, I know what's going on now.

In the built-in scenes that are based on a photo, all the bulbs and strips are assigned a different color from the photo. If you want these two strips to look the same, you'll need to create your own scene manually and set both of them to the exact same color.

I feel I'm a bit dense right now and having a hard time picturing what you did. Do you mean you cut a section off, soldered wire to that cut off piece, and spliced it into the same power supply?

I was planning to cut it and then solder wire in between the two pieces like a bridge. So I would have the first piece under one cabinet, then the soldered wires would be hidden to go across the stove to where I'd have the other section of light strip.

 

[Arran]

I feel I'm a bit dense right now and having a hard time picturing what you did. Do you mean you cut a section off, soldered wire to that cut off piece, and spliced it into the same power supply?

Sort of (and it's my fault for not being clearer). The power supply and the separate electronics control box is in the middle (over the stove/fan). I spliced after the control box (sorry if that wasn't clearer earlier). One wire from the control box runs leftwards to the left strip and the other wire runs rightwards to the right strip. The two strips are, thus, independently connected to a single control box which, itself, connects to the power supply with original cable.

I was planning to cut it and then solder wire in between the two pieces like a bridge. So I would have the first piece under one cabinet, then the soldered wires would be hidden to go across the stove to where I'd have the other section of light strip.

That would work too. The only drawback would be that if either set of solder joints is not perfect, then the strip furthest away from the control box would exhibit defects. It would be harder to troubleshoot.