Philips Hue to Introduce Updated Dimmer Switch and 'Wave Linear' Outdoor Lighting

[SwissCanuck81]

I'm waiting to do the most simple thing ever:
Button 1: quick press for light 1 on, long press to dim up.
Button 2: quick press for light 2 on, long press to dim up
Button 3: quick press for light 2 off, long press to dim down.
Button 4: quick press for light 1 off, long press to dim down.

Eleventy-billion other lighting solutions work this way. Why is it so hard?

 

[zhenya]

I'm waiting to do the most simple thing ever:
Button 1: quick press for light 1 on, long press to dim up.
Button 2: quick press for light 2 on, long press to dim up
Button 3: quick press for light 2 off, long press to dim down.
Button 4: quick press for light 1 off, long press to dim down.

Eleventy-billion other lighting solutions work this way. Why is it so hard?

Any number of 3rd party apps will allow you to do that.

 

[Gorms]

don’t buy...they recently updated their software and broke all my dimmer switches and motion sensors with homekit...I kept saying watch they are about to release something new...this is bull crap!! 5 dimmer switches do nothing now, 15 motion sensors only work with Alexa now...bet you the new ones work perfectly with homekit, I’m predicting a new motion sensor and bridge coming out soon next

This is nonsense. I have 6 dimmer switches and 3 motion sensors that all work perfectly with HomeKit.

GCMexico, your issue is probably either something has wiped your settings (i.e. your Alexa setup?) and you just need to go in and recreate your automations or your firmware needs updating somewhere along the line (either hub or your switches). You can do that from within the Hue app.

 

[Unity451]

I dont understand why they don’t make the wall mount smaller. So much excess plastic on the sides.

I'm guessing they make it so that it looks like an actual wall switch rather than some random, miniature remote stuck on the wall.

 

[iphone1105]

I guess I’m just old fashioned when it comes to light switches...if you are too lazy to go flip a switch on and have to have it done from your smartphone...you have bigger issues

Hue is great for out of home control, and plus being able to dim on the phone and pick specific colors helps. However I get what you are saying. We use the Hue most when we are on vacation, put some lights on for the cats, give the appearance someone is home.

 

[gpwdeux]

I have about 25 motion sensors and 5 dimmers, with lights I had 49 devices on the hue bridge...everything was smooth, until hue released their adaptive lighting update...after that, any motion sensor that was triggered would crash on homekit, basically the bridge was constantly disconnecting from homekit non spot...so for the last 5 days I have gone into troubleshooting mode and it has been BRUTAL! first thing I did was get a new bridge and moved all the motion sensors to the new one, figured maybe I just had too many devices on the 1 bridge, think max is 50...issue still there, it made homekit unusable...once the motion sensors crashed homepods would crash, so no voice controls...everything however works on the hue app perfectly...removed all the hue devices from homekit everything works no problem, put them back everything crashes...removed just the motion sensors, everything works on homekit again with just the lights....signed out of icloud issue still there...luckily I have echo shows all over the house for video calling, so I was able to connect both my hue bridges to that and now all motion sensors work without crashing homekit...one thing I did not do was nuke my homekit home, it’s too big and I have too many devices connected, f! that...have garage doors, blinds, 9 homepods, 7 apple tvs, all hue lights, 15 arlo cameras, rachio sprinkler, abode security system, 30 wemo plugs and switches....so basically right now homekit is running smooth with no hue motions connected, those are now connected to alexa and work fine...the dimmers still refuse to work they are connected to homekit but triggers don’t work, wemo light switch triggers do work...if Alexa supported hue dimmers I would just move them over...what I fine suspect is that everything works in the hue app, light, dimmers and motions...lights and motions work in alexa...but dimmers and motion no longer on homekit and now suddenly they say “hey we have a new dimmer coming out” yeah right! I figured they were just about to release a new bridge, like I said watch that is about to come out

Wow, that's a lot of sensors for 19 lights, but hey tomato-tomato. They recommend no more than 50 lights and 12 accessories. The reason they don't recommend more than 12 sensors is because of bandwidth usage. A sensor uses a lot more bandwidth than a light or dimmer because of the almost constant communication with the hub, which in turn is in near constant communication with a HomeKit hub. I know Wemo switches are constantly sucking bandwidth, sometimes to the point it is absurd (and have no idea why, which is why I am systematically removing them as time and money allows). You could try just removing and re-adding the hub from Homekit, that won't nuke it, but I don't think that is your problem anyway. I think with everything you have (looks like roughly 130 devices, some being pretty bandwidth heavy), the increase in communication that the sensors now have with adaptive lighting, was the tipping point for connection timeouts. A new Hue hub isn't going to fix your problems, Apple increasing the Cloudkit single record limit from 1Mb is the only way to fix your problem. I know they say they have a hard limit of 1000 devices, but in reality it is defined by bandwidth, not number of devices. Once you get over that bandwidth, HomeKit stops syncing and everything starts to crash. Maybe putting the sensors under a separate account and then sharing it, might work, but you're still probably going to run into too much simultaneous information hitting the hub. Regardless, Hue is the victim of your issue, not the source (per se).

 

[bluespark]

I guess I’m just old fashioned when it comes to light switches...if you are too lazy to go flip a switch on and have to have it done from your smartphone...you have bigger issues

This is literally a switch you would flip on. With this switch, you *don't* have to do that action from your smartphone.

 

[JJayguy23]

I should have specified, 50 lights and 12 dimmers. Yes, the bridge is updated. Have you tried holding (IIRC) all four buttons on the dimmer? It does a soft reset of the dimmer giving you issues.

I've heard the Hue system has trouble with managing too many items. I don't have a specific number.

 

[iBreatheApple]

Giant hue fan. But couple issues for me. 1. Outdoor lighting is far too expensive. 2. They need to work harder to develop first party animations and customization instead of relying on third parties who can’t run scenes on the hub and require the app to be open in the background on the network. Except iConnectHue.

 

[bluespark]

My electrician just popped open the switches and joined the wires up behind or in the switch. The switch now does nothing and power is always on. The old switch is still there, but harmless.
I wish there was a Hue switch like this one but (in my case for uk sized wall plates) include a cabling option behind that would just do this bridging. Then you could just swap out the switch and the power is always on.

I did the same thing (though without the electrician) and assumed this was what most people did with Hue bulbs, at least if you're using them in overhead fixtures.

 

[victor.cardona]

I guess I’m just old fashioned when it comes to light switches...if you are too lazy to go flip a switch on and have to have it done from your smartphone...you have bigger issues

They're really nice if you want to control all the lights in a room with a single command. Then there are the colors...

 

[gcmexico]

This is nonsense. I have 6 dimmer switches and 3 motion sensors that all work perfectly with HomeKit.

GCMexico, your issue is probably either something has wiped your settings (i.e. your Alexa setup?) and you just need to go in and recreate your automations or your firmware needs updating somewhere along the line (either hub or your switches). You can do that from within the Hue app.

what you just said is nonsense...please move on, no need to respond with useless information...not being rude just stating facts

 

[gcmexico]

Wow, that's a lot of sensors for 19 lights, but hey tomato-tomato. They recommend no more than 50 lights and 12 accessories. The reason they don't recommend more than 12 sensors is because of bandwidth usage. A sensor uses a lot more bandwidth than a light or dimmer because of the almost constant communication with the hub, which in turn is in near constant communication with a HomeKit hub. I know Wemo switches are constantly sucking bandwidth, sometimes to the point it is absurd (and have no idea why, which is why I am systematically removing them as time and money allows). You could try just removing and re-adding the hub from Homekit, that won't nuke it, but I don't think that is your problem anyway. I think with everything you have (looks like roughly 130 devices, some being pretty bandwidth heavy), the increase in communication that the sensors now have with adaptive lighting, was the tipping point for connection timeouts. A new Hue hub isn't going to fix your problems, Apple increasing the Cloudkit single record limit from 1Mb is the only way to fix your problem. I know they say they have a hard limit of 1000 devices, but in reality it is defined by bandwidth, not number of devices. Once you get over that bandwidth, HomeKit stops syncing and everything starts to crash. Maybe putting the sensors under a separate account and then sharing it, might work, but you're still probably going to run into too much simultaneous information hitting the hub. Regardless, Hue is the victim of your issue, not the source (per se).

I’ve tried everything except nuking my homkit home, which I will not do because I have way too many devices...right now alexa is running all motion sensors no problem, voice automations work with homekit...issue is dimmers..seems like there is no solution...what I have noticed too, with regards to hue motion sensors homekit sees 3 devices, instead of one, so were I say only 49 on 1 hue bridge, homekit states 79 when you look under the homekit setting for the hue bridge...it could just be an over load....but it should not be the consumers fault, that we go all in and now the system cant handle it...who knows

 

[svenning]

It's so it will cover a standard EU lightswitch wallbox

Interesting... I live in Denmark, but maybe we use a different standard

 

[btrach144]

I should have specified, 50 lights and 12 dimmers. Yes, the bridge is updated. Have you tried holding (IIRC) all four buttons on the dimmer? It does a soft reset of the dimmer giving you issues.

Hub supports max 50 devices officially. Or are you running multiple hubs

 

[pubb]

I guess I’m just old fashioned when it comes to light switches...if you are too lazy to go flip a switch on and have to have it done from your smartphone...you have bigger issues

My living room has multiple sets of light switches control in different banks. If I want all of the lights on or all the lights off, it is much easier for me to just do it from my phone.

It is also nice to have the "family dinner" scene with some lights off, some lights max, some lights at medium settings.

and to be honest, the key feature is the integration with Siri shortcuts: "hey Siri, it's business time" turns my nightstand lights red and starts playing some Barry White on the Homepod.

 

[mattopotamus]

Hub supports max 50 devices officially. Or are you running multiple hubs

I have two hubs

 

[JulianL]

Improvements are good but I still think that Philips is being lazy and half-hearted on the dimmer design given the gorilla and well-resourced company status that it had in the smart lighting (and other) market(s). I’m in the U.K. and I have Philips Hue bulbs everywhere but I use Lutron switches because Lutron offers mounting plates that fit flush onto U.K. back-boxes and offers either single or double slots for slot-in dimmer switches. Why can’t a company with the size and market share of Philips do the same instead of forcing US, EU and U.K. (and other) customers to have a one-size-has-to-fit-all mounting plate and even then not offer an elegant dual gang solution?

Functionally I’ve found Philips Hue dimmers to be very good and I still have them tucked away in a few drawers as backups in case my Lutron integration were to have an outage but in terms of single and dual gang mountings for U.K. homes Philips just isn’t servicing that market adequately. Maybe this change will address single gang but dual gang? Come on Philips, you can and should do better.

 

[spazzcat]

don’t buy...they recently updated their software and broke all my dimmer switches and motion sensors with homekit...I kept saying watch they are about to release something new...this is bull crap!! 5 dimmer switches do nothing now, 15 motion sensors only work with Alexa now...bet you the new ones work perfectly with homekit, I’m predicting a new motion sensor and bridge coming out soon next

I have zero issues...

 

[spazzcat]

I'm waiting to do the most simple thing ever:
Button 1: quick press for light 1 on, long press to dim up.
Button 2: quick press for light 2 on, long press to dim up
Button 3: quick press for light 2 off, long press to dim down.
Button 4: quick press for light 1 off, long press to dim down.

Eleventy-billion other lighting solutions work this way. Why is it so hard?

you can do this in homekit

 

[error]

What does the Hue-button do? Cycle through scenes?

 

[coolfactor]

Shame on Philips!

The "on" button is also gaining a small tactile marking so that users can find the correct button in the dark.

They should have had this amazing accessibility feature all along, so that the blind can turn on the lights, too!

/s

 

[beanbaguk]

don’t buy...they recently updated their software and broke all my dimmer switches and motion sensors with homekit...I kept saying watch they are about to release something new...this is bull crap!! 5 dimmer switches do nothing now, 15 motion sensors only work with Alexa now...bet you the new ones work perfectly with homekit, I’m predicting a new motion sensor and bridge coming out soon next

Reboot your HomeKit hub (aka, AppleTV, HomePod, or iPad). It'll work just fine after that.

 

[beanbaguk]

How about providing more useful functionality like cycling between individual lights or rooms. Current functionality is limited.

You can do this. There are plenty of apps such as iConnect that off this functionality....

 

[beanbaguk]

I guess I’m just old fashioned when it comes to light switches...if you are too lazy to go flip a switch on and have to have it done from your smartphone...you have bigger issues

You have to see the bigger picture. You can create nice scenes to suit different times of the day. Change the temperature to also suit the amount of light and time of day helping you focus more.

On top of this, you can dim the lights, change the colours, and set automatic routines.

Examples in my home:

• I have a morning routine that senses when I walk downstairs. Instead of the lights blaring at me, I get a nice soft warm light that gradually gets brighter over a period of time so it wakes me gently (which btw, is lovely on a weekend when I get up early and just want to sit down and drink my coffee).
• The garden lights automatically come on about 30 minutes before sunset and then switch off 30 minutes after sunrise. If it's a dark day, they remain on until the lux level reaches a certain threshold.
• In my son's room, we have a nightlight mode, a story-time mode and a full on mode. When he was young, I even had a "nappy" change light mode allowing me to see a little without blinding my son while changing his nappy in the middle of the night.
• In our bedroom, we have several scenes so we can relax........
• And in my study I have a couple of modes that change temperature in the day meaning I have good light to concentrate with.

I have various other lights too around the house including the TV's, in the garage and other places, but I believe I'm up to about 40 lights and they have been amazing.

On top of this, they are all voice controlled (switching to HomePods from Alexa now that I have set-up my HomeBridge hub and everything is on HomeKit), so it's just easy to manage all the lights from my home.

To top it off, I can even use a physical switch. Just like the Victorians