HomeKit Working with Adaptive Lighting and Hue

[SpaceGrayAlways]

Hello Everyone!

As you may know, Hue recently announced support for Adaptive Lighting in iOS 14. I have successfully installed the firmware update, enabled it per device and per scene as shown below, but... it still doesn't seem to be working.

To be very clear on what I have done:

1. Installed firmware update through Hue app.
2. Opened Home App on iOS, enabled Adaptive Lighting through prompts.
3. Opened the "Good Morning" Scene (which I use every morning) and shifted EACH Hue light to the Adaptive Light settings
   1. Additionally, to ensure that there is not something wrong with the scene, I independently enabled the Adaptive Lighting setting outside of the Good Morning scene, and it results the same way.
4. The lighting correctly adapts to the morning tone, but does not change throughout the day or in the evening.

Has anyone gotten this to successfully work? If so, can you give any steps you took?

 

[srl7741]

I've noticed the same thing, it works but does not seem to adjust tone much throughout the day into the evening. It does change but it's subtle. Sunset was around 4:45pm (CDT) the last few days and the lights we no different than at noon. By 10:00pm you could see a change but again it's subtle and no where near what I prefer.

I like the idea of the adaptive lighting but think it needs work. Defeats the purpose if you have to keep adjusting the tone manually each day.

 

[SpaceGrayAlways]

Hey @srl7741, glad to hear I'm not the only one facing issues here. Today (my third day with this enabled) it did finally change throughout the day, so hopefully that resolves that. However, I completely agree that the changes are very slight, and control over that would be excellent.

 

[waw74]

I've had a couple times where a scene doesn't set the color, and I have to set the scenes a couple times to get all the lights to go, although this isn't just an adaptive problem, it could be you're just in regular color temp, and it really didn't set adaptive. (might happen more when I set from HomePod, but not sure about that)

it does warm the lights as you dim them -- 20% at 4pm is warmer than 100% at 4pm.

The changes are subtle, and it does seem to stay cool longer after sunset than I would like.
I'm not sure if it's running based on local sunset/sunrise, or plain time of day. Since in theory, the cool to warm shift happens to work you towards bed time, and now in the north the sun will be gone before 5, which is way too early to start getting you ready for bed.

 

[SpaceGrayAlways]

it does warm the lights as you dim them -- 20% at 4pm is warmer than 100% at 4pm.

That's a very interesting point that I have to look at... Though I wonder if there's actually a color temperature difference, or if this is just how it appears to the naked eye.

I'm not sure if it's running based on local sunset/sunrise, or plain time of day. Since in theory, the cool to warm shift happens to work you towards bed time, and now in the north the sun will be gone before 5, which is way too early to start getting you ready for bed.

I'm curious on this as well if anyone find any documentation about it. Personally, I prefer it remain cooler until ~8pm as I work consistently through the evening. But this again speaks to the concept that a lack of customization is problematic. That may be more on Hue than it is on Apple, but either way... More customization would definitely be better.

 

[Arran]

That's a very interesting point that I have to look at... Though I wonder if there's actually a color temperature difference, or if this is just how it appears to the naked eye.

There's definitely a temperature difference. When I manually dim (Lutron Aurora) the bulbs get dimmer immediately but retain their cool-white tone. Then, after a second, they go more orange all by themselves. I wasn't expecting that sort of lag, but it does make the color-change really noticeable.

 

[waw74]

That's a very interesting point that I have to look at... Though I wonder if there's actually a color temperature difference, or if this is just how it appears to the naked eye.

I have other ways to interact with hue, and can read the actual values as numbers, it actually changes the color temp.

Also have tried 2 different lamps, both set to 100%, one set to auto, the other set to same color but non-auto, when set to 50% the color temp changes on the auto, but not the other. you can see the difference both with your eye, and the data.


I'm still occasionally looking into how it works, if the values are generated by hue or homekit.
Saw somewhere that homekit sent a long que of values with times, and then hue runs off of that list.

I have logged the changes for a bit, it seemed to change the color temp every 1-2 minutes, but don't know what device was actually setting the new value,

 

[SpaceGrayAlways]

I have logged the changes for a bit, it seemed to change the color temp every 1-2 minutes, but don't know what device was actually setting the new value,

There's a color temp throughout the day that often?!

 

[waw74]

There's a color temp throughout the day that often?!

it changes 10-30 degrees Kelvin every 1-2 minutes

Dec-04 7:04:23 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3049​

Dec-04 7:01:23 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3058​

Dec-04 6:59:23 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3067​

Dec-04 6:57:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3077​

Dec-04 6:55:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3086​

Dec-04 6:53:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3096​

Dec-04 6:51:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3106​

 

[srl7741]

it changes 10-30 degrees Kelvin every 1-2 minutes

Dec-04 7:04:23 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3049​

Dec-04 7:01:23 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3058​

Dec-04 6:59:23 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3067​

Dec-04 6:57:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3077​

Dec-04 6:55:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3086​

Dec-04 6:53:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3096​

Dec-04 6:51:22 PM​

​

Colortemp​

3106​

That's interesting, I wonder if those numbers are consistent around the clock or depend on the time of day or night it is?
I'm guessing but I think HomeKit is setting those new values. The Hue app would have no way of knowing the change since it set in HomeKit. (just a guess)

 

[SpaceGrayAlways]

This is really interesting, thanks for digging into this so much, @waw74!

I am really intrigued by where these values are coming from as well. Unlike @srl7741, I sort of assume that it comes from Hue as the firmware is there. I also don't see much control in the Home App, so I would have to assume any future modifications are going to come from Hue?

 

[waw74]

I haven't been curios enough to try and setup something that tracks the entire day.
also with dimming affecting color temp, I'd have to be sure I was at a constant dim level.

if what I saw was correct that homekit send hue a list of timed changes, than it could all be coming from homekit, and every time you made a change manually in home, it sends a new list of levels.

I just don't know if...
home sends hue a list for the next few hours when you make a change. and then those playback from the hue hub.
or
one of your homekit hubs or phone sends hue an updated value every few minutes

maybe that will be this weeks "COVID shut down the majority of my work, and I've got nothing better to do" project

---
And I'd like to say a serious FU to the macrumors forum, there's an add above this that keeps changing heights every time there's a new ad, so as I'm typing this, the box keeps sliding all over the screen

 

[SpaceGrayAlways]

maybe that will be this weeks "COVID shut down the majority of my work, and I've got nothing better to do" project

This sounds like an incredible project 😂. Thank you for looking into this so much!

This is all very interesting to me, though, it means I haven't the slightest idea where to recommend changes to 😂.