I would like to tap on your knowledge and experience with smart lighting.
When I had the house built, I added a Fibaro puck behind all the wall light switches; at that time I hadn’t chosen any light fixtures and seemed to me the smartest thing to do, a bit pricey ok.
A few months forward, I (my WiFee) bought the lamps, and I find myself with a few cases where there is a Philips hue light bulb connected to a Fibaro switch.
At the moment the Hue lights are connected via Bluetooth to my phone so I can use the Hue app to manage scenes but I am not totally satisfied because it is flimsy and I cannot create scenes that change light attributes directly in FH (i.e. evening mood).
As an experiment, I factory reset one light (warm/cold white bulb) to include it directly to the FH smarthub. Now I have 2 “lights” in the room: the Fibaro switch and the Hue bulb. Of course, the Hue shows offline when Fibaro is off, but in the total of “lights on” shows the count of 1. Again, it bothers me a little but I can live with it.
Is there a better way to handle it? Would buying a Hue hub fix the “issue” ?
Thanks in advance,
Umberto.
PS: you can reply in Norwegian, I am not so fluent in writing but it’s OK to read for me! Thank you!
I don’t have the perfect solution for you, but here are a couple of ideas:
It’s perhaps not the most straightforward solution but there have been discussions around a programmed solution (in thingsplex) that could perhaps solve some issues with hybrid networks, although not perfectly.
Having switches/dimmers coupled in series is not really recommended, since it could cause all sorts of issues and your wife/relatives/visitors will always find a way to make your elegantly designed system fail… As a temporary fix (if you really need the smart functionality of the Hue bulbs), I suggest deactivating your precious Fibaro switches by locating it in “No room” and taping over the switch so it’s not possible to flick manually or calling an electrician.
What I really recommend is to segregate the systems completely. I have a combination of In wall switches and Hue bulbs myself but the Hue bulbs are used exclusively outdoors, put in No room (so they can not be controlled via app) but controlled solely via an automation in thingsplex based on astro events and motion detections.
Unfortunately none of your proposed solutions would work in my case.
The light is inside the house and I normally switch it on/off manually. I would like to automate the brightness and temperature through scenes, therefore the “automation only” approach is not feasible in my case.
The switch on the wall is a simple on/off, so it is not possible to dim the bulb using that one, I would need a separate control to dim the bulb or to change the light temperature.
I am thinking of taping the switch /making it dumb and use one of the hue wall switches to control that light, but it is not the most elegant solution.
Sounds like your question is more accurately spelled “how do I best control Hue lights and bulbs” in which case I would best refer to knobs and switches from Hue’s own ecosystem by Philips and Friends of Hue.
Personally I have also good WAF experience with this device (previously known as Violet Smart Switch):
I have not tried the Hue integration, all of my Hue’s are simple white bulbs and they are connected directly to FH hub via zigbee.
I think you are right, my question is how to control hue lights, retaining the wall switch functions. Which might be a total mess until I have a better idea of how to run the system (maybe motion activated?).
On the other alternative… Wow! That device looks so cool! A bit pricey but it is a one stop shop!
How do you integrate it with FH?
Integration with FH is somewhat tricky but I’ve made it work through a separate Node Red server which is listening for http requests (from Rithum) and activating home modes and shortcuts in FH over MQTT. The Hue integration should allegedly be a lot simpler but you better read up on it before you buy
LOL Yes I think my wife would be happy, but I don’t even know where to start with an mqtt broker and node red. But I must admit it has a certain wow factor built in.
