I thought I would post an update on this. I went ahead with a test install of the hard-wired approach. I am using an Evolve LRM-AS dimmer as the physical control, and have installed it with the bulbs hard wired, and thus the load wire on the dimmer switch is unused. This has the nice side benefit that the Hue bulbs will retain their color when switched on an off. I built a SmartApp called a Multi Dimmer as I could not find anything to handle this. It basically allows you to pass the level from a dimmer switch to multiple others, along with the on/off state. With that, I can use both the Device tile on my iPad and the physical wall switch to control the on/off/dim state of all 6 Hue bulbs in my living room. So far, so good!
I have 2 issue so far:
- Lag - we timed it, and are seeing 2-4 seconds response for on/off commands. Not sure I am going to get a good WAF on that
- Dimming Lag - This switch uses a tap to turn the dim up and down. This is hard to manage with the lag. You have to tap a few times and wait
- Sporadic misses - sometimes not all the bulbs are working - not sure why this is yet - might be my app, Wifi network, Hue, or ST. Big issues on the WAF front here. When this happens with the hard wired setup you have no way to get the bulbs off. But so far I can go to the individual Hue tiles and turn them off an it works, so I think this might be my App code.
Funally, this is probably questionable from a code perspective…