Adding Hue Bridge after directly connecting Hue Bulbs

Hi everyone, I have 6 Philips Hue Bulbs and 2 hue remotes connected directly to my ST hub. I was thinking about buying the Hue 4pack + Bridge bundle at Best Buy on sale as well as the LED light strip.

Will I need to reset all the hue bulbs with the special remote mentioned on the forum to connect them to the Hue Bridge? I haven’t seen anything concrete on connecting the LED strip directly to ST as that is my main concern. I’m not sure if adding the Hue Bridge will cause problems for my existing devices.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer

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you can add HUE bulbs with the official HUE app using their serial numbers. this is how i got my HUE bulbs (which were directly connected to ST) connected to the HUE bridge.

truely this is the way to go, my zigbee network hasn’t suffered device drop outs since moving all my lights (HUE and CREE) onto the HUE bridge

First you need to go into your account in the IDE and see what zigbee channel your SmartThings hub is using. If you are lucky, it will be one of the subset of channels which can also be used by the hue bridge: 11, 15, 20, or 25. In that case, you will be able to move the bulbs to the bridge in one of several ways.

If you are unlucky, it will be one of the subset of channels which is not used by the hue bridge, such as 14. In that case, yes, you will have to get a different device in order to reset them before you can add them to a Hue bridge.

The zigbee channel that your smartthings hub uses is assigned at random When you first set up your account, which is why different people will report different results and methods in the forums. It all depends on what Zigbee channel their particular hub was randomly assigned to.

I think you will be very happy once you get the bulbs moved over to the bridge. Not only does this give you additional functional possibilities, but it removes any problems associated with your other zigbee devices trying to use a Hue bulb as a repeater. The bulbs repeat fine for each other, but can drop messages from other devices. Bulbs attached to a hue bridge form their own mini network, so this problem does not arise.

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Once again your knowledge has given me direction. I just bought the lightstrips today as well and went digging through the forum on how to connect it directly to ST. Came across a couple of informative posts from you that really clarified things. I was seriously considering the Lutron connected remote as a backup plan (my ST hub is on channel 19) so I would need it to reset the strips. I was also considering getting the hub and 3 bulbs kit but thought I’d wait and see see how directly connecting worked out.
And then…This post. I didn’t realize that connecting directly with ST could “potentially” cause problems with other zigbee devices. Well that seals the deal. Gonna get the hub and bulbs and sell the bulbs to cover most of the cost. Thanks again Senor Roberts.

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Another quick question @JDRoberts. Do you think there will be any congestion or crosstalk if I have a ST hub, Lutron Pro hub and Hue bridge sitting close together?

Some people do it without any problems. It’s best if you can put them about 3 m apart but A lot depends on local conditions. I have my own Lutron pro SmartBridge about a foot away from the Phillips hue bridge and have not had any problems but of course those two protocols don’t overlap in frequency. I do keep the Hue bridge more distant from the SmartThings hub and again from Wi-Fi router. But again you can just experiment and see. :sunglasses:

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Great advice @JDRoberts. I think the added functionality of the Hue hub will be well worth it. Debating what I’ll do with my Hue remotes because the way I have them set up now (change colors, brightness, mode) is working out really well for me.

I got lucky - ST hub is on channel 20. Looking forward to playing with the Hue stuff.

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