Connecting hue lights

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

How do you connect hue lights to this smart thing hub? I bought the smart thing hub with the lights because my nearest home depot does not sell the hue starter kit in stores (how convenient.) Is this possible or do I need to return the smart things hub and just order a phillips hue one?

Please Advise!

2

Itā€™s possible, but not recommended or officially supported. The officially supported method of using hue lights with SmartThings is to also use a Hue bridge and then the integration is between the smartthings hub and the hue bridge.

Is there a Best Buy near you? Or a Walmart? They both usually carry the starter kit.

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/200848024-How-to-connect-Philips-Hue-devices

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I just used a remote to reset the Philips hue lights and done

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What kind of remote did you use? And how did you reset the lights?

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I searched for 2 hoursā€¦

Anyone know what benefits of connecting my hue system (including bridge ofcourse) to ST hub?

Or am I just keeping the bridge as is? Surely there has to be things I can do with ST hub by adding bridge & bulbs?

7

If you ā€˜onlyā€™ add hue to ST - thereā€™s not a whole lot of difference ; just a matter of interface preference.

BUT- Because ST is so versatile thereā€™s a lot of potential.
Examples:

  • Allows you to see your Hue stuff on actiontiles if you use it.
  • Add a motion sensor and when you walk in the bathroom at night your hue light strip mounted under your cabinets can dimly illuminate the floor
  • Door sensors will allow you to open that basement door and the bulb comes on.
  • Start a movie and use ST to tell your hue stuff to turn the lights to a particular level, or off.

Mind you, none of this is done by default - you will probably need to learn about WebCore, Device Handlers, Custom Apps etcā€¦ but ST kind of becomes the ā€˜centralā€™ control center where all of this comes togeather and helps you integrate all your other smart items.

1 Like
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Thanks for the reply, helps me understand the potentials. Wanted to see how my hue system will play with ST.

But technically with Hue motion sensors would also allow some of same functions you described?

Either way, I ask because I recently setup huebridge & bulbsā€¦ and echoā€¦ now Iā€™m hooked to HA.

Today the mailman dropped off Schlage Z-wave Smart lock & Smarththings home monitoring kit (hub & 4 add-ons).

This weekend I will spend time getting my ST hooked up & configured. Hardest part most likely will be physically installing the door lock, mainly because my door/frame strikeplate screw holes are strippedā€¦ so lots of aligning will need to happen. Ugh

Thx!

9

Correct!
And with smartthings, you arenā€™t limited to only using hue sensors. So you could get a motion sensor by ā€œbrand Xā€ because it uses IR, or choose ā€œbrand Yā€ because you want a motion sensor that can tell the difference between a person and the household pet, or ā€œbrand Zā€ because it does facial recognition. As long as the sensor can talk to smartthings, you can control your hue lights.

Smartthings is kind of like a bablefish, or universal translator, or the one ring to rule them allā€¦ It ā€˜speaksā€™ the popular protocols (Zigbee / Z-Wave / LAN ) so now you donā€™t have to only limit yourself to phillips devices.

So that Schlage Smart lock can be set to use the hue lights when someone unlocks the door.

The rabbit hole gets deeper :slight_smile: Now imagine the following connected to your hub: Your lawn sprinkler system, a moisture sensor, and the weather forecastā€¦ You could in theory have it set up so that your sprinkler system activates (but only on a Tuesday or Thursday) and only when the moisture in the ground is at or below a certain level, BUT not if the forecast says itā€™s going to rain later today or tomorrow. (Not sure if this has really been done, but I use it to point out possibilities).

Same holds true for your house, turn on a bathroom light, but if itā€™s the middle of the night, keep the light low.
At 6AM when I wake up, turn on the lights, TV, and have harmony turn to my news station.
If my door lock senses intrusion then turn on all the lights and flash them red and blue and sound a siren.

This is where WebCore, custom apps, and device handlers come in.

10

Speaking of webCoRE mentioned above and the fact that you have just recently setup your Hue Bridge and Bulbs and before you climb/fall further down the rabbit hole, I wanted to point you to the How to topic I just created. This will allow you to activate Scenes that you have already defined in your Hue app. With this you wonā€™t have to mess with trying to create a Scene with SmartThings or using any of the custom SmartApps. This will allow you to link WebCoRE with IFTTT via Webhooks and set a Scene from your Hue (which is the easiest way to create a scene). Does this just as quick if not quicker than running a Piston to execute a Routine to set a Scene. Open it up and take a look and for anyone else interested as well.

1 Like
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A few days ago I found a thread where someone posted a few webCoRE for dummies videos he created for newbies. I since can not find it.

I havenā€™t even set my ST hub yet, but I need to start learning about WebCoRE, custom apps/code, etc. ASAP.

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[deleted]

Does that help? :slight_smile:

If you do a long press on the videos above, you can copy the urls and paste them somewhere so that you have them available to you.

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Thx, wowā€¦ Iā€™ll figure this stuff out eventuallyā€¦ lots of great help here!