After researching online, reading reviews, talking to best buy staff, I decided that the SmartThings hub was better than the hue hub, the wink and other candidates. I decided to buy it even if it was more expensive because it is compatible with most protocols and most devices.
I got it this evening and, after 3 hours fighting with the Samsung account password, I was finally able to see it from the app.
Then I tried to add a Philips Hue light and the SmartThings app told me that I need the hue bridge.
During my research I always found them described as an alternative to each other, no mention of the fact that one needs the other.
Is it true that I need the Hue bridge in order to connect the SmartThings hub to Hue lights?
If this is the case I will return it immediately, get a Hue bridge, see how far I can go with that and, if I will feel like the SmartThings hub will help, I will buy it again.
The Philips Hue hub isn’t absolutely necessary - but it provides a lot of additional Hue functionality (such as the native groups, scenes, rules, schedules, etc.) that you cannot get without it. It will only work with Philips Hue Lights and accessories.
The ST hub is used to integrate and control many types of sensors, lights, and other IoT devices. It can control the Hue lights using the Philips Hue Hub or not. It can be used to do much, much more than the Hue hub, but it cannot replace it altogether.
Remember that you aren’t just losing optional features. Including hue bulbs in your smartthings zigbee network means that you have added unreliable repeaters, so messages from your other devices, such as battery operated sensors, maybe lost from time to time.
This often makes it look like the sensors are a problem when in fact the sensors are just fine, the messages are getting lost further down the line by the bulbs that should be repeating the messages but are not.
If you aren’t going to have any battery operated Zigbee devices, then that’s not an issue, but it’s just something to be aware of.
I could use some help here.
I have opted to go the smart bulb more than the smart switch route with the lighting in my house.
The problem is that I have exceeded Phillips Hue Bridge max # of lights.
I also have a SmartThings hub.
Can I just get another Bridge or should I run all of the lights on SmartThings.
To complicate things further, my house is completely controlled by Google home as my end user platform of control over everything in the house. In otherwords, aside from a link or pathway to Google Home, I don’t use SmartThings directly to control anything except my Samsung products like our tv.
You should not add hue bulbs directly to the smartthings hub for the reasons given in the first post of this thread. You can cause problems throughout your entire Zigbee network.
Normally I would say just get a second hue bridge, but to be honest, I don’t know for sure whether you can add two Hue bridges to one smartthings account. This is something that has changed back-and-forth over the years and I just don’t know where it is now.
