FAQ: Exact remote needed to reset Hue bulbs? (UK)

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21

Hey Kev,

What i know is that the philips remote can steal bulbs from the hue hub (zigbee lightlink) and reset them so that the ST hub (zigbee HA 1.2) can see them.

As far as i am aware (i am just saying what i have read), this particular remote cannot steal the bulbs from the ST hub. So if you pair them to the ST hub you are stuck there forever.

Unless you use a special daughterboard (xBee) for a raspberry pi and install the right software. In that case you can reset the bulbs at will and make them available for either the hue or the ST hub.

22

I think I might do without the remote for now then. I donā€™t actually need it at the moment, I just donā€™t want to go and buy a load of Philips Hue bulbs and then have my hub need to be replaced for whatever reason and then have a load of bulbs that are no longer smart.

I might investigate the Raspberry PI option for a more reliable method of resetting, you never know, Smartthings or someone on here may develop a way of doing it through the IDE or appā€¦

23

I have the remote from this product:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Philips-LivingColors-Aura-LED-colour-changing-table-lamp-white-remote-control-8W-/131227123006?hash=item1e8dbefd3e:g:hKQAAMXQuCdTfgot

But it does not help resetting my bulb to ZL profile.
How does the remote here differ from it ?

24

I have this remote and I used it to"steal" hue bulbs from the hue hub. I do not think it can be used if you want to steal bulbs from the ST hub.

1 Like
25

Hi, donā€™t know whether this helps butā€¦

I have 4 Hue Lux White bulbs - 3 were connected to the Hue hub and 1 directly connected to ST

My ST Hub failed and had to be replaced, this meant everything had to be reconnected to the new hub

I bought one of the remotes (pictured above), reset every bulb, omitted the Hue hub and paired them all to ST

1 Like
26

which one you mean ?
the one from the living colors aura or the bigger one with more buttons.
because for the bigger one I read on this thread that it can be used to reset hue bulbs (like the Lutron remote)

27

This is the one

Took 3 bulbs away from the Hue Bridge

One bulb was paired to the ST hub that was broken and returned
The remote reset the bulb and I just paired to the new ST hub

28

I believe @mrmrmrmr is asking about options for resetting a hue bulb which has already been connected directly to the smartthings hub so that it can be used once again with a hue bridge.

Hereā€™s the challenge:

The smartthings hub uses the ZHA profile.
The Hue bridge uses the ZLL profile.
ZLL runs on a subset of the channels that ZHA can run on.
The SmartThings hub is set to one specific zigbee channel at the factory and cannot be changed after that.

Say your SmartThings hub uses channel 14. That is used by the ZHA, but is not used by ZLL.

If you connect a hue bulb directly to your hub, it will also get set to zigbee channel 14. Since that is not a ZLL channel, it may not be able to talk to any other ZLL devices.

The Lutron remote is unusual in that it can reset a bulb on any of the channels. Itā€™s not limited to just the ZLL ones.

I donā€™t know for sure, but itā€™s possible that the Hue living colors remotes are using ZLL. The ones that do connect to the Hue bridge would pretty much have to be.

That might mean that usung the Living colors remote to reset bulbs would work for some people, but not for others, just depending on which zigbee channel each personā€™s hub was on.

Your smartthings zigbee channel is listed in the IDE. If it happens to be 15 or 20, for example, those are channels that are used by both ZHA and ZLL. So itā€™s likely that there are more devices that could be used to reset the bulb. But if your hub is set to channel 14, there are only a few devices that can reset it. The Lutron remote is one, and the German device mentioned above is another.

I donā€™t know for sure which protocol the living colors remote control is using. But you might want to check your own hub zigbee channel just in case that is an issue.

@sticks18 or @johnr could say more.

2 Likes
29

Ahā€¦ thanks for the clarification

Iā€™m sorry, I never tried to reset the bulb that was paired to the defunked ST Hub then see if would pair again with the Hue Bridge

I was just pleased I could get them back after losing the ST Hub

For interest purposes only, I wished Iā€™d have tried it now and see if it did

30

I would love to say more but you nailed it 100%! The sad thing this has been a problem for several years now. You would think by now Phillips would have put some type of on / off reset to factory command sequence in their bulbā€™s firmware.

1 Like
31

I know Iā€™m going to hijack a thread here, but its on the same theme.

So we know if you connect a Hue bulb to a ST it lock it inā€¦ but does it do the same if you connect a hue bulb to a hue hub?

What happens lets say if the Hue hub releases the magic blue smoke and no longer operate before you have chance to unpair the bulbs? Would you be in the same position of the bulb being locked?

32

Youā€™re a little better off because there are more devices that can reset the bulb. Thatā€™s because a hue bulb connected to a hue bridge is definitely using a ZLL frequency. So you can use a touchlink or bulb stealer method to move it to a New ZLL network, Like a different Hue bridge.

33

aah, so as long as you have another ZLL box, its easier to ā€˜resetā€™, or re-assign.

Edit: Just googled the methodā€¦ think I will continue to avoid Hue and carry on using Wemo and other alternatives!

34

Thanks.

I just checked my Zigbee channel.
ST Hub is at channel 24
Hue bridge is at channel 20

So, what are my chances ?
Only get the Lutron ?

Btw, how do I reset the bulb when I get the Lutron ?
Should I set the Lutron to channel 24 first ? How is it done ?

35

IIRC, the ZLL channels are 11, 15, 20 and 25.

So if your SmartThings hub is on 24, any bulbs directly attached to it will have been switched to 24, and the normal ZLL methods like touchlink wonā€™t work.

Youā€™ll have to use a ā€œLutron connected bulb remoteā€ (thatā€™s a specific device with that name, not just any Lutron remote). Or the German device mentioned above.

36

this one right ?

when I get it , how do I set it to reset my bulbs ?

37

Hi,

Iā€™d like to repeat my question since I couldnā€™t get an answerā€¦
Please help me with the aboveā€¦

38

@mitchp or someone else who has done it can confirm, but as far as I know you just follow the instructions from Lutron. Here are the current ones, but itā€™s possible that a new model of the remote might have somewhat different instructions. But youā€™re just doing a factory reset of a bulb.

http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Products/Pages/Components/ConnectedBulbRemoteControl/Overview.aspx

39

@JDRoberts is correct. The instructions can be found at the link he posted. Just hold the remote near the bulb (closer is better to avoid grabbing the wrong bulb) and hold the up and off buttons until the bulb resets and the remote and light stop blinking.

1 Like
40

Just to let everyone know, that whenever you reset your ST V2.0 hub (US Version in my case) you get a new random channel, so far Iā€™ve been able to cycle through various channels including 14, 15, 19, 20, and 24. Itā€™s a hassle but the channel is not hard coded into the device. This might be good news.