GE Link Bulbs no more useful than standard LED's?

No current solution on their end. I’m going to un group them and try that way. Essentially lose the shortcut in the dashboard section. But If I set the automation up right it should be fine.

I’m curious if the people in this thread who aren’t having any trouble have tried groups.

I am trying to get an idea of what the community here does. I am just getting into this now actively buying components as I am prepping to build a new house starting April. I am testing what hardware to use. I have installed a GE/Jasco on/off switch for my downstairs den (as testing) with hue bulbs down there as well for the kids and movie nights. I initially tried the Hue tap as a switch since my kids (no phone, 6 and under) and wife prefer a switch…as do I a lot of days.

The tap was AWFUL…never worked reliably. So got the z-wave switch and it’s AWESOME. Works just like I want…no real delay…responsive to ST app…perfect in my world right now. As it stands, I am considering just using these for all switches in my new house…yes expensive, but it’s a one and done IMO.

Is the only reason people don’t do this because of cost considerations or is there another downside I am not aware of?

Thanks in advance.

Tony

It all depends on the individual and use case, but generally switches are preferred over smart bulbs. I like zwave switches (like the GE) whenever possible. If dimming is important, you can use a good zwave dimmer switch (Linear seems to be the community choice).

The smart bulbs make more sense for lamps without dedicated switches, color control like Hue, single lights where the switch is less used (easier to keep on) like a porch light, or fixtures with multiple bulbs where you want individual control of the lights. For instance, I went with 15 GE Links in my basement because all the overhead lights were on one switch. I can use the smart bulbs to create zones and customized lighting that would have otherwise required extensive wiring and a messy 5-6 gang switch box.

That’s my take. Check out the Smart Bulbs for a dumb guy thread too.

Yeah I agree with everything you said. I still think I am going to put a smartswitch on everything…and for instances like you said…a bunch of recessed cans say in a media room, will use connected bulbs to create scenes and control those via app. That I am totally fine with.

So no real downside to put in all these zwave switches…just stupid expensive haha.

Only with the GE Bulbs or any group of switches?

I’ve not tried groups with anything but GE Links.

Mostly the community here just bitches about lack of official Nest support. Oh, you mean, what the community does in their homes?

In that case, I think you’ll find most people install switches where they can, and bulbs elsewhere. For example, I have a few old, naked sockets operating on a pull chain in my basement, and one bulb near the stairs that operates on a switch. I put a bunch of GE bulbs in the pull-chain sockets, left them permanently on, and linked them to the one working wall switch. Now, the wall switch turns on all the lights. Be sure to check out the community-developed device type for the GE bulbs. You can find it in the forums.

In older houses without neutral wires, as is the case in parts of mine, you’ll find this page a useful guide. http://store.homeseer.com/store/HomeSeer-Z-Wave-OnOff-Wall-Switch-Comparison-W7.aspx – it shows which z-wave switches don’t require a neutral, and which support what kind of bulb.

I had one GE/Jasco switch fail on me, but I’ve installed over a dozen more that work well. Maybe it was just defective. I would warn against the GE/Jasco dimmers. The interface is not intuitive, since you have to tap to turn it on/off, and hold to dim/brighten. So you have guests holding down the button (which only dims), and cursing, “why can’t I turn this damn thing off?”

Hahah…thanks Matt…I am sure I’ll bitch about Nest too if their CES announcement does come to fruition! :slight_smile: I am looking from the perspective of new home construction so I’m going to make sure neutral wires are everywhere and have most things switched so I can dictate what is used.

I may use wifi bulbs for places where I have recessed lighting, one switch and want a “scene.” Good to know the Jasco switches work well as I am guessing I am going to need a BUNCH (biggish house). I heard the new Jasco dimmers work with all types of bulbs and I like their layout. Honestly, I don’t know why people would hold a switch to turn it on, but if they don’t get it…not my fault haha.

Biggest thing now is learning how to leverage the automation part. Still testing different rules to figure out how things work before I go crazy.

Thanks for the insight though…and…WHY THE HELL ISN’T THERE NATIVE NEST SUPPORT!!! :wink:

I have problems with hello, home commands and the GE bulbs. If there’s 4-5 lights on the hello, home is bound to not turn one of them off. And the app won’t poll to tell me the light didn’t turn off either just says off. My concern is when my home automatically goes into away mode cause of the presence sensors if the lights are all actually off.

I don’t want to install Zwave switches either just cause I’m moving in 6 mo so that’s just unnecessary waste of time and effort. They work perfectly on an individual basis using the app, harmony and even ivee so I definitly think its a group or multiple off command problem on the side of smartthings.

I’ve currently got 16 link bulbs, maybe like 2-3 regular ones, went crazy with the Black Friday $7.50 deal for the link bulbs… Lol

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my house is old and the wiring won’t work for switches so I have some link bulbs. I find they work fine when it’s one light being used but as more lights are used on one action one light often misses the “off” call.

one way around people flipping the switch that i’ve used is hooking it up to a motion sensor. i’ve gotten to the point where when I enter a room and the lights don’t come on i’m all WTF?! :slight_smile:

during the day and evening I have all 3 overhead bathroom lights come on at 100%. when it’s bedtime I have only one light come on at %20 dim like a night light and it’s worked nicely so far.

I’m having the same issues with grouping. Even when I tie it to a motion event. usually one bulb doesn’t turn on or off. I’ve found more success with having one bulb tied to the motion detector and the rest fire using the big switch app. it’s not 100% better, but it is more consistent than all tied to the motion either individually or as a fixture.

that’s an idea i haven’t tried. At first I had 1 virtual dimmer controlling the others and had issues so I switched to addressing the bulbs individually and that still had problems.

The use of 2 GE Link bulbs (connected to SmartThings via a Hue Bridge, just FYI) has been a perfect solution for my particular situation:

Two lights, one at top of staircase the other at bottom, were connected to 2 three way non-dimming switches with no neutral.

Now I leave the circuit on and use SmartThings to turn on either or both lights at desired dim levels, etc., and velcroed (3M) Aeotec Aeon Minimotes at top and bottom of stairs.

The #1 button is simply on/off toggle of both lights, and the other buttons for individual lights of the stairs and other nearby lighting devices (some ZigBee, some Z-Wave, all SmartThings).

At $15, these GE Links are miraculous, and I can always move them to lamps if I upgrade to circuit wall switches… But, remember, that would not give me the granularity of controlling my two staircase lights both individually and paired.

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New GE line of gear looking good.

I still stand by the GE Link Bulbs I have installed directly to ST Hub. Never failed once. Will be great when we get the buttons on the GE 45600 remote linked up to contrillion them. Progress at:

I still regularly have issues with bulbs un-linking. It seems to be the bulbs that are used the most with a manual light switch vs. smart things triggered bulbs.

For instance:

Bulbs that I have triggered to turn off after a set amount of time (utilizing pollster to get the manual on event) seem to never have issue un-linking / un-pairing.

Bulbs that I do not have setup that way eventually lose connection to the hub.

I’m wondering if you are activating the manual unpair function with cycling the power manually. I saw it somewhere that the GE Link Bulb can be unpaired by cycling the power I think 5 times in a row, it will then flash once and unpair. You need to do this if the bulb was not removed from a prior network (i.e. if someone gave you a bulb bu never removed from their network).

Kind of defeats the purpose of having a remote control dimmable bulb if you are turning it off manually, how’s it to report it’s condition if you removed all power from it?

I agree…

It’s not me turning it on and off…that’s the problem :slight_smile:

Still having problems with these bulbs. I needed to have my V2 hub off for a few hours for some wiring changes and the GE bulbs unlinked themselves. so you have to spend an hour removing them from every single phrase of smartapp and then delete them, re pair them and then re add them. Why cant we have a “repair” option on the smartthings app?

Most places are clearancing them for $10.00 and I don’t think they are worth owning.

It’s definitely frustrating when they drop off the network. I’ve been lucky that it happens rarely for me, but when it does, I highly recommend resetting the bulb then have ST search for new devices without removing them from SmartApps or deleting them from ST. The bulbs will reconnect and automatically assume their old device info. ST seems to know where they belong based on their MAC.

Sidenote: Tyler has stated that GE recognizes this as a known firmware issue and is supposed to have a fix/update out before the end of the year.

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Actually I tried what you reccomended and that did not work on the V2 hub they just show up as new lightbulbs. BUT; I went into the developer API and copied the information from the new bulbs down, deleted them, and then edited the old bulbs to use the information from the re-linking of bulbs.

This worked and saved me a TON of time. Thanks!

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