Hive with ST (UK)

I’m a new ST user and am desperate to get away from the Hive hub. I have hive dimming bulbs and a power socket, but when I search the ST hub doesn’t find them? I have read it’s possible to use them?

john

Yes, I am returning my Hive Hub - just wanting the hive bulbs and socket to work directly with ST
I will try as you advise! - many thanks

I have now successfully found the 3 bulbs and the socket, but ST is stuck on a ‘please wait’ loop?

EXCELLENT!
bulbs are all working and dimming

Plug is set to: 2015 Samsung Smart TV

Right first time!
It doesn’t have power monitoring - so ‘Zigbee Switch Power’ worked

Many thanks for helping me with this.
I really like the Hive plug and bulbs, but it’s the limited functions and close system that has driven me to ST.

What plugs and bulbs are generally favoured in UK?

john

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There are many debates on this forum talking about the pros and cons of smart bulbs vs smart switches. Just have a quick look. They both have their supporters and use cases. I have a combination across the house. Most of my main sources of light are smart switches and ambient and accent lighting mainly smart bulbs.

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Being an owner of 5 Osram Lightify bulbs, I’m starting to agree.

What I will say is that smart bulbs have their place (for the likes of uplighters, table lamps etc…) but for all ceiling lights I’d go for smart switches. This is from current experience.

My wife still likes to use the good old fashioned switch which renders my smart bulbs useless if she forgots to switch them back on. With smart switches e.g. Fibaro Dimmer 2, you don’t have this problem.

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Yup. UK here.

£58 for an inline switch seems a bit excessive mind! That’s the problem with most smart home tech I find - the prices in general are just ridiculous. I’ve only got one Fibaro Dimmer switch mainly for that reason. The reason I have so many Osram bulbs is because of how cheap they are.

The Fibaro Dimmer’s are great because most people like me in the UK don’t have a neutral wire in their switches.

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That’s my worry. I’ve just completed my first year of owning a SmartThings hub and I’ve added a lot to my setup. Sadly, hindsight is a wonderful thing and I wish I’d not bought as many bulbs, and instead invested more in switches. But you live and learn!

My worry is that my entire system becomes redundant in another year’s time! I’d put a guess that I’ve probably put £500 or so into my system in total so far, which is a lot to then be told in a couple of years time that it’s now useless!

I’m starting out and already regretting a few decisions. My main motivation
has been the advent of the Amazon dot, I just can’t resist the urge to
experiment with ST, automation etc… In some respects nothing much seems
to have changed in home automation but I think Amazon and Google may be
about to shake things up…

Like most of the previous comments my wife doesn’t understand why anything
needs automating… Apart from when the home is empty

Yeah - I hear ya!

There’s a lot of intricacies in my system and it’s hard to deal with them all when my wife just “wants it to work”. Getting hard for her to buy into it all - especially when Alexa doesn’t seem to like her voice!

I can only go so far with my harmony hub because of the whole…

“Alexa, tell Harmony to trigger XYZ”.

…it just doesn’t make conversational sense. So I’m currently limited to running basic activities to keep her happy. Sometimes I wish I’d waited for Google Home because I think that’ll win out in the end - especially when they can learn from Amazon’s mistakes.

@anon36505037 great information and starting out here so would value your input into recommendations for momentary switches.

I have bought a Fibaro Dimmer 2 but not sure what switch to get - may I ask what you have ?

TIA

Yes I am - sorry should have said that :smiley:

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I chose Zigbee Switch Power for my Hive plug adapters and it does actually show power usage. Nice addition, it’s a shame Hive don’t make better use of their own gear.

Can anybody tell me if the Hive bulbs retain their dimming when power cycled like Ikea Tradfri do?

I’ve got a free set on the way from British Gas, but the only use I can see for them is to replace a single Hue bulb and for a room I don’t really need a Smart Light in, I’m a sucker for a deal!

I am afraid they do not retain the brightness levels if power cycled.
I have tried then in 2 configurations (1- via hive connect integration. 2-directly with SmartThings hub as a zigbee dimmer) and in both cases brightness went to 100% on a power cycle.

I’m thinking about grabbing a couple of Hive Active Colour bulbs to use (without the Hive Hub) with ST. I’ve got a couple of plain white bulbs and they work fine, but can anyone confirm if you get full control with the coloured bulbs too?

Hi guys,

How on earth did you get the bulbs to work direct with ST?

I’ve spent hours on this today. I have the Smartthings classic app, and Hive gu10 bulbs.
I carried out the following:

Put the app into “find things”
Switched on GU10’s, which flash once to show they are in pairing.
But then, ST doesnt’ find them at all.
Tried manual add, but that’s pointless as they aren’t listed anywhere.

I’ve looked at the Zigbee stuff but can’t quite get my head around it. I’m logged into the Smartthings web API (see attached) in order to attempt to manually add, but this is where I am getting lost.

I don’t think that the Hive bulbs are registering on the Network and further to this I don’t know what the hive Zigbee ID is?

What should I be putting into the “Network ID” box and also the “Zigbee ID” box? Where would I find this information? And do the other settings look ok?

Thanks a lot!!

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