Hue bulb without Hue Bridge?

[ShadowVlican]

I just added 4 PHILIPS Hue White A19 bulbs and the GE Link Bulb type worked perfectly!!

Quick and painless pairing by initializing smartthings app for pairing, then turning on the fresh untouched bulb straight from box. I have a feeling that if you turn on the bulb without initializing pairing, setup won’t be as smooth.

[yojuanjo (juanjo)]

I’m trying to do the same with a new PHILIPS Hue White but as ShadowVlican said it’s not that easy when you turn on the bulb without initializing pairing.

My Hub is unable to find a new thing, not even unknown. What can I do?

Thanks in advance.

[Navat604 (R.)]

@yojuanjo

I’m trying to do the same with a new PHILIPS Hue White but as ShadowVlican said it’s not that easy when you turn on the bulb without initializing pairing.

My Hub is unable to find a new thing, not even unknown. What can I do?

Thanks in advance

I find with Phillips hue you have to bring the bulb pretty close to the ST hub for pairing.

[yojuanjo (juanjo)]

No way. The bulb is even touching the hub but it doesn’t find a thing. Not even unknown.

I’ve reseted the hub, router, bulb, everything. But nothing changes.

What can I do? Add a thing manually?

[bobbles (Bob)]

I know you have said you have reset the bulb, but how did you do it?
I was in the same situation and had to purchase a hue remote to reset the bulb.
When I had done that I then went into : -
Marketplace -> Things -> Light bulbs -> Phillips Hue Lighting and found it ok.

[yojuanjo (juanjo)]

Sorry, you’re right. I didn’t actually reset the bulb. I just switched it off and on.

So, is buying a hue hub the only solution? I’ve thought I could be use the bulb without the hub with the GE bulb device handler as other people have done.

[bobbles (Bob)]

Once a bulb has been associated with a hue hub, there are only 2 ways that I know of to reset it.
Via the hue hub or via a hue remote.
I purchased a hue remote and was able to reset the bulb which then allowed me to pair with my ST hub.
This is what I purchased.

[yojuanjo (juanjo)]

But my Hue Bulb has never been associated with a Hue Hub neither with another Hub. That is precissely what I want, to associate it with the ST hub. But my ST hub doesn’t find the Bulb when looking for new devices.

[bobbles (Bob)]

I ordered a brand new bulb anf it wouldn’t associate until I had reset it. Perhaps it had been associated to test or was a return.
All I know is I had to reset it.

[yojuanjo (juanjo)]

I have asked for a replacement, once I get the new one this is what I plan to do:

Initialize smartthings app for pairing, then turn on the fresh untouched bulb straight from box and wait.

If I succeed what would I do next? When am I asked to use the GE device handler?

Thanks again, sorry for my inexperience.

[yojuanjo (juanjo)]

Unseccesfully again with a brand new PHILIPS Hue White.

Bulb not detected, not even unknown. I tried pairing by initializing smartthings app for pairing, then turning on the fresh untouched bulb straight from box and waiting for minutes.

Not detected at all. I’m starting to givng up using Hue Bulbs without the Hue Bridge,

[bobbles (Bob)]

As said above, I had a brand new hue bulb that I had to reset. Only thing I can think of is that it was either a return or it wasn’t reset after testing during manufacture. (If it is tested).

[rayoflight]

can Hue Disco or related app works if i connect the light strips directly to smartthings?

[ady624 (I hate Mondays)]

I am assuming that app relies on the Hue hub to “talk” to the bulbs, so unless the bulbs are connected to the Hue hub, I see no way that app can work. Sorry.

[ShadowVlican]

Not sure why that didn’t work for you, because those are the exact same steps I took to get mine paired with SmartThings

[Simian]

I had months of anguish where my 5 Hue bulbs were effectively just normal light bulbs. Buy the white circular Phillips remote for £15 of eBay, pair it with the remote and then pair them with smart things, bingo. I do not and have not ever owned a Hue hub.

[Nosnibor (Seth)]

@JDRoberts

@leandroestacio

I even started my own topic, but was redirect here by JDRoberts… I can’t seem to find what I need to get this working. From what I understand is that the bulb comes from factory to certain channel and needs to be reset to work with ST. But I’m not sure if this is only with bulbs that was already connected to hue hub, or if applies to new bulbs too.

The Phillips hue bulbs originally use the ZLL (Zigbee light link) profile. They use this profile to communicate with the Hue bridge, which in turn can communicate with a SmartThings hub over the local area network. In this setup the hub does not speak directly to the bulbs. This is the only setup which is officially supported by SmartThings.

Most brands of zigbee bulbs can be individually reset through a “blink method” where you power the bulb on and off in a specific pattern, and then it will reset itself. Phillips chose not to offer that for their smart bulbs, perhaps because they were concerned about children playing with the light switch and accidentally resetting a bulb to factory specifications.

SmartThings does not use the ZLL profile. Instead, it uses the ZHA ( zigbee home automation) profile. Most ZLL devices, including the hue bulbs, can be paired to a ZHA coordinator like SmartThings and will then use the ZHA profile instead.

The problem comes when you decide you want to take that Hue Bulb off the SmartThings network and move it to a different one. Or reattach it to a hue bridge.

Because the hue bulbs cannot be individually reset on their own, you can end up with a situation where there is no way to move the bulb off of SmartThings without buying an additional device. (In the US, this is most commonly a Lutron connected bulb remote, $30 at Home Depot. Although it’s a different brand, it just happens to use exactly the right commands to reset A ZHA bulb.)

So this is why SmartThings support only recommends using the Hue bridge. Otherwise customers could end up with a bulb that they cannot move back from the SmartThings hub to a Phillips bridge, and Phillips would tell them that it was smartthings’ fault.

But as long as you’re willing to buy the additional device if you do want to move bulbs off of smartthings again, it will work fine. As long as you have selected an appropriate device handler.

We’ll pause briefly here so that those who have not previously worked with custom device handlers in SmartThings can read the following FAQ and catch up:

[OBSOLETE] FAQ: An Overview of Using Custom Code in SmartThings (SmartThings Classic, Groovy Code)

So, the officially supported way to use Hue bulbs with SmartThings is to have those bulbs controlled by a hue bridge. You then add that bridge to smartthings, and the setup wizard for it will automatically add device handlers for the individual bulbs that the bridge tells SmartThings about. Which means the official device handler for Hue bulbs assumes that there is also a Hue bridge in the picture.

If you want to add a Hue bulb directly to the SmartThings hub without a Hue bridge, you can, but you will need to use a different device handler, which recognizes that the bulb is not attached to a bridge. It is likely that there will be different ones for RGBW bulbs and plain white bulbs.

It’s possible you could just use a generic zigbee dimmer device handler type, I don’t know if anything extra is needed.

@Sticks18 or one of the other people who have written multiple Bulb device handlers should be able to point you to an appropriate one for a hue white bulb connected directly to the smartthings hub without a Hue bridge.

So by adding my hue hub to smartthings it will not change the profile? I’ve been concerned on whether or not I should add it because every time I try to add a new smartthing it asks me to tap my bridge…

[JDRoberts]

@Nosnibor

So by adding my hue hub to smartthings it will not change the profile? I’ve been concerned on whether or not I should add it because every time I try to add a new smartthing it asks me to tap my bridge…

The Hue device is a Bridge, not a “hub.” (No one cares about that but me, but there it is. )

Anyway, if you connect the Hue Bridge to your SmartThings account, it won’t change the bulb profile and you’ll still be able to use the Bridge with any other integration as well.

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

[Nosnibor (Seth)]

So is linking the account different than when my ST’s app is asking me to touch my Hue Bridge button or will that do the same?

[JDRoberts]

@Nosnibor

So is linking the account different than when my ST’s app is asking me to touch my Hue Bridge button or will that do the same?

Same…