Hue direct to hub

[Matthew_Stewart]

Hi,

I currently have 4 hue white bulbs connected directly to my smartthings hub, i have purchased 3 hue color bulbs but for some reason they arent even detected as a thing in smartthings, anybody had a similar issue or suggest way I can work around this? I have a hub I can connect so was wondering if that could be used temporarily to pair them another way and then let me remove the hub

Thanks

[xjonx (Jon Christensen)]

It was my understanding that Philips Hue bulbs can no longer connect directly to Zigbee device hubs. Only the first gen bulbs had that ability. Newer bulbs require an Hue Hub to connect to, although I have heard of some people using a Minimote to fix Hue problems. I don’t have any expirence with this but is something you could check out.

[JDRoberts]

A minimote is a Z wave device, it has no way of communicating with either a Hue bridge or a Hue Bulb, as those are zigbee.

Hue bulbs are certified ZLL devices, nothing has changed between the first, second, or third generations as far as what zigbee coordinators they can connect to.

All of that said, there are several reasons to use the hue bridge if you want to use hue bulbs with SmartThings. See the FAQ ( this is a clickable link)

FAQ: Do I need the Hue Bridge/Hub to Use a Hue Bulb with SmartThings?

Yes. The only officially recommended way to use Hue devices with SmartThings is by using a Hue bridge. There are several reasons to use the bridge. Other Integrations There will be a number of other integrations available to you which you may want to take advantage of. Use of Hue Scenes you will be able to activate scenes created with the official Hue app, which at the present time offer many features not available in the smartthings scenes feature. Even just the ability to blink the lights. The easiest way to access scenes from the Hue app is through the following custom edge driver or IFTTT, but there are other ways as well. [ST Edge] Philips Hue LAN [BETA] (3rd Party Driver, Not ST Native) Not using the Bridge can mess up your zigbee network the most important really is …

As far as the bulbs that you can’t connect, see if they will work with the hue bridge that you have. If they will, then you should be able to reset them and then use them directly with your SmartThings hub if you really want to do so.

If you can’t get them to connect with your hue bridge, then contact Phillips hue support.

What you do have them working with your hue bridge, you will still have to reset them. If you have a Hue dimmer switch, you could do it with that. If not, you can use the laptop method described in the following thread:

Resetting Hue Bulbs that are Connected to a Hue Bridge so they can be moved to a new Bridge/Hub?

I know there are a ton of threads on this, but I haven’t found a definitive answer. I have a Philips Gen 2 Bridge with around 30 something Color and white gen 1 and gen 2 Hue bulbs. I need to reset all of them and connect them to a different hub/bridge (not Phillips) I do not have a remote control to do this, and I do not want to buy one. Will performing a factory reset on the Phillips Bridge also reset the bulbs so they can be repaired? Thanks

[xjonx (Jon Christensen)]

@JDRoberts

If you can’t get them to connect with your hue bridge, then contact Phillips hue support.

Maybe not the Minimote but I thought I read in the forums somewhere there was a zigbee remote or tool of some sort that could be used to reset a bulb if the official method doesn’t work. I don’t remember what it was called or where I saw it other than here in the Smartthings community.

After reading some of those posts I just decided my time and frustration level was worth enough that a real Philips Hue hub was a easier/cheaper/better option.

P.S. I also had a lot of trouble with the early Hue app but it has been trouble free for at least the last year. The updates have been an improvement.

[JDRoberts]

Yes, there are some other Zigbee devices that might be used, and they are discussed in other threads in the forum. So providing links to those threads is always helpful. But not the minimote, that can’t help at all, as it uses zwave.

As for exactly which zigbee device to use, it will depend whether the OP is in the US or in Europe as the device selection available does vary somewhat.

But again, before going out to buy any additional device, since the OP already has a hue bridge they might as well try getting their new bulbs connected to that first.