What are my options for outdoor-rated smart bulbs that can be set up with a dusk-to-dawn routine via Alexa?
I was going to go with the Philips Hue bulbs but My Google research has made it clear that the Philips Hue bulbs can get “some” additional functionality (beyond Bluetooth control limits) if you control them directly from an Echo device even if you don’t have the Philips bridge, but I’ve not found anything to verify one way or the other whether you can set up a dusk-to-dawn routine via Alexa even if you don’t have the Philips Hue bridge.
Does anyone know if you can use Alexa to program the Philips Hue bulbs to be on from dusk to dawn without buying the Philips bridge, OR do you know of any other outdoor rated bulbs that can do this?
FYI for this particular application, I don’t care about any other functionality - I don’t need voice controls or anything other than the ability to program it for dusk-to-dawn and let it stay that way.
This forum is for people who are using the Samsung SmartThings ™ Home Automation platform, so all of the questions and answers are assumed to be in that context.
It’s a very busy forum, so it often comes up near the top in general Google home automation searches, but it is not a general forum.
What you’re asking is very easy to do with a smartthings account, whether or not you have a hub, but I’m confused now as to whether you are using the Samsung platform or not.
Philips Hue bulbs connected directly to an Echo device are then not visible to smartthings, so people using this forum would not be likely to do it that way. They would either have a smartthings hub or a hue bridge or both.
So it sounds like this is a question better asked in the Alexa forums.
BTW, if you didn’t find the answer yet, if you were only going to use Alexa and not use smartthings, this is easy to do with two Alexa routines. One turns the lights on at sunset and the other turns them off at sunrise. This will work with any smart bulbs that can be controlled by Alexa.
