Philips hue no hub

Devices & Integrations
1

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

2

Sorry, having a little trouble following what you’re asking. There is a Hue “bridge“ device. There is no “hue hub.” But it doesn’t sound like you’re referring to removing the smartthings hub. Could you please clarify exactly which devices you’re referring to? Then maybe we can help. :sunglasses:

3

Hi, sorry if i wasnt clear. I currently have smartthings hub with 4 hue white bulbs connected directly to it without the hue bridge installed. I then bought 3 further hue color bulbs but it doesnt let me connect these directly to the smartthings hub, they arent detected as a “thing”

I do have a hue bridge but its not setup as would prefer to just continue connecting them dircetly to smartthings hub.

4

OK, it sounds like you have to reset the hue bulbs. They may have previously been connected to a different hue bridge.

The first easiest way is just to try connecting the new color bulbs to your hue bridge. I know you don’t want to use them that way, but just see if the bridge can find them. If not, try adding them manually to your hue bridge.

There are three different method you can use to reset them so they can then be paired to the SmartThings hub. Note, however, that pairing directly is not officially approved by either smartthings or Phillips Hue, so you can’t get support from either.

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

There are two separate reasons why connecting a Hue bulb directly to the smartthings hub is not recommended.

First, the smartthings hub uses zigbee channels which are not used by hue bridge. Consequently, after you connect a bulb to a smartthings hub, you may have quite a difficult time getting it reset to work with the bridge again.

Second, most zigbee bulbs, including Hue bulbs, do just fine repeating for each other. But when connected to a ZHA coordinator like the smartthings hub, They can sometimes get into a sort of buffer overflow condition where other zigbee devices like sensors will send them a message to be repeated along the network but the bulbs will drop the message and not repeat it. This can cause it to appear as though the sensors are having a problem when in fact it’s that the bulb didn’t repeat the message.

OK, having said all of that, there are some members who do use the hue bulbs connected directly to the SmartThings hub. So, if you want to do that, there are three different ways to reset them.

  1. The laptop method.
  1. Hue dimmer Switch. Or if you happen to have a Hue dimmer switch, you can use that to very easily reset the hue bulbs once they have been added to a hue bridge (again, any hue bridge).
  1. finally, there is a device called the “Lutron connected bulb remote” (LCBR) which should be able to reset any functional hue bulb regardless of whether it had been joined to a hue bridge or smartthings hub previously. It looks similar to a Lutron pico but it is not the pico – – you have to get this specific device. It can reset bulbs which the first two methods cannot.

https://www.amazon.com/Lutron-LZL-4B-WH-L01-Connected-Bulb-Remote/dp/B014STZASK

Speaking just for myself, I would not connect Hue bulbs directly to the smartthings hub because of the dropped message issue. But is long as you’re aware of the potential problems, obviously it’s your choice.

3 Likes
5

Thanks for your help I will give that a go

1 Like
6

Hey Matthew - my .02. I had similar thoughts as you but decided to use the Hue Bridge to connect the Color and White bulbs but I use SmartThings for the routines. I know it sort of sounds redundant as in: Why not just connect directly to the ST Hub and cut out the middle man? Well, it my case, it actually increased the complexity by connecting directly, while decreasing overall system stability. So here’s what I do:

  1. Get a new Hue bulb and connect and name it using the Hue App on the Hue Hub.
  2. Add them to the ST Hub
  3. Control the light with motion/Open-Close sensors using the SmartLighting Smart App inside the ST App. It works very well for the vast majority of regular users

On occasion I’ll want to change the color of the light and I’ll use the Hue App for that. I would say I am 95% in SmartThings and 5% in the Hue App and overall, my system is fairly stable.

1 Like
7

@JDRoberts I tried the first method you mentioned and it works in that the bulbs flash after sending {“touchlink”:true} but I am still unable to find them when searching for a thing in smartthings. Do you have any ideas as else if not the only other option appears to be to buy a remote.

Thanks
Matt

8

This may not be the direct answer to the question posted : SmartThings has released a direct Cloud to Cloud integration for Hue
This would mean that users who don’t have a SmartThings hub, they can on-board their hue integration directly with all the key functionalities.
A hue bridge is required.
This integration can be found under - SmartThings app home page > Philips Hue brand > Tap on Lights > Tap on “Philips Hue without SmartThings Hub”

9

This is how mine are installed but if a member of the family changes the light state using the Hue App the ST App does not show the correct status on the Tiles, If you change the light status using the ST App then the Hue app follows the changes, so basically what I am asking is why does ST not sync when changes are made by Hue

1 Like
10

If you had a ST Hub and Hue Hub, How would that be configured ?

11

It’s just a different option in the app when you go to set up a Hue device. They speak to each other over the local LAN, so they have to be on the same Ethernet branch. And the hue hub will show up as a device on your device list. Otherwise everything looks exactly the same in the smartthings app.