My other half has informed me that hue lights in a room are a no go unless they can be turned off by a switch.
Is there a device that can be connected to the smart things hub to turn hue lights off and on manually in a reliable fashion?
I’ll track it down, but I think Leviton in-wall switches have this capability.
Wouldn’t a in-wall switch of any kind turn off the lights the traditional way? I’m hoping to send an “off” command via Hue when the switch is activated.
What about doing an aeon micro controller and wiring the switch up in a 3 way configuration that way if for example the lights get turned off by the switch at night, and you have them set to come on automatically in the morning ect. you do not loose the ability to work them remote but still retain the ability to turn them off via a switch
@subnet88 Get a Philips Living Colors remote, they can control hue bulbs and work great as a physical control method. I removed my in wall switches and put blanks over the openings with the living colors remote attached over the top. They also have two programmable (scene selections) so you can quickly get them back to their default color if you had it on something else.
@CoryS I dont know if the Living colours remote would work in my case. I have the Hue’s being turned on / off with a Motion sensor and SmartThings. The Living Colours remote would bypass ST to turn the bulbs off, and they would be turned back on immediately with the ST rules.
I need a remote that can interact with ST to change the ST Modes.
@subnet88 Ah, yeah in that case it may not be the best solution. An in wall battery operated z-wave accessory switch is probably what you need.
@CoryS Thats what I was thinking ,its a question of which one works the best, and has the most stable connection to the ST hub.
I find that other ZWave products take a couple seconds to wake up from sleep and communicate, namely the Aeon Multi Sensor when it detects motion.
Have you seen the Hue Tap?
@JoyLove I have seen the TAP, and it will not work for me either as it interacts directly with the Hue bridge, I need something that interacts with the SmartThings Hub.
Are we not scooting around the issue being that the Smartthings and Hue aren’t synchronized when the bulb status changes? If you bought a WeMo switch you’d have the same issue.
@Joylove To me there is no expectation that changes made in the Hue App are reflected in the ST hub, but they are.
the point of an automation “Brain” such as the ST hub, is the be the master of many autonomous systems, such as hue, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Nest, etc. If there happens to be polling to verify that settings made in the products native app are reflected in ST, then YAY! The only way that level of integration can be done is with heavy buy-in from the third-party whose devices you are controlling, which is highly unlikely.
This is why I want a switch that can be used to change the mode of the ST hub, and with that mode change I would disable motion control, and allow that same switch to manually control the assigned Hue devices for a period of time, as defined by me.
Obviously the Hue Tap isn’t available yet, but shouldn’t it be a zigbee device like the bulbs, possibly able to pair directly with the ST hub as opposed to the Hue Bridge?
Have you found anything that works since then? I have a Hue Tap and have the same problem.
Im running a Aeon Micro switch without load, and have hardwired the bulbs to be always on, I wrote a smartapp to accomplish my goals when the switch with the Aeon Micro is hit.
The only problem now is a 5 second lag between pushing the Aeon Micro and ST recognizing the state change.
I have that same 5-second lag when using the Aeon Micro with an Aeon motion detector. I had been wondering if the lag was caused by the Micro or the MD, but haven’t tried it with another MD. I’m now thinking its the Micro.
Would using a Linear Z-Wave 3-Way Wall Dimmer Switch - WT00Z1 work? Wire the lights always on and then set the switch to control the lights via a SmartApp? I’m adding Hue as seasonal mood lighting in the living room and looking for a wall switch solution as using motion control or phone control really doesn’t work for me.
You could use a Hue Tap or possibly the Quirky TAPT.
I like tapt’s form factor but it doesn’t seem like it would handle the latency issues any better than a 3 way switch at half the cost. Anybody have any experience with them? Does it connect directly to the Hue hub or would it just be used as a virtual switch in smart things?
TAPT is not shipping yet. but it sounds like Hue Tap is the right product for you.
Aeon Multi lag can be much reduced by powering it with USB.