[ST Edge] Philips Hue LAN [BETA] (3rd Party Driver, Not ST Native)

Developer Programs Writing Edge Drivers
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Update on recent SmartThings issues…

To date, I have not heard from ST on a date for when the app issue will be fixed. This issue removed the ability for a bridge/hub to have a custom UI. There was a recent YouTube video declaring the driver dead. First off, it is my intention to continue supporting this driver. I appreciate the passion and sentiment of the video, but I am not planning to abandon the driver at this time. Hopefully the video will inspire ST to be more responsive to the community that is essentially working for free. However, this breaking change has me at a bit of a log jamb. There are no good workarounds that aren’t either a complete hack or wouldn’t require existing users to start over with a new installation/setup. The shortest path to get this running again is to get ST engineering to fix the issue in the mobile apps.

What was lost due to this breaking app change?

  • Ability to link the hub for local control
  • Selectively discover devices instead of importing everything
  • Ability to turn the entire hub on/off
  • Removed the integration to support geofencing across to the Hue hub
  • Removed the ability for the hub to have custom preferences
  • Can no longer acknowledge the disclaimer that enabled lighting effects and blinking

What does this mean for existing users?

  • Can still operate their existing devices without issue
  • Users can still import additional lights at the room/zone level only
  • Users can NO longer import sensors, buttons, cameras or additional rooms/zones

Any workarounds?

  • The functionality that was hidden by the app is still there in the driver
  • You can still access that functionality through the SmartThings Advanced Web UI
  • Find your Hue hub in the device list
  • Scroll down to Commands
    – link Puts the driver into pairing mode for 30 seconds while you push the link button on your Hue hub
    – discover Imports devices of the chosen type
    – refresh Synchronizes data for all the imported devices and scenes on the hub

Background on the issue

@AutomateYourLife regarding SmartThings Community Management

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