I have recently converted a room in my house to zigbee smart bulbs, and I enjoyed the flexibility of adjusting the intensity of the bulbs individually. I did not like, however, that the bulbs could all be turned off at the switch. In an effort to prevent this from happening, I replaced the old switch with a GE smart switch, and connected it to my hub. When I did so, the bulbs were no longer individually controllable. I can toggle the switch through the SmartThings app, but the bulbs do not respond when I try and toggle them individually in the app. Any thoughts?
When the switch cuts the current to the bulbs, they can no longer respond. The switch is smart, but it doesn’t know the difference between dumb bulbs and smart bulbs, so when it turns off it cuts the power to the fixture. Then the bulb radios no longer have power to hear the next command.
See the following thread for alternatives.
JD, thanks for the post and recommended post. They were helpful however I see I should add some more clarity to what I am trying to do.
I have the GE smart switch to turn on the power to my bank of 6 lights. I realize that the switch has to be on (whether I turn it on mechanically or via the smarthome app. When I turn the switch on, I’d like the bank of 6 lights to come on at the same “dimmer setting” and color temp as they were last set at.
Prior to installing the smart switch, I had a simple mechanical switch when in the ON position, I could turn on and off each of the 6 lights in the bank. When turning them on, the level and color temp was persistent from when I last turned them off (which was great).
After adding the smart switch, I no longer had controlability (level or color) to each bulb. Turning the smart switch on (either mechanically or through the app) resulted in 100% brightness.
I subsequently deleted all 6 light from my system and am attempting to add them back one at a time. I so far have been able to get one of the 6 bulbs added back correctly (when the smart switch is on, I can toggle the light on and off via the app).
Unfortunately I am having a lot of trouble with the other 5 lights. I am attempting to program them one at a time using a mechanical only light fixture. My thought is that once I get it correctly added to my system in the mechanical socket, I can add it to the “bank” of sockets controlled via the smart switch.
The first issues I am having is “resetting” many of the lights. I have removed them from my hub configuration, and have done the 3 second on/off sequence until they flash. Two of the remaining 5 bulbs were able to be reset but for some reason, the others won’t reset? Thoughts?
Secondly, when I have been able to reset the light, I add it via the iphone app, assign it to the correct type “OSRAM LIGHTIFY LED Tunable White 60W”, assign it to a group. Unfortunately, I am not able to control the bulb from the iphone while its still in the mechanical fixture. I’ve compared the details between this bulb and the one that’s working and don’t seem to see any difference other than the “Device Network Id” which has to be unique.
I have tried resetting my hub (which didn’t seem to work from the webpage so I cycled power on it). I make sure the iphone app is closed while trying to reset the bulbs. Essentially having a very controlled environment but still no joy.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Here’s how I sync my smart bulbs and smart switch. I use smart lights smartapps. All you have to do is in smart light apps. Select when smart switch ON also turn on smart bulbs. Also for off. Have another same instance for the smart bulbs as well.
I have permanently wired power to the bulbs on instead of using a switch. I have both Hue and GE Link bulbs, both connected to a Hue bridge. I use the Lutron Connected Bulb Remote, and mount it where the wall switch would have been. When you hit the on button on the Lutron remote, they turn on to full brightness but the same color as they were before. There is no way to reset the color except from an app.
I haven’t tried to connect the Lutron remote to SmartThings at all. You can sort of pair the remote to the Hue Bridge, and that prevents the remote from stealing the bulbs from the bridge when you pair the remote to the bulbs. http://wiki.winkathome.net/images/5/5d/Hue_Pairing_Diagram_Final.jpg
