how smart has your home gone?

Semple · 4 Apr 2022 at 12:53

SimonR said:
brand new HUE Outdoor PIRs for £20 each over the weekend,

Where did you buy from? Assuming they're the ZigBee ones? I've been keeping an eye out, but at £45ea they're a bit pricey.

SimonR · 4 Apr 2022 at 13:25

A guy was selling 2 BNIB on FB Marketplace. Just dropped on lucky I guess. Yes they are the Zigbee ones. I need one more and TBH I am that impressed I may actually pay the £45.

I also added Pushover to Homeseer. Now if anyone opens the side gate to the house, the HUE PIR picks it up and runs an event in Homeseer that triggers a message in Pushover - I get an instant push notification of the gate being opened. It takes around 1 second to trigger. Anyone wanting to use it in HAss the integration is here https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/pushover/

MassiveJim · 25 Apr 2022 at 01:51

what are your go to cheap but decent rgb smart bulbs ?

I've used novostella in the past but they don't appear to be available in UK currently.

I just need them for 2 bedside lamps.
Also a cheap/decent smart button

Bluecube · 25 Apr 2022 at 10:43

Innr are good quality though not necessarily cheap.

How do you have everything hooked up? As that will obviously influence what button you can buy

MassiveJim · 25 Apr 2022 at 12:25

Bluecube said:
Innr are good quality though not necessarily cheap.

How do you have everything hooked up? As that will obviously influence what button you can buy

Voice control via echos
Most of my smart home is either smarthings or smartlife
I do have a couple of bits in other apps as well

Cleisthenes · 12 Jun 2022 at 11:29

Hoping for some advice.

I've recently bought some white ambiance filament bulbs for my flat, I originally bought the standard white bulbs but they were a bit warm for me so will be on the MM soon.

I have sent the bulbs up in the Hue app and have now linked them to Google Home. What I want to know is can I set the bulbs to default to a brightness and colour when I just say 'Living Room lights on'?

In the hue app you can set this but it doesn't work when I do it through google.

I'm sure plenty of you have Hue of various types so some help would be appreciated! My Googling hasn't helped much unfortunately...

Thanks in advance

katie279 · 12 Jun 2022 at 11:31

Yes, easiest way is to create a scene in the hue App and then trigger this through the Google Home app.

Would highly, highly recommend home assistant if you want real control!

Cleisthenes · 12 Jun 2022 at 11:34

katie279 said:
Yes, easiest way is to create a scene in the hue App and then trigger this through the Google Home app.

Would highly, highly recommend home assistant if you want real control!

Thanks.

I do want the control however 99% of the time we will just say 'Lights On' and then I'd like the bulbs to be in sync with the brightness/colour of my choosing.

Is what you suggest just a case of creating the scene and then saying it, could I make one just for 'Lights On'?

katie279 · 12 Jun 2022 at 11:38

Yeah exactly - it does depend on your own style, but in the lounge I have 'lights on and off' which just turns them all on and off, then scenes for different modes - eg TV mode turns off the spotlights, dims the floor lamps and turns on the hue sync, 'evening mode ' dims the spotlights, sets the floor lamps to warm colours etc

NeilF · 12 Jun 2022 at 20:03

Cleisthenes said:
Hoping for some advice.

I've recently bought some white ambiance filament bulbs for my flat, I originally bought the standard white bulbs but they were a bit warm for me so will be on the MM soon.

I have sent the bulbs up in the Hue app and have now linked them to Google Home. What I want to know is can I set the bulbs to default to a brightness and colour when I just say 'Living Room lights on'?

In the hue app you can set this but it doesn't work when I do it through google.

I'm sure plenty of you have Hue of various types so some help would be appreciated! My Googling hasn't helped much unfortunately...

Thanks in advance

Just create a group hue "Living Room" and that will do it. At least it does for Alexa. Turning them on/off will simply turn them on to the last manual setting (colour/brightness) again.

If you create a scene for "Living Room" you can than "Alexa, set Living Room to 'Standard'" for example...

andy_mk3 · 11 Aug 2022 at 21:23

Got these today fresh from Aliexpress, not sold in the UK for some reason. Got a couple for now to try but first impressions are pretty good so far.

Forgot to add, added a couple of automations yesterday, using the sun azimuth angle to make a binary sensor to whether the sun is shining in the front or back of the house, and closes the relevent blinds in that bedroom if the outside temperature is more than 24c, then opens them back up when the sun has moved around or set.

NeilF · 11 Aug 2022 at 21:47

^ Still prefer analog switches for lights.

eg: Something like these...

I'll swear I heard Hue are finally bringing out some analog switches for their lights?

andy_mk3 · 11 Aug 2022 at 22:00

Who said they were for lights?

Well, they are, but not to replace wall switches at least. All my lighting is automated, I do have Hue dimmer switches on the wall for manual override on the rare occasion it's required.

Plan is to use these for something like bedside controls for lights, blinds, maybe a sleep timer and stuff too. Similar for daughters room, perhaps assign buttons on one for her to cast different shows on Plex to her TV and things like that.

LuckyBenski · 12 Aug 2022 at 00:44

Analog switch in what sense? Physical action or mechanism stays in place? Surely lots of the Hue switches have physical buttons.

mattyg · 12 Aug 2022 at 02:10

I've recently had these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B091HP42S8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
Work perfectly. Connected to smart things straight away.. Can use either manually or Smart..

chrcoluk · 12 Aug 2022 at 04:39

Just smart bulb in my bedroom.

I was going to expand until what I discovered.

I assumed the bulb would be wifi network only, it was advertised as a wifi bulb. But the only thing wifi about it is it uses that connection type to connect to the internet, I couldnt control it until I had setup an account on some china based server. It can only be controlled via the app if online on the internet. As its done via a server, it also phones home a lot when idle. I didnt bother to setup the echo device I purchased.

I looked into proper wifi only or bluetooth bulbs and seems they much more expensive.

Semple · 12 Aug 2022 at 06:25

andy_mk3 said:
Got these today fresh from Aliexpress, not sold in the UK for some reason. Got a couple for now to try but first impressions are pretty good so far.

Forgot to add, added a couple of automations yesterday, using the sun azimuth angle to make a binary sensor to whether the sun is shining in the front or back of the house, and closes the relevent blinds in that bedroom if the outside temperature is more than 24c, then opens them back up when the sun has moved around or set.

Been using these for about a year. I've got a custom 3D printed mount that attaches to a light switch to give access to the physical switch behind it.

LuckyBenski · 12 Aug 2022 at 09:48

chrcoluk said:
Just smart bulb in my bedroom.

I was going to expand until what I discovered.

I assumed the bulb would be wifi network only, it was advertised as a wifi bulb. But the only thing wifi about it is it uses that connection type to connect to the internet, I couldnt control it until I had setup an account on some china based server. It can only be controlled via the app if online on the internet. As its done via a server, it also phones home a lot when idle. I didnt bother to setup the echo device I purchased.

I looked into proper wifi only or bluetooth bulbs and seems they much more expensive.

You want ZigBee

I also don't want phoning home/internet dependence, and ideally no Bluetooth.

I have Philips Hue BT which are ZigBee and Bluetooth and they integrate nicely into my Home Assistant ZigBee network for automation, and then also are controllable from a nearby Google Home via Bluetooth. But any ZigBee device will work in a simple direct setup, no internet needed.

NeilF · 12 Aug 2022 at 09:56

LuckyBenski said:
Analog switch in what sense? Physical action or mechanism stays in place? Surely lots of the Hue switches have physical buttons.

Analog switch in the sense that the Hue lights in my lounge and living room are controlled in an absolutely traditional way thanks to these switches. Any individual walking into the house would instantly understand to turn the lights on/off they would just press the switch/rotor in. And to dim/brighten then simply rotate left/right. ie: They work just like conventional dimmer switches, albeit they even light up when in use etc

Heck, better than conventional dimmers switches, if the lights are off, simply rotating the control even turns them on too.

While the standard Hue dimmer switches are functional, they are not particularly friendly for simple use etc.

Terminal_Boy · 12 Aug 2022 at 09:58

andy_mk3 said:
Got these today fresh from Aliexpress, not sold in the UK for some reason. Got a couple for now to try but first impressions are pretty good so far.

Forgot to add, added a couple of automations yesterday, using the sun azimuth angle to make a binary sensor to whether the sun is shining in the front or back of the house, and closes the relevent blinds in that bedroom if the outside temperature is more than 24c, then opens them back up when the sun has moved around or set.

Something to do with their not having been tested to any recognised safety standard by an accredited testing agency?