Philips Hue WiFi lighting set up - what do you have?

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123976827#Comment_123976827

100% worth upgrading… the bulbs themselves become the sensors.. the system can detect fluctuations in the zigbee signal caused by someone/something moving within the space/zone where the bulbs are located.

Just to note though you need a minimum of 3 Hue bulbs in a room to create a 'motion zone' for the feature to work.

I've noticed that everything just works faster on the new Bridge.. For Halloween I always used the Huelloween App but it doesn't yet work through the new Bridge Pro, so this year I just ran everything through the native Hue app as it now has lots more effects and they can be adjusted for speed/brightness, and before if I ever tried to run multiple (15+) bulbs in a rapidly changing colour scheme you'd notice the lag and only 1-2 bulbs changing at any 1 time, but on the new Bridge Pro, everything seems to run a lot smoother..

Quay_Koncept

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123976890#Comment_123976890

Wow, that’s amazing that it can detect Zigbee fluctuations! That’s wild. It sounds brilliant. Have you tried the Motion Aware feature with a few older Hue bulbs only? I’m thinking of upgrading my bridge but keeping my existing bulbs. Your setup sounds quite extensive do you use any Hue bulbs in outdoor fittings? I’ve been considering replacing my current outside bulbs with Hue ones and using the built-in dusk-to-dawn setting instead of relying on external light sensors.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123976929#Comment_123976929

Yeah, it works with fairly old bulbs too.. my oldest bulbs are probably 12 years old and the newest are only a few weeks old, but the vast majority of (40+) are at least 4-5 years old!!

I started filling up the house 13 years ago and it's been 100% Hue for probably 6-7 years now!! and it does indeed get Expensive!! All in I've probably bought 150+ various bulbs over the years (We've a holiday home in Lithuania also that's 100% Hue, and I've put loads of my old bulbs into my mothers, and sisters houses) The new Bridge Pro lets you have 150+ bulbs added to it compared to the 50 (64 devices total) the old bridge allows!!

I bought a set of (5x) outdoor spots in 2018 but never really used them, but a few months ago we finally got our garden renovated, so I installed the spots, and bought 2x 2m outdoor light strips and 2x Calla pedestal lights, and one of the colour floodlights, and have to say we're delighted with results… they go on/off with the rest of the lights in the house as per their automations. These are all Hue outdoor lights though, and all except for the floodlight are low voltage.. I have had Hue bulbs in regular outdoor fittings and they work fine.. I actually have an original Lux bulb with broken glass lens in a side lane fitting about 8 years and it works fine, even with the motion aware feature..

Quay_Koncept

That is CLASS !!!!!! Looks brilliant. Thats brilliant, my setup is very sparse, its been rock solid until recently when everything seems to have just randomly reset to default. I find the app very complicated. For the outside i was just planning to put HUE GU10 bulbs in my existing fittings, connected to a motion sensor and or light sensor.

AndyBoBandy

The Hue app has come a long way in fairness over the last few years… the features in it now are excellent. It really is worth putting in a bit of Tim etc get the system set up how you want it to run, my belief is that you should be using the app as little as possible, otherwise what's the point of automation/smart lights? so getting it set up right is well worth doing..

Apart from spending about 5 mins on the app on Halloween night, and a bit when I was adding the garden lights, I rarely use it.

They have lots of dynamic scenes now and you can adjust the brightness & speed of change, and automate them to run like that when you want, and that's what I run now in the back garden, so between the 9 separate coloured lights that are always on in the garden, they'll usually always be coloured in some random configuration that I've probably not seen before..

I used to manually adjust the routine times myself as the days shortened/lengthened, but have since just gone onto the sunset setting with a ~1hr offset and find it much better as it's even less I have to do!