Philips Hue FAQ

stesaurus

Ok I need some help before I kick this Iris. How the hell do you add it to the bridge? I've seen some guides online that show the old style bridge and resetting it but how does it work with the 2.0 bridge.
Why is it not easy and done like the other bulbs!

adox

s.welstead wrote: »

Ok I need some help before I kick this Iris. How the hell do you add it to the bridge? I've seen some guides online that show the old style bridge and resetting it but how does it work with the 2.0 bridge.
Why is it not easy and done like the other bulbs!

I think I had to add my Iris by manually putting in the serial number for the app to find it.

roosterman71

Are there any shops in Ireland selling the starter kit? Did some googling, and they are sold out in the usual spots (Currys, Argos, etc), while places like Euronics and Expert don't stock them

AndyBoBandy

roosterman71 wrote: »

Are there any shops in Ireland selling the starter kit? Did some googling, and they are sold out in the usual spots (Currys, Argos, etc), while places like Euronics and Expert don't stock them

I think Maplin sell the starter kits as well, but they are mad money compared to the Amazon prices

stesaurus

adox wrote: »

I think I had to add my Iris by manually putting in the serial number for the app to find it.

I tried the reset route and it eventually worked. Such a pain though. All settings lost and you need to pair everything else back again afterwards.

paulbok

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

I think Maplin sell the starter kits as well, but they are mad money compared to the Amazon prices

I had a look in Maplin for HA kit the other day (just browsing, couldn't buy anything after black Friday:D) and they have quite a selection of gear from several manufacturers but it all looked expensive.

Argos have a small selection as well now including Hue. not cheap either.

AndyBoBandy

The thing with Argos is they never have any stock, and it's almost impossible to order anything in for collection,

I did get 2 white ambiance bulbs from them though for €22.50 each so there is hope

wicked_wytch

roosterman71 wrote: »

Are there any shops in Ireland selling the starter kit? Did some googling, and they are sold out in the usual spots (Currys, Argos, etc), while places like Euronics and Expert don't stock them

I ordered the hue lux starter kit from luzern tech. its the old v1 bridge and two hue lux bulbs but I don't have apple siri or iphone so didn't need the new version bridge and it was only 32 pounds sterling so well worth it for a bridge and 2 extra bulbs. Was a little concerned the lux bulbs wouldn't be that bright after reading reviews but to be honest they're absolutely fine, very pleasantly surprised to get a full starter kit for such a low price. Was really only looking for the bridge without having to pay 60 quid as I got 2 colour bulbs in the black friday sales, so 32 sterling including 2 more bulbs was a bonus.

davo2001

wicked_wytch wrote: »

I ordered the hue lux starter kit from luzern tech. its the old v1 bridge and two hue lux bulbs but I don't have apple siri or iphone so didn't need the new version bridge and it was only 32 pounds sterling so well worth it for a bridge and 2 extra bulbs. Was a little concerned the lux bulbs wouldn't be that bright after reading reviews but to be honest they're absolutely fine, very pleasantly surprised to get a full starter kit for such a low price. Was really only looking for the bridge without having to pay 60 quid as I got 2 colour bulbs in the black friday sales, so 32 sterling including 2 more bulbs was a bonus.

Got a link for that?

Yamanoto

davo2001 wrote: »

Got a link for that?

Price increased slightly

https://www.luzerntech.com/default/philips-hue-lux-9w-es-connected-bulb-starter-pack-white.html

AndyBoBandy

Those lux bulbs are fine, they are just the original version of the white only bulb except they have a glass shell as opposed to the plastic one on the newer white only bulbs. They are also the same shape as the colour bulbs.

I have 3 of them, 2 in my hallway in lamps, and one (a broken one with no glass shell on it) is in a light fitting outside in the laneway. There's a lovely light off them, I love the 2 in my hallway, and the scene I use with them I only have set to about 70% brightness.

Mr.Crinklewood

s.welstead wrote: »

I tried the reset route and it eventually worked. Such a pain though. All settings lost and you need to pair everything else back again afterwards.

Did you need to do many resets?

I've reset, paired the remote with the Iris and Hub.

App isn't finding the light.


Cannot seem to see the serial number.

adox

Mr.Crinklewood wrote: »

Did you need to do many resets?

I've reset, paired the remote with the Iris and Hub.

App isn't finding the light.


Cannot seem to see the serial number.

There should be a small tag attached to the cable running into the Iris. The number is on there.

Mr.Crinklewood

adox wrote: »

There should be a small tag attached to the cable running into the Iris. The number is on there.

Cheers.....all sorted now.

BigAl81

Hey,

Does anyone know can you get Google Home voice features with out a Google Home device?

I'd like to say to my phone "Hey Google, turn off the lights" but it doesn't seem to work.

I've tried the assistant in the Allo app too but no joy ;(

Cheers
Al.

bk

For the moment, it seems Google has at least 3 different assistants, that work slightly differently. So no, unfortunately for now, all the features of Google Home's assistant aren't available on other devices.

Having said that, I suspect they will eventually merge them.

The Black Oil

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The thing with Argos is they never have any stock, and it's almost impossible to order anything in for collection

Yeah, I was looking for a DAB radio a few months ago and found this.

My standard bulbs and sensors arrived. Hub hasn't shipped yet (Amazon.fr). Must resist the temptation to order more stuff. :pac:

AndyBoBandy

The Black Oil wrote: »

Yeah, I was looking for a DAB radio a few months ago and found this

They had iPads 2 weeks ago at unbelievable prices (comparable to U.K. prices), the trouble was they had none in stock, and none were available for order for collection, then suddenly when they are in stock, surprise surprise they are full price again.

I still can't believe I God the 2 white ambiance bulbs off them for such a good price.

Every now and again they have great price cuts, so it's worth keeping an eye on, and you might even be able to order the item to collect a few days later

alastair

Stupid question time.

How do you get the motion sensor to play nice with lights that are turned on after they are triggered by motion? Example: landing lights are triggered by motion that has a 'turn off after 5 minutes of inactivity' preference, but they are also turned on with a dimmer switch (or app) on entry. Five minutes pass and the lights are turned off per the motion sensor command, and need to be turned back on again at the dimmer.

What can make life even more interesting, is if the dimmer is located within the motion sensor zone, and the whole process begins all over.

The Black Oil

It's almost as though they keep a certain amount of stock for just the early stages of the release of a new catalogue and that's it. iirc, there was a bargain alert on the Nexus 5X phone some time ago, but you wouldn't have a hope of getting it now.

Question time again. The motion sensors, say the landing or the hall, if it detects your presence, then you move into another room, when does it turn the light off? If you're in the hall putting on shoes/getting your coat, etc, will the light stay on due to the sensor detecting your movement?

Secondly, re bulb (standard white) brightness - can this set at a default level in the app? It might be a tad strong for landing at moment and I'm wondering if someone turns it on...the old fashioned way (manually on the wall) if it'll come on at full brightness or based on what I've set in the app?

Amazon.fr says my hub is 'sending today', (translated) due to arrive 20th-22nd ish.

AndyBoBandy

alastair wrote: »

Stupid question time.

How do you get the motion sensor to play nice with lights that are turned on after they are triggered by motion? Example: landing lights are triggered by motion that has a 'turn off after 5 minutes of inactivity' preference, but they are also turned on with a dimmer switch (or app) on entry. Five minutes pass and the lights are turned off per the motion sensor command, and need to be turned back on again at the dimmer.

What can make life even more interesting, is if the dimmer is located within the motion sensor zone, and the whole process begins all over.

(There are no stupid questions when it comes to something you are unfamiliar with, and thats the whole point of this & the other hue thread)

This is an issue I raised with Hue about a week ago on their Facebook page, they are aware of it, and I believe are working on a fix.
basically the sensor overrides any routines/timers you have already running!

example: I have my kitchen lights on from about 4pm-9pm via 2 routines (4pm-6pm concentrate, then 6pm-9pm relax), but if after dark i walk into the kitchen and trigger the motion sensor, after 5 minutes of inactivity it will knock everything off, which I don't want as I have a routine set.

The immediate fix is to set the motion sensor to do nothing when it detects no motion after a set time, but that defeats the purpose of the sensor in my opinion.

I would imagine a fix will be out in an app update in the near future for the sensor to only knock the lights off after 5/10/15 minutes providing a preset scene isn't running via a routine.

AndyBoBandy

The Black Oil wrote: »

Question time again. The motion sensors, say the landing or the hall, if it detects your presence, then you move into another room, when does it turn the light off? If you're in the hall putting on shoes/getting your coat, etc, will the light stay on due to the sensor detecting your movement?

you can set the sensor to turn the lights off after a set amount of time (5/10/15/20/30/60 minutes) where it detects no motion, but as I said above, this is a pain in the ass if you have a scene running via a routine.

The Black Oil wrote: »

Secondly, re bulb (standard white) brightness - can this set at a default level in the app? It might be a tad strong for landing at moment and I'm wondering if someone turns it on...the old fashioned way (manually on the wall) if it'll come on at full brightness or based on what I've set in the app?

you can set the bulb brightness in any scene and save it so when that scene is triggered via a routine, it will come on at that brightness. I have 2 Hue Lux in my hall, and I only ever have them at about 70% brightness, all via routines/timers.

alastair

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

(There are no stupid questions when it comes to something you are unfamiliar with, and thats the whole point of this & the other hue thread)

This is an issue I raised with Hue about a week ago on their Facebook page, they are aware of it, and I believe are working on a fix.
basically the sensor overrides any routines/timers you have already running!

example: I have my kitchen lights on from about 4pm-9pm via 2 routines (4pm-6pm concentrate, then 6pm-9pm relax), but if after dark i walk into the kitchen and trigger the motion sensor, after 5 minutes of inactivity it will knock everything off, which I don't want as I have a routine set.

The immediate fix is to set the motion sensor to do nothing when it detects no motion after a set time, but that defeats the purpose of the sensor in my opinion.

I would imagine a fix will be out in an app update in the near future for the sensor to only knock the lights off after 5/10/15 minutes providing a preset scene isn't running via a routine.

Not just me then.
The 'do nothing after period of inactivity' isn't really a help for the landing, as there's a fair amount if traffic after dark, and it's more of a pain to have to keep turning the lights off than on.

adox

The Black Oil wrote: »

It's almost as though they keep a certain amount of stock for just the early stages of the release of a new catalogue and that's it. iirc, there was a bargain alert on the Nexus 5X phone some time ago, but you wouldn't have a hope of getting it now.

Question time again. The motion sensors, say the landing or the hall, if it detects your presence, then you move into another room, when does it turn the light off? If you're in the hall putting on shoes/getting your coat, etc, will the light stay on due to the sensor detecting your movement?

Secondly, re bulb (standard white) brightness - can this set at a default level in the app? It might be a tad strong for landing at moment and I'm wondering if someone turns it on...the old fashioned way (manually on the wall) if it'll come on at full brightness or based on what I've set in the app?

Amazon.fr says my hub is 'sending today', (translated) due to arrive 20th-22nd ish.

You can set hoe long you want them to stay on for after they don't detect any more motion. They will stay on when they detect motion. You can also set the brightness warmth etc of the bulbs.

You won't be able to turn them on with your traditional switch as they have to be left on. If you are talking about the philips dimmer switch you can set that up in app as well to your tastes. I think by default it is set to come on at the last setting you had the bulb at.

adox

alastair wrote: »

Not just me then.
The 'do nothing after period of inactivity' isn't really a help for the landing, as there's a fair amount if traffic after dark, and it's more of a pain to have to keep turning the lights off than on.

But the landing isn't a place where you would spend time in so I don't understand why you would have routines or scenes for it as well as a motion sensor? Th motion sensor seems the perfect solution for both hallways and landings where you are only passing through.

Optimus Prime

I want motion sensors in all my rooms except the bedrooms. BUT Don't want the motion sensors over riding my scenes. It's a bit of a pain.

alastair

adox wrote: »

But the landing isn't a place where you would spend time in so I don't understand why you would have routines or scenes for it as well as a motion sensor? Th motion sensor seems the perfect solution for both hallways and landings where you are only passing through.

Landing isn't the only problem area (it gets a fair amount of traffic, and warrants a constant light in the evenings) - motion sensor in the sitting room is equally annoying. The light sensitivity is set right down to the bottom, but the room can be dark enough, even with the lights on a comfortable level for TV watching, to trigger the sensor when you're in the room, initially brightening the lights, and then turning them off after the idle period. It's the same story if the lights in the sitting room are linked to the ambilight on the telly (separate Philips app) - it can go dark enough to trigger the motion sensor.

All in all, it's a frustrating arrangement. The sooner the app sets routines or on states on switches to have priority over motion triggers, the better.

BigAl81

Interesting you mention linking the lights to your tv.

On the Hue starter kit box it says "link with movies and music" but I don't see anything in the official Hue app or anything to do this from Philips in the Google play store?

Is it only third party apps that do this do you know?

Thanks,
Al.

alastair

BigAl81 wrote: »

Interesting you mention linking the lights to your tv.

On the Hue starter kit box it says "link with movies and music" but I don't see anything in the official Hue app or anything to do this from Philips in the Google play store?

Is it only third party apps that do this do you know?

Thanks,
Al.

Philips have an ambilight/hue app, but you'll obviously need a philips ambilight telly for it to work. IoS and Android.

http://www.philips.ie/c-p/PTA008_00/ambilight-plus-hue-app

The Black Oil

Hub arrived yesterday. I didn't get home until after 9pm and didn't have a lot of time to play with it. I added the hall and landing bulbs, set up was straightforward. I went with my iPod Touch. Obviously I'd like to have it on the phone too. If I set up a Philips account, will it capture my settings from one device and store those regardless of which device I then sign into? Or should I leave the iPod and start over?

Btw, amazon.fr haven't charged me for the hub yet. I ordered on the 12th.