I’ve searched the forum but could not find answers for the following questions, but first my setup:
Philips Hue lights, 5 bulbs & 1 light strip, controlled by Homey using the Hue app from Sebastian Johansson (all recognized as they should)
Innr light bulbs RB165, 5 pcs.
– -- 1 via Homey Zigbee (The default Homey zigbee functionality app made by @Athom, the bulb is recognized as “Innr RB 165”)
– -- 1 via Hue app made by @Sebastian_Johansson available on the app store of Homey, (the Bulb is recognized as “Unknown ZigBee device” and working)
– -- 1 via the Innr app made by @Martin_Brasse available on the app store of Homey. (The bulb is recognized as Innr RB 165, and working fine)
– -- 2 remaining bulbs are not yet installed, pending answers or enlightening from you fine folks.
Now the questions:
1: All the apps (3 in total) are running on Homey (Default and 3rd party) so no bridge. Are all the bulbs on the same Zigbee Mesh Network, since they are all controlled by Homey?
2: None of the apps (default and 3rd party) or Homey seems to register the status of the bulb when it is turned on or off manually using the wall switch. Is there a way to have these apps (or Homey as controller) poll the lights, lets say every 5 minutes?
The reason for this request/insight is that I have lamps turned on by “certain individuals” who are less inclined to turn the light off when they leave a room. So I would like the light go off automagically after a set time.
note: The Hue Bridge was capable to notify Homey the status of a light, even when it was turned on or off manually using the wall switch.
note 2: By the wall switch I mean the common switch installed connected to the mains and available in virtually every house to control the lights in a room.
Many thanks in advance for any insight you can give.
As far as I know it is alright to turn those smart bulb (Hue, Innr or any) on and off using the wall switch (indeed cutting the power to those lights). And that is how I am using them for the past 2 year, TOGETHER with their smart functions, like changing color, dim or turning off after 15 minutes or similar behavior. Of course when I use the light in any way (smart or manual) the power is on.
I just noticed that the apps running on Homey do not register when they are turned on manually without using the app.
Just to be clear, we are talking about basement- , storage room- or laundry room- room lights. Lights that typically do not need to be on for more than 10 minutes and preferably should turn off automatically.
And further more: Yes some HUE lights in my house are cut-off the power at night when I sleep, just as the TV and some other appliances; they are controlled by one (manual) switch, all to preserve power
Edit: When a light is cut-off from it’s power it can not respond on any polling so Homey should consider it to being off. Exactly what I want.
If a light is cut-off from power it is un-responsive. So the controller (hue controller or homey, any controller) will not know the status. It will NOT consider the status to be off. (It could be on or off)
If a bulb’s power is off, it will be flagged “unavailable”, not off in the hue bridge itself (after about +/-5 minutes).
But changing the polling settings is impossible for the hue zigbee app, as the bulbs now are not polled at all.
You could ask for this of course in the app itself, the developer of this app is I think not (very) active on this forum, so this is the wrong place for that.
The same is for all other zigbee apps, needs to be implemented by the app itself.
Pitty. So the Hue bridge flagged it as unavailable when the bulb was cut off its power. But it flagged it as on as soon as the power was on again. Often within a second or two.
Homey had a countdown timer for that bulb and would turn it off after 300 seconds.
How can the hue bridge know so fast that a bulb became available ( on) so fast? And Homey -even after hours- does not see the bulb is on?
So after a rainy Sunday running some tests I found out the following:
Smartlights controlled by Homey do the following:
Smartlight is turned on by Homey -> Turned off by hand (wall switch) : Homey register that light to be OFF after ~15 minutes
Smartlight is turned off by Homey -> Turned on by hand (wall switch) : Homey register that light to be ON after ~15 minutes
But in none of the occasions the registration is marked as a ON/OFF event. Something the Hue Bridge did.
Has anyone an idea how to setup a flow that can turn that registration event to an actual ON/OFF event so I can trigger flows that will act on that?
Registering a device as ON/OFF should automatically trigger an ON/OFF event (I assume you mean that it should trigger a flow that has a “Device turned on”-like trigger card in the “IF” column).
That’s a pretty fundamental thing inside Homey’s core (changing a capability triggers a trigger card for that capability), if that doesn’t work if may be time to contact Athom.
Well, it doesn’t. So maybe you are right; time to inform Athom.
To clarify: It does trigger a ON/OFF event when you turn the lights on or off by the Homey app (or any app supported by Homey) , but not when you turn the light on or off by hand via a wall switch.
And again: the HUE Brigde in combination with Homey DID trigger an ON/OFF event when turning a light on of off by hand.
How do you do that?
I presume you have a regular wall switch?
If Homey turned the light off and you switch the lightswitch, it will remove the power right…?
Do you switch the lightswitch twice to turn on the light?
Powerup behaviour is determined in the settings of hue:
I don’t use the HUE Bridge anymore, so the HUE app from Philips is uninstalled from my phone and removed from the network.
Currently I use the Philips Hue ZigBee from HibbiSoft AB -that is installed on Homey- to control the HUE lamps directly from Homey (without bridge).
When you read my previous posts, you can see that my HUE laps do register their ON/OFF state when they are manually turned ON/OFF but there is no trigger/flag/whatever that a flow will be able to see that change.
in dutch:
Ik maak geen gebruik meer van de HUE Bridge van Philips dus die app is verwijderd van mijn telefoon en de bridge is ook niet meer verbonden met mijn netwerk.
Ik gebruik nu de Philips Hue Zigbee app van HibbiSoft AB (uit de Homey App Store) die is geinstalleerd op mijn Homey, om de HUE lampen te schakelen, direct van Homey zonder de HUE Bridge.
Als je mijn vorige posts leest zie je dat een manuele schakeling dwz een schakeling met een wandschakelaar de lamp uiteraard uitzet, en na ongeveer 15 minuten wordt geregistreerd als zijnde UIT door Homey. Maar er vindt geen UIT actie plaats als in: een flow kan er niet op reageren want het weet niet of de lamp is uit gegaan.
Ik hoop dat dit duidelijk is.
Misschien moet ik maar weer de Hue Bridge gaan gebruiken.
