Friends of Hue devices

Questions & Help
1

Hi Guys,

Just bought two friends of hue (Niko) lightswitches. Work easy and great with the hue bridge, but surprised I cannot add them in any way to Homey. Do I need to wait for a HUE app update or even a separate Niko app?

Expected due to the seamless HUE integration this should work fine. Any alternative way of getting these to work?

Thanks,
Patrick

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2

My understanding is that ā€˜friends of hueā€™ devices will not be added to the official/bridge version of the app.

(We) donā€™t want to support Friends of Hue products in the Philips Hue app. There are simply too many and they all have their own quirks, so itā€™s too much effort to maintain.
ā€“ Emile

So you would have to wait for a separate Niko app, or a Friends of Hue app.

3

Update - apparently there has been an update regarding this in the Hue app as at the moment these devices are imported from the Hue hub as Hue Tabs and are fully integratable into Homey flows as such.

Thanks to the programmer making the change!
Patrick

4

The integration of Friends of Hue switches in Homey is far from finished. See my explanation below.

The FoH switch uses the same switch mechanism as the Hue Tap. It is used for giving commands to the Hue HUB to switch Hue devices. Thatā€™s where the similarity ends.

The FoH switches have a solid integration in the Hue app and are recognised as distinct entities. They have a different layout from the (somehow awkward) Hue Tap and present themselves as classic wall switches with double rockers (and sometimes as an option a single rocker). Each button has a double function (short press/long press), where the long press can be used for things like dimming.

I would propose two steps in improved integration in Homey

  1. Reflect the double rocker layout of the switches, so it is immediately clear which button you are referring to.
  2. Integrate the short press/long press functionality

There are a number of varieties in FoH switches, aimed at or released by of for some of the main electric installation material suppliers such as Busch-Jaeger, Niko and Gira (by Senic). These integrate very well into their layout of wall sockets, classic switches etc. For the Hue app they are all identical though.

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5

What is the current status of Friends of Hue devices? I would like to buy some of these switches. I do also have a Hue Bridge 2.0.

6

Any news?

7

I have 2 samotech on/off zigbee switches, not dimming, that are Hue compatible and are added to my Hue mesh. They can be controlled by Homey using Athom Hue app via hue bridge

8

I still canā€™t figure out, can you connect FoH to homey? I have the zigbee Gira senic switch (Remote).
Donā€™t know how to ā€œwake it upā€ or put it in learning to get it to connect to homey, any ideas?

9

Any update on this? So what I understand from @Bryne is dat you can import them into Homey as a Hue Tap but can not use the long/short press function? Why is there nog app for this populair device?

10

Athom will never support FoH devices officially within the app for the Hue Hub. I programmed a fully working driver for the FoH Switch and the official Athom Hue App, but they refused it to integrate it. Messages was, that the FoH devices are not from Philips and it would be too much work to integrate them. Btw. the FoH Switch has been added by me to the Athom app, but at that time the whole code was on Github, which isnā€™t the case anymore. They just allowed to integrate it if it works like an existing Philips device (in that case the hue tap uses somehow more or less the same technique). So be happy that you got at least the short button press on the FoH - better than nothing :frowning:

May be anybody else has time to create a Hue FoH appā€¦ But donā€™t count on it.

11

Hey R5.

i think we maybe should talk, any way for you to contact me?

Kind regards.

12

Any news on this? Iā€™d like to not use the Hue Hub and app anymore, but with the limited way the Niko FoH switches are working Iā€™m using half the function of the device if used through Homey (Pro). I was expecting a better implementation from an official partner accessoire.

Changing the buttons is not an option, as I recently changed 12 buttons to the Niko before getting Homey. And I wanted the Homey because the Hue Hub was at itā€™s limit with devicesā€¦

13

A second Hue Hub may be your simplest solution

14

Iā€™ve decided to return the Homey, and just get a second Hue Hub when I need to add more. Will just split the Hubs per floor.

15

Still no possibility to add FoH to Homey? :thinking:

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