Homey Pro from Hubitat

Questions & Help
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1

Am I missing something?

I have been running a Hubitat for yonks with no issue, but want a better UI / simpler controllability.

I tried the original Homey, but shelved it due to the snoopfest / online requirement.

The Homey Pro plugged in / setup pretty easily until I went to add devices.
I have ~10 Phillips Hue Bulbs, not a single one was recognised.
Installed the Hue App and the “Hue without the bridge app”. Both do not recognise anything.

The Hubitat works without a Hue Bridge, why does the HP not?

I just dusted off the Hue Bridge I have and updated it, I will see if that works, but so far this is like pulling teeth. Three hours in to adding the first bulb.

And why are we forced to use a non security passed app to set this device up? (iOS TestFlight)

so far I am not feeling the love.

2

Hello and welcome,
did you reset the Hue to factory settings before logging on to Homey? Zigbee devices can only be registered to one control panel at a time. As long as the bulbs are registered to Hubitat, neither Homey nor the Hue Bridge will find them.
The Homey app, or Homey early 23, is still in the beta phase. This has nothing to do with security. It’s just to tell you that the app is still in development and is constantly being improved.

1 Like
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I ended up having to use the Hue Bridge, unfortunately.

Tried resetting the bulbs, but they were not recognised unless I use the bridge. I wanted to minimise the level of failure points by ideally not using the myriad of bridges I have.

I might do a bit more testing today. Playing with flows now and I must say it is a very refreshing approach to automation. Well done.

4

That explains it. Hue without the Hue Bridge is an app that only runs on the Homey pro. With the Homey Bridge, Hue bulbs can only be paired via the Hue Bridge.
As the Homey Bridge is a cloud-only solution, it can only access the corresponding devices via the Hue Api. So it’s perfectly normal that you can’t connect the bulbs directly to Homey.
With a Homey pro, this is of course possible and you no longer need a Hue Bridge.

5

OP is using the Homey Pro.

6

I got them working but had to use the bridge. The only reason I don’t want to use bridges is that it introduces fail points, especially after updates etc.

Fighting with a zigbee power strip now… The joys of it.

Also, thanks for the info re registration, I was not aware of that. The Hubitat is back in it’s box, after I factory reset it, I will give it to one of my friends.

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Conversely it creates a lighting system that will work independently should Homey fail for whatever reason too.

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I’m using several Philips Hue devices and due to the migration to Homey Pro 2023, I had to perform reset on all those lights and pairing them when they are reset, it’s the smoothest experience on Homey Pro ever (also thanks to the fact they are ZigBee routers and not counting the reset part (had to use Hue dimmer) ). I was using bridge 2 years ago and not using it since than.

You may want to try “reset” via Philips Hue bridge and then add them to the Homey. For without bridge integration, you need to use Philips Hue, without the bridge App for Homey | Homey, if you keep using bridge, then Philips Hue App for Homey | Homey.

The trickiest part is reset part, when you have integrated your Philips devices already in different controller (bridge, etc.) but Philips Hue bridge can help you with reset. On the other side, you can reset Philips hue devices also using other few methods, eg. https://smartgeekhome.com/how-to-reset-philips-hue-bulbs/ or https://huehomelighting.com/how-to-reset-philips-hue-bulbs-with-and-without-a-bridge/