@joelmw I don’t expect them to take a loss. For almost a year I have visited Meh from the same computer (prior to that is was another computer on the same network) and make purchases and comments from that computer. I cannot buy the Fuko because of how Google has classified me. I don’t give them enough information to profit from so I am a robot.
@iynque I thought the same thing, but then i realized that these are still awesome to have, and I get get bulbs cheap… Just about any Zigbee compatible bulb will work - OSRAM, GE, generics.
I got this set, and I just added some more bulbs; you can find color bulbs for $29-$39 online.
@ggrochr Are you sure? I’m seeing on the Google Forum that they do (at least partially). Can anyone else confirm whether or not they would work with Google Home?
@tniver1030 As someone with Google Home and 1st gen bulbs/hub, yes they do all work together. The only thing that doesn’t work with gen 1 HUB, is Apple Homekit.
@tniver1030 My 1st gen Hue hub & 15 Hue bulbs work fine with Google Home. Can control individual bulbs and sets of bulbs set up in rooms. One thing I still have to open app for is to enable “scenes” and any kind of automatic light shows. Might work via IFTTT trigger, but I haven’t tested.
I completely do not get the fascination of turning off a bulb remotely. You are literally saving yourself five steps and maybe 10 seconds of effort. If you forget to take off the light when you leave home, you’re out 12 cents for 2 hours.
TOTALLY AGREE.
I’ve felt the same way with remote controls. All you do is save yourself 10 or 15 seconds of effort of getting your fat ass off the couch. Be a man, get up and turn that dial manually!
@haydesigner well ‘hay’ now, let’s not get ridiculous. TV remotes are one of our finest inventions. One should not have to resort to manually pressing buttons to change between channels or inputs to access TiVo. And oh yeah, TiVo! How would one change their TiVo selection? One minute you feel like Bob’s Burgers and the next minute, Jessica Jones. Without a remote control, how do you make that happen?!
@elimanningface I love my setup when paired with Amazon Echo. It’s nice to be able to control the lights (including dimming) with my voice. Turning on/off the lights from bed has become part of my daily routine.
Required use? Oh, oh my no. It’s certainly a luxury item. That said, once you have it, you get very use to having it.
@elimanningface When I get home from the gym, my hands are full and I come through the garage door and say, “Alexa, turn on all the lights” and it turns on my kitchen light, the bar light, and my living room light. Very convenient.
When I’m in bed, I say, “Alexa, turn off the bedroom light” and I don’t have to remove all the covers and walk all the way to the door to turn off the light and then walk back to the bed in the dark.
@elimanningface Try going upstairs at night into a dark bedroom with a full water glass in each hand and tripping over a cat or banging into the bed. From downstairs: “Alexa, turn on the bedroom light!”
@elimanningface it is handy when your teenage boys rooms are upstairs and the forget to turn the family room and bathroom light off EVERY TIME they go to bed.
@elimanningface nice for vacations though. Also some of these you can setup so they automatically turn on when you come home. If you don’t have a switched outlet in a room it helps there too.
@elimanningface okay, but that’s how your house is set up. i live in an old apartment with only one lightswitch (which works maybe 25% of the time). the rest is a few crappy ceiling lights we don’t use with short pull strings. an old place also means minimal outlets so the necessary lamps with switches on the cords are not particularly easy to access. it is way easier to tell alexa to turn on/off one (or more) lights. it was also fun to use a wemo switch this xmas and have all the tree lights plug into that and not have to be crawling around under a tree every day just to turn it on & off. not having to get out of bed to turn off the bedroom light at night is a little luxury, but the rest really do save us a lot of trouble.
@elimanningface Everything has its purpose. I got this when I was wheelchair bound. It allowed me to get into bed and then turn off the bedroom light. The switch was on the opposite side of the room.
I don’t see the usefulness here. Now, if I want light I can flip this switch as I walk into the room, and I have light. On the other hand, if I spend $30 I can make it so much easier by walking into the room, searching for a phone, unlocking it, pulling up the app, and turning the light on with a phone instead.
Yeah, it might make sense kind of for those people that buy into that whole “install an Alexa listening device to bug my home 24/7” crowd, but I don’t personally know anyone that has one of those or even wants one.
@Steve7654 For those of us that have decent night vision (like me) there is little need. People that have terrible night vision (like my wife) can use this when they come in the house from the garage and the nearest light switch is 10-15 feet away.
@DaveInSoCal Doesn’t it bother you in the least that every conversation in your home, your comings and goings, your arguments, the things you whisper to your wife in bed, are all being picked up by that device and sent over the internet to be stored at some unknown location, to be data mined and/ or conceiveably searched by anyone that wants to pay for it? You are willing to trade any small bit of privacy in your own home for being able to tell a light bulb to turn off?
I have one of those listening devices plugged into one of those Wemo devices. I can tell Alexia to turn off AlexiaWemo whenever I want. Then to turn it back on, I just use the Wemo app. -That was easy.
This was my gateway drug to smart hominess. Two lamps in the house with Alexa for control has spawned into hundreds of dollars in echo dots, smart switches, dimmers, hubs, and relays. It’s really quite nice and I’ve only scratched the surface so far.
I only have limited use for smart bulbs as many of my fixtures have multiple bulbs in them, but for lamps or single bulb fixtures, these give a nice soft white light that is nicely dimmable.
@djslack Same boat here with the bulbs (I don’t have any). I just installed some smart switches; some go along with the existing switches in the wall and some I replaced with smart dimmer switches. I just use standard LED bulbs in all those fixtures.
Back in the day, the attractions at Epcot Center essentially said, “This is where we’ve been, this is where we are and this is where we’re going… and it’s going to be AWESOME.”
Epcot Center and its promise of the future is exactly why I’m so very much into technology. I grew up being told that I was going to be able to ‘this’ or ‘that’ and I’ve been embracing every step on that path. Being able to control my world, communicate with people around the world and access any bit of information from a device that resides in my pocket is mind-blowing and I recognize it as such.
"To all who come to this place of joy, hope and friendship, welcome.
Epcot Center is inspired by Walt Disney’s creative genius. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, the wonders of enterprise, and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all.
May Epcot Center entertain, inform and inspire. And, above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man’s ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere."
@leviturm Yeah. Alright. Disney had a hand in a terrible disaster that decimated their vacation business in Orlando that took them ~10-15 years from which to fully-recover.
@Hessel On top of that, the ones you linked are the regular Hue White bulbs, not the Lux. Hue White gets you on/off functionality. Lux gets you a range of “whites” and is dimmable if I recall.
Based on this comparison, if you already have a hub and just need some more bulbs you might be better off getting the ones @Hessel linked to. If you need a hub, though, this looks like a great deal.
@draigun The Lux is just white. The White replaced the Lux in the lineup and is reportedly brighter. The price of this bundle is the only reason to get the Lux instead of the white.
@awk I started with X10 so many years ago. But then had weird issues where lights wouldn’t come on if they were on different sides of the breaker box. I then upgraded to Insteon. Each remote acts as a re-transmitter so if I tell it to turn on a light, each device that receives the command will resend it so it gets the command multiple times and seems to always work.
I have a box of old used X10 wall switches somewhere in my garage. Don’t know why I didn’t throw them away yet. I think I have hoarder tendencies.
In for 2 sets for use with my Amazon Echo Dot. The Dot controls 2 of my lights now through a Wemo plug…but that does not dim. $15 per bulb is great, and once you own the hub/bridge… compatible Philips hue bulbs are pretty cheap.
I know the write-up says there’s no Alexa/Siri compatibility, but I have these lights working with the Google Assistant app (by name/room/all on|off voice commands).
All that matters is I can tell some robot cylinder or another to make my room bright instead of using the ceiling lights when I get home like some sort of savage.
I’ve seen these before. I keep wanting to do it but I think I need the night to mull it over. I have an Echo Dot and full blown Apple ecosystem otherwise except for a Pebble time, obviously.
I want to think my next router will have a hue bridge built in. Why don’t they?
At 3:30 am this sounds pretty good to me.For $30 bucks I’ll have two long lasting bulbs that are pretty energy efficient. The only two problems I’ll probably have is this is gonna make my disco ball router crap out more often from overload,
And I’m probably gonna be too dumb to know if this Smart Thing is working.
oh, and anyone is up, can you tell me if there is any benefit to me getting two? All I’d really be getting would be an extra two expensive bulbs, right?
750 lumens? That’s barely a 60W incandescent. Might as well stick to wax candles. I never install anything under 1500 lumens in my sockets. In this room I have a 1600 and a 3400 (200W) bulb at present in my two-bulb overhead.
OK all you luddites, you sound just like my wife: “what good are these?” Well, first of all, they are “cool”, and who doesn’t have a caveman friend who’s impressed by you being able to turn the light on and off and dim it across the room, from the comfort of your laz-e-boy?
Do you work night shift, and come home to a dark house? Do you regularly forget to turn off the light in the far room, and wake up at 3 am to turn it off? These can be scheduled to turn on, and then turn off at a certain time. Or, with ITTT you can hook them up to turn on and sunset, off at sunrise, or whatever.
Remember those little timer thingies you’d set when you were gone to have lights turn on and off when you were gone for a few nights? All built in. And, you can expand your system so motion triggers all the lights. Wouldn’t it be nice to have all the lights turn on when little timmy tries to sneak out and catch the ice cream truck at 2 a.m.? Or suzy is trying to sneak her boyfriend in the house about the same time?
Now I’m not sure how the first gen hub works, but all of that and more is possible with the 2nd gen. And we’re not even talking about the color changing and “boom-boom” mood inducing power of these babies when you bring home that special someone for a “drink” after that gourmet dinner at MickeyD’s.
No, you technophobes, don’t look down your noses at those who’ve embraced the future. We’re the ones our friends talk about when they gather, because we are special!
@beachhead Ye, I get you, those are indeed wonderful cool things. My problem with the Hue is that the switch is within the bulb itself and so you must use something other than your light switch to turn them on. Sure, that something can be your smartphone, or a newly installed compatible switch, or a hub, but it adds complicated layers.
I don’t care about the colors, though. For all of the other goodies I find the depth and breadth of the Insteon stuff to be way more practical. Everything behaves properly to luddites and you can still program to your heart’s content with all of the hubs and stuff.
@mehvermore I hope you got what was supposed to be humor in my post…:) You can still use the power switch to turn the bulbs on/off. But they lose the brightness setting. and you’ll need to turn them “off” through the automation setting to resume any automation you have going, as the power switch needs to stay in the “on” position for the hub to communicate with the bulb.
Nothing wrong with the insteon stuff, I’ve got a couple of their switches too. It’s a good compromise for my wife, who hates talking to Alexa or Siri, and for me, who likes to play with the tech stuff. I like the hue for lightbulbs that we don’t regularly turn on and off, and for color.
As long as it works for you, that’s all that matters…:)
oh, dear. Buyer’s Remorse.Change is hard on me. I’m still using my webOS phone. And it is a pain!
That Amazon Tap is staring me in the face. Still, Meh has never done me wrong.
I bought the second gen of this product and while I’m fairly tech-savvy, it was a shitshow trying to get the hub to recognize my router and then the bulbs to recognize the hub. If you decide to move the bulb to a new location, you have to re-setup the entire system. I never even got close to getting it onto my Echo system. There were essentially no written instructions and the online help was worse, and nothing about it was intuitive.
The WeMo plug I picked up works great, though. I’m keeping my eye out for a non-Phillips, or a later-gen, hub system that’s reasonably priced.
Ok, I never write in these things but I actually love my hue lights and figured I’d explain why. Part of it is indeed the convenience of not having to get out of bed to turn of my bedroom light or if I forget to turn of my living room light I can do it from my bed. Another big thing for me though is the hue app is fantastic. I’m able to set routines, for when I want to go to sleep, so if I stay up later than I should gaming my lights will start to dim on me and let me know it’s getting late. Or my wake up routine, which turn the lights on in the morning similar to the sunrise and I tend to wake up to it before my awful alarm starts beeping. Also, at least with my iPhone I can set up these widget things that let me click a single button from my lock screen and turn on whatever light I set up, bright bedroom, dim bedroom, night lights, whatever I wanted. I don’t use anything with the lights but the app, no alexa or anything else. They’re great by themselves.
I don’t use the Lux bulbs, but have the hue system. I have it set up so it is scheduled for the bulbs to come on in the morning just before I wake up, they turn on when the sun goes down, and turn themselves off after the time I go to bed.
If you go the color route later, you can have a bulb somehwere change color depending on what the weather the next day will be.
@beachhead My router has two USB outlets on the back- it just goes in there and works on any areas the router services? And based on these questions am I smart enough to set it up?
@sammydog01 It needs RJ45 (like telephone plugs) from the router to the hub. Then, the hub “talks” to the lightbulbs through your wireless system.
I wouldn’t say anyone is too dumb to do anything they really want to do…:) Setup was pretty easy, the way I recall: download the app to your phone, plug hub into router and power. It “should” initially be in pairing mode (IIRC), and use the app to find the hub (follow directions in app, pretty easy). Once your app can see the hub, you put a light bulb in the light, turn it on, and use app to find new device. Then you add it into the system, rename it, and control it.
Some of the steps may be slightly different, I set mine up a year ago, and I can’t remember what we had for dinner last night, but it’s fairly simple…
@craigthom I honestly don’t know if it uses it’s own radio net, or the wifi. A quick google search shows it may create it’s own radio network. I’ll let someone more “techy” get into that little detail.
@sammydog01 No problem…those little boxes do add up! It would be nice when there is something standardized for this (and it’ll happen, I think this is a growing market) and most importantly, incorporated into all the connected devices like tv’s, stereo’s, routers, light bulbs, coffee pots, etc. Then, 2001: a space Odyssey’s “Hal 9000” (or whatever it was) will be a reality.
But it would be nice to say “computer, turn on ESPN”, and the TV turns to the proper channel, wouldn’t it?
@beachhead we do that, but with cortana. (or we have one of the xfinity remotes you can speak into, but if you’re already holding the remote, it’s sometimes easier just to type it in.) it would be nice if it were all under one name, though. (not hey cortana for some and alexa for others.)
@Commonwealth109 I usually love crap like this, but I just don’t understand the fascination with this item. It makes no sense to me to pay even $30 for two lightbulbs just I can control the lights in one room with my phone.
@craigthom Because every room has multiple lights in it. Would seem silly to have two lamps with different bulbs, for example. I wouldn’t swap about a bulb without doing them all in the same room. So two bulbs really wouldn’t get me far.
Even if it were two rooms, seems like a super minor convenience.
@TBoneZeOriginal If you need to replace every bulb, and if you only want to turn them on and off manually with your phone, then, no, it doesn’t make much sense.
I don’t think those restrictions apply to most people, and they certainly don’t to me.
The first thing I’m going to do is have the light by the front door turn on when I arrive home after sunset, before I get out of the car, no matter what time. And maybe have it come on between sunset and, say, 2100.
@craigthom I guess I mean most bulbs come in pairs. So my porch lights, for example, would require both bulbs. I can’t think of a single example where it’d be useful with only one bulb.
@TBoneZeOriginal It’s a SYSTEM, silly. We use the Alexa Dot to control two bedside reading lights, a bedroom floor lamp, a Rachio lawn sprinkler controller, and our Ecobee 3 home thermostat. Alexa also gives news, current localized weather, time, sets wake-up alarms, and plays music, at minimum.
But that just mystifies you, eh? It’s about convenience, sorta like using a stove or microwave inside your kitchen instead of a campfire in your front yard.
@Atwoody No need to be a jackass. I know exactly what the system does. My point is that I wouldn’t see myself swapping out the bulb in one lamp but not the other in the room. Otherwise, they’ve be different shades.
@TBoneZeOriginal I have a few ceiling fixtures that use two bulbs, but all the lamps in my house, as well as the front and back porch lights, use one each.
Are two-bulb lamps that common? I think every lamp I’ve ever owned, as well as the ones my parents had (and have), just had single bulbs.
@Steve7654 Can you provide a link to a timer that will turn on “the light by the front door turn on when I arrive home after sunset, before I get out of the car, no matter what time”?
I know of timers that can do it at specific times, but not ones that will do it at 8:00 or 10:27 or 1:30, depending on what time I get home that night.
@craigthom You could use a Wemo motion sensor to do that. Then also setup a rule for sunset/sunrise.
The motion sensor model has been discontinued but you can still find them on ebay and other sites. If not, there is a Wemo maker that you can plug a motion sensor into. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N32H7U8?psc=1)
Use the IFTTT app to create triggers.
I installed a Wemo light switch on my porch light and have a few different rules setup. (I don’t need the motion sensor for my needs.)
Can these bulbs change across the full white temperature range or are they only Soft White (2700K)? I have been getting mixed results when I search this model number across different sites that have these sets
Hey, there are a small segment of us who actually find automation like this more than just “cool”. I love techie stuff anyway, but now find myself disabled enough to make it very difficult to get up and switch a light on. I just tell Alexa to do it for me. (Or the fan.) I wish I could tell Alexa to help me up! I have Samsung smart hub, some various bulbs, switches and recepticals. Makes life a little easier for me. Don’t get me wrong, I do it all anyway just for the “cool” factor.
@idahowingrider They have those recliners that will help you up and out of the chair…someone smarter than me could probably integrate something with one of those to have it “eject” you from the chair via voice command.
@dgmshop Did you read the articles or just post the links based on the headlines?
All are based on the same experiments, and Philips had released a firmware update to address the issue before it was taken public. The articles, especially the second, spend a good bit of time speculating about general issues with IoT devices.
So a guy in Israel figured out how to get Hue lights to join his network and make them blink. He also got a key that wasn’t useful without additional information. He told Philips, who released an update to fix it.
@dgmshop Yeah, I was just reading about a smart lock you can buy for your front door that you can control with your phone or Alexa. Doesn’t seem like it would take much for a techie kind of intruder to be able to figure out how to say “alexa, open the door”.
“Unfortunately, Ronen could not go into detail about his research as Philips is still working on the problem.”
“The malicious firmware can disable additional downloads, and thus any effect caused by the worm, blackout, constant flickering, etc.) will be permanent.” What’s more, the attack is a worm, and can jump from connected device to connected device through the air. It could potentially knock out an entire city with just one infected bulb at the root “within minutes.” There is no other method of reprogramming these devices without full disassemble (which is not feasible)."
"used to damage a city’s electrical grid. "
"Meanwhile, consumers and product manufacturers are still coming to terms with a massive Internet of things attack last month in which hackers hijacked millions of connected devices in order to cut off access to popular websites like Twitter and Amazon." http://fortune.com/2016/11/03/light-bulb-hacking/
"The worm spreads by jumping directly from one lamp to its neighbors, using only their built-in ZigBee wireless connectivity and their physical proximity. The attack can start by plugging in a single infected bulb anywhere in the city, and then catastrophically spread everywhere within minutes, enabling the attacker to turn all the city lights on or off, permanently brick them, or exploit them in a massive DDOS attack.
…
Malicious attackers could also cause the globes to flicker on and off with sufficient speed to trigger epileptic seizures in sufferers.
Researchers were not content to merely spread chaos over Zigbee, however. They found a test mode within the globes’ 2.4Ghz spectrum band could “easily” disrupt nearby wifi networks."
Anyone else get this and notice that shipping will take forever? Ordered on 2/16 and it won’t arrive until 3/1. Well, I’ll make sure to put out some oats and water for the horse when the Pony Express arrives to deliver my lights from Texas.
Any of you have an Echo that you’ve connected these up to? Mine say the lights are offline, but oddly, if I tell Alexa to turn them off or on, they turn off or on and then she says ‘the group or device lights is not respond’.
@Alien88 I’ve had mine from the original offering connected to Alexa for a while with no problem. If someone turns a lamp off with its switch then they go offline, but that’s to be expected.
Have you removed them from Alexa and readded them?
@djslack yup. Reboot the echo as well. And the lights. And the bridge. The fact that it still controls the light is odd… so it’s mostly an annoyance right now
@Alien88 This evening (after I read your reply, actually) I asked my fiancee why she had been turning off the bedroom lamp with its switch and she told me that Alexa had been telling her the light was offline, even though it worked. I had Alexa forget the light and rediscovered it and it works fine now. I thought I was going to find you a solution, but that first step worked.
@Alien88 This has happened once since I got form this batch.
in the Alexa App, you may have to redetect the hub if the hub loses power.
Also, look into how to reclaim the bulbs if you need to. The Hue system uses Zigbee, and it can be fickle if there is a lot of 2.4Ghz traffic (WiFi mainly).
@RoninSavant Yeah, I know about reclaiming the bulbs. I have a SmartThings hub now and am doing everything through SmartThings so it’s not annoying me now!
@Alien88 Mine is under an overhang, and the enclosure is open on the bottom, so i think it will be OK.
The Hue app geofencing didn’t seem to work, so I’m trying it with IFTTT.
I wish i could have it automatically turn off after half an hour. That seems to be a limitation in IFTTT. It needs “if this then that and then this other thing”.
@craigthom Yeah, so is mine. I actually have a SmartThings Hub that I bought on Amazon and am going to go that route - I think it supports more than the shitty Hue app. We’ll see…
Mine are fucking pieces of shit. Everything works, but not together. I can manage the hub from my phone. The lights turn in and off if I use the light switches, BUT THE DAMN HUB SAYS THE LIGHTS ARE UNREACHABLE!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
@xenophod how far away are the lights from the hub? They use the zigbee protocol which operates on the 2.4G spectrum and can suffer from interference. They will form a mesh network to extend the range, but the first light needs to be within 30 to 90 feet of the hub. Try moving the bulbs closer to the hub, or move the hub closer to the bulbs.
The hub and bulbs are 10 feet away from each other, and the hub discovered the bulbs upon first boot.
When I first signed into the app, and it asked for me to press the button in the hub to pair the app to the hub, it said “you need to update the hub”. I’m pretty sure the update killed the hub’s ability to manage my bulbs. I googled this issue and the thread I found with a solution was, “replaced my hub with a new one and everything works”. stupid hub, needs to be reburbbed again… god damn it all to hell
@xenophod also, I’m assuming you’ve tried a factory reset of the bridge? The last thing I’d try, if you’re comfortable enough, there is a way to force the bulbs to connect to the bridge:
BY GOD THAT WORKED!!!
Made sure all bulvs were on, then I got a pen and pushed the reset button on the bottom, logged into the app and it found the hub (pushed button), logged into the philips website (pushed button again), the app showed no bulbs. I went to manually enter a serial number, hit seach, aaaand aaaand THEN IT FOUND BOTH BULBSESESESSSS!!! Hot dog! Now I can dim and turn on and off the bulbs! Thanks for your support, YOU guys are the best.
I got the box earlier in the week, and finally opened it yesterday. Set up was pretty straight forward. I’m up to 5 smart lights. Can’t think of anything else I need to connect.
Lights only bLiNk!
Set up the bridge, added the bulbs tried to dim with a scene and they just blink. Nothing will make it stop (except the switch!)
Now the app says lights are unreachable
I think they STILL need to be refurbished
anyone else having issues?
Specs
What’s in the Box?
2x Philips Hue Lux Bulbs
1x 1st Generation Bridge
1x Ethernet Cable
Pictures
Everything
Bulbs
Bridge
Box
Price Comparison
$97.66 (New) at Amazon
Warranty
90 Day Refurbisher
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Oh look. They sell something that they make a profit on and suddenly I am not a robot. Thanks Google.
@yakkoTDI beep boop ʏ ᴏ ᴜ ᴀ ʀ ᴇ ᴡ ᴇ ʟ ᴄ ᴏ ᴍ ᴇ
@yakkoTDI exactly the same here. Blaaaaaaaaaaa!
@yakkoTDI They should always take a loss, damnit!
@yakkoTDI
@joelmw I don’t expect them to take a loss. For almost a year I have visited Meh from the same computer (prior to that is was another computer on the same network) and make purchases and comments from that computer. I cannot buy the Fuko because of how Google has classified me. I don’t give them enough information to profit from so I am a robot.
Lightbulbs; the new speakerknives!
Last night had more people believing they earned a Fuku than there were Fukus available. It was still a debacle.
No color, no hue 4 me.
@SoftAsFur Thank you, guardian angel. I would have received these and been very confused about the whites-only bulbs.
@iynque These are great (and CHEAP) add-on bulbs if you already have a 2nd Gen Hue (Color) system. My garage doesn’t care what color the light is.
@iynque I thought the same thing, but then i realized that these are still awesome to have, and I get get bulbs cheap… Just about any Zigbee compatible bulb will work - OSRAM, GE, generics.
I got this set, and I just added some more bulbs; you can find color bulbs for $29-$39 online.
Where’s the big round white thing go?
@Hanky Hangs off your network router/hub.
@Hanky About this size of a hockey puck if you are curious.
Will these work with Google Home?
@tniver1030 No, this 1st gen only works with the Philips app and Amazon Echo
@ggrochr Are you sure? I’m seeing on the Google Forum that they do (at least partially). Can anyone else confirm whether or not they would work with Google Home?
@tniver1030 Unless you are a robot
.
@tniver1030 As someone with Google Home and 1st gen bulbs/hub, yes they do all work together. The only thing that doesn’t work with gen 1 HUB, is Apple Homekit.
@tniver1030 My 1st gen Hue hub & 15 Hue bulbs work fine with Google Home. Can control individual bulbs and sets of bulbs set up in rooms. One thing I still have to open app for is to enable “scenes” and any kind of automatic light shows. Might work via IFTTT trigger, but I haven’t tested.
I know some of the Hue lights work with the Amazon Dash buttons, but does anyone know if these first gen lights work with the Dash buttons?
I just bought a Flic button, will these pair with it?
I completely do not get the fascination of turning off a bulb remotely. You are literally saving yourself five steps and maybe 10 seconds of effort. If you forget to take off the light when you leave home, you’re out 12 cents for 2 hours.
TOTALLY AGREE.
I’ve felt the same way with remote controls. All you do is save yourself 10 or 15 seconds of effort of getting your fat ass off the couch. Be a man, get up and turn that dial manually!
@haydesigner well ‘hay’ now, let’s not get ridiculous. TV remotes are one of our finest inventions. One should not have to resort to manually pressing buttons to change between channels or inputs to access TiVo. And oh yeah, TiVo! How would one change their TiVo selection? One minute you feel like Bob’s Burgers and the next minute, Jessica Jones. Without a remote control, how do you make that happen?!
@elimanningface I love my setup when paired with Amazon Echo. It’s nice to be able to control the lights (including dimming) with my voice. Turning on/off the lights from bed has become part of my daily routine.
Required use? Oh, oh my no. It’s certainly a luxury item. That said, once you have it, you get very use to having it.
@elimanningface When I get home from the gym, my hands are full and I come through the garage door and say, “Alexa, turn on all the lights” and it turns on my kitchen light, the bar light, and my living room light. Very convenient.
When I’m in bed, I say, “Alexa, turn off the bedroom light” and I don’t have to remove all the covers and walk all the way to the door to turn off the light and then walk back to the bed in the dark.
@elimanningface Try going upstairs at night into a dark bedroom with a full water glass in each hand and tripping over a cat or banging into the bed. From downstairs: “Alexa, turn on the bedroom light!”
@elimanningface it is handy when your teenage boys rooms are upstairs and the forget to turn the family room and bathroom light off EVERY TIME they go to bed.
@elimanningface nice for vacations though. Also some of these you can setup so they automatically turn on when you come home. If you don’t have a switched outlet in a room it helps there too.
@elimanningface do people still use TiVo?
@elimanningface okay, but that’s how your house is set up. i live in an old apartment with only one lightswitch (which works maybe 25% of the time). the rest is a few crappy ceiling lights we don’t use with short pull strings. an old place also means minimal outlets so the necessary lamps with switches on the cords are not particularly easy to access. it is way easier to tell alexa to turn on/off one (or more) lights. it was also fun to use a wemo switch this xmas and have all the tree lights plug into that and not have to be crawling around under a tree every day just to turn it on & off. not having to get out of bed to turn off the bedroom light at night is a little luxury, but the rest really do save us a lot of trouble.
@elimanningface Everything has its purpose. I got this when I was wheelchair bound. It allowed me to get into bed and then turn off the bedroom light. The switch was on the opposite side of the room.
@haydesigner What if the person is in a wheelchair? Not so easy to turn lights off that are on the other side of the room.
I don’t see the usefulness here. Now, if I want light I can flip this switch as I walk into the room, and I have light. On the other hand, if I spend $30 I can make it so much easier by walking into the room, searching for a phone, unlocking it, pulling up the app, and turning the light on with a phone instead.
Yeah, it might make sense kind of for those people that buy into that whole “install an Alexa listening device to bug my home 24/7” crowd, but I don’t personally know anyone that has one of those or even wants one.
@Steve7654 For those of us that have decent night vision (like me) there is little need. People that have terrible night vision (like my wife) can use this when they come in the house from the garage and the nearest light switch is 10-15 feet away.
@Steve7654 I have one of those listening devices. I haven’t died yet.
@Steve7654 I use it with the echo. Voice activation is super handy.
@DaveInSoCal Doesn’t it bother you in the least that every conversation in your home, your comings and goings, your arguments, the things you whisper to your wife in bed, are all being picked up by that device and sent over the internet to be stored at some unknown location, to be data mined and/ or conceiveably searched by anyone that wants to pay for it? You are willing to trade any small bit of privacy in your own home for being able to tell a light bulb to turn off?
I guess every one has different priorities.
I have one of those listening devices plugged into one of those Wemo devices. I can tell Alexia to turn off AlexiaWemo whenever I want. Then to turn it back on, I just use the Wemo app. -That was easy.
This was my gateway drug to smart hominess. Two lamps in the house with Alexa for control has spawned into hundreds of dollars in echo dots, smart switches, dimmers, hubs, and relays. It’s really quite nice and I’ve only scratched the surface so far.
I only have limited use for smart bulbs as many of my fixtures have multiple bulbs in them, but for lamps or single bulb fixtures, these give a nice soft white light that is nicely dimmable.
@djslack could have done all that for $20 and a round of applause.
@elimanningface I remember the clapper. Got mine at a brothel in Tijuana.
@djslack Same boat here with the bulbs (I don’t have any). I just installed some smart switches; some go along with the existing switches in the wall and some I replaced with smart dimmer switches. I just use standard LED bulbs in all those fixtures.
They mention Epcot Center in the write-up…
Back in the day, the attractions at Epcot Center essentially said, “This is where we’ve been, this is where we are and this is where we’re going… and it’s going to be AWESOME.”
Epcot Center and its promise of the future is exactly why I’m so very much into technology. I grew up being told that I was going to be able to ‘this’ or ‘that’ and I’ve been embracing every step on that path. Being able to control my world, communicate with people around the world and access any bit of information from a device that resides in my pocket is mind-blowing and I recognize it as such.
@SpenceMan01 I wanted to live in the demonstration city within EPCOT. It never came about, but Alexa, Roomba and their cohorts are close.
@OldCatLady Epcot is why I have a $450 automated litter box that looks like a spaceship. My cats are living the dream.
@SpenceMan01 DISNEY DID 9/11!!!
@leviturm Yeah. Alright. Disney had a hand in a terrible disaster that decimated their vacation business in Orlando that took them ~10-15 years from which to fully-recover.
Can the “temperature” of these lightbulbs change or is it just to turn them on/off?
@leto4 The Lux bulbs don’t change colors; just brightness.
15$ for a bulb at Target. Newer generation and not refurb. Who needs a hub anyway. http://www.target.com/p/philips-hue-a19-connected-white-led-light-bulb/-/A-50917919?sid=2252S&ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&CPNG=PLA_Home+Improvement+Shopping_Brand&adgroup=SC_Home+Improvement&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=t&location=9032152&gclid=COGmwbHtk9ICFQx3fgod6koD4w&gclsrc=aw.ds
@Hessel These bulbs do not work without a hub (also called a bridge). The bridge/hubs normally cost about $50-60.
@Hessel The hub @ggrochr mentions is why I finally bit for this deal. Assuming they work, I’m essentially getting the hub for the price of vmp, $5.
@Hessel On top of that, the ones you linked are the regular Hue White bulbs, not the Lux. Hue White gets you on/off functionality. Lux gets you a range of “whites” and is dimmable if I recall.
Not that the Lux bulb is that much more expensive, but there is a difference. Here’s the Lux: http://www.target.com/p/philips-hue-lux-add-of-bulb-433714/-/A-17294687
@draigun It looks like the Hue White bulbs are dimable too.
https://www.howtogeek.com/248178/the-difference-between-all-of-philips-hue-light-bulbs/
Based on this comparison, if you already have a hub and just need some more bulbs you might be better off getting the ones @Hessel linked to. If you need a hub, though, this looks like a great deal.
@draigun The Lux is just white. The White replaced the Lux in the lineup and is reportedly brighter. The price of this bundle is the only reason to get the Lux instead of the white.
Sure a letdown after a fuko. Hoping one day they will do 2 in a row.
@Felton10
Ditto infinity
I dunno, sometimes I feel like upgrading my ancient X10 setup, and then the feeling passes.
@awk I started with X10 so many years ago. But then had weird issues where lights wouldn’t come on if they were on different sides of the breaker box. I then upgraded to Insteon. Each remote acts as a re-transmitter so if I tell it to turn on a light, each device that receives the command will resend it so it gets the command multiple times and seems to always work.
I have a box of old used X10 wall switches somewhere in my garage. Don’t know why I didn’t throw them away yet. I think I have hoarder tendencies.
Something for the parents. Thanks Meh!
the blender attachment leaves much to be desired.
Are these the ones that give everyone in your neighborhood open access to your home network?
In for 2 sets for use with my Amazon Echo Dot. The Dot controls 2 of my lights now through a Wemo plug…but that does not dim. $15 per bulb is great, and once you own the hub/bridge… compatible Philips hue bulbs are pretty cheap.
Meh
I know the write-up says there’s no Alexa/Siri compatibility, but I have these lights working with the Google Assistant app (by name/room/all on|off voice commands).
@ow3n The write up specifically says the DO have Alexa compatibility.
All that matters is I can tell some robot cylinder or another to make my room bright instead of using the ceiling lights when I get home like some sort of savage.
I’ve seen these before. I keep wanting to do it but I think I need the night to mull it over. I have an Echo Dot and full blown Apple ecosystem otherwise except for a Pebble time, obviously.
I want to think my next router will have a hue bridge built in. Why don’t they?
Look at how many people visited meh tonight compared to apparently “robots” last night for fukoburrro – very LIGHT tonight I’d say…
At 3:30 am this sounds pretty good to me.For $30 bucks I’ll have two long lasting bulbs that are pretty energy efficient. The only two problems I’ll probably have is this is gonna make my disco ball router crap out more often from overload,
And I’m probably gonna be too dumb to know if this Smart Thing is working.
oh, and anyone is up, can you tell me if there is any benefit to me getting two? All I’d really be getting would be an extra two expensive bulbs, right?
@wew If you don’t care about colors, just buy some decent $2 LED bulbs and control them with your…wait for it…existing light switch
.
@wew Two would be pointless unless you plan to sell the bridge right away (only need one) but who’s gonna buy a bridge without bulbs.
Yeah, I’m just getting one. Order #…clingy-perpetual-chili
Well, I should just put a photo of myself!
750 lumens? That’s barely a 60W incandescent. Might as well stick to wax candles. I never install anything under 1500 lumens in my sockets. In this room I have a 1600 and a 3400 (200W) bulb at present in my two-bulb overhead.
OK all you luddites, you sound just like my wife: “what good are these?” Well, first of all, they are “cool”, and who doesn’t have a caveman friend who’s impressed by you being able to turn the light on and off and dim it across the room, from the comfort of your laz-e-boy?
Do you work night shift, and come home to a dark house? Do you regularly forget to turn off the light in the far room, and wake up at 3 am to turn it off? These can be scheduled to turn on, and then turn off at a certain time. Or, with ITTT you can hook them up to turn on and sunset, off at sunrise, or whatever.
Remember those little timer thingies you’d set when you were gone to have lights turn on and off when you were gone for a few nights? All built in. And, you can expand your system so motion triggers all the lights. Wouldn’t it be nice to have all the lights turn on when little timmy tries to sneak out and catch the ice cream truck at 2 a.m.? Or suzy is trying to sneak her boyfriend in the house about the same time?
Now I’m not sure how the first gen hub works, but all of that and more is possible with the 2nd gen. And we’re not even talking about the color changing and “boom-boom” mood inducing power of these babies when you bring home that special someone for a “drink” after that gourmet dinner at MickeyD’s.
No, you technophobes, don’t look down your noses at those who’ve embraced the future. We’re the ones our friends talk about when they gather, because we are special!
@beachhead Ye, I get you, those are indeed wonderful cool things. My problem with the Hue is that the switch is within the bulb itself and so you must use something other than your light switch to turn them on. Sure, that something can be your smartphone, or a newly installed compatible switch, or a hub, but it adds complicated layers.
I don’t care about the colors, though. For all of the other goodies I find the depth and breadth of the Insteon stuff to be way more practical. Everything behaves properly to luddites and you can still program to your heart’s content with all of the hubs and stuff.
@mehvermore I hope you got what was supposed to be humor in my post…:) You can still use the power switch to turn the bulbs on/off. But they lose the brightness setting. and you’ll need to turn them “off” through the automation setting to resume any automation you have going, as the power switch needs to stay in the “on” position for the hub to communicate with the bulb.
Nothing wrong with the insteon stuff, I’ve got a couple of their switches too. It’s a good compromise for my wife, who hates talking to Alexa or Siri, and for me, who likes to play with the tech stuff. I like the hue for lightbulbs that we don’t regularly turn on and off, and for color.
As long as it works for you, that’s all that matters…:)
oh, dear. Buyer’s Remorse.Change is hard on me. I’m still using my webOS phone. And it is a pain!
That Amazon Tap is staring me in the face. Still, Meh has never done me wrong.
I bought the second gen of this product and while I’m fairly tech-savvy, it was a shitshow trying to get the hub to recognize my router and then the bulbs to recognize the hub. If you decide to move the bulb to a new location, you have to re-setup the entire system. I never even got close to getting it onto my Echo system. There were essentially no written instructions and the online help was worse, and nothing about it was intuitive.
The WeMo plug I picked up works great, though. I’m keeping my eye out for a non-Phillips, or a later-gen, hub system that’s reasonably priced.
Ok, I never write in these things but I actually love my hue lights and figured I’d explain why. Part of it is indeed the convenience of not having to get out of bed to turn of my bedroom light or if I forget to turn of my living room light I can do it from my bed. Another big thing for me though is the hue app is fantastic. I’m able to set routines, for when I want to go to sleep, so if I stay up later than I should gaming my lights will start to dim on me and let me know it’s getting late. Or my wake up routine, which turn the lights on in the morning similar to the sunrise and I tend to wake up to it before my awful alarm starts beeping. Also, at least with my iPhone I can set up these widget things that let me click a single button from my lock screen and turn on whatever light I set up, bright bedroom, dim bedroom, night lights, whatever I wanted. I don’t use anything with the lights but the app, no alexa or anything else. They’re great by themselves.
I bought this last time, and the hub says ZigBee on the back… has anyone hooked these up to other ZigBee devices?
Oh, alright then.
/buy
@craigthom It worked! Your order number is: messy-wearisome-zipper
/image messy wearisome zipper
I don’t use the Lux bulbs, but have the hue system. I have it set up so it is scheduled for the bulbs to come on in the morning just before I wake up, they turn on when the sun goes down, and turn themselves off after the time I go to bed.
If you go the color route later, you can have a bulb somehwere change color depending on what the weather the next day will be.
Stupid question- does the hub just plug into an outlet or what?
@sammydog01 I think it also needs internet access so you’ll need to connect it to your router.
@cengland0 this is correct. The hub requires a wired connection.
@sammydog01 The hub has a small power adapter, the size of a phone changer. It connects via Wi-Fi to your home internet (and a cable to your router).
The hub needs a power outlet, an a hardwired network connection to your router
@beachhead My router has two USB outlets on the back- it just goes in there and works on any areas the router services? And based on these questions am I smart enough to set it up?
@sammydog01 It needs RJ45 (like telephone plugs) from the router to the hub. Then, the hub “talks” to the lightbulbs through your wireless system.
I wouldn’t say anyone is too dumb to do anything they really want to do…:) Setup was pretty easy, the way I recall: download the app to your phone, plug hub into router and power. It “should” initially be in pairing mode (IIRC), and use the app to find the hub (follow directions in app, pretty easy). Once your app can see the hub, you put a light bulb in the light, turn it on, and use app to find new device. Then you add it into the system, rename it, and control it.
Some of the steps may be slightly different, I set mine up a year ago, and I can’t remember what we had for dinner last night, but it’s fairly simple…
@beachhead Does it use your wireless network to talk to the bulbs or did it use its own RF connection to them?
@craigthom I honestly don’t know if it uses it’s own radio net, or the wifi. A quick google search shows it may create it’s own radio network. I’ll let someone more “techy” get into that little detail.
@beachhead Thanks! I decided I don’t want another computer doohickey cluttering up my desk so I’m gonna pass.
@sammydog01 No problem…those little boxes do add up! It would be nice when there is something standardized for this (and it’ll happen, I think this is a growing market) and most importantly, incorporated into all the connected devices like tv’s, stereo’s, routers, light bulbs, coffee pots, etc. Then, 2001: a space Odyssey’s “Hal 9000” (or whatever it was) will be a reality.
But it would be nice to say “computer, turn on ESPN”, and the TV turns to the proper channel, wouldn’t it?
@beachhead we do that, but with cortana. (or we have one of the xfinity remotes you can speak into, but if you’re already holding the remote, it’s sometimes easier just to type it in.) it would be nice if it were all under one name, though. (not hey cortana for some and alexa for others.)
I guess I’m officially old. Not only do I not like the deal, I wouldn’t be interested if it was $10.
Next up - 4pm dinners I guess!
@Commonwealth109 I usually love crap like this, but I just don’t understand the fascination with this item. It makes no sense to me to pay even $30 for two lightbulbs just I can control the lights in one room with my phone.
@TBoneZeOriginal Why just one room? Do you only have lights in one room?
@craigthom Because every room has multiple lights in it. Would seem silly to have two lamps with different bulbs, for example. I wouldn’t swap about a bulb without doing them all in the same room. So two bulbs really wouldn’t get me far.
Even if it were two rooms, seems like a super minor convenience.
@TBoneZeOriginal If you need to replace every bulb, and if you only want to turn them on and off manually with your phone, then, no, it doesn’t make much sense.
I don’t think those restrictions apply to most people, and they certainly don’t to me.
The first thing I’m going to do is have the light by the front door turn on when I arrive home after sunset, before I get out of the car, no matter what time. And maybe have it come on between sunset and, say, 2100.
@craigthom I guess I mean most bulbs come in pairs. So my porch lights, for example, would require both bulbs. I can’t think of a single example where it’d be useful with only one bulb.
@TBoneZeOriginal It’s a SYSTEM, silly. We use the Alexa Dot to control two bedside reading lights, a bedroom floor lamp, a Rachio lawn sprinkler controller, and our Ecobee 3 home thermostat. Alexa also gives news, current localized weather, time, sets wake-up alarms, and plays music, at minimum.
But that just mystifies you, eh? It’s about convenience, sorta like using a stove or microwave inside your kitchen instead of a campfire in your front yard.
@Atwoody No need to be a jackass. I know exactly what the system does. My point is that I wouldn’t see myself swapping out the bulb in one lamp but not the other in the room. Otherwise, they’ve be different shades.
Seriously, what’s with the aggression?
@TBoneZeOriginal I have a few ceiling fixtures that use two bulbs, but all the lamps in my house, as well as the front and back porch lights, use one each.
Are two-bulb lamps that common? I think every lamp I’ve ever owned, as well as the ones my parents had (and have), just had single bulbs.
@craigthom No, but my family room has two lamps in it, one on each end table. My porch lights are also one on each side of the garage.
@craigthom You can buy timers at the hardware store for like $10 to do exactly that. They have been around for years.
@Steve7654 Can you provide a link to a timer that will turn on “the light by the front door turn on when I arrive home after sunset, before I get out of the car, no matter what time”?
I know of timers that can do it at specific times, but not ones that will do it at 8:00 or 10:27 or 1:30, depending on what time I get home that night.
@craigthom You could use a Wemo motion sensor to do that. Then also setup a rule for sunset/sunrise.
The motion sensor model has been discontinued but you can still find them on ebay and other sites. If not, there is a Wemo maker that you can plug a motion sensor into. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N32H7U8?psc=1)
Use the IFTTT app to create triggers.
I installed a Wemo light switch on my porch light and have a few different rules setup. (I don’t need the motion sensor for my needs.)
Can these bulbs change across the full white temperature range or are they only Soft White (2700K)? I have been getting mixed results when I search this model number across different sites that have these sets
@Prem They do not change color temperature, only on/off/dim.
I DO NOT WANT TO ASK THE INTERNET FOR PERMISSION TO TURN OFF A LIGHT, THREE FEET AWAY.
@TheMonkeyKing Then use it for a light that is more than 3 feet away. Duh.
@TheMonkeyKing Get out of your warm bed, and walk the three feet, getting cold and waking up in the process, to save money and turn out that light.
BTW -I can also change the light from 100% brilliance to, let’s say, 25% of 39% brilliance, just using a phone or my voice.
“Alexa, set Floor Lamp to 40%”.
Boom! (Drops mic)
CAPS LOCK tells me you are no friend of the internet anyway.
@Atwoody LOCKED AND LOADED…erm, I mean yes, I am an old man shouting at cloud(-based software).
@Atwoody Dude, you know Alexa is not in your home but back at Amazon, right?
@TheMonkeyKing (“Sigh”) Yes, I know. (I love getting catty remarks about internet privacy from people who’ve given up internet privacy…)
Hey, there are a small segment of us who actually find automation like this more than just “cool”. I love techie stuff anyway, but now find myself disabled enough to make it very difficult to get up and switch a light on. I just tell Alexa to do it for me. (Or the fan.) I wish I could tell Alexa to help me up! I have Samsung smart hub, some various bulbs, switches and recepticals. Makes life a little easier for me. Don’t get me wrong, I do it all anyway just for the “cool” factor.
@idahowingrider They have those recliners that will help you up and out of the chair…someone smarter than me could probably integrate something with one of those to have it “eject” you from the chair via voice command.
@medz @idahowingrider If you don’t make the command “Up Up and Away” you’re missing a great opportunity.
sigh
/buy
@sparkomatic It worked! Your order number is: exquisite-enamored-mist
/image exquisite enamored mist
If you already HAVE a Hue system 2nd Gen you are getting two compatible bulbs for cheap! Just toss the included 1st Gen hub in the compost bin.
@Atwoody the 2nd gen white bulbs are $15, so it is kind of a wash really. I guess you could give away or sell the hub maybe?
@dansch07 Amazon has these bulbs at $28 each.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ESW34RQ/ref=s9_dcacsd_bhz_bw_c_x_5_w
@Atwoody Target
http://www.target.com/p/philips-hue-a19-connected-white-led-light-bulb/-/A-50917919
Edit: looks like they are a little different, I admit that I don’t really know anything about them or the differences.
https://www.cnet.com/news/new-study-details-a-security-flaw-with-philips-hue-smart-bulbs/
http://www.pcmag.com/news/346789/hacking-hue-researchers-worm-into-the-internet-of-things
https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/03/hackers-hijack-a-philips-hue-lights-with-a-drone/
@dgmshop Did you read the articles or just post the links based on the headlines?
All are based on the same experiments, and Philips had released a firmware update to address the issue before it was taken public. The articles, especially the second, spend a good bit of time speculating about general issues with IoT devices.
So a guy in Israel figured out how to get Hue lights to join his network and make them blink. He also got a key that wasn’t useful without additional information. He told Philips, who released an update to fix it.
@dgmshop Yeah, I was just reading about a smart lock you can buy for your front door that you can control with your phone or Alexa. Doesn’t seem like it would take much for a techie kind of intruder to be able to figure out how to say “alexa, open the door”.
@craigthom
“Unfortunately, Ronen could not go into detail about his research as Philips is still working on the problem.”
“The malicious firmware can disable additional downloads, and thus any effect caused by the worm, blackout, constant flickering, etc.) will be permanent.” What’s more, the attack is a worm, and can jump from connected device to connected device through the air. It could potentially knock out an entire city with just one infected bulb at the root “within minutes.” There is no other method of reprogramming these devices without full disassemble (which is not feasible)."
"used to damage a city’s electrical grid. "
"Meanwhile, consumers and product manufacturers are still coming to terms with a massive Internet of things attack last month in which hackers hijacked millions of connected devices in order to cut off access to popular websites like Twitter and Amazon."
http://fortune.com/2016/11/03/light-bulb-hacking/
"The worm spreads by jumping directly from one lamp to its neighbors, using only their built-in ZigBee wireless connectivity and their physical proximity. The attack can start by plugging in a single infected bulb anywhere in the city, and then catastrophically spread everywhere within minutes, enabling the attacker to turn all the city lights on or off, permanently brick them, or exploit them in a massive DDOS attack.
…
Malicious attackers could also cause the globes to flicker on and off with sufficient speed to trigger epileptic seizures in sufferers.
Researchers were not content to merely spread chaos over Zigbee, however. They found a test mode within the globes’ 2.4Ghz spectrum band could “easily” disrupt nearby wifi networks."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3901906/Forget-laptop-Hackers-soon-target-LIGHT-BULBS-internet.html
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/10/iot_worm_can_hack_philips_hue_lightbulbs_spread_across_cities/
"smart lightbulbs or even fridges being used to send spam on behalf of an unknown scammer. If your ISP notices this kind of activity, you might end up with a throttled or suspended connection."
http://www.pcmag.com/news/346789/hacking-hue-researchers-worm-into-the-internet-of-things
If this were 2nd generation, I’d be all over it.
been dying to try this system, at this price its a done deal. If I like it can I get a 2nd gen and still use this set?
@rzaffke Yes. From what I’ve read the main difference between the gen 2 hub and this is the addition of the Apple stuff. The bulbs are all compatible.
Yea, I bought one. Wanna fight about it?
/giphy resplendent-quickest-spade
Anyone else get this and notice that shipping will take forever? Ordered on 2/16 and it won’t arrive until 3/1. Well, I’ll make sure to put out some oats and water for the horse when the Pony Express arrives to deliver my lights from Texas.
@andymccraw Mine arrived a day earlier than originally estimated.
I think Pony Express was faster than Fedex SmartPost.
@andymccraw mine still hasn’t gone past processing with an estimated delivery of Monday at the latest.
@andymccraw Mine came in fairly quickly, but I also have a PO at a UPS store, so stuff seems to ship there a bit faster.
Any of you have an Echo that you’ve connected these up to? Mine say the lights are offline, but oddly, if I tell Alexa to turn them off or on, they turn off or on and then she says ‘the group or device lights is not respond’.
@Alien88 I’ve had mine from the original offering connected to Alexa for a while with no problem. If someone turns a lamp off with its switch then they go offline, but that’s to be expected.
Have you removed them from Alexa and readded them?
@djslack yup. Reboot the echo as well. And the lights. And the bridge. The fact that it still controls the light is odd… so it’s mostly an annoyance right now
@Alien88 This evening (after I read your reply, actually) I asked my fiancee why she had been turning off the bedroom lamp with its switch and she told me that Alexa had been telling her the light was offline, even though it worked. I had Alexa forget the light and rediscovered it and it works fine now. I thought I was going to find you a solution, but that first step worked.
@djslack my smartthings hub arrived, so I’m going to install that and see how it goes. I feel like it’ll indirectly solve my echo issue.
@Alien88 This has happened once since I got form this batch.
in the Alexa App, you may have to redetect the hub if the hub loses power.
Also, look into how to reclaim the bulbs if you need to. The Hue system uses Zigbee, and it can be fickle if there is a lot of 2.4Ghz traffic (WiFi mainly).
@RoninSavant Yeah, I know about reclaiming the bulbs. I have a SmartThings hub now and am doing everything through SmartThings so it’s not annoying me now!
I got mine today and it works. I’ve put one bulb in my front porch light. It’s not supposed to go outside, but we’ll see.
I don’t have a Google Home or Amazon Echo, so I’ve just played with the phone app and ifft.
@craigthom I’m doing the same - I know lots of folks put them outside as long as they aren’t fully exposed. The biggest issue is heat in the summer.
@Alien88 Mine is under an overhang, and the enclosure is open on the bottom, so i think it will be OK.
The Hue app geofencing didn’t seem to work, so I’m trying it with IFTTT.
I wish i could have it automatically turn off after half an hour. That seems to be a limitation in IFTTT. It needs “if this then that and then this other thing”.
@craigthom Yeah, so is mine. I actually have a SmartThings Hub that I bought on Amazon and am going to go that route - I think it supports more than the shitty Hue app. We’ll see…
Mine are fucking pieces of shit. Everything works, but not together. I can manage the hub from my phone. The lights turn in and off if I use the light switches, BUT THE DAMN HUB SAYS THE LIGHTS ARE UNREACHABLE!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
@xenophod how far away are the lights from the hub? They use the zigbee protocol which operates on the 2.4G spectrum and can suffer from interference. They will form a mesh network to extend the range, but the first light needs to be within 30 to 90 feet of the hub. Try moving the bulbs closer to the hub, or move the hub closer to the bulbs.
The hub and bulbs are 10 feet away from each other, and the hub discovered the bulbs upon first boot.
When I first signed into the app, and it asked for me to press the button in the hub to pair the app to the hub, it said “you need to update the hub”. I’m pretty sure the update killed the hub’s ability to manage my bulbs. I googled this issue and the thread I found with a solution was, “replaced my hub with a new one and everything works”. stupid hub, needs to be reburbbed again… god damn it all to hell
@xenophod Bummer. My update worked well.
@xenophod oh that sucks. Which app? I know on android there are two.
@xenophod also, I’m assuming you’ve tried a factory reset of the bridge? The last thing I’d try, if you’re comfortable enough, there is a way to force the bulbs to connect to the bridge:
https://nohats.ca/wordpress/blog/2013/05/26/philips-hue-alternative-for-lamp-stealer/
I’ll try the hub reset, brb.
BY GOD THAT WORKED!!!
Made sure all bulvs were on, then I got a pen and pushed the reset button on the bottom, logged into the app and it found the hub (pushed button), logged into the philips website (pushed button again), the app showed no bulbs. I went to manually enter a serial number, hit seach, aaaand aaaand THEN IT FOUND BOTH BULBSESESESSSS!!! Hot dog! Now I can dim and turn on and off the bulbs! Thanks for your support, YOU guys are the best.
@xenophod awesome! Glad that worked for you!
I got the box earlier in the week, and finally opened it yesterday. Set up was pretty straight forward. I’m up to 5 smart lights. Can’t think of anything else I need to connect.
I feel pretty effin special today
Does anyone else have an order that still says it is processing?
@MaggieRaine I messaged support apparently they oversold. So we’ll be getting Gen 2s which should be shipping in the next few days.
Lights only bLiNk!
Set up the bridge, added the bulbs tried to dim with a scene and they just blink. Nothing will make it stop (except the switch!)
Now the app says lights are unreachable
I think they STILL need to be refurbished
anyone else having issues?