@cengland0, As always, I strongly concur. This “soft white” is really “dingy yellow”. I cannot abide dull, yellow lighting. Some call it “warm and inviting”. I call it dull and depressing.
What’s happened at Meh?!? Crappy over priced camping junk yesterday (bringing in a whopping 3k w/shipping) and now gouging customers for a $40 refurbished light kit? Since canning VMP, you guys are struggling big time. I miss the old Meh.
@twz I wasn’t supposed to say anything until the official announcement but a little bird told me that Meh is selling out to Amazon. I guess the Amazon crew have gotten a head start on the transition.
@adamselby yeah. This isn’t a bad price for the bulbs even if you have a hue base already.
I would jump on this if not for the yellow bulbs. I’m limited where in the house I could put something like this where having old 20th Century looking yellow bulbs wouldn’t look bad.
Give me proper white and I would jump. No clue why Hue standard is the grandma yellow bulbs.
I just want dumb bulbs. You know - manually turn on the light, manually turn it off… Nice and bright, natural light color temperature. Want the equivalent of 100 (old style) watts.
I have an earlier pair of Phillips Hue bulbs that I bought at Meh, and they work great! It’s nice not to need to get out of bed to turn the lights on , off or to dim them
Having lower color temperature is especially useful in the bedroom, since bluer colors fool the brain into thinking it’s close to mid-day . A warmer color makes it easier to fall asleep.
I’ve been using them with my Amazon Home units. The Android Phillips app has some useful features in it, too, allowing these bulbs to turn on and off when you’re not at home , simulating having someone there .
This is a good price for these bulbs, especially with the hub. In for 2.
.
Hues are more expensive but they feel premiums. That smooth dimming is way better than the GE Link bulbs I got started on a few years ago. And, guess what, they work with HOME KIT!
FYI, I had to get mine replaced since the hub was DOA and had to pay for shipping to the refurbisher. YMMV. Still a great deal.
The replacement was slow to get online but it eventually did! Don’t give up until you give it a couple minutes to get online.
These will work with Alexa, Homekit, or Assistant.
Remember to press the reset button and update the firmware.
Nice lights, regular soft white color (a little yellow like a 60 watt incandescent bulb.)
Pretty good price, new ones start at $65 (Amazon or Best Buy) or refurbished on eBay for $55.
@2many2no I have, for 10 seconds, etc. seems that i’m only ever able to make progress by forgetting my Wi-Fi network, rebooting the Hue app, then connecting to my bridge, but then the bridge connection is lost when i start search for my lights. utterly frustrating since this same setup worked flawlessly in my previous place
@wooterondo Sorry, that worked for me when I couldn’t get mine to connect.
Do you power on the lights before starting the bridge? I think they have to be already on for the bridge to find them during setup. There’s also a way in the app to manually add the lights using the serial number on each bulb.
If it’s a network issue, you may need to be sure DHCP is enabled on the bridge and the router, or you can enter an IP address into the app if you reserved on on your router.
Hope this helps, because most company’s customer support is pretty poor (well, except for meh, of course.)
@2many2no no need to be sorry; you’re already 100x more helpful than the sorry folks @philips. i’m 99% sure DHCP is enabled (dynamic host protocol, right?) but can’t seem to find it on my 192.168.0.1 page. And entering the IP address for either my desktop computer or phone doesn’t seem to fare any better in the Hue app. Pretty nonexistent troubleshooting functionality, IMO
@wooterondo It’s my job to take the blame this month.
“Alexa, ask mehstalker who is the goat?”
DHCP would have to be enabled both on your router (almost for sure it is) and on the bridge for automatic allocation of a network address. The app warns that turning off DHCP on the bridge could cause it to not connect at all, which means you cannot reset it from the app. You can reserve an address on your router (anything in the range not already in use) and then use the app to assign that address to the bridge, or you can use a paperclip in the little factory reset hole on the back of the bridge to return to factory defaults then start over.
That’s as far as I can take you on that path, but there are people on the forum with much more knowledge than me about network setup. @jbartus@lichme?
@2many2no having DHCP enabled in more than one place strikes me as a poor idea but not knowing how the system works I can’t say for sure. For example, if the Hue hub thing firewalls the bulbs from the rest of the network its DHCP would be fine.
@jbartus Thanks. I don’t know for sure, but the app to set up the hub has a selection to use DHCP or enter a network address. I’m guessing that means it will accept an address assigned by the router or you can enter an address if one is reserved. Does that sound right?
Getting really ripped off with this VMP at $5 a month, haven’t seen anything good on here for months. Meh has really turned into overpriced junk that I can’t see myself buying. About ready to quit this VMP B.S.
@SnDMommy It would be much more justifiable if the premise of MVP for mediocriTee had SOME form of time frame. For now it seems to be idle until either buyout for meh, or operations cost isn’t covered by us MVP suckers…
@johanquinn My VMP is an entertainment fee. It means when I see something ridiculous on Meh I can indulge without thinking “Is this really worth 8 bucks plus shipping”
@elysiumplain I find the notion that VMP is somehow covering their operations costs mildly hilarious. Even if we assumed that there are 10,000 VMPs, that’s still only $50,000 per month (less 3% for card processing fees) which might cover their rent and the monthly wages of a couple of warehouse workers. Might.
@therealjrn It’s like the modern-day version of the clapper. Basically, you don’t have to get your ass up to turn off the bedroom or living room lights after you are done watching Maury and the infomercials hit. Alternatively, you can dim them if it’s time to roll over and make little 'mehricans.
#2 reason: the slow dim illumination is great as a wake up alarm clock. Like a mini sun rising in your room. Really is quite pleasant to wake to a slowly brightening light.
@therealjrn my porch light automatically turns on and off based on sunrise/sunset. My lights gradually turn on in the morning as I wake up. I can use Siri to turn lights on or off.
I also have colored Hue bulbs that automatically turn red at night (in conjunction with f.lux on my computer and devices) to reduce blue light, since blue light, which is in sunlight, signals the brain to block production of melatonin. I have narcolepsy (insomnia is ironically incredibly common for people with narcolepsy), so anything to help with sleep is a plus.
Seems like a fair price, not “great”, but fair. The bulbs are about $12 each, so if you need a hub, it’s reasonable.
These also work with IFTTT.com. There you can do crazy things like have your lights come on at sunset and turn off at a specific time, or off at sunrise. I use this on our front and rear porch lights.
They also work great if you don’t want to walk into a dark house. If you have a ring doorbell, you can have them blink when someone pushes the doorbell, which is nice if you are hard of hearing, or sleep hard, and someone rings the bell when it’s dark.
I like the clapper comparison, but they are perhaps the 21st century evolution of that concept. And it’s wonderfully convenient to go to bed and then tell alexa to turn off all the lights with one command.
It’s not cheap, but it’s sort of like crack…Once you try it, you can’t live without it.
i’m into home automation, i started out with a WeMo but i had a lot of issues with the app & the switch disconnecting from my network.
i have a TP-Link router though so i gave their “Kasa” products a shot and i really like them. i have two switches and a multicolor bulb (which does NOT require a hub like the Phillips Hue line). i just screwed it in and the app made it good to go.
i also have a Google Home and i can control these devices with my voice. sometimes i like to dim the light or make it brighter.
each time i get excited, and each time i see it’s not the color bulbs and get let down. le sigh.
but also each time i say, i like the set we got the first time round. we use them in our main living room floor lamp and rarely have them at 100%. the color is perfect for us, too. our apartment is extremely bright so we don’t need any artificial daylight. but we do need soft light to eat by or play video games by or to watch a movie or tv by at night.
our apartment is also old and but for the bathroom doesn’t have any light switches or many outlets. walking into a dark apartment and mashing your foot around in a pile of cords hoping you’ll finally hit the lamp switch is less than ideal. between the hue and several wemo & tp-link switches all run with our alexa we’ve solved this problem. as a bonus, not having to get out of bed to turn off the lamp before going to sleep when you’re comfortable is a nice little luxury. so is not having to crawl around under a tree each night during the xmas season to turn the lights on and off.
I agree with everyone above that these are a nice little luxury. I have a broken foot, so I picked up a set new on prime day with alexa and a dot. I only use them in the bedroom as the light is too yellow for the great room/kitchen/bathroom. I will likely get bulbs for the upstairs when Phillips makes a brighter/whiter bulb. I know the newest color bulbs are supposed to be better, but I’m not in any hurry. App works great, not the most intuitive, but once I figured out how to group lights in a fixture and name them, it works very well. Just remember to leave your switches to on so you can remote control them with the app/alexa. It’s pretty frustrating to keep repeating yourself and then realizing that someone turned the switch off.
I like 2700k soft lights. They don’t hurt when they loosen themselves and fall. No more loctite, no more pliers to change the bubs. (sp. int. this is the South)
These things were great. Does anyone know about the 2nd gen white bulbs that supposedly let you change the temperature of the bulb to get a whiter white?
Specs
What’s in the Box?
2x Philips Hue white light bulbs
1x bridge
1x Ethernet cable
1x power adapter
Pictures
The kit
A Bulb
Box
Price Comparison
$64.99 (New) at Amazon
Warranty
90 Day Refurbisher
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Still selling the yellow 2700K versions. Yuck.
I wouldn’t touch it unless it was over 5000K.
@cengland0
@cengland0, As always, I strongly concur. This “soft white” is really “dingy yellow”. I cannot abide dull, yellow lighting. Some call it “warm and inviting”. I call it dull and depressing.
Already? I have opened my first generation one up yet.
E26 base? Screw that!
What’s happened at Meh?!? Crappy over priced camping junk yesterday (bringing in a whopping 3k w/shipping) and now gouging customers for a $40 refurbished light kit? Since canning VMP, you guys are struggling big time. I miss the old Meh.
@twz I wasn’t supposed to say anything until the official announcement but a little bird told me that Meh is selling out to Amazon. I guess the Amazon crew have gotten a head start on the transition.
@sjk3 again!!??!? They sold woot to amazon 4 years ago. They suck
@bugger Are they reselling out to Amazon?
OMG! They refurbished WOOT!!!
@sjk3 I wouldn’t trust little birds for news about Meh. The only animals I’d trust are breakfast octopi.
@lljk And goats.
@madamehardy Goats are likely to be the last to know anything.
Same $40 price when they sold it on 3/20 and 6/12. Getting boring selling the same old items day after day.
@cengland0
@cengland0 They keep selling because nobody is buying.
@clarion47 Cannot say nobody’s buying because they did sell 1006 units on 3/20, 708 units on 6/12, and 112 units today so far.
I’m not spending $40 on refurbished lightbulbs just on principle.
@frozenshades
/giphy I’m with you on this
@frozenshades I’m totally not going to kill you. What are you thinking giphy?
@sammydog01 As explained here: giphy is a transcendent technological singularity, plotting with evil intent to overthrow the human race.
@ruouttaurmind Frozenshades better run. NOW! Or at least disconnect his wifi.
Less Hue, more Meh.
Sell these without the hub for $30 and let’s talk Meh.
@adamselby Two for thirty, three for forty on Amazon.
@adamselby yeah. This isn’t a bad price for the bulbs even if you have a hue base already.
I would jump on this if not for the yellow bulbs. I’m limited where in the house I could put something like this where having old 20th Century looking yellow bulbs wouldn’t look bad.
Give me proper white and I would jump. No clue why Hue standard is the grandma yellow bulbs.
Did something go terribly wrong or just a little wrong?
The bulbs sell for around $15 each, so this isn’t a bad deal if you don’t have a hub and want to play with smart lighting.
The color bulbs are expensive. Amazon was selling them for around $40 on Prime Day, but they are usually $45 to $50.
I just want dumb bulbs. You know - manually turn on the light, manually turn it off… Nice and bright, natural light color temperature. Want the equivalent of 100 (old style) watts.
@Kidsandliz Yeah, whose bright idea was this anyway!
@mfladd someone who was a dim bulb and then had a lightening strike idea?
I have an earlier pair of Phillips Hue bulbs that I bought at Meh, and they work great! It’s nice not to need to get out of bed to turn the lights on , off or to dim them
Having lower color temperature is especially useful in the bedroom, since bluer colors fool the brain into thinking it’s close to mid-day . A warmer color makes it easier to fall asleep.
I’ve been using them with my Amazon Home units. The Android Phillips app has some useful features in it, too, allowing these bulbs to turn on and off when you’re not at home , simulating having someone there .
This is a good price for these bulbs, especially with the hub. In for 2.
.
Hues are more expensive but they feel premiums. That smooth dimming is way better than the GE Link bulbs I got started on a few years ago. And, guess what, they work with HOME KIT!
FYI, I had to get mine replaced since the hub was DOA and had to pay for shipping to the refurbisher. YMMV. Still a great deal.
The replacement was slow to get online but it eventually did! Don’t give up until you give it a couple minutes to get online.
These will work with Alexa, Homekit, or Assistant.
Remember to press the reset button and update the firmware.
Nice lights, regular soft white color (a little yellow like a 60 watt incandescent bulb.)
Pretty good price, new ones start at $65 (Amazon or Best Buy) or refurbished on eBay for $55.
Wow…started all the music at the same time, (you can press on play) and then chimed in “its terribly wrong”…what a cacaphony…
I LOVE IT!
These worked well until I moved apartments. Now the bridge refuses to connect and Phillips’ Hue customer support is a joke
@wooterondo Try the little reset button on the back of the hub.
@2many2no I have, for 10 seconds, etc. seems that i’m only ever able to make progress by forgetting my Wi-Fi network, rebooting the Hue app, then connecting to my bridge, but then the bridge connection is lost when i start search for my lights. utterly frustrating since this same setup worked flawlessly in my previous place
@wooterondo Sorry, that worked for me when I couldn’t get mine to connect.
Do you power on the lights before starting the bridge? I think they have to be already on for the bridge to find them during setup. There’s also a way in the app to manually add the lights using the serial number on each bulb.
If it’s a network issue, you may need to be sure DHCP is enabled on the bridge and the router, or you can enter an IP address into the app if you reserved on on your router.
Hope this helps, because most company’s customer support is pretty poor (well, except for meh, of course.)
@2many2no no need to be sorry; you’re already 100x more helpful than the sorry folks @philips. i’m 99% sure DHCP is enabled (dynamic host protocol, right?) but can’t seem to find it on my 192.168.0.1 page. And entering the IP address for either my desktop computer or phone doesn’t seem to fare any better in the Hue app. Pretty nonexistent troubleshooting functionality, IMO
@wooterondo It’s my job to take the blame this month.
“Alexa, ask mehstalker who is the goat?”
DHCP would have to be enabled both on your router (almost for sure it is) and on the bridge for automatic allocation of a network address. The app warns that turning off DHCP on the bridge could cause it to not connect at all, which means you cannot reset it from the app. You can reserve an address on your router (anything in the range not already in use) and then use the app to assign that address to the bridge, or you can use a paperclip in the little factory reset hole on the back of the bridge to return to factory defaults then start over.
That’s as far as I can take you on that path, but there are people on the forum with much more knowledge than me about network setup.
@jbartus @lichme?
@2many2no I can try to help but I lack a Hue system so my guidance would have to be generalized.
@jbartus I didn’t want to send anyone down the wrong path, I thought someone with expertise could verify or correct the drivel that I said.
@2many2no having DHCP enabled in more than one place strikes me as a poor idea but not knowing how the system works I can’t say for sure. For example, if the Hue hub thing firewalls the bulbs from the rest of the network its DHCP would be fine.
@jbartus Thanks. I don’t know for sure, but the app to set up the hub has a selection to use DHCP or enter a network address. I’m guessing that means it will accept an address assigned by the router or you can enter an address if one is reserved. Does that sound right?
@2many2no oh that kind of DHCP enabled would be fine. I thought you were saying to enable a DHCP server on the hub device.
@wooterondo
Did you ever get the lights working again?
Getting really ripped off with this VMP at $5 a month, haven’t seen anything good on here for months. Meh has really turned into overpriced junk that I can’t see myself buying. About ready to quit this VMP B.S.
How long have have you been on here. Men’s always been hit or miss.
/giphy Can’t please everybody all the time
@johanquinn Quit and you cannot rejoin. The deal is closed.
@haydesigner Here, here! Getting sick of all the complaining in the comments. Bitch, bitch, bitch. Just go then!
@SnDMommy It would be much more justifiable if the premise of MVP for mediocriTee had SOME form of time frame. For now it seems to be idle until either buyout for meh, or operations cost isn’t covered by us MVP suckers…
@johanquinn My VMP is an entertainment fee. It means when I see something ridiculous on Meh I can indulge without thinking “Is this really worth 8 bucks plus shipping”
@elysiumplain I find the notion that VMP is somehow covering their operations costs mildly hilarious. Even if we assumed that there are 10,000 VMPs, that’s still only $50,000 per month (less 3% for card processing fees) which might cover their rent and the monthly wages of a couple of warehouse workers. Might.
I don’t understand “smart lighting” can somebody tell me why one would want it?
@therealjrn It’s like the modern-day version of the clapper. Basically, you don’t have to get your ass up to turn off the bedroom or living room lights after you are done watching Maury and the infomercials hit. Alternatively, you can dim them if it’s time to roll over and make little 'mehricans.
You can control lights, outlets, etc from your smartphone and tablet, @therealjrn.
@AdmiralDave Thanks! That makes sense now!
@haydesigner So, in the year 5555 my arms will be hangin’ limp at my sides?
@therealjrn “Alexa, turn bedroom light off”
That’s my #1 reason.
#2 reason: the slow dim illumination is great as a wake up alarm clock. Like a mini sun rising in your room. Really is quite pleasant to wake to a slowly brightening light.
@therealjrn Here what I’ve done with Hue.
@therealjrn my porch light automatically turns on and off based on sunrise/sunset. My lights gradually turn on in the morning as I wake up. I can use Siri to turn lights on or off.
I also have colored Hue bulbs that automatically turn red at night (in conjunction with f.lux on my computer and devices) to reduce blue light, since blue light, which is in sunlight, signals the brain to block production of melatonin. I have narcolepsy (insomnia is ironically incredibly common for people with narcolepsy), so anything to help with sleep is a plus.
@therealjrn
/youtube izQB2-Kmiic
@sligett
Seems like a fair price, not “great”, but fair. The bulbs are about $12 each, so if you need a hub, it’s reasonable.
These also work with IFTTT.com. There you can do crazy things like have your lights come on at sunset and turn off at a specific time, or off at sunrise. I use this on our front and rear porch lights.
They also work great if you don’t want to walk into a dark house. If you have a ring doorbell, you can have them blink when someone pushes the doorbell, which is nice if you are hard of hearing, or sleep hard, and someone rings the bell when it’s dark.
I like the clapper comparison, but they are perhaps the 21st century evolution of that concept. And it’s wonderfully convenient to go to bed and then tell alexa to turn off all the lights with one command.
It’s not cheap, but it’s sort of like crack…Once you try it, you can’t live without it.
I bought one of these kits earlier in the year and they don’t work.
Please, someone explain how you refurbish a light bulb.
Impossible.
Exactly what I was going to ask!!
Great playlist! I recreated it on Apple Music if it’s useful: https://itunes.apple.com/us/playlist/meh-2017-08-06-sam-phillips-sun-records/idpl.u-XkD00dJI0NJPL
Who pays $40 for something refurbished when it is $65 new? Not me that’s who.
@supichoo I would have paid $65 for one that worked.
@supichoo since you don’t want that extra $25, you can mail it to me. Thanks.
i’m into home automation, i started out with a WeMo but i had a lot of issues with the app & the switch disconnecting from my network.
i have a TP-Link router though so i gave their “Kasa” products a shot and i really like them. i have two switches and a multicolor bulb (which does NOT require a hub like the Phillips Hue line). i just screwed it in and the app made it good to go.
i also have a Google Home and i can control these devices with my voice. sometimes i like to dim the light or make it brighter.
each time i get excited, and each time i see it’s not the color bulbs and get let down. le sigh.
but also each time i say, i like the set we got the first time round. we use them in our main living room floor lamp and rarely have them at 100%. the color is perfect for us, too. our apartment is extremely bright so we don’t need any artificial daylight. but we do need soft light to eat by or play video games by or to watch a movie or tv by at night.
our apartment is also old and but for the bathroom doesn’t have any light switches or many outlets. walking into a dark apartment and mashing your foot around in a pile of cords hoping you’ll finally hit the lamp switch is less than ideal. between the hue and several wemo & tp-link switches all run with our alexa we’ve solved this problem. as a bonus, not having to get out of bed to turn off the lamp before going to sleep when you’re comfortable is a nice little luxury. so is not having to crawl around under a tree each night during the xmas season to turn the lights on and off.
I agree with everyone above that these are a nice little luxury. I have a broken foot, so I picked up a set new on prime day with alexa and a dot. I only use them in the bedroom as the light is too yellow for the great room/kitchen/bathroom. I will likely get bulbs for the upstairs when Phillips makes a brighter/whiter bulb. I know the newest color bulbs are supposed to be better, but I’m not in any hurry. App works great, not the most intuitive, but once I figured out how to group lights in a fixture and name them, it works very well. Just remember to leave your switches to on so you can remote control them with the app/alexa. It’s pretty frustrating to keep repeating yourself and then realizing that someone turned the switch off.
I like 2700k soft lights. They don’t hurt when they loosen themselves and fall. No more loctite, no more pliers to change the bubs. (sp. int. this is the South)
These work! I am happy! I can buy the color bulbs later
These things were great. Does anyone know about the 2nd gen white bulbs that supposedly let you change the temperature of the bulb to get a whiter white?