Best non zigbee smart lights?

This is what I have and it works fine they work fine when they are on their own and create a great mesh

Aotec multiwhite zwave bulbs arrived and paired into the zwave network without issue. No issues with speed, brightness, or color. Of course, there is no android app and the bulbs appearance could be nicer. At the moment, for A19 bulbs - I have no complaints other than the bulbs need to get much cheaper over time...but, everything aeotec is always overpriced.

Just want to chime in and say IF your network supports enough Wi-Fi devices, MagicHome has been great. I’m constantly working on them, but I have 20-30 active devices on each of my networks. The RGB + CCT bulbs are very nice, same goes for strips. I think @liquidskin can give good input here, as he recently installed some.

If you’re going z-wave, fibaro is great for 4 (and fewer) channel strips. Very reliable.

+1 for Magichome and @adamkempenich's driver. I was a bit suspect of Wifi at first when looking into RGB lighting for my kitchen cabinet, but Magichome on my HE has been rock solid so far. Lutron Caseta and Z-wave switches everywhere else in the house, but once I found a spot in the house I needed RGB, the cost of Hue just seemed crazy with what Magichome was able to accomplish for far less cash.

I have had the magichome magiclight bulbs since their inception. They have worked flawlessly (much more reliable than my sengled zigbee bulbs), but WHEN is someone going to get a working device driver for hubitat (or ST for that matter) that work with them? PLEASE someone... PLEASE!!! They worked with ST dev handler for awhile, but from what little I was able to learn, stopped for whatever reason. The bulbs work flawlessly... I have never had an issue with any of them in over 5 years, not even a single disconnect, and their app is very good. PLEASE someone get a device driver for them for hubitat?

Welcome!

@adamkempenich has written an excellent integration for Magic Home WiFi lighting.

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Adam, I had seen your link before... but no magichome device type shows up for me when I follow the directions on that page? I had assumed it worked at one time, but was pulled for whatever reason. Unsure why i cannot find the device type? Also when I click the link for github page... it says page not found??

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NVM... I was able to get to correct github and get it working. Thank you for getting this working with hubitat. Been wanting forever to incorporate these bulbs, when I was using ST as well. Wondered though if there is a way to slow fade down?

Fade-down is set on a controller-level, so I can’t change that from my end. :frowning: (Edit, I may possible know of a way to make it work, though...)

How is everything else working?

I have a SmartThings integration, too, but it’s not very pretty. You don’t wanna get me started on that rant though :joy:

Also, what link did you have trouble with? I’d like to fix any that aren’t working :slight_smile:

It was one of the driver links. Not sure what page I got to it from...sry. It sent me to a 404 page. That was why I thought the .88 was no longer working.

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I’ll take a look at those again tonight :slight_smile: thanks!

I have the z-wave plus bulb from GoControl. But looking at Amazon, it's now only available from resellers for OVER $60! However, it looks like it's also being sold as a NuTone brand now: https://www.amazon.com/Bulbz-NLB60Z_ZWA-NuTone-Cert-ZC10-15040004/dp/B015WN0662/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=nutone+z-wave&qid=1563459811&s=electronics&sr=8-11

$16. I've been pretty happy with mine.

Just keep in mind that NuTone dropped their home automation business at the end of 2017. They will honor warranties for products purchased before then.

Interesting. The one z-wave bulb I have is in a fixture that is constant power. If that smartbulb ever goes out, I will probably try to hide an Aeotec Nano up in the ceiling and just use normal bulbs.

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I have both Hank and Zipato RGBW bulbs and they work okay. But much prefer Hue for all my color lighting. Z-wave and Zigbee color schemes are completely different. So maybe consider offloading your Zigbee bulbs to another Hub or the Hue bridge.

Hopefully ok to post on an older thread. Seems better than opening a very similar one.

I saw this mentioned in the "How to Build a Solid Zigbee Mesh" wiki page as well:

Anyone know if this is accurate is this still? Or, how I would know if a particular product is susceptible to this concern (E.G. What is a "bulb" here)?

I'm looking at installing 7 recessed lights in a room (Same room as my router/HE hub).
I was planning on installing HALO RL56 (RL560WHZHA69) recess trims which are zigbee.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073P7HXHY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Because of the framing in the ceiling, it's not possible to wire the lights in a purposeful way and control via a smart switch, so I'm planning on using always powered smart trims and controlling via a button controller.

I'm just starting out in my Home Automation journey, so I don't actually have any other zigbee devices, but I definitely think I will at some point.

Will I run into problems here?
Is there a better product to do what I'm trying to accomplish?

For Zwave Plus, this is the bulb to use indoors, pairs easily, never drops from mesh, great price:

I looked into these a while ago. From what I have been able to find these are not ZLL, they are ZHA. They are also repeaters. Because they are ZHA and not ZLL they should not cause a problem with your zigbee mesh. That said, I don't have the device so I can't speak to it personally.

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Yes, that advice is still true (has been for years, likely will be for many more unless new bulbs stop doing this and all the old bulbs die off...), and it's still accurately listed in the documentation you found as such.

But the tricky thing is that this either doesn't apply to all bulbs, or at least some seem to be worse than others. I haven't read about anyone's experience with these particular bulbs. The safest thing to do would be to keep them on a separate Zigbee network from your "regular" Zigbee devices. Many people do this with smart bulbs by using a Hue Bridge, which forms its own network and allows integration to Hubitat over the LAN. However, the specs from this bulb don't say whether it uses ZHA 1.2 or ZLL (or Zigbee 3.0), so I have no idea if it will pair with a Hue network. An alternative is to use a second Hubitat hub dedicated just to "bulbs" (since you asked: this includes nearly any smart lighting product, including bulbs, lightstrips, and hardwired fixtures), then integrate the two hubs using something like HubConnect.

I'm not aware of any hardwired Z-Wave bulbs, which would certainly be one way to otherwise avoid this issue, but there aren't a lot of Z-Wave smart bulbs in general. Sengleds are Zigbee but, as noted in the documentation, don't repeat, thus avoiding this problem; however I'm again not sure any exist in that form factor. Perhaps others will have specific product suggestions.

The old Osram bulbs (at least in the US) are ZHA and of no help for this problem. :neutral_face: (I think the new ones are too but might behave a bit better.)

EDIT: As an alternative to any of this, I know the original poster said they couldn't use a smart switch for local control, but could they still use a smart switch and then a remote button device (Pico Remote if you're using Lutron, or anything you want regardless like a Hue Dimmer, Eria Remote, Aeon Wallmote, or whatever) to control that? That might work around the whole smart bulb problem, especially if you don't need smart bulb features like color or CT control.

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