Sunricher do mains powered z-wave and ZigBee scene panels which control the lamp and the hub directly. They create a great strong mesh.
We don't have sengled over here but my understanding is they are not to the latest ZigBee standard and due to that and there use case that's why they don't repeat. That range of devices don't tend to have the buffer sizes needs to work on a full network cree were one of the worst for this.
More modern ZigBee 3.0 lamps like innur work much better and forward the traffic much more reliably.
The other way to get over bad quality lamps is to separate them, I have a bad hub for that and now only have old ZigBee lamps on it. It used to also have old z-wave non plus devices on there but they have all now been replaced with ZigBee 3.0 devices on the good hub.
Sengled doesn't do repeaters because many times the bulbs are installed on circuits that are on wall switches. With the switching the bulb off and on via the switch it can disrupt the ZigBee network if the bulb was a repeater. I think it was a good design choice.
I'm always a bit wary of the actual repeating ability of smart bulbs in general due to the relatively tight space for the radio/circuitry - worried about range and capacity/routing cache limits. Better to use a dedicated outlet or other device with known decent repeating capabilities. I have not verified this though so ymmv.
The Sengleds are (still) working great for me and agree with @ronv42.. I control things with a smart switch in "smart bulb" mode.
Me too! I was hit pretty hard by the poor Zigbee repeating of the original GE Link and Cree Connected smart bulbs early on in my home automation journey.
I appreciate that Sengled non-repeating Zigbee bulbs are an option on the market. I used them for many years with no issues. They replaced the aforementioned GE and Cree bulbs and resolved my Zigbee mesh stability issues.
I have since moved to using a Philips Hue bridge + Hue bulbs, as that system afforded me some very nice features at the time, like power restore state and HomeKit. It also allows my Hue lights to be integrated directly with numerous other home automation platforms directly.
This is by design by sengled. ZLL 1.2 make terrible repeaters when paired with ZHA devices. Sengled is the exception because they don't repeat. Also another exception is zigbee 3.0. Usually it is recommended that you keep repeating bulbs such as older hue, cree, (insert shitey name here) on their own mesh using either a hue bridge or another hubitat.
Mains based zigbee devices do repeat. Now if you want some nice zigbee repeaters, sengled outlets are great (the oval ones not the square ones) and they can help expand your zigbee network mesh.
As to my preference for bulbs? Lifx. Superior color and brightness. 100% supported locally but hubitat.
Honestly depending on how picky you are about CRI and brightness I have also gotten good use out of Philips Wiz Connected bulbs that i have gotten from Home Depot. They are fully controlled locally and you can even use light effects with them very easily.
I have also been getting a lot of Govee Light devices recently. Most of their new light devices are able to be controlled locally as well. Though I think for now their actual bulb devices are still Cloud based. Several of their devices state a CRI of 90+
These are all wifi based devices. So you would want a decent hub to handle the quantity of devices you connect if you get many of them.
The newer versions of Hue bulbs (i.e. the Bluetooth-compatible ones for sure) are ZB 3.0, and are reliable & well-behaved repeaters / mesh participants if paired directly to HE.
Most of my Hue bulbs are on the Hue bridge and integrated via CoCoHue, but I have a couple bulbs paired direct (long story) -- they work awesome in both cases.
ETA -- meant that as a general topic reply, not targeted specifically to Rick
Looking for a bulb with a low level color temp range to replace my LIFX bulbs. I tried Sengled and found 2,700k to be a laughable low (not warm enough for me). Some of my LIFX can be adjusted down to 1,500k which I LOVE. Unfortunately, it seems like most bulbs on the market bottom out at ~2,700k.
Any recommendations for a true, wide-span "white adjustable" bulb? Can be full color if necessary.
Some Hue bulbs can go down to 2000 K, possibly depending on model. Innr can get down to 2200 K from what I can see as well, possibly also depending on model. (Both are more than low enough for me, but I can't speak for you.) LIFX, of course, can also go pretty low. I also wasn't a fan of Sengled for a variety of reasons, though I can't recall if this was one.
If whatever you have doesn't work, you could consider using a shade of orange or red with low enough saturation that it's more white than color, maybe?
That's why I bought some of the Hue colour bulbs and Hue Go lamps, not because I want to bathe my house in blue's and purple's like the glossy ads, but to get the red / orange shades for a softer lighting effect late at night.
Also, I would have easily hit the Lutron Caseta 50 device limit at the time. Lutron has since raised this limit to 75 devices, however Iād still be over that limit if I converted to the plug-in dimmers.
I agree with @ogiewon -- color can be fun (holiday etc). But most of my Hue bulbs are plain white or white ambiance... The wife and I like a really warm CT in the living areas once it's dark out, and Hue white ambiance is perfect for managing that.
Plus, the Lutron plugs are pretty bulky -- they wouldn't be a good fit (visually or physically) everywhere I'd need them.
that;s why I said older HUE... I should have been more specific though.
