So you donāt use a Hue hub at all and use a generic driver? Any particular reason performance-wise that you wouldnāt? Iād prefer to get rid of any extra hubs and devices whenever/wherever possible.
Correct.
That I wouldn't what?
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I meant: was there any reason why you donāt use the Hue hub?
In my case there wasn't any reason to use it.
I just emptied the 21 lights off of my Hue bridge to add to the 105 zigbee devices on my hub. I have a second HE hub coming Thursday and wanted to see if everyone would get along. It went very smooth; just deleted them one by one in the Hue app while I had discovery running on HE and all joined right away. Itās much better this way since I had a mix of devices in some rooms.
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I experimented with adding a second (fourth, I think?) Hubitat just for bulbs but ended up going back to my Hue Bridge. While the thought of creating ad-hoc groups in Hubitat is exciting, the reality is that Hue Groups work equally as well (you just have to set them up in the Hue app--and with the Zones beta it's more flexible than before), and continuing to use the Bridge integration gets you the ability to use Hue scenes (which are technically able to be implemented on Zigbee bulbs in Hubitat, too; it's just that no one's done it). Hubitat scenes are probably about as good as the platform can get when it needs to work with a variety of different bulbs (not just Zigbee but also Z-Wave and Wi-Fi) and therefore obviously can't rely on this, but I found it hard to manipulate more than a few bulbs or (Hubitat) groups at a time without something getting missed. For example, for scenes, I often had to activate them twice in order for all commands to go through (often just the on seemed to work, but the color temperature or level weren't right).
Your experience may vary, and there is certainly something to be gained from being able to use a mix of ZLL and ZHA bulbs without worry for any of your other devices. Good luck!
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The plan is for a ābulb onlyā hub since I have acquired so many. Iām going for reliability and speed and figure 2 zigbee radios will give me twice the bandwidth. I also plan to take the peanuts off the network and see if theyāre necessary since they are always dropping anyway.
Ultimately, for me, the response times were faster going direct to Hubitat with the Hue lighting and ditching the bridge all together. I have a mix of ZLL compatible lights (Hue, Gledopto, RGBgenie) and all respond really well.
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Iām liking my two HE hubs. The lights are happier by themselves and the end devices are definitely thrilled to not be sharing their zigbee frequency with bulbs. Not a single missed event so far; everything just works.
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OK, so I have 15 Osram bulbs sitting in a closet since I replaced them with Sengled. I'd like to get them in use again. What, exactly are the advantages of a Hue Bridge vs. a second HE? If I use the Hue Bridge, does HE see them as individual bulbs and control them fine?
Unless you have the European bulbs the Osram bulbs will not work with the Phillip's Hue Hub .
I didn't realize that. Question answered!
You might keep an eye on this project by @adamkempenich he has been at work on integrating the Sylvania Lightify hub.
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OSRAM said Hue support would be coming to those bulbs in around a year... but Iām tired of waiting.
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That is never happening, because Zigbee 3 was the supposed answer, and they had to change SOCs to do it. The European Sylvania website has these lights available with a different SOC and Zigbee 3 plus Hue compatibility. Thatās also where I read a FAQ that talked about it not being possible for our bulbs.
Thank goodness you have been able to make this happen. Itās working well so far, I havenāt looked at the logs, but out of sight....I look forward to seeing what you have in store next.
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You can pick up a Lightify gateway cheap on Ebay or Amazon and try @adamkempenich Lightify integration.
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I have quite a few Osram bulbs and Sylvania strip lights. I use an Echo Plus as my bulb hub and it works well.
Even then it might not work, i've tried this bulb several times (Hue don't make that type) and even though it's meant to work on the Hue Hub, it doesn't.
Have you tried the Ledvance one listed as the newer model?
No, in the long term i'll be using standard bulbs and a Shelly Dimmer for that room. Judging from the reviews they have the same issues.
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