Guys
I wanted to improve a room in my house, I have used some bulbs either from IKEA and some Chinese brands but colors/Brightness are somehow off.
So I'm looking for RGBW bulbs (GU10) and WW (MR16) that are compatible ideally with Philips Hue (I want to sync everything to the sounds on the TV), and hopefully not very expensive.
P.s I'm in Europe.
Probably you will have to get Hue bulbs.
Not Hue compatible, but LIFX have a GU10 model.
When you say MR16 (which is the body style) do you mean an MR16 with a GU5.3 (bi-pin) 12v connector? Options in that space are much more limited unfortunately.
Correct
Yeah. If anybody's got a good solution for MR16 12V bulbs, I'd be delighted to know about it. Happy for only white, but I've got 3 rooms and two coridoors that have various derivatives of them, and they're a complete pain.
As far as GU10's are concerned... just a quick aside to say that if your holders are recessed, then the Hue (and by the looks of it the LIFX one too) RGBW lights don't fit in the recess and will look ridiculous. The Hue WW ones fit properly.
-- Jules
Crap... mine are recessed
The only decent smart MR16 bulbs with bi-pin 12V connectors (GU 5.3, as @Chuckles mentioned) that I have found are sylvania smart+ brand (which used to be called lightify).
They fit in my recessed can fixtures without any issues, although like many zigbee bulbs I suspect they are crappy repeaters for a ZHA network like HE, since I sometimes run into some wonky behavior with them.
I noticed that there are WiFi bulbs available on amazon in the same form factor, but I’m not interested in a no-name brand with unknown reliability/safety, that requires either it’s own app or possibly a complicated man-in-the-middle solution to interface with HE.
Yeah. So.. .a standard recessed GU10 bulb is 55-ishmm or so deep - which the Hue WW ones work just fine with.
The hue colour bulbs are 72mm, so they stick out nearly 2cm worth. They're also, by my eye, more 'spotlighty' than a standard GU10 bulb, in that they focus more tightly.
There's even decent commentary and guidance on it:
-- Jules
Hmmm. OK. Looking at it... those look like they're marketed as Osram Smart+ in the UK.
Fantastic. I'll grab a few and maybe fix the dining room lighting with them, and then see if they work.
Marvellous. That's made my day. 
Best Regards,
Jules
happy to help. do you have a hue bridge? And if so, will you pair the Osram bulbs to hue rather than HE?
I don't have any Hue gear, but my understanding is that zigbee bulbs that are problematic on a ZHA network like HE usually work much better on a ZLL network like Hue. If the Osram/Sylvania bulbs play nice with Hue, then I may seriously consider getting a hue bridge just to use with these bulbs, then connect Hue to HE over my LAN.
All of my other fixtures use Lutron Caseta switches, which works great with HE and doesn't need neutral wires in the switch box. But unfortunately, even Caseta dimmers need a neutral wire to control 12V bulbs, so I'm stuck with a few smart bulbs as a result...
Hmmm. Interesting.
Yes... I've got two hue bridges. I wasn't immediately planning to stick them on either, as both bridges are pushing their limits in terms of attached devices.
I suppose I could crack out a third hue bridge - I must have an old v1 bridge hanging around in the attic somewhere. It'd be a tad silly, though - I'd then have FOUR separate Zigbee networks running around in the place. ;).
Interesting that Lutron Caseta doesn't need neutral wires in the switching to just switch - that might be an approach for some of the areas I've got left over, too... although it looks like they're not available in the UK. That might be at least in part because looking at the pictures of the face-plate, they wouldn't fit a standard UK light fitting backbox - which are square, rather than rectangular.
-- Jules
PS. Bah. Looks like v2 bridges only for Osram compatibility. Ah well - I'll grab a third bridge - it looks like a better design anyway.
How many bulbs you have?! 
Actually, they can even dim LED bulbs without a neutral wire, but only mains voltage (110/120V in the US). For fixtures with a low voltage transformer, one of the caseta dimmers that requires a neutral wire must be used.
Bummer that Caseta isn't available in the UK, it's a great option for houses with older wiring in the US.
Around 120 or so, if you include the 5 crazy Tuya ones that I've only got on/off control for. That doesn't include any lamps that have a smartplug on them or similar.
Most of the house is sorted, apart from:
So I've got a way to go yet. Oh... and all of the exterior lighting floodlights, but I don't think I'll bother with them.
This stuff is a sickness... but ultimately, I'll have run out of things to automate, and then it can stop costing me money
-- Jules
Hehe. No Neutral Wires to switches isn't just OLD wiring in the UK, it's the standard ring-main design to this day.
-- Jules
these could be easily changed to a GU10 (giving you more options) the casing is the same you just buy a new CAP (GU10) about 50 p to £1 and remove the transformer.
I use osrams lamps RGB tunable white they have GU10, ES and BC as well as others.
Not my house. Is rental so limited in what I can do
So... got my Osram Smart+ GU5.3 bulbs yesterday, along with a Hue bridge to give that a go.
The initial result was horrible - brand new hub, with 5 light bulbs attached. The hub sits in a cupboard within that actual room.
All 5 bulbs paired... but of them... only two reliably switch on and off. One drops a signal maybe 5% of the time (and, perversely, is actually the closest to the hub), and the two furthest away respond maybe 50% of the time.
So... that's not a ringing endorsement of cross-ecosystem compatibilty. Ah well... it was a punt anyway to try it on a hue bridge.
In which case... time to get them un-paired and re-added directly to the HE. Anybody got any good recommendations for Zigbee repeaters (or plugs that'll ALSO repeat reliably) that are available in the UK? - I'm not entirely sure my HE zigbee mesh will reach some of the places I'd like it to just yet
-- Jules
Have you tried turning if the hub for 30 mins 1st then turning it back on and waiting for a few hours? You need to give you ZigBee devices chance to see each other and build a decent routing table.
Hey Borris.
To be honest... it was 5 devices, and any one of them should have been able to make a direct bridge connection - there was maybe 12 feet from the furthest device to the hub.
Having said that - I don't think that was my problem at all. I just turned up, and two of my bulbs (which, as it happens, were on one switch on the wall) refused to power up. I put the old dumb bulbs in, and low and behold, there's clearly something wrong with that circuit - the lights flicker like crazy.
So... my current theory is that the two furthest bulbs weren't being fed a steady 12V, and I'm going to go further out on a limb, and guess that a Zibgee bulb initiliaising a few dozen times a second is disruptive to the local RF environment
So... for now... 3 bulbs on the safe circuit re-added to the hue hub, and we'll see where we go. And probably a sparky to come out and crawl around the roofspace above the dining room to work out why the power is so duff. Ah well... the other half wants some light fittings changed in the Utility and Laundry rooms anyway. Might as well make it a job lot
-- Jules
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