I am not sure if the problem is due to Smartthings or the bulbs themselves. Samsung stopped supporting my hub so I am converting to Hubitat. I did a factory reset several times on some of my Wink bulbs but the Hubitat hub can not find them. One thing I noticed is after I did the reset, the bulbs dimmed and then brightened up to show they had been reset but then both quickly flashed 3 times, which is I believe the indicator that they have paired. The thing is I dont know what they could be pairing to, if they are, because they are not pairing to hubitiat and I disconnected my smartthings hub and the dont show on its app anyway because Samsung removed them when they killed support of my legacy hub. So are these bulbs useless as smart bulbs now? Or is there something I can do to get them to pair?
I used to have a couple of these and ditched them eventually because they were a pain. But they did work, at least for a while. What happens on the HE side? Does inclusion just complete with no bulbs found?
I dislike smart bulbs in general, though I do use them in places with really old fixtures like closets with pull cords, where I can disable the pull cord by making it so short it can't be reached except with a step stool. I find they get turned off at the source too often, especially by the cleaning lady.
I am a big fan of NOT connecting Zigbee ZLL bulbs to HE directly because they make really bad repeaters for ZHA devices. I have a Hue hub with a variety of Hue and other bulbs (not sure if Hue supports GE) and I use the HE/Hue integration app. It's rock solid and getting my bulbs off my primary Zigbee network and onto its own has improved the overall performance both of my bulbs and my other devices.
Do not connect them to hubitat if you are going to have other zigbee devices on it. They are shitty bulbs and make horrible repeaters and messengers and will crash your mesh like a drunken father at a frat party. If you can obtain a hue bridge, connect them to that and have HE control the hue (a lot of us do this). This pretty much goes for most zigbee bulbs that aren't 3.0.
Yes, inclusion finds no bulbs. I use smart bulbs because of the way my house is wired. Smart switches dont work with the current wiring and I certainly can not afford to have the house re-wired. I really didn't want to buy yet another hub in order to use the Hubitat. I am disabled and want my lights automated and voice command capable ( through Alexa ), I was hoping Hubitat would provide similar functionality to the SmartThings hub I had. The reviews I read implied as much but apparently that is not the case. It is looking like I may have to rethink this whole thing. Disappointing.
Don't give up! I came from ST as well, and I find that HE not only does what ST does, it does more, and it does it a lot better. That being said, there are things I have seen posted that ST does differently and there are some devices that are compatible with one and not the other. The ZLL repeating issue I believe has to do less with HE vs ST and more to do with the nature of ZLL bulbs and zigbee meshed networks in general. HE is also a DIY product (others may disagree), which gives you a lot more power, but also some things you may be exposed to that were hidden on ST. That can make it a bit more complex.
If your wiring issue has to do with the absence of a neutral wire at the switch, consider Lutron Caseta. It does require another hub but most of their switches do not require a neutral wire for most (not all) installations. The Caseta switches are not cheap, but they are a lot cheaper than rewiring.
Maybe someone has more advice on this specific bulb. I can suggest two things to try but it's really just a guess.
(1) Try shutting down the hub cleanly, unplugging the hub for 30 seconds, and plugging it back in. Unplug the HE by removing the power cube from the wall socket. Surface mount micro USB connectors can be damaged if flexed too much and HE is no exception. The 30 second power off gives the radio a chance to reset. Not sure this will help, but it won't hurt.
(2) You could try moving one of the bulbs closer to HE and pairing. Best practice is usually to pair-in-place but give it a shot.
(3) Make sure your hub isn't sitting too close to your wifi router. Zigbee channels share frequency space with wifi channels and can sometimes interfere.
Are you simply missing the neutral in your wiring boxes? If you are, Lutron or Innovelli dimmers do not require neutrals. That said, you will have the problem with those bulbs most anywhere in a standard zigbee mesh. The difference is ZHA and ZLL protocols. ZHA is fine, ZLL doesn't play nice. You could also do sengled bulbs directly to HE or any zigbee 3.0 rated bulb. Now if you don't plan on having any other zigbee devices on hubitat, you could connect those bulbs directly to HE and it won't be a problem. As far as inclusion, it sounds like you haven't factory reset the bulbs properly. That is a must before inclusion. Also make sure your old ST hub is powered down. They will still be voice capable through alexa. Simply install the alexa skill on hubitat and expose them to alexa (there is easy to follow documentation) and you'll be good.
Ok I will give those suggestions a try. I am just frustrated because at first I couldnt even connect my new in box Hubitat hub to my LAN. It turned out that the hub already had a dedicated IP address, so apparently my new in box hub was a return ( purchased from Amazon ) After that mess got cleared up, I had the problem of getting bulbs to connect. Hence the frustration.
My hub is sitting close to my router and my Echo Show, so I will try to move it further way from those and see what happens. Thanks for the advice!
There are some great, relatively inexpensive, RGBW zigbee 3.0 bulbs that are compatible with Hubitat.
Like this deal here is $24 (coupon included) for two zigbee 3.0 RGBW bulbs and an outlet.
https://www.amazon.com/CMARS-Starting-Dimmable-Changing-Required/dp/B08VJBVBTT/
Yes, no neutral wire. I'll have to check on those switches, they sound like a good solution. I am certain that I factory reset the bulbs properly, though. Ive done it several times and they give me the dimming then back to bright signal that confirms reset. I also completely removed the ST hub. Its not powered up at all. Also, I am considering dumping my Wink bulbs for Sengleds. I was having problems with the Winks dropping on the ST hub on occasion, as it was. Its probably time to move on from them.
For me all my switches are Lutron Caseta. (because caseta just works) I have a hue bridge with a few shitty zigbee bulbs connected to it simply for the odd table lamp. But as said above, Innovelli reds are the preferred z-wave switch. Likely your bulbs dropping off on st is the reason i described above
They were problematic with Wink, and they are problematic with Hubitat as well. It looks like many Smartthings users were trashing them as bad devices on their forums as well.
I would pick up some different bulbs, or use switches instead. There are multiple dimmers that work without neutrals now.
Get sengled bulbs. They are great and no repeaters.
Thanks everyone, for the advice and info. I grabbed a bunch of Sengled bulbs off Amazon and I am going dump the Wink bulbs. I am also looking at a Lutron Caseta dimmer starter kit. I do have another question though. Since Sengled bulbs do not have repeaters will I need some kind of zigbee repeater to get these to work around the home?
If you go Lutron Caseta you need the PRO hub - not the regular hub. Likely not to be the one in the starter kit.
Building out a zigbee mesh with a series of line-powered devices is definitely a good idea but of course much depends on the size and construction of your home, what kinds of devices you will eventually use, and so on. Here's some documentation that will help:
https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=How_to_Build_a_Solid_Zigbee_Mesh
And of course you will get LOTS of advice and opinions here!
ARRRRRRRGHHHHHH!!!!! I got the Sengled bulbs AND THEY WONT PAIR! WTF? I moved my hub as far away from the router as the cable allowed. The bulb is no more than 6 or 7 feet away from it. When I installed the bulb it flashed to show it was in pairing mode. Does not pair. So I reset the bulb per Sengled's instructions. The bulb flashed to show it was reset and in pair mode. Does not pair. Do I have a bad hub or something? Because I can not get anything to pair with this thing.
Doubtful, but not completely impossible.
First, Is the Zigbee radio enabled? What channel are you on? These are both in Settings tab, Zigbee Details. Channel 15 or 20 are typically the best.
I would also do a controlled shutdown from the settings menu, pull the power cord from the wall, and reboot after verifying these settings.
And do logs show anything? Any errors while trying to pair?
If any of this doesn't help, you probably should start a support ticket.
Can you provide a link to the specific bulbs you purchased?
As @brad5 said above, you will need the pro 2 hub... The regular hub doesn't support telnet so HE won't work with it. That said, check your amazon order and make sure you didn't order the wifi bulbs. Some have made that mistake. Any hardwired zigbee unit will be a repeater. If you get a couple of zigbee plugs you should be fine.
From the description of the bulbs I ordered "E26 Led Bulb 60 Watt Zigbee Smart Bulb. This Sengled e26 smart light bulb is not a Wi-Fi connection, just supports Zigbee technology".
So it appears I ordered the correct bulbs. I have tried every bulb and rebooted the hub as well as reset all of the bulbs, I verified that the zigbee radio is indeed on, moved my hub farther away form my router and even set up a lamp closer to the hub to get these to pair. Nothing has worked for any of the bulbs or any of my other zigbee devices in my home. Thanks, everyone for your help but I have come to the conclusion that the Hubitat is not going to work for me and am returning it. Since I am currently mostly focused on having working lights, I will look for something a bit more plug and play, perhaps a Sengled hub since I have all these sengled bulbs now. Thanks once again.
If you have other zigbee hubs. Power them off. I usually have difficulty paring zigbee bulb to Hubitat until I power off my Phillips bridge, Smarthings Hub and my other Hubitat hubs.
