Hue Dimmer Switch

sburke781 · August 8, 2020, 10:17am

I might tag @bertabcd1234, he confirmed my suspicion on this in another topic. I thought I had also read a post somewhere by Mike indicating they couldn't get access to the held and release events when coding the driver. @bertabcd1234 - do you have anything else you could add?

bertabcd1234 · August 8, 2020, 4:31pm

I can't add anything since I've never personally looked at the traffic from those device on either Hue or Hubitat. Mike would be a better source since. I'm sure he did when writing the driver. I'm pretty sure he said only buttons 2 and 3 sent messages on hold and release. I'm positive that he also said button 1 didn't send different events for successive pushes (which no one asked about here but often do ).

If ST could do it, though, I wonder if there are different firmware versions of these puppies out in the wild. If you had a custom DTH on ST, if you linked to it here, someone could at least look at the code and see what it does.

derek.breydin · August 8, 2020, 4:46pm

Hi,

Here is the device handler from smartthings.

github.com

digitalgecko/mySmartThings/blob/master/devicetypes/digitalgecko/hue-dimmer-switch-zha.src/hue-dimmer-switch-zha.groovy

/**
 *  Hue Dimmer Switch
 *
 *  Copyright 2016 Stephen McLaughlin
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
 *  in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed
 *  on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License
 *  for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
 *
 */
metadata {
    definition (name: "Hue Dimmer Switch (ZHA)", namespace: "digitalgecko", author: "Stephen McLaughlin") {
        capability "Configuration"
        capability "Battery"
        capability "Refresh"

This file has been truncated. show original

And the specific part of code with the buttons.
def buttonName

// Name of the button
if ( button == 1 ) { 
    buttonName = "on"
}
else if ( button == 2 ) { 
    buttonName = "up" 
}
else if ( button == 3 ) {
    buttonName = "down" 
}
else if ( button == 4 ) { 
    buttonName = "off" 
}

// The button is pressed, aka: pushed + released, with 0 hold time
if ( buttonState == 0 ) {
    result = [createEvent(name: "button", value: "pressed_" + buttonName, data: [buttonNumber: buttonName], descriptionText: "$device.displayName button $button was pushed", isStateChange: true)]
    sendEvent(name: "lastAction", value: buttonName + " pressed")
} 
// The button is pressed, aka: pushed + released, with at least 1s hold time
else if ( buttonState == 2 ) {
    result = [
    createEvent(name: "button", value: "pushed_" + buttonName, data: [buttonNumber: buttonName], descriptionText: "$device.displayName button $button was pushed", isStateChange: true),
    createEvent(name: "button", value: "released_" + buttonName, data: [buttonNumber: buttonName], descriptionText: "$device.displayName button $button was pushed", isStateChange: true)
    ]
    sendEvent(name: "lastAction", value: buttonName + " pushed")
    sendEvent(name: "lastAction", value: buttonName + " released")
} 
// The button is released, with at least 1s hold time. This code happens after the button is held
else if ( buttonState == 3 ) {
    result = [
    createEvent(name: "button", value: "released_" + buttonName, data: [buttonNumber: buttonName], descriptionText: "$device.displayName button $button was pushed", isStateChange: true)
    ]
    sendEvent(name: "lastAction", value: buttonName + " released")
} 
// The button is held
else if ( buttonHoldTime == 8 ) {
    result = [createEvent(name: "button", value: "held_" + buttonName, data: [buttonNumber: buttonName], descriptionText: "$device.displayName button $button was held", isStateChange: true)]
    sendEvent(name: "lastAction", value: buttonName + " held")
} 
else {
    return
}
return result

As the original post states I use webcore for all my automations on smart things, when you put full logging on you could see the pushed and held events being written to the logs when doing so for the 4 buttons and not just the middle 2.

As for these dimmers there is 2 variants of the hardware and there is later firmware too so that could be the reason, updated the dimmers by connecting them to the hue system around 2 months ago and have the RWL021 model, not the earlier RWL020, both look identifcal but as you say not sure about what has changed along the way in firmware and could be the reason the driver doesnt have the pushed\held state for button 1 & 4 but would be good if the driver could be updated with this as it gives these remotes a little more functionaility. I could use a work around and use button 2 or 3 for the pushed and held state as I have another webcore piston that deals with turning the lights on and off and dimming them up and down and these all use the pushed state but it means retraining the wife and kids which can sometimes be painful in itself

derek.breydin · August 12, 2020, 11:17pm

Was wondering if there is a place in the subforum you can requuest features\updates to drivers, would be good to have this functionailty added as it is possible I suspect.

guy.mayhew · December 9, 2020, 4:06pm

Is anyone else finding their Hue Dimmer switches are dropping offline since firmware 2.2.4.158.

Almost daily now I’m having to do the ‘4 fingered’ reset to get the switch working again

BiGs · December 9, 2020, 8:55pm

Mine are working OK but I’m still on .156.

Tomorrow (daytime) I’ll do the update.

TMLeafs · December 13, 2020, 10:25am

@guy.mayhew @BiGs

Are you still having issues?

Ken_Fraleigh · December 13, 2020, 11:34am

I’m on the latest with no Hue dimmer issues. I have found the Hue dimmers to be the least reliable as far as staying connected. Just the act of doing an update and rebooting is generally what makes them act up. I haven’t had any issues between updates and they seem to be better the longer it’s been since a reboot. They were a nightmare back when I was having to reboot my hub d/t slowdowns.

guy.mayhew · December 13, 2020, 1:07pm

Hi,

I’d mirror what Ken has said, it’s firmware updates and general hub reboots that seem to through them off - I’ve switched this out for a Lutron Pico now as they are very rock solid. I just had this one Philips Dimmer linked to HE to control a ZWave bathroom light (and I wanted it to match all my other Hue Dimmers in the house which work great on the Hue Bridge - it seems that isn’t possible!)

BiGs · December 13, 2020, 8:03pm

I didn’t update yet (busy daytime, and I always avoid nighttime updates).

As soon as I do, I will report.

TMLeafs · December 13, 2020, 11:16pm

So you have no issues on 156 with the hue dimmer? never have to rejoin? what brand of repeaters do you have?

rjwgnr27_hub · December 13, 2020, 11:25pm

I have several of them linked to the Hue hub, and find that occasionally, they become non-responsive. If I mash and hold the buttons a bunch of times, the connected lights start responding; then things will work properly for a while.

Since I have these problems with them on the Hue hub, I suspect the issue is with the button controllers themselves, not the HE DH.

TMLeafs · December 14, 2020, 12:06am

never had an issue with the 10 I have connected to hue bridge, I saw they were supported so I moved one to see if its worth it currently its not which is a shame

BiGs · December 14, 2020, 1:27pm

Never had issues on .156 and after updating to .158 they continue to respond and be fully reliable.

I am currently using more than eight and find them absolutely reliable.

Mine is a mesh mostly depending on Zigbee devices all throughout my home with lots of them acting as repeaters. (And a few Z-Wave.)

I believe that when failing, it is not an issue of the Hue 4 button dimmer, it is an issue of the local mesh (or the battery).

TMLeafs · December 23, 2020, 9:32pm

What channel is your zigbee on?

I'm still playing with only one connected to HE its not reliable for me so far.
Mine seem to work on first press then I get red led if I press any more then sometimes it comes back or I have to press all four buttons for a reset

Ken_Fraleigh · December 24, 2020, 4:14am

Since I have had few issues with them, outside of Hub updates and the associated reboots, I will comment. The hub that I have them on is using zigbee channel 19. I have another C-5 hub on 24 and a Hue bridge on 20. I previously had a SmartThings hub on 20 and Hue on 15. Hue did not like 15. It was originally on 25, and worked very well, and thinking about it now I will probably put it back on 25 and move my HE from 19 to 20 to be further away from wifi channels that I use. The Hue dimmers will be the only devices that will have to be rejoined when I change channels (I have done this several times and this is always the case).

BiGs · December 24, 2020, 1:13pm

Mine is on channel 20 (standard) with no issues.

I have two separate WiFi access points, a second access point from one of the two and two WiFi repeaters. No WiFi smarthome devices, just Zigbee (most) and Z-Wave (few). I don’t seem to suffer from radio traffic, and my devices are scattered to a very large extent.

Info hoping it helps.

derek.breydin · February 1, 2021, 9:05pm

Hi everyone,

apologies I didn't notice this had been updated so much since my lasts posts.

for some reason the batteries drained quickly and I kept having problems with the remotes dropping off so I eventually moved them back to hue and they have been rock solid.

to get round the issue of using them for other functions I just installed some RF ID tags in the housing for the dimmer which is attached too the wall, there is 3 tags in each light switch so that gives me 3 extra functions that can be triggered by my phone which is fine as I was using them for wake up and bed time routines as well as the lights so it is a bit of a work around to my original use case.

I also have 3 Zigbee hubs,
Smartthings on channel 25
Hubitat on Channel 20
Hue on Channel 15.

I have 2 wireless access points at each end of the house using channel 1.

I also had some issues with Xiaomi door\contact sensors which were dropping off every so often, I found on another thread on here it was due to them not being zigbee compliant and there is certain zigbee repeaters they dont work with, so I moved the smarthings plugs back to smartthings and bought a few ikea tradi wireless outlets and now the Xiaomi sensors are rock solid on hubitat.

This was after I moved the dimmers\remotes back to hue so I am wondering if they might work on hubitat now as I had problems with the hue dimmers dropping off from both smartthings and hubitat so it seems certainly related to the remotes and the signal getting back to the hub via the repeaters.

I am wondering if the remotes are not as compliant as they should be and dropping off due to this similar to the Xiaomi sensors, if I get time over the weekend I will maybe pair one back up to hubitat to see how it goes as al of mines were far from the hub and had to issues dropping off.

Might be worth listing what zigbee repeaters are being used too as that can be a factor, See link could be a similar issue I just don't have the technical know how to understand if it is the case or not.

Xiaomi & Aqara Devices - Pairing & Keeping them connected - Support / Devices - Hubitat

Ken_Fraleigh · February 2, 2021, 9:34am

I have Hue dimmers on Hubitat. They are definitely a bit touchy about repeaters they’ll work with. I know they work well with the 2018 SmartThings outlets, and seem okay with the Sylvania outlets as well. I haven’t had one drop in quite a while with those being my primary repeaters. I have a separate Hubitat hub for Zigbee lights on channel 19, and all of my battery powered zigbee devices are on their own hub on channel 24. My Hue hub is on 20 because it did not like 11 or 15. There are no nearby strong wifi signals on wifi channels 6 or 11, so I am using 19 and 24 so Hue can have 20 and 25 when I power up the second Hue bridge. Where appropriate, I have Hue dimmers on the Hue bridge.

system · September 22, 2022, 5:16pm

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