I've grown pretty accustom to using Hue mobile app. I've integrated my Hue lights into my Hubitat along with some z-wave switches. It would be awesome if the Hubitat could emulate a hue bridge with everything (hue + z-wave switches) so that I can keep using the app. I suspect people with multiple hue bridges would love it if they could use hubitat to merge the two as well.
While the hue app does color lights well, it doesn't have any way of controlling thermostats or locks or any of the other devices supported by Hubitat. Since Hubitat has it's own dashboard platform, I think it is unlikely they would put in the effort to emulate a Hue Bridge. Plus, isn't that illegal if it's done for-profit?
I also find the Hue app easier to use for lighting control than the Hubitat's dashboard. My solution has been to set up Rule Machine rules to link my few non-zigbee lights to nearby Hue equipment, so I can at least turn everything on and off via the Hue App.
But global Hue bridge emulation for lights is a great idea. To build such a thing, I'd start here:
Runs on a Raspberry PI, gets you everything but ZWave, and they definitely support the Hue app. Adding ZWave support would require a dongle, a Python ZWave library, and coding to map enough of the ZWave device controls to the Hue API to fool the app.
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Yeah I recognize that it would only apply to lights but that's probably 90% of my usage.
I don't think the HE team will be doing this any time soon. But what can be done is look into what is needed to create the app by someone from the community (or yourself). I know Home Assistent (and I think Openhab and Domoticz also) offer a Hue bridge emulator. So it can be done. The question is, are all the tools there to do it ourselves from Groovy within HE?
All of the Hue emulations I have seen require a web server. And one is not available to the user in Hubitat.
True, but if the demand is high enough (which it isn't at the moment I believe) they might serve us one (or a part of it to make this happen). Though I think we are far away from that happening any time soon. And I don't know if there were other request involving a webserver (or part of it).
I asked about this a while ago, my assumption was that because the old Amazon Echo App on HE uses Hue Emulation then it wouldn't be a massive stretch to allow it to "reply" to any non-Echo originated discovery scans.
That would allow any software that supports Hue to control any HE devices that are exposed by the Amazon Echo App (limited to dimmers and on/off lights).
HE staff said they weren't going to put any effort into it (understandably given it's an obsolete App, even though I suspect that it probably just needed whatever code that limited the discovery response to Echo devices being removed).
I ended up going in a different direction, but if you can "spoof" the discovery responses so that the Hue App finds HE's Hue Emulation then it would probably work ....
Another option I'm thinking of doing is to use one of the existing Hue Emulators that's out there right now and then use HubConnect. If only I had the time for another project.
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If you found a Hue Emulator that allow for the type of device adding/removing that Hub Connect does, then sure. But projects like DIYHue (the hue emulator I use instead of a hue hub) requires that devices be discovered by that app itself. You would have to totally re-write it to work with something like Hub Connect. Most of the Hue emulators out there are for controlling Hue Devices that are paired to it...not devices that are on another hub. You'd have to build an entire architecture around virtual devices and how they would be controlled. it just doesn't make any sense.
If you were going to invest that kind of effort, just build an app based on the maker api or a custom app for hubitat to connect to your own app.
+1 for this Hue Hub Emulator like exists on home assistant.
My use case is wanting to use the home automation buttons on logitech harmony remotes: Hacking the Harmony Home Control buttons - Configuration - Home Assistant Community
there is a Hue Bridge emulator on Qnap NAS. The name is HABridge. I am currently using it to control devices with Logitech Harmony. It works great. However, could it not be done on HE? Not everyone needs a Qnap NAS in their network.
Having used that integration previously, I am uncertain as to what it offers over this native Hubitat Harmony integration that doesn't require a Hue emulator:
The Logitech Harmony Hub can only be paired with one Philips Hue Bridge. Therefore, when emulating a bridge in devices such as Sonoff on Tasmota, in this mode, you can only control this one device using the Logitech Hub Device integration.
A possible solution to this problem is to use Sonoff X4 on Tasmota in the Hue bridge emulation mode. Then we can control four devices using the Logitech Hub Device integration. When using Qnap HABridge, you can control any number of devices with the Logitech Harmony remote.
