Good Morning.
Was looking at my weekly costco email flyer and they are selling some Phillips Hue products. Did some searching on here and posts from a couple of years ago indicated that pairing zigbee directly to the hub could be problematic and that integrating through the hue bridge was preferred.
Looked on the compatibility list and multiple phillips hue devices show up as "phillips hue bridge optional but recommended"
I just wanted to check if this was still the case.
Costco are carrying
Philips Hue 9ft Bluetooth and Zigbee Light Strip Bundle
Philips Hue Calla White & Color Ambiance Outdoor Pathway Light Base Kit Plus Extension
Neither one of them are cheap but sure like the look of the pathway kit.
And i don't believe either of the devices they sell come with the hue bridge.
The issue is that they are ZLL based zigbee and make horrible repeaters. If you pair them to hubitat with ZHA based zigbee devices (sensors, and what not) it will make your mesh unstable. It's why the recommendation to keep them on their own hub, Either a hue bridge or another hubitat.
That's a great price on the strips. I would look for a starter kit on Amazon. They usually have discounts on starter kits. Using Hue bridge connected to Hubitat Elevation is by far the best experience if you plan on using other Zigbee devices connected to the Hubitat hub that are not bulbs.
Interesting. I actually have another Hubitat. I’m using a c5 but bought a c7 when they had the 99 dollar sale. Might be a good reason to connect up the other hub. I’ve never had 2 hubs running the same time. Maybe a good time to do some research. And would save me buying a hue bridge.
Is it difficult to manage 2 discrete hubs or does the HE platform make it fairly simple?
No. It’s very easy with hub mesh. The only difficulty is planning out the second Zigbee mesh.
That said, I have 2 HE hubs and 2 Hue bridges. I have some other Zigbee lights on HE and they work beautifully, but there is no way in the world I would spend Hue bulb money and not use the Hue bridge. Using the bridge made specifically for the bulbs elevates them to a level of reliability and responsiveness far beyond what can be achieved by pairing them to HE. It also adds features that can’t be replicated due to scenes and settings that are saved directly to the bulbs.
