Having great success with the TRÅDFRI bulbs here from Ikea. Cheap as chips and have been very stable. 13 GU10s, 3 dimmer units and 4 e14s. The only thing I don’t like is sometimes they show as inactive in the UI, but still work fine.
Are there RGB bulbs??
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There are, but only as a kit with a dimmer, which makes them not so cheap an alternative.
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/lighting/smart-lighting/trådfri-dimming-kit-colour-and-white-spectrum-grey-white-art-70338951/
That is a shame. Really hope RGB bulbs start getting cheaper.
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From what I read, the Hue bulbs cant be used as repeaters for other devices if used with the Hue hub, is that correct?
If instead I use Hue bulbs direct with Hubitat, without a hub, do they have the problem with dropping messages?
I read elsewhere that the TRÅDFRI also drop messages when repeating. Is that not the case then?
The nonexistent ideal zigbee bulb:
- Repeats faithfully and never skips a message
- Capable of 16 million colors
- Capable of CT range of 1500K-6500K
- Can receive prestaged color/CT
- setLevel 0 = off. setLevel anything else = on
- Configurable ramp times
- ZLL
Did I miss anything?
- High (20kHz+) PWM frequency — or no PWM at all with constant current drivers
- Ra/CRI 90+
- R9 50+
With the exception of the repeater and zll, and maybe the 1500 ct, which is a device specific limit, all the remainder are limitations within the driver interface, or the driver.
All our built in drivers support color prestaging, set level 0 can be forced in the driver, but most bulbs don't know what to do with it, and it varries by manufacturer.
OK, I ordered 8 Singled bulbs. I had 9 Lightify bulbs. I replaced one with a standard bulb and an extra Iris outlet, the others replaced with the Singled bulbs. Gave it several hours for the mesh to rebuild and then ran the Zigbee log and notice that signal strength is much higher for most of my Zigbee devices, and all of my lost packets with my motion sensors seem to have disappeared.
Anybody want to buy 9 slightly used Lightify bulbs?
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Glad to hear the Sengled bulbs solved your Zigbee mesh issues. Always great to have more feedback for the community. Thanks for posting the update!
Not surprisingly, add GE links to the list of known bad routers, it stole my test zigbee lock in the lab and refused to pass payloads to and fro, just as the hue did a few weeks prior.
At least the links, unlike the osrams can be paired to the hue bridge.
The only thing I don't like about the sengleds is the fact they have no soft start when turned on, and they consider this a feature?
I'm pretty sure I can overcome this in the driver, one of these days...
Just chipping in on this topic...
I usually acquire Osram Smart+ RGBW (not the older Lightify branded ones) cheaply from Amazon Warehouse Deals. The boxes are usually damaged but the bulbs are often unpaired. I have had good success with all their bulb types apart from GU10 which often boot up in a cold white and disconnected state.
I also recently chatted with INNR Lighting. I believe they're releasing a Zigbee RGBW GU10 bulb in April this year. They're GU10 CT bulbs are excellent but I'm convinced they are actually made by Aurora. They are exactly the same as Hive's GU10 bulbs which carry the Aurora logo on the packaging.
Mark
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I am just about to migrate over from ST to HE. I have currently 31 zigbee bulbs running on the ST platform. 16 Ecosmarts, 4 Sengleds, and 11 Ikeas.
I have had very few problems with the bulbs on ST. Occasionally, I do need to power on and off an Ecosmart but otherwise my only issue has been speed from my switches which I expect Hubitat to solve. I plan to add another 15/20 Ecosmarts.
Is there any reason the HE would work any worse than the ST at communicating with these bulbs?
Regards Bruce
The only ones known to not have issues are Sengleds because they do not repeat and Hue when connected through the Hue Hub. Generally smart bulbs tend to be poor repeaters. You may not have any issues with your existing bulbs, but there is always a possibility. I would pick up some Zigbee outlets to act as repeaters, this should help strengthen the mesh.
Thanks for the input.
My bulbs tend to be very concentrated. Ie I have 10 in the kitchen. So would suggest putting outlets in areas of least concentration or most concentration like the kitchen?
Interestingly, at least for me, I had to move my ST hub to my pool room in order to add an Intermec pool controller. I left it there to see how my Zigbee bulbs would react and I was surprised to find that it made no difference. (The pool room is outside of the house and quite a long way from most of the bulbs.)
Personally I would just spread them out around the house, not in any one particular area. Although I would defiantly put one in the Kitchen since you have a lot of bulbs there. The idea is not only to create a stronger mesh but since the bulbs tend to have repeating issues, you would them to find the best path through your outlets, instead of another bulb. I would go with 1 outlet for every two rooms at least.
Ive had REALLY good success with off the shelf CREE bulbs from Home Depot. $11 and they have been rock solid.
I did have a batch that updated to a newer firmware when i was using smartthings. These caused the bulbs to occasionally blink. I bought 6 new bulbs for hubitat, and they havent blinked and have worked perfectly. I use some of the blinking ones for areas that are not affected by blinking (outdoor porch motion, and basement motion).
The Sylvania lightify bulbs have been good, but they constantly do not display their correct status with hubitat so i axed them.
I have an ikea rgb bulb in my bedroom that has no rgb functionality, but as a bulb, its been rock solid.
You can see my system thread here
(Driggs' Hubitat System - An ongoing project thread)
Since you seem to like Cree bulbs, they are at an all time low at home Depot for 5.90 per bulb.
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Tried to look around in the Community but this seemed like the best thread (albeit a bit old so apologies!)
I'm looking to put in some RGB GU10 bulbs (mainly for Haloween for the kids but it's been on my list to replace all my cheap white bulbs at some point!)
I've read that ZigBee bulbs aren't good repeaters so if I install loads will it wreck my ZigBee mesh? I only have wired plug sockets which (should) be decent repeaters and so I'm concerned (from my zwave experience!) that if I install these non repeaters they'll mess the ZigBee mesh up!
My ZigBee plug sockets are made by Aurora and I'm planning on buying Aurora GU10 RGB bulbs so hoping they'll play nice but thought I'd get some advice!?
