Hi all ,
I’m very new to all this and have been setting up the house the best I can. I’ve installed 6 m-elec stitchy’s so far and had them connected to a Philips hue bridge per m-elec and everything was working great in the hue app. I’ve now received my hubitat and connected the hue bridge, my question is should I connect the stitchy switches to HE directly or keep them connected to the hue bridge and use the hue bridge integration app.
Thanks.
Time to execute is always lengthened with every step. More hubs more steps. Plus additional hardware to troubleshoot if you have any issues. Just my two pennies:)
Those are not on the compatible devices list. You can always try them with generic drivers in the hub and see if it works. Sorry, not a brand we have in North America, so I'm not familiar with them.
However, there's a chance of you not be able to use them via the Hue Integration, but it's easy to try (And no, it's not slow. Many of us, myself included have been controlling our Hue lights that way for years). However, Hue will block certain devices from showing up via their API and they can only be controlled via the Hue app.
Anyway, it's very simple to install the Hue integration and see if it works. It doesn't stop your control or functionality from the Hue app one bit. That, and direct fast local control of the Hue Bridge is what makes that such a nice integration.
Thanks for your help, I've set it up with the Stitchy switches direct to Hubitat and the Hue downlights via the Hue bridge, I'm using the generic Zigbee switch driver for simple on/off function. The stitchy switches are a dimmer as well but their dimming function is not working correctly with the RGBgenie micro Zigbee dimmer driver. So to work around, I just made a group "Hallway Lights" and added the stitchy switch and Hue downlight then added two "Hallway Light" tiles on the dashboard one as a switch and one as a dimmer. So far so good, I wonder if you can join the 2 tiles together and have the switch above the dimmer slider?
Hmm, those don't look at all like the Sunricher modules (which is the same thing as the RGBGenie). You might try the Generic Zigbee dimmer driver and see what happens.
Also, make sure you click the Configure button when you change drivers.
Personally, I've put all my lighting on Hue. It's absolutely bullet proof and frees up the HE mesh for other things which sometimes are not that compatible with smart lamps. The slight downside is you do have to await polling for an HE dashboard to depict the correct lighting status if you change them directly in Hue. Final recommendation would depend on your personal smart home growth plans.
Ok thanks I did try the generic driver but didn’t press configure, like I said very new to this (3 days now). I’ll try the generic driver again and see what happens, just lots of flashing when trying to dim on rgb genie driver.
How'd you go with the stitchy? A sparkie mate showed them to me and I like them as I can retrofit them to my current house. have any luck going directly to the HE hub? What do they set you back (if you don't mind?) Can't seem to find any pricing on the net... maybe I'm bad at searching!
Hi joe, yes I've got them in every light switch in the house now. They're not cheap at about $120 per switch but they do work good with HE. When I first put them in I connected them directly to HE with the generic zigbee driver and they worked perfect, my problem was the old downlights when dimming, now I've put in the downlights from the same company m-elec (called 1 Box 90) and there are no issues at all. I've got a mix of neutral and neutral free version around the house. The neutral free version does have a neutral wire so you can connect it if needed. I think there rated at 200w and 300w so I had to put in some contactors as well to safely run the bathroom heat lights and the floodlights I have outside. After I had it all working directly with HE I disconnected them from HE and now have them running via a Phillips hue hub via the CoCoHue app and they all work perfect. It was expensive but they do work very well and you still have the use of your original light switches and that's a bonus.
I believe m-elec are working on an in-wall fan controller as well that would be a good addition.
M-elec have a tech guy Wayne who is very helpful and always willing to answer your questions just call them for his number.
If you need to know anything else just let me know.
Paul.
Thanks mate - appreciate the insight. we're looking at a new house build soon as well so will take these into consideration for the new house. Any reason why you disconnected them from HE and ran them through the hue hub? Fan controllers would be great - hope they come out soon!
THanks again!
No worries mate, if it's a new house I'd get the sparky to bring down a neutral wire to each switch so you've got everything you need for the future. I put it back on the hue hub so if anything happened to HE they would all still work. I'm only new to HE so maybe a direct connection is better I'm not sure. If your in SEQ I think m-elec will help you with planning out the design of your system.
Good luck with it.
1 Like
Thanks. I've got a sparkie mate down where I am in ACT that can help me out with the wiring. Wonder if it's worth looking into proper switches for the new digs though but definitely retrofitting them in The current house. Thanks again for the insight!
I've got my hands on some neutral free switches now! How are you finding them after about a year? Still going through the hue hub or direct through hubitat?
Hi Joe, I've used the neutral free switches on some points they work fine, one problem I did find is if you're not using LED bulbs with the neutral free switch the old-style bulbs do flicker slightly. Not sure why but it was noticeable in the dark.
I only run a couple of hue downlight bulbs through the hue hub now and have all the stitchy switches going direct to hubitat, this is so the dashboards are more responsive to show if the switch is on or off.
One good thing is I've got one stitchy in a shed about 50+ metres from the house and it works perfectly, there are no wifi points outside the house so that distance is impressive.
The biggest problem for me is having no type of control for the ceiling fans that go into the wall, I don't want to end up with a smart switch wall plate just for the fans.
I do often wonder if the Shelly option is just as good as there so much cheaper, maybe one day I'll try some.
Appreciate the update - i'm putting them in my current house so it has new LEDs, so it shouldn't be a problem (finger crossed). That range for the shed switch is impressive! I looked into the shelly options but they seem to be wifi only and I was trying to go with either zigbee/z-wave for my light switches but cost will definitely play a part in it!
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an great fan switches out there (or at least I haven't come across any!) so maybe wifi for the fan switch is the easier option. There's the inovelli ones out of the states but don't know about their compatibility here in Aus
Sorry I know this was awhile ago. How have the neutral free stitchy gone did they work well? Did they flicker with LEDs etc?
They worked flawlessly with dimmable LEDs (dimmable stitchy) but very iffy with non dimmable LEDs - specifically an oyster LED. Didnt play nice at all so just pulled the stitchy out for now ad it wasnt really needed in that particular room
