Hi All
I'm trying to figure which RGBW lights to invest in, preferably over 1000lm.
I'm looking for some that are reliable with native support or easy install.
I have the HE C-7 v 2.2.5.131
I have purchased
Novostella - Super bright, great bulbs, not compatible with HE?
Sylvania - Terrible colors, easy install and setup
Phillips Hue - decent, cloud based w/bridge
Interested in
LIFX
Yeelight
Sengled
Has LIFX become more reliable on HE?
Also wondering about native support for Sengled or Yeelight.
What are the current favorites?
Any scientific pro's or con's about WiFi vs Zigbee with 50 bulbs or so, assuming I have great wifi and a great zigbee mesh.
Hue is not cloud based; the Hubitat integration (and the system itself in general, except things you can do with the optional cloud My Hue account) work over your LAN, in case that changes your mind. Along those lines, I have a 1000-ish lumen Gledopto A19 on my Hue Bridge network, and it works fine, though it could also be paired directly to Hubitat (I'm just hesitant to pair most Zigbee smart bulbs that way given the problems some have). If you don't need a bulb but just a light source, I think Hue's Lightstrip Plus would work, says 1600 lumens). Inovelli's new Z-Wave Lightstrip is also rated for the same brightness. The only other first-party Hue option I know of with high lux is their new white-only bulb, so not RGBW.
I've tried LIFX too but prefer official integrations (despite writing my own for Hurricane anyway ). Others may have more ideas. These are just ones I've tired.
Sorry, I meant 1000 lumens (and have made an edit to that post to clarify). On a related note, the Hue Bridge has a soft limit of 50 bulbs per network.
I have 14 Yeelights, and they're great. They are wi-fi but work locally. Excellent cost-benefit! Search Youtube for a Paul Hibbert video comparing Yeelight against Phillips Hue.
Ya, I've seen Paul's channel and the Smart Home Solver. I like them both.
The main problem is the 'Supported Devices' documents page. I don't think it has everything listed.
Also, I'm still new to smart home automation and am not sure what's the best route.
WiFi, zigbee, zigbee 3.0, use a lighting bridge, so it's best to get experienced recommendations.
Thank you all for the comments, this forum has a great community.
@dmorman, there is another brand that people speak very well of, Gledopto. It is a chinese brand that makes some very good products, its quality exceeds the standards of Chinese products. I own some Gledopto LED stripes and Zigbee drivers, they work very well and are affordable.
I chose a mix of zigbee and Hue bridge (Gledopto could go either I believe). I already have over 50 devices on my WiFi at any one time without putting HA devices there. Plus, there is a very noticeable delay between lights turning on/off/dimming/etc when commanding more than a couple WiFi bulbs at a time, at least that was my experience. Plus it seems like most consumer routers max out between 50 and 64 devices. I have more than that in lights alone.
@Ken_Fraleigh, I believe the LAN is the spine of any automation system - being it wired or WiFi -, so it should be the first to think about when planning automation. There are good domestic routers with support to over 200 devices, like ASUS, Netgear or Ubiquiti.
Personally I prefer ZigBee, but WiFi working locally is also efficient, as Home Assistant evince controlling wi-fi devices without noticeable delay.
Questions about WiFi cover are solved with the use of mesh systems. I started my automation with wi-fi before to migrate to Hubitat with ZigBee, and I got to have more than 150 wi-fi devices being controlled without problems by a Netgear Orbi mesh system.
ZigBee is always better, but to the number of devices @dmorman thinks to use he will necessarily need a mesh system, be it ZigBee of WiFi.
The Lifx local control requires UDP I believe and that isn't fully implemented for continual receive in Hubitat. Hence the support is always going to be a bit hampered.
Sengled don't act as ZigBee repeaters just so as you know. This is a debatable issue as to whether lights should offer this anyway and some prefer the fact that Sengled don't. If your lights are guaranteed to always have power (not switched off at a switch) then the repeater feature is attractive. If they do get switched off then this can cause mesh issues as the topology changes and it's better to not repeat at all I think.
I have a few NovoStella high power dimmable floodlights here - they are based on Tuya. Expensive but they're the only (WiFi) dimmable ones I really know of. I don't know what their standard bulbs use or even if they are Wifi, Zigbee or ZWave
I have 6 Lifx bulbs that are being used with a community app/driver in HE. Very reliable and I'm very happy with them. Yes, the driver uses UDP to communicate with the bulbs.
UPD is fully supported by the bulbs. One thing that you want to do is give each bulb a static IP address.
I have many gledopto zigbee bulbs. They work fine but the color mode is very dim. Warm and cold white are very nice and bright. Unlike Hue they don't remember their on/off status on a power disconnect/reconnect. They do connect nicely to a Hue hub or directly to the HE. I prefer to keep mine on a Hue Hub which is completely bullet proof and avoids issues with other zigbee devices I have by separating out the lighting mesh.
). Others may have more ideas. These are just ones I've tired.
