this is my first post and I got my Hubitat yesterday, so I thought I'd ask my first question in this casual Lounge section, because I don't know where else it would fit.
I noticed that some devices are reset/put into pairing mode by turning them on and off a certain number of times, and that got me thinking.
Do you think it is possible to change the state/color/brightness of a bulb the same way, without having to use an extra dimmer device/switch/smartphone?
Say I got this lamp in my living room that I usually turn on for indirect low mood lighting, but sometimes my wife wants to do some paperwork on the couch, so she would need a bit more light. So she turns the lamp on and off 2 times, and the color/brightness changes.
Could this be done with some cool Hubitat programming action? (Total coding noob here by the way)
If you mean phyiscal power-offs, then that's very unlikely: most bulbs don't send anything back to the hub if they're switched off via anything other than "smart" means (but some have noticed that Sengleds seem to send an "off" message back with their last breath in many cases--but the general problem is that you turned off power to them, so they don't have a way to communicate to the hub anymore).
What I would do instead is get a button device, then you can just use that directly to set whatever colors you want. The SmartThings Button (if you can find it; a lot of their hardware is scarce these days) and Eria Remote/Dimmer (not a huge fan of this myself, but that's another story) are two reasonably-priced devices that I can think of that should work. Lutron Pico remotes are my favorite, and they're pretty cheap too, but you need a Smart Bridge Pro (or higher-end system like RA2) to make these work with Hubitat, so that would add a lot to the initial cost. Voice control is another option if you have Alexa, Google Home, or similar, but (while cool for showing off) that gets annoying fast for day-to-day control.
However, if your bulbs do send an "off" to the hub, it would definitely be possible to write a rule or app that responds to a subsequent "on" (say, within a few seconds) and does what you want. But that sounds a bit kludgy to me even if it does work with physical power-offs, which again is unlikely,
A few bulbs I bought have to be physically switched on/off 5 times to get them into pairing mode, but as you said, it could be that they never send anything to the app, but instead just internally switch into a "receiving state", so the app can do its thing.
Just thought I could save a few bucks and avoid having too many buttons/switches lying around the house.
Yeah, that's pretty much what happens. You need to put Hubitat into pairing mode, too (this won't do anything without that--you probably just reset the bulb, which for Zigbee devices is usually also how you get them into pairing mode), and then they'll link up.
Again, there's a shred of hope if you have Sengled or something that actually sends an "off" when power is physically cut, but that's probably a stretch for making this work even if you do.
