I have an observation I am attempting to get my head around. I think it may have to do with the bulbs "sleeping". However I wanted to put it out here to find out what others may know about it. I have a C8-Pro on which I have 8 Zigbee Smart Plugs (repeaters) scattered around and 4 Sengled Classic LED Zigbee light bulbs. They all work as expected but for this one quark. If a bulb has been sitting off for a little while, when I command it on with a Z00Z 37 button connected in LR mode or from it's Hubitat Driver, the Sengled bulb may take a count of 5 to come on. But once it is on, controlling it to turn off or back on is snappy fast. The other observation is the bulbs fall off the Zigbee network graph once they have been off for a while and return to the graph when turned on. Sleeping may be why the Sengled bulbs, even though they are line powered, do not serve as Zigbee repeaters. What say you about this observation?
Have almost the exact same senario with a C8-Pro and Sengled Classic bulbs. This is what I have found out. Sengled bulbs are mains-powered, but they are designed to behave like battery-powered Zigbee devices. This means they enter a low-power "sleep" mode when turned off to reduce energy consumption. So the bulb needs to wake up first.
In fact, I got tired of this and just ordered some matter bulbs to prove out if they are faster. Still 2.4GHz which isn't my favorite, but my WiFi is strong and theoretically should be faster.
I still have issues with Sengled Bulbs doing that at times, or missing entirely at times. I've just been replacing them. Hubitat and Sengled bulbs just don't play well together,
I did more testing and discovered that the bulbs start much faster at 100% brightness than at 5%. Seems to be an artifact of how the bulb is designed.
I have Sengled bulbs all through my house and have zero issues with them and my C8 Pro. I do not use the Sengled Element Classic driver that comes up automatically with the bulbs. I change them to the Advanced Zigbee Bulb driver and then change all the settings to ASAP. They work perfectly.
I do use the advanced Zigbee Bulb Driver. I'm actually not having issues with the standard size classic bulbs (I was at one point), just the candelabra base bulbs. I don't know why those are different. There are not many soft-white Zigbee candelabra bulbs out there, so I am replacing those with Zwave outlet dimmers so I can use standard dumb candelabra bulbs. I also have bought some base adapters to convert the candelabra lamp to standard size bulbs if it fits in the lamp.
I'm so over using the Sengled Candelabra Zigbee bulbs with Hubitat.
So far I am liking these Tapo matter bulbs. WAF much better on brighter warm levels. So the cost was ignored. I did upgrade my network to the Orbi 970 so my system is hopefully ready for it.
I fortunately have no special case applications such as that. I can imagine though that specialty bulbs like that could be an issue. I am glad you have been able to figure out a good way around them. Which outlet dimmers are you using?
How are you doing with the Orbit 970? Is it performing well? Do you have other zigbee devices and if so are you getting any interference based on the increase in power mad the WiFi channels you are using?
These have been working well for me. They work with the Ministon Zwave dimmer outlet driver.
I see there is a review on there for them not working with Hubitat, as they will pair with the generic "Device" driver. Hopefully that user posted here to figure out how to change the driver for them after pairing, as they work great the the correct driver.
Seems cheaper and less complex to use smart bulbs for fixtures with single sockets like a night stand lamp or back porch light. When it is a fixture with multiple bulbs or an array of lights all switched together, there is a strong case to put in a wall switch or wall dimmer. If I were a Renter, I can see a case for packing a multi bulb fixture with smart devices though.
Thank you. I have a use case that this would be absolutely perfect for.
I use smart bulbs on all fixtures for multiple reasons. The biggest reason is I have no neutrals behind the switches in my house. It is older. So all no neutral required switches or relays that I can find has a click when they turn on. The wife hates the freaking click and will not even consider it. She just likes the quietly the lights come on. Now there is the Lutron but the no neutral switch requires a 2nd mortgage to buy enough. So therefore I use bulbs. Lol.
I went from the 850 to the 970, and it's a big upgrade in performance. However, I live in a highly congested apartment complex in NYC, which hammers the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The backhaul to the satellites is 6GHz and I do have a few Wi-Fi 7 / 6GHz iPhones and a Mac that just hauls axx now. My 2.4GHz is down on channel 3, and my Zigbee is on channel 25 at 8 dBm, and it has been very stable. I set the system up about a month ago and haven't touched it since. I recommend it -- but it is expensive. I signed up on the Netgear site and they eventually sent me a big discount code so pulled the trigger.
Thank you. I run zigbee on channels 11, 15, and 20 with my current wifi on channel 11 with no issues. What is your wifi channel width? Is the 970 40 mhz minimum?
There are other reasons for using bulbs over switches as @LearningHubitat alluded to.
-Another reason is that wall switches don't allow for color or color temperature changes, It is really nice to change to a warmer color temperature as the evening progresses.
-Some houses (and by some, I mean at least mine) have weird setups for which switches control which lights. In my basement, half of the fixtures in one room are controlled by a switch on the other side of the walled in stairs. So, I can leave the existing wall switches on with a cover, use Zwave or Zigbee button controllers, and have my switches turn on the bulbs that make sense for which room I am in.
Orbi does a "20/40 Compatibility Mode" and its set by default. They say it will 'figure it out' but basically it sets it to 20". Since my 2.4GHz is mostly IoT devices and everything else is 5/6GHz, I leave it alone.
That is good to know. Thank you.
Also, in my case I have ceiling fans all through the house with only one power switch. We all know what a nightmare it is to try and find a switch rated for a fan that will also supposedly work with a light. That is that isn't super expensive or expensive to me. So that leaves the option of putting a 2 channel relay in the fan then putting in a double switch that fits in a one gang box, wiring the wires to be always hot in the box, or rewiring the house which is definitely not an option. Yes I know there are other options.
The simplest is to put a cover over the switch, leave it turned on, use a motion sensor to control the bulbs and control the fan by the pull chain.
