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Philips Hue FAQ

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  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Thoughts? This comes to mind when I read all the above:

    https://xkcd.com/538/

    Don't get me wrong, I get where you are coming from. I'm a software engineer who has to deal with security related issues for enterprise systems on a daily basis.

    However when I read stuff like this, I seriously think people get carried away with what they think hackers do and start believing that we are living in some Mission Impossible movie!

    The reality is that the vast majority of burglaries in Ireland are carried out by drug addicts looking to get their next fix, with just a few other roaming gangs who aren't much more sophisticated targeting rural homes. They certainly aren't going to be hacking your home, that is laughable, they are going to simply smashing in your window/door, ignore the blaring alarm like all your neighbours do and just steal your stuff.

    I've both a Canary IP camera and a Logi Circle. What I like about them, is if someone does break in, that I'll get an almost instant notification of the break in when I'm away. I'll be able to see them in my house and I'll be able to call the guards and tell them of an active break in. The hope being that the Gardai arrive quickly and catch them in the act and at least limit the amount of stuff they can steal.

    I also like the fact that Canary has it's own built in alarm that I can activate remotely and that I can also speak to the burglars remotely.

    I think if a burglar sees extra alarms going off and someone starting to speaking to them over and pointing out that they are being filmed and that the Gardai have already been called, plus the Hue lights throughout the house now flashing on and off in different colours like mad, is all likely to be quiet disorientating to the burglar and more likely to cause them to high tail it out of their, thus limiting how much they might steal.

    No there is no such thing as perfect security, but I can try and make my place harder to break into then my neighbours and I can try and make sure I'm notified of a burglary as quickly as possible.

    As for the concern of someone hacking your Hue system/Nest etc. and then using that info to know if you are home or not. Again pretty tin foil hat stuff.

    Much easier for a potential burglar to simply walk up to your front door, knock/ring the doorbell and wait. If someone answers, "hi missus, do you know where some made up address is?", if no one answers, then break in. Much easier then using your ninja hacking skills! In fact that is exactly how a spate of break-ins was done in my parents neighbourhood, usually during mass time (my parents simply took the precaution of going to separate mass times to make sure one was always home).

    The reality is anyone with the skills to hack systems like these, likely also have the skills to get an extremely well paying job as a security consultant, software engineer, etc. The risk of doing break in's just wouldn't be worth it.

    Maybe if you were a super rich person, then it might be worth it to steal diamonds, etc. But doesn't sort of people have much more sophisticated and expensive security systems then we are talking about here.

    For home users there really isn't too many real world concerns.

    1) Hue lights. The hue cloud service is completely optional and only needed if you want remote access. If you prefer you can run your hub behind a firewall and completely disconnected from the internet. If you want you could use something like Home Assistant running on your own server at home with access allowed only over your own VPN.

    But in reality I'll come back to what I described above, in the real world this just isn't how break ins work. Worst I'd be concerned about is some too bright kid hacking hue for fun and messing up your hub. But all you lose is your ability to do advanced features until the hub is fixed.

    2) Again, doesn't happen in the real world. Much easier to criminal to just knock on your front door!

    3) Canary, I have it, I like it. Again, in the real world criminals just aren't that sophisticated. Also the 12 hours is fine. You get an almost immediate notification on your phone if it detects movement when you are away. You would of course check said notification as soon as you say it and if someone actually was breaking in, you would immediately download the video (of course first call the Gardai). So not a major deal. Other options like Netatmo Welcome exist, if you aren't comfortable with cloud recording, which record to a SD card or can upload to your own FTP server or dropbox (I'd recommend this, it would be too easy for a criminal to steal your camera with sd card in it)

    I really like that when I'm away I can keep an eye on my home with my Canary and Logi Circle camera. That I'll get an instant notification if someone enters and I can view what they are doing. I also have Hue lights turn on at dusk, to help make the place looked lived in.

    I honestly believe these steps add far more security to my home and the reality of real break-ins, versus the sci-fi fantasy of people hacking your gear to break in.


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,015 ✭✭✭✭adox


    Just on the Canary, that's the all in one thing right? Do you find it reliable? Do you find the 12 hour playback enough enough or do your subscribe?


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    adox wrote: »
    Just on the Canary, that's the all in one thing right? Do you find it reliable? Do you find the 12 hour playback enough enough or do your subscribe?

    Yup, it is a round cylinder similar to an Amazon Echo but a bit smaller.

    I find it very reliable. Though it does rely on power and internet, so I wouldn't rely on it as my one and only security device. But can be a nice addition to a standard monitored alarm system.

    It has fantastic picture quality. The lens is wide and can cover two whole walls in a square room. The motion detection seems to be very reliable with only two false alarms in the 2 years I've had it (both times were just a moth that flew in front of it at night).

    For my needs I find 12 hours to be perfectly fine and don't subscribe. As I mentioned above, I only use it when I'm out. If I get a movement notification I would of course check it as soon as I get the notification and if something bad was happening I would immediately download the video.

    On the other hand, if you wanted to constantly monitor something, for instance a child minder, then the Logi Circle would be better, it gives you 24 hours for free and has the cool daily brief feature. But someone like robindch would hate it as it is basically always on.

    BTW The Canary can use geofencing to know when you are home and turn off recording and turn on privacy mode when your home. Of course you have to trust the company that they are actually doing it.

    I do have a few things about Canary that I don't like:

    1) It isn't integrated with home automation systems, no IFTTT, Yonomi, Alexa, Google Home, etc. support. I find that very disappointing.

    2) Each extra Canary you buy cuts into your 12 free hours! If you have two, you only get 6 hours each, etc. So that definitely discourages you from buying more then one.

    3) No sound monitoring, despite having mics. Some other IP security cameras will send you a notification if it hears another alarm going off, for instance a non smart smoke alarm or security alarm. Unfortunately Canary doesn't do this.

    4) The home health monitoring features, temperature, humidity, etc. are pretty much useless.

    So I've mixed feelings about it. I think I'd recommend it to someone who is renting a room in a house and just wants one camera to cover their own room (check housemates aren't sneaking in) or for a typical apartment where you can just leave one camera in the living room and it would likely catch a break in. I don't think I'd recommend it for a big house where you need multiple cameras to cover it. At least not for the moment.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,386 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    bk wrote: »
    However when I read stuff like this, I seriously think people get carried away with what they think hackers do and start believing that we are living in some Mission Impossible movie!
    With becoming submission, I disagree.

    I've worked in and around software security for around twenty years and the attacks above, or ones similar or equivalent to them, are documented in the industry - I won't bore the forum with links to reports, but Bruce Schneier's CryptoGram mailing list, and Brian Krebs' website are good user-level news sites on current security concerns.

    As you know, security is a black and white subject - it's either there or it isn't there and the state of the art at the moment for IoT gear is not only that security is largely absent, but that consumers seem unaware or unconcerned that it's absent. It's useful to remember that attacks always get better and one should take a realistic view of exactly how secure one's home is, and remember that over time, it's going to get less and less secure.

    Burglars hacking in to see you're at home is just one risk - there are plenty more, including mass blackmail, mass data release, pwn'ing gear to implement DDoS attacks as well, as simple stuff like snitching your neighbour's wifi password to piggy back off them for whatever nefarious reasons. For the most part, I'm not talking either about grand hacker conspiracies controlled by pale teenagers in dimly-lit basements in St Petersburg, but there's a lot of IoT gear out there which doesn't even get simple security right - there are innumerable reports of built-in back doors, default passwords which people never change and so on, and there are plenty of websites which document this information.

    I don't deny that having a Canary at home is probably useful. And, so long as neither you nor Canary ever get targetted or successfully hacked, it's probably a splendid device. However, I don't think it's wise to behave as if these devices don't introduce new attack surfaces or new data risks - most or all of which people will not be aware of and which they'll be able to do little or nothing to control and probably nothing to mitigate once a breach has taken place.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    robindch wrote: »
    As you know, security is a black and white subject

    I'm sorry, that isn't true at all!!! Security is a million shades of grey!

    As I'm sure you know well, there is no such thing as perfect security. We use to have a joke in our computer security course, the only safe compute is one unplugged and left on the moon ... and even then you have to worry about the little green men! :D

    All you can do is add layers of security and hope that each extra layer makes it that little bit harder for a hacker, etc. to break into the system.

    But every layer of security you add to a system has a trade off in terms of effort to write it and add it and more importantly a cost to the consumer in terms of usability and convenience.

    I use to work on developing super secure Unix operating systems that had US military levels of security! They were very secure, but god they were miserable for even very smart system admins to use and admin on a day to day basis. So much so, that even massive banks, investment companies, etc. wouldn't use them. Because while security was very important to them of course. Ease and speed of deployment and administration were also important, as was performance and these are all trade offs that have to be carefully considered and balanced.

    For another example, just look at how the US banks still haven't rolled out pin and chip credit cards! It is all still mostly swipe and starting to be still inferior chip and sign! They know well that swipe is much less secure then pin and chip, but they were willing to swallow the cost of the extra card fraud, due to the massive cost of replacing millions of swipe terminals across the US and the fear that it would confuse and piss off customers long use to signing to use credit cards.

    So security is definitely not a black and white thing. It is instead a constant ongoing, never ending battle with hackers. For anyone interested in this topic, check out the book, "The Code Book" by Simon Singh for a brilliant and accessible story of how long the battle has been going on between people who create encryption and those looking to break it, a battle that has been going on for more then 2,000 years now!!

    Coming back to your points on the security of IoT devices. I actually agree with you, security is important, I think there are certainly some cheap, no brand, IoT devices coming out of china, etc. that have zero security and I would never recommend those.

    However I do think most of the big brand names in HA and IoT devices do in fact think about it and are adding security to their devices. Certainly from what I've seen from the likes of Nest, Hue, Harmony, etc. they do seem to be at least doing the basics, HTTPS, etc.

    Though of course there are no guarantees that there aren't bugs in their code. In fact I can pretty much guarantee there are, for instance see the heart bleed bug in OpenSSL which effected so many otherwise well secured websites and systems.

    Their will always be bugs. The question is how fast these companies respond and patch these bugs once they are found. For instance the Hue hack was very interesting from an academic perspective, but not super useful in the real world and Philips patched it very quickly. Which really is all you can ask from a company, that they take security seriously and that when a bug is found, they quickly fix it.

    One problem I have with this topic and I'm not saying that you Robin are one of these people, clearly you aren't, is that some people are talking about pretty conspiracy level stuff. I find it ironic that they worry about Echo and GHome spying on you, while they probably walk around all day with a device in their pocket that has a microphone, multiple cameras, GPS and access to all your texts, emails, etc. and think nothing of it! Samrtphones would be a much more useful device to spy on you then almost any home automation device.

    The one exception that I would admit is various IP cameras. If someone hacked these, then someone might get some naughty video of you that you mightn't want out their. So I would take that a little more seriously. I'd have no problem having them covering the perimeter of my home. But I might think twice about putting them in your bedroom. But I still wouldn't discount them entirely.

    For instance, you could leave them plugged out for day to day use, but plug them in only when you go away for extended periods. For instance my Canary, it covers my living room. I admit that I usually leave it unplugged, but plug it in before going away for a long period, in particular on holidays.

    To be honest, people hacking my IoT's doesn't keep me awake at night at all. It is a concern, but in reality not really a major one. My bigger realistic concern is when some local scumbag might decided to smash in my window and steal my stuff. It is a much more realistic threat then some sci-fi fantasy hacker specifically targeting my home.

    Thanks for the chat robindch, it is a very interesting topic.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,872 ✭✭✭paulbok


    Roen wrote: »
    Yes, easily DIY'd or you can get extenders too.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Hue/comments/3pj9dp/successfully_split_and_extended_the_hue_light/

    Can't find the link for the cables on Amazon. Will post when I do. They are literally just plug and play.

    *EDIT*
    2 pack of 1M extenders

    Fitted some extenders over the weekend to finish my kitchen. Great job they are, saved all the messing with soldering.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,872 ✭✭✭paulbok


    With the Hue sensor, has anyone been able to get more than two ( day time and nightlight) profiles working?
    I'd like to have different lighting in the morning, evening and night as well as the nightlight.


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 10,952 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stoner


    robindch wrote:
    Burglars hacking in to see you're at home is just one risk - there are plenty more, including mass blackmail, mass data release, pwn'ing gear to implement DDoS attacks as well, as simple stuff like snitching your neighbour's wifi password to piggy back off them for whatever nefarious reasons. For the most part, I'm not talking either about grand hacker conspiracies controlled by pale teenagers in dimly-lit basements in St Petersburg, but there's a lot of IoT gear out there which doesn't even get simple security right - there are innumerable reports of built-in back doors, default passwords which people never change and so on, and there are plenty of websites which document this information.

    I think for this reason I would always recommend that an intruder alarm is better off on its own , maybe it could turn on a contactor for lighting but other than that I see no decent reason , having had one, to have a security alarm as part of home automation set up.

    Largely speaking PIRs for intruder alarms are not positioned correctly to switch lights in a meaningful way.

    Regarding heating, yes it's good to turn off the heating on full set etc but it's limited value overall. I'd leave cctv and intruder alarms completely separate to lighting Power and heating and home av. That's my opinion on it anyway.

    Secondly I have only one internet camera in the house internally. I don't agree with them TBH, particularly on monitored intruder alarms where people in monitoring stations can see the inside of your house.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Stoner wrote: »
    I think for this reason I would always recommend that an intruder alarm is better off on its own , maybe it could turn on a contactor for lighting but other than that I see no decent reason , having had one, to have a security alarm as part of home automation set up.

    Well I do think it would be nice to be able to activate the alarm systems perimeter monitoring using voice:

    "Hey Google, turn on alarm monitoring"

    or have is as part of an overall routine, "Hey Google, turn on night mode", which turns off TV, heating, most lights and activates the alarms perimeter monitoring.

    Also it might be nice to be able to go:

    "Hey Google, emergency" and have it trigger the alarms sirens and bells and send a notification to family/neighbours, etc.

    I could also see something like that being very handy for medical emergencies, elderly person falling and can't get up, etc.

    But on the whole I agree with you and of course I don't think you should be able to disarm the alarm system with voice, etc.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    For folks interested in the general topic of computer security, a very funny and enlightening article about the subject here (warning PDF):

    https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,539 ✭✭✭wexfordman2


    Stoner wrote: »
    I think for this reason I would always recommend that an intruder alarm is better off on its own , maybe it could turn on a contactor for lighting but other than that I see no decent reason , having had one, to have a security alarm as part of home automation set up.

    Largely speaking PIRs for intruder alarms are not positioned correctly to switch lights in a meaningful way.

    Regarding heating, yes it's good to turn off the heating on full set etc but it's limited value overall. I'd leave cctv and intruder alarms completely separate to lighting Power and heating and home av. That's my opinion on it anyway.

    Secondly I have only one internet camera in the house internally. I don't agree with them TBH, particularly on monitored intruder alarms where people in monitoring stations can see the inside of your house.

    I think illinking your automation to your alarm system is hugely beneficial. For example, your automatiion set up macros, heating control etc should take into consideration the status of the house, ie, away, day, night mode etc. Disarming or arming your security system should trigger different events, dependent on day time etc.

    Automating lights based in security status, and using the same hardware, IE pir sensors etc which perform different actions dependent on status. For example, a pir in a corridor would activate a light if he system was set to night mode, or when the system is set to night mode, then the heating can be dropped a degree or two.

    There are loads of examples where you can and should integrate your alarm and automation together IMHO.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,033 ✭✭✭OU812


    Anyone know if it's possible to get right angled connectors for the light strips?

    It would be a massive help in getting them to hug the edges of kitchen units if so.


  • Registered Users Posts: 523 ✭✭✭ShRT




  • Registered Users Posts: 4,872 ✭✭✭paulbok


    Philips are selling off their lighting division, could be why the new products expected in November mysteriously disappeared.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,350 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    paulbok wrote: »
    Philips are selling off their lighting division, could be why the new products expected in November mysteriously disappeared.

    Actually it is far more complicated then that. What they are selling off here is their lumileds division, which makes components for LED lights.

    Hue are actually made by a different company called Philips Lighting. Philips Lighting use to be a division of Philips, but was actually spun off as a separate company and had an IPO earlier this year:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-26/philips-raises-839-million-from-dutch-ipo-of-lighting-business

    So todays sale should have no real effect on Hue, from what I understand.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,174 CMod ✭✭✭✭The Black Oil


    Basic question alert - can the colour bulbs still do ordinary plain white colours or are they just built for displaying colour? :o


  • Registered Users Posts: 24,647 ✭✭✭✭punisher5112


    Basic question alert - can the colour bulbs still do ordinary plain white colours or are they just built for displaying colour? :o

    Yes both so an expensive extra if not needed.


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 14,786 Mod ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    Basic question alert - can the colour bulbs still do ordinary plain white colours or are they just built for displaying colour? :o

    There are 3 main colour (bulb) types in hue lights;

    White only - just warm white that can be dimmed (closest to a regular light bulb)
    White Ambiance - all the spectrums of white (warm yellow white to colder blue like white and all in between)
    White & Colour Ambiance - these are the main bulbs, they do all that the above do as well as all the colours.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,386 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    There are 3 main colour types in hue lights;
    And, to judge from the websites I've seen selling them, about 5,000 ways to describe the three types - quite a lot of them overlapping.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,174 CMod ✭✭✭✭The Black Oil


    Thanks all.

    What do you do with things like hallway/landings and luddite household members :pac: who may press the wall switch and grumble when it's not working because it's controlled by the Hue, or what's the best approach to have there? Is that where the dimmer switch comes into play?

    Is there a difference between this B22 and this other one?

    Finally, is this on amazon.fr the same as this one on the UK site?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 19,015 ✭✭✭✭adox


    Thanks all.

    What do you do with things like hallway/landings and luddite household members :pac: who may press the wall switch and grumble when it's not working because it's controlled by the Hue, or what's the best approach to have there? Is that where the dimmer switch comes into play?

    Is there a difference between this B22 and this other one?

    Finally, is this on amazon.fr the same as this one on the UK site?

    I'm in the process of fitting my hallway and landing with Hue White Ambiance bulbs(3 in all). Knew it would drive my Mrs mad and had just thought about scheduling them to come on and off but seemed too clunky, so instead I'm getting two motion sensors too. No need to worry about switches or apps etc.


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,015 ✭✭✭✭adox


    Thanks all.


    Is there a difference between this B22 and this other one?

    Finally, is this on amazon.fr the same as this one on the UK site?

    The cheaper bulb is the white only bulb. It can be dimmed and turned on and off but has only one white colour.

    The dearer one is the newer white ambient bulb where it's still a white bulb but can go from warm white to cold white and all shades of white in between.

    On the hubs you've linked, yes they are both the same. Amazon.fr have a lot of Hue stuff on offer today.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 18,174 CMod ✭✭✭✭The Black Oil


    adox wrote: »
    I'm in the process of fitting my hallway and landing with Hue White Ambiance bulbs(3 in all). Knew it would drive my Mrs mad and had just thought about scheduling them to come on and off but seemed too clunky, so instead I'm getting two motion sensors too. No need to worry about switches or apps etc.

    How about time of year with that sort of thing, then, or day time where the lights are not needed because natural light is adequate? Do you just leave the motion sensors off and then go back to them in the evening? Presumably you can still schedule the hall - sensors or not - for security reasons, for instance.

    Btw, any issue accidentally ticking the wrong box in the Amazon.fr payment page? My French is pretty rusty. ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,015 ✭✭✭✭adox


    How about time of year with that sort of thing, then, or day time where the lights are not needed because natural light is adequate? Do you just leave the motion sensors off and then go back to them in the evening? Presumably you can still schedule the hall - sensors or not - for security reasons, for instance.

    Btw, any issue accidentally ticking the wrong box in the Amazon.fr payment page? My French is pretty rusty. ;)

    The motion sensors have light sensor in them too so won't come on when there's enough natural light.
    You can still schedule the lights or even turn them on with your phone when not at home.

    No problems with Amazon.fr. If I wasn't sure on something I just copied the text and and thranslated it to English in google. There's no free delivery with them so there will be a postage charge but still big savings to be made.


  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 14,786 Mod ✭✭✭✭AndyBoBandy


    "The wrote:
    Is there a difference between this B22 and this other one?

    Yes. The first one is a white only bulb (the cheapest offering), the second one is a white ambiance bulb which as I mentioned above does all the various tones of white.

    "The wrote:
    Finally, is this on amazon.fr the same as this one on the UK site?

    Yes, they are both the same, there are only 2 types of bridge, the gen 1 one which was round, and this gen 2 one which is square, the only difference is the gen 2 is Apple HomeKit enabled. (Hue were originally exclusive to Apple hence the manufacture/upgrade of a new bridge that's only difference was the HomeKit feature.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 619 ✭✭✭Advbrd


    Any idea on the disappeared "new" items that were due for release around now?


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,676 ✭✭✭Irish Gunner


    Ok got the starter kit for the Hue and tried out one light to test. Have posted in the Echo post but this is more questions around the Hue

     Did everything and downloaded the Hue App. Set up a room called ‘Living Room’ and can turn the light on and off via the app. Few questions on the app and the Hue
    •  Bought it from Amazon.es so has the European adapter plug that slots in with the 2 pins. Anywhere I can get the 3 pin that would slip in
    • [font=Calibri","sans-serif]How can I set up timers for lights to go on and off either at fixed times or at random times when I am not in the house.[/font]
    • [font=Calibri","sans-serif]How can I set it up so that I can change the lighting of the room to different times of the day or change the colour etc.[/font]

    Got the adapters in IKEA so bayonet plugs but just tested the one and these are my initial questions

     Any help appreciated

     cheers


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,015 ✭✭✭✭adox


    Ok got the starter kit for the Hue and tried out one light to test. Have posted in the Echo post but this is more questions around the Hue

     Did everything and downloaded the Hue App. Set up a room called ‘Living Room’ and can turn the light on and off via the app. Few questions on the app and the Hue
    •  Bought it from Amazon.es so has the European adapter plug that slots in with the 2 pins. Anywhere I can get the 3 pin that would slip in
    • [font=Calibri","sans-serif]How can I set up timers for lights to go on and off either at fixed times or at random times when I am not in the house.[/font]
    • [font=Calibri","sans-serif]How can I set it up so that I can change the lighting of the room to different times of the day or change the colour etc.[/font]

    Got the adapters in IKEA so bayonet plugs but just tested the one and these are my initial questions

     Any help appreciated

     cheers

    You should be able to pick up an adaptor in most places. Amazon etc Im sure do them.

    To schedule lights to com on and off at set times you need to set up "routines" in the app. Add a routine for them to come on and another for them to go off. You can also select what colour you want for it and what days etc.

    I have the front room set to come on in the morning in green and then back off just as I leave and a nice orange glow for the evening. Have the kitchen set to come on too.

    You can also set up geofencing which will turn the lights off when you leave(or when you are a certain distance from the house to be more precise)and back on when you arrive.

    You can also turn the lights on manually from your phone when away from home.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,880 ✭✭✭stesaurus


    Thanks all.

    What do you do with things like hallway/landings and luddite household members :pac: who may press the wall switch and grumble when it's not working because it's controlled by the Hue, or what's the best approach to have there? Is that where the dimmer switch comes into play?

    Is there a difference between this B22 and this other one?

    Finally, is this on amazon.fr the same as this one on the UK site?

    Maybe its a bug or intended but what I've noticed is that if you flick the light switch off and then on again it turns the hue bulb on to a default lighting.
    So for family etc. who won't understand they are smart tech they'd still manage to get them lighting.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,676 ✭✭✭Irish Gunner


    adox wrote: »
    Ok got the starter kit for the Hue and tried out one light to test. Have posted in the Echo post but this is more questions around the Hue

     Did everything and downloaded the Hue App. Set up a room called ‘Living Room’ and can turn the light on and off via the app. Few questions on the app and the Hue
    •  Bought it from Amazon.es so has the European adapter plug that slots in with the 2 pins. Anywhere I can get the 3 pin that would slip in
    • How can I set up timers for lights to go on and off either at fixed times or at random times when I am not in the house.
    • How can I set it up so that I can change the lighting of the room to different times of the day or change the colour etc.

    Got the adapters in IKEA so bayonet plugs but just tested the one and these are my initial questions

     Any help appreciated

     cheers

    You should be able to pick up an adaptor in most places. Amazon etc Im sure do them.

    To schedule lights to com on and off at set times you need to set up "routines" in the app. Add a routine for them to come on and another for them to go off. You can also select what colour you want for it and what days etc.

    I have the front room set to come on in the morning in green and then back off just as I leave and a nice orange glow for the evening. Have the kitchen set to come on too.

    You can also set up geofencing which will turn the lights off when you leave(or when you are a certain distance from the house to be more precise)and back on when you arrive.

    You can also turn the lights on manually from your phone when away from home.
    Thanks for this
    I have a 2 pin to 3 pin adapter but what I am looking for is the actual adapter for the Hue that slides into the plug searched Philips website and amazon could not find one
    Will check re the settings later
    Cheers


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