zlacker

This is frustrating. I have invested a lot in the Hue ecosystem and have also recommended it to my friends based on the facts that you don't need an account to control it, it integrates easily with HA, and you can block it from the internet.

Now after one announcement it's something I want to get rid of fast and am ashamed of recommending it to my friends. I already block my Hue Bridge from accessing the internet, so that should keep it from updating so that the functionality stays the same.

Does anyone have any good app recommendations for Android? I use HA, but last time I checked you weren't able to configure the actual Hue scenes in it (and using HA scenes triggered Hue's spam limits).

>>guitar+(OP)
you basically need to recreate the scenes in home assistant and use the hue bridge as as dumb of a bridge as you can. There should be little to no things that home assistant scenes can't do that hue scenes can.

I'll still probably recommend hue light bulbs with the caveat that I don't recommend their bridge/app, compared to the other bulbs I've used they are much more reliable and handle color changes much more smoothly & consistently.

>>ender3+bN1
I haven't used anything but Hue, but I've been looking to get off them because they're so unreliable. Like clockwork, one or two bulbs go bad every year and will still be dimly lit even when "off", or worse still they will start flickering constantly when "off". It's kind of depressing if something with such poor quality is the most reliable option out there. :(

>>bigstr+aO1
Caseta stuff isn't perfect for every use case, but I have had absolutely 0 problems with mine.

>>altec3+HQ1
Seconded, my caseta stuff is the most reliable of all the smart home stuff I’ve used. It consistently just works 100% of the time after years

>>bigstr+aO1
The type of behavior you describe might be related to your electricity setup in combination with generic LED behavior.

I've had this behavior on a physical dimmer switch and an ordinary cheap LED. It couldn't be turned off. Somehow the dimmer always feeds it some power, which the LED responds to. If that low power is at the edge of its "activation power", you're effectively rapidly turning it on and off.

This kills any LED. LEDs die from actuations far before they die from hours in use. Hue bulbs are praised for their reliability, so something is off.

In my case, I changed the physical dimmer into an ordinary light switch. That fixed it.

>>bigstr+aO1
Anecdata but I have about 20 Hue bulbs of various color types I've owned for several years and have had no failures. I do wish the button switches wouldn't eat through coin cell batteries though.

>>ewoodr+R62
If the switch is draining battery too fast, that could be a software bug.

I have a bunch of these switches https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/TS0044.html#tuya-ts0044, and the solution of turning off the periodic battery reporting seems to have helped, I haven't had to change any of their batteries in many months. See https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/issues/14157#issuecomm.... Not sure if something similar can be done with original Hue switches or bridge (or whether it would help there).

One different kind of switch I have, which doesn't have this problem, has had the same battery in it since I bought it 2 years ago.

>>iterat+B12
Yeah unfortunately I haven't been able to find a fix. I know that dimmer switches are a common culprit, but we don't have them. And regular dumb LED bulbs have worked just fine in the same fixtures where we've had trouble with Hue. In principle I like the product a lot, so I'm hoping I can figure out what is going on at some point

>>guitar+(OP)
I can recommend this: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/

You can keep your Hue bulbs and devices but threw away the app, hub, and need to work with hue as an institution at all.

I got a $30 USB zigbee stick to replace the hub. works great!