GE Link bulbs report 'disconnected'

Posted on
Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:21 am
jkmonroe offline
Posts: 3
Joined: Dec 15, 2013

GE Link bulbs report 'disconnected'

I am demo'ing Indigo, and run my entire home on the Hue bridge and Hue Taps.

My GE Link bulbs are constantly registering in the interface as 'disconnected' even though they still work and respond as normal. Is there a way to 'ignore' that warning?

Posted on
Tue Jun 30, 2015 1:05 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: GE Link bulbs report 'disconnected'

Hi.

Sorry for the delay in replying.

The short answer is "no." The "disconnected" indicator shown in the Hue Lights plugin is taken directly from the Hue hub itself. If the hub says that the bulb is possibly unreachable (due to any number of factors), then the plugin reports that as "disconnected". It will still send commands to the hub for that bulb, obviously.

I've had Hue branded bulbs show the same thing, so it's not necessarily confined to GE lights. Usually if the hub is reporting that a bulb is possibly unreachable it either means power to the bulb has been disconnected or (more often) there is signal interference. Since Hue hardware works using the ZigBee protocol, it uses the same 2.4 GHz frequency band as all your 802.11b/g/n stuff, as well as Bluetooth and various cordless phones. If you have lots of Wi-Fi signals or Bluetooth stuff floating around, they'll interfere with ZigBee communications. ZigBee uses frequency hopping and spectrum sharing, but can still be overrun by high traffic or crowded signal spaces. You might try changing the ZigBee channel that the hub uses (accessible in the Hue app on iOS devices in the app settings for the hub). Be sure that all your bulbs are showing as reachable when changing the channels, otherwise the ones out of reach may not get the signal telling them to switch channels from the hub. You could also try re-orienting the hub to improve signal propagation to the bulbs that are showing as "disconnected". The single most important factor with any radio communication (especially higher frequencies like this) is elevation. The higher you can raise the hub, the better everything will receive the signal. Mount it high on a wall or place it on the top shelf of a bookshelf or similar. Also, keep it away from other signal generators such as Wi-Fi access points, hubs, routers, computers, etc. If they're very close, their signals could overload the "front end" of the ZigBee radio on the hub which effectively mutes any signal reception temporarily (it'd be like trying to listen for rain outside while sitting next to your stereo system speakers set to volume 10).

Page 1 of 1

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

cron