Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Posted on
Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:30 pm
petematheson offline
Posts: 847
Joined: Sep 14, 2014
Location: Southampton, UK

Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Hiya,

Any chance we can get the ability to use one of these switches as an input / trigger for Indigo?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B014 ... ge_o01_s00

I'd love to ignore the intended use by Philips and have each of the 4 switches toggle on/off of individual bulbs rather than controlling just one bulb or one scene.

Posted on
Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:27 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

I looked into adding support for the Hue switch when it first came out and then again a few months ago. Unfortunately, unless I missed something, or there's been a recent API change, the Hue hub doesn't yet have any way to notify 3rd party applications like the Hue Lights plugin when a button on a Hue switch or dimmer is pressed. So there's no way for the plugin to know when you use the switch or dimmer.

If that changes, I'll attempt to add support. If you find something that indicates there is a way to add support, let me know.

Posted on
Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:51 pm
Asconasny offline
Posts: 161
Joined: Jan 16, 2015

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Seems like that is possible now.
Somehow it works in homeseer plugin

http://www.vuyk.info/hs/jowihue/dimmerswitch

Would be great to be able to use this remote to control lights and trigger actions.

regards
Asconasny

Posted on
Sun Aug 14, 2016 5:03 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Hi Asconasny.

Thanks for sharing. I read the info on that Homeseer plugin. It only allows you to use Homeseer to configure the Hue bridge's handling of the Dimmer switch. As the description says:

Once configured correctly, the dimmer switches will perform configured actions independent of the plugin or Homeseer. All actions are solely performed by the bridge.


So the Dimmer still can't be used to control non-Hue devices in Homeseer. Unless I missed something there, there's nothing new that would allow the Hue Lights plugin to do the same in Indigo.

Posted on
Mon Aug 15, 2016 7:26 am
Asconasny offline
Posts: 161
Joined: Jan 16, 2015

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Thanks for the reply,

I found a homseer user that its using this feature via JowiHue plug-in, i asked him and he confirmed that he is using it to control devices/actions via triggers ..so i belive its doable.. but how... i dont know.

Here some screen shots
The first shows its possible to do short press, long press etc.

The second is switch off and on a device.

Maybe hue communicate i different way with homeseer... i dont now :)
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Posted on
Mon Aug 15, 2016 10:20 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I don't know exactly how the JawiHue plugin accomplishes that. I'll see if I can find any updated API information on the Hue developer site to explain how this might be done. I won't guarantee that it'll be possible in the Hue Lights plugin though.

Regards,
Nathan

Posted on
Thu Nov 02, 2017 12:27 am
veshman offline
Posts: 10
Joined: Aug 02, 2012

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Hi Nathan,

Wanted to see if you had any update on the use of a Philips Dimmer Switch?

If that's still not a good solution, what are your thoughts on Z-wave switches to trigger Hue scenes and events?

Thanks,

Bhavesh

Posted on
Fri Nov 03, 2017 2:36 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Hi Bhavesh.

No. No updates really. Much of the foundational code needed to get dimmer and Hue Tap data was written in order to check sensor values from the Hue Motion motion detector. So if I were to find a way to implement dimmer or Hue Tap sensing, I wouldn't need to write as much code. However, I'm not comfortable even attempting to add support without an actual piece of hardware like a dimmer or Hue Tap to test with. If someone donated a dimmer switch or Hue Tap, I'd be able to actually test usability with those devices. Still no guarantee of support (as testing may show it's not really feasible), but at least I'd be able to have data to show that it wasn't.

As for Z-Wave, there are a few advantages and disadvantages. First, Z-Wave uses a different frequency band than the Hue compatible switches (900 MHz band for Z-Wave and 2.4 GHz band for Hue compatible gear). In most cases, Z-Wave will have less interference issues, but is very dependent on the range of your Z-Wave interface on your computer. So if you have a recent Z-Wave interface connected to your computer, Z-Wave would probably be as reliable or more so. Second, even if I were to eventually add Hue Tap and/or dimmer switch support to the Hue Lights plugin, it'd never be as fast in Indigo as a Z-Wave switch or dimmer would be because of how Hue developers have to program applications to constantly ask the Hue hub if there were any sensor updates (rather than the hub sending updates to applications as soon as they take place). Third, one disadvantage of Z-Wave hardware is the reliance on Indigo to automate things (i.e. if your computer running Indigo lost power, the switches wouldn't be able to control anything else until the computer was back up, unlike with a Hue Tap or dimmer which talks directly to the Hue hub and can work without Indigo involved if need be).

Posted on
Fri Dec 29, 2017 1:31 pm
rycardo offline
Posts: 53
Joined: Jul 10, 2015

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

I’m writing this by memory, in case I miss something. If you use Home and Homebridge, you can have the Hue app add the switch show up in Home, then in it’s button actions have it run an Action Group from Indigo. Save for creating the Action Group in Indigo, Home handles the rest.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Posted on
Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:59 pm
kennybroh offline
Posts: 531
Joined: Dec 13, 2009
Location: Baltimore

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

I assume there's no news on this subject. Nathan-- I'd be willing to have Amazon send you one of these things--they're only $20. Your work is certainly worth that to me!

It would be very useful to be able to detect activity at the switch--that would convert it into a programmable, universal switch for any light protocol, at half the price of most other single use switches.

Posted on
Fri Feb 15, 2019 2:57 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Hi.

Nope. No news. Switches, especially Tap-style ones in particular, pose a challenge because of how applications (such as the Hue Lights plugin) must obtain sensor device updates (by repeatedly and frequently asking the Hue bridge "anything change yet?") So yes, having actual hardware in hand to test with would be helpful.

However, I'm moving to a new house this weekend so I won't have time to work on any updates to anything for at least a few weeks while getting settled into the new place and getting the home automation thing started again.

Posted on
Mon Mar 25, 2019 5:28 pm
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Version 1.7.0 Posted

  • Added support for the Hue Tap and Hue Dimmer Switches.
  • Changed all references to the "Hue hub" to "Hue bridge".

Posted on
Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:29 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Version 1.7.1 Posted

  • Added support for the Run Less Wire switch.
  • Fixed a bug that would prevent Hue Tap switches from appearing in the device selection list.

Posted on
Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:50 am
nsheldon offline
Posts: 2469
Joined: Aug 09, 2010
Location: CA

Re: Philips Hue Dimming Switch

Version 1.7.2 Posted

  • Fixed a bug with Run Less Wire switch support that would not allow you to select a Run Less Wire switch device in the device selection dialog.
  • Fixed a bug with Run Less Wire switch support that returned numerous errors when the plugin attempted to update the online state of the switch which has no online state.
  • Fixed a bug with Run Less Wire switch support that would not update switch states during initial plugin load.

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