I think it was just the software update process taking forever
Ha. Yep. Firmware updates for the battery operated Hue devices can take a really long time. It took all night for one of my Hue Dimmer Switches to complete a firmware update after I first paired it with the Hue bridge. The bridge seems pretty good about automatically updating firmware on each device, but it can take a long time for some of them.
...a bit tricky finding an area without much interference these days. Considering the Hue Hub needs to be hardwired - I don't have many spots in the house with ethernet cable runs
Same here. I see some lights go in and out of "disconnected" status, though they don't have many actual failed communications when sending on/off/dim commands. My bridge is probably too close to my router which I'm sure bombards the ZigBee signals, and my Mac mini is just under that with it's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. So yea, kinda hard to avoid interference.
QQ on these sensors and the Temp/Luminance sensors - are these relatively accurate? I am interested in using the temperature settings - I have 2 Hue Sensors side by side and there is a difference of 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit between them.. I also have a cheap weather station that seems to report about 1 degree more than both of the Hue sensors
For temperature, I actually bought a relatively inexpensive calibrated scientific temperature probe to test this (+/- 0.2 degrees accuracy). I found a variance of as much as +/- 3 degrees, so they're not super accurate (despite the misleading precision). That's why I included a "Calibration Offset" value in the Hue Lights plugin configuration dialog for the temperature sensors. If you know how far off a particular sensor is, you can at least get closer to accurate readings in Indigo by setting the Calibration Offset so Indigo shows a calibrated temperature value instead of the original value reported by the sensor. I wasn't able to find a similarly inexpensive reference luminance sensor to test the luminance accuracy, but I suspect the Hue sensor's accuracy is just so-so. It depends heavily on the angle at which the sensor is pointing. Point the sensor toward a light source, even from across the room, you'll get a notably higher reading than if it's pointed at a 45 degree angle from the light source.