What I’m trying to do is automate an outdoor light on a lamp post that is currently controlled by a photocell.
It’s a dusk/dawn thing where it turns on when dark out and off when light. So this means the power to the smart bulb is off during the day and it disappears from the hue hub. I’m not sure if this is causing issues with the link when it gets powered back up or not.
The wiring for said light is tucked into the post and the photocell is poking out through a hole in the post.
This makes it relatively impossible to rewire and use anything rated for outdoor such as a smart plug to control it.
Right now I am trying a smart bulb that is part of the hue ecosystem and it is hit or miss. More miss than hit sadly. Not sure if it’s because I don’t have a ton of these bulbs or what. I plan to move another bulb closer to the location of the lamp post, but in the meantime…
Can anyone in this community of thinkers help me figure an alternative way to automate this light bulb?
You could add some smart relay inside the post or place junction box on outside and mount the relay in that (paint black).
Where is this connected to house power. Add the smart switch there
I could add a smart relay of sorts in the post if there were room…there isn’t, but it wouldn’t be rated for outdoor and the weather either way. I’ll have to think about the box. It might be possible.
Unfortunately this lamp post is tapped off of a feed that goes to another building on the property. So no go there either. I can’t be switching off the power to that building…let alone put all of its load on a smart switch. I did kinda have in mind upgrading the power to that building so maybe in the future I could do something like that. Just not now.
I might just try this.
It may give me some insight on whether the power loss is preventing it from being seen by the hue hub when it comes back on at night.
Well yes when it is off of course.
What I’m wondering is if it is affecting the operation of the bulb on the zigbee/hue network when power is reapplied.
It doesn’t always work when it’s powered up so I don’t know if that is because of it being turned off for the daylight hours or because I don’t have any other hue bulbs real close to the lamp post or a combination of both. Don’t know much about the workings of the hue.
.