Is it necessary to use a Philips Hub when using a Raspberry Pi 3 to control Hue lights?

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Very new to this. Is it necessary to use a Philips Hub to control Phillips Hue lights when using a Raspberry Pi 3? I had thought the Raspberry Pi 3 could take the place of the Philips Hub, but in reading more on it it seems that you need the Hub AND the Raspberry Pi 3.

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A lot of the components like the Philips Hue lights will need the hub. So you’ll hook your lights, etc up to the hub then connected the hub to HASS. I started using the Wink hub because there are a lot of other technologies that can connected through the Wink hub. This will help with not having to purchase a new hub for every new lights or component you have.

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Would the Wink Hub control the Philips Hue? Thanks for the incredible response time. My Raspberry Pi 3 comes today and I bought two Philips Hue lamps to possibly use.

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I thought you needed the Phillips hub but when I look at the options in the Wink hub I can see an option for Philips light. If you go with the Wink hub, I’d look into the Wink 2 hub.

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What is the reasoning behind this recommendation? Other than Bluetooth LE I don’t see any new radios and reading their blog on the V2 hub I didn’t see anything that really made me want to spend the extra $30.00 on a v2 hub.

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I believe it’ll connect to more wireless technology and supports 2.4 and 5GHz networks. I believe the response time is faster as well.

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I forgot the 5GHz support.

Is the response time a problem on the v1 hub? I know there is a delay on the v1 hub through HA but that is due to it communicating through the cloud. Is the v2 hub faster through the cloud (doesn’t seem likely) or just has a faster processor so they say its faster.

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You are reaching the limit of my Wink 2 knowledge. If I remember correctly v1 has to go through the cloud and v2 can do it locally.

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Looks like there is still a delay with v2.

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Here’s the upgrades on the 2.0 hub -

Faster processor
Improved radios
More local control
Ethernet port for direct connection to your router
5 Ghz Wifi support
Actual BT LE support (1.0 hub package touted this but it was really only used in setup)

You will need a Hue Hub. Wink does not control the Hue lights directly; it only communicates with the API.

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The Wink Hub 2 does have the ability to do local processing, the delay is more so due to the fact that HA’s current implementation uses the cloud. It may be that it need not, but that is something that will have to be further investigated. We should be able to be as responsive as the Wink app if Wink has allowed for devs to send commands to the device as they are doing.

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So what is the purpose of getting the Raspberry Pi 3? Or is the advantage just using the Raspberry Pi 3 as a stand alone server for Home Assistant? Can’t the Wink Hub control everything? Thanks!!

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The Pi runs HomeAssistant (and any other third party programs that work with it, like the harmony-api, homebridge or HADashboard. In my case, it also runs Open ZWave control panel and hosts my ZWave USB stick. This allows me to use devices that aren’t currently supported on my Wink Hub, like my Aeotec Smart Switches and Multisensors.

My Wink incorporates my GE Link bulbs, my GoControl motion and door/window sensors, My LeakSmart sensor and my Schlage lock. While I have Hue lights and they are part of my Wink system, I control them directly at the Hue hub now with HomeAssistant. Same thing with my ecobee.

HomeAssistant serves as a way of taking all of these great device platforms and tying them together in a way that you could never do with just the platforms and their apps alone.

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Customization is the key reason for using Home Assistant for my purposes, something I’m still working on as I’m very new to it. I also have a IR blaster connected to my raspberry which allows it to be my universal remote.