I am just wanting to be able to turn them on or off at the moment but cant find any way to do so through HA. I figured by now there would be a way to at least pair to them and switch on or off.
Home Assistant itself doesn’t pair with Bluetooth devices - you need an integration to handle it.
The existing Hue integration using the Hue bridge is Zigbee, or you can control then directly with ZHA.
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I know my android phone doesn’t support the zigbee protocol or have the hardware for it, yet if I install the app on my phone, turn off mobile data and wifi, launch the app and without creating an account I can add/pair with the lights via bluetooth and control them. This means that my phone is pairing directly with the lights via bluetooth, not zigbee. I am just trying to understand why, if this is happening directly between my phone and the lights, what is preventing HA from doing the same using bluetooth.
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Let me clarify, I understand bluetooth hardware is required for HA to connect to a bluetooth device, in my case I have a Pi with it integrated. Just thought it would have been worked on by now.
Many newer Hue lights support both Bluetooth and Zigbee.
If you want to use Bluetooth to control them from HA, you need the hardware running HA to have a physical Bluetooth transceiver and you need some integration that knows how to use the Bluetooth transceiver to communicate with Hue lights.
Is there a reason why you specifically want to use Bluetooth instead of Zigbee (which offers you more Hue features than Bluetooth, I believe), or are you just assuming that you should use Bluetooth because that’s how you control the lights from your phone?
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Given that more devices natively come with bluetooth built in, I was asking what the reason was for not current support. As far as the Hue app is concerned and the lights I haver (6" recessed lights), I can control warmth, rgb, and on and off all locally via bluetooth. I am aware of the zigbee support, just inquiring why not bluetooth.
Probably because Zigbee is a much more common protocol for devices like this. (There is a reason why Hue’s own hub uses Zigbee to communicate with Hue’s own devices.)
Some quick Google searches also suggest that Hue’s bluetooth protocol is not documented.
Home Assistant is a free and open source software project. If there is something you want supported that isn’t supported, the reality is your only recourse is to accept the lack of support or contribute code that will offer the support.
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Bluetooth is designed for smaller networks and uses a point-to-point network . Zigbee is a large network design and uses a mesh network.
There is a lot more points to compare, but the mesh type network is better for coverage and speed when applied to HA devices.
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Many of us run HA on old commodity hardware, like I run it on an old linux box. Which happens to have both bluetooth and wifi, and is in the same room with all my hue (bluetooth enabled) lights.
Adding an extra hub or zigbee adapter seems like an unnecessary complication considering the hardware running HA can physically connect via Bluetooth to all the HUE lights.
Most folks do not have all their devices limited to one room. Bluetooth isn’t ideal for covering larger areas. The use of Zigbee and ZWave by device manufacturers is proof of that.
In addition, the device running HA isn’t the issue at hand. Strength of signal, number of repeaters, frequency issues and response time are where the focus should be when creating a home network of devices in my opinion.
The use of Zigbee and ZWave by device manufacturers is proof of that.
The fact that newer bulbs come with BT/BLE functionality is proof that there are also folks that don’t want to bother with purchasing extra hubs and orchestrating products like Zigbee to control something that they can directly and readily connect to via a very widely available and known protocol.
Sure Bluetooth has its issues like interference, weak signal penetration, frequency saturation, etc, but it’s the most widely available protocol for a reason. That’s why our commodity hardware like laptops, TVs, headphones, AND newer gen bulbs all support bluetooth, and HA itself has many bluetooth/BLE integrations.
I don’t think anyone is saying that you can’t have Bluetooth support for anything or that we shouldn’t have one type of Bluetooth support in HA or another. The point is that the balance of supply and demand clearly hasn’t prompted someone in the community to step up to write the code. Until that happens, there won’t be support.
But also: though I am no expert on the market segment to which Bluetooth is appealing where Zigbee alone wouldn’t be, I am not so sure that that segment overlaps very closely with people who are willing to go the length to get Home Assistant installed, configured, and running. I suspect a large proportion of those folks–clearly not all, as this thread itself demonstrates, but a large proportion–appreciate the benefits of Zigbee in this space. So that might at least in part explain why the notion hasn’t gained enough traction to become a supported product.
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I am not so sure that that segment overlaps very closely with people who are willing to go the length to get Home Assistant installed, configured, and running
Absolutely, but counter argument is that there are plenty of peeps that want to be as minimalistic in their setup as possible.
If I can connect to all my devices via an old linux box without purchasing extra dongles, hubs, raspberry pis or whatever other bloat, I’d very much prefer to do so, and seems OP was following the same line of thinking.
The point is that the balance of supply and demand clearly hasn’t prompted someone in the community to step up to write the code.
That’s sad, because the BLE enabled hue lights are programatically discoverable and controllable, although the api is not well (at all) documented, but I managed to programmatically run rudimentary features like start/stop and changing the hue relatively easily. It’s another story nicely integrating it in HA…
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No one is arguing that Bluetooth doesn’t have it’s place in Home Automation, but even Hue clearly states the differences between BT and ZigBee on their website. In the end, the devices integrated with HA are based on the user’s need.
Stick with Bluetooth if that’s what works for you! The advice given in the other posts were simply helping other users understand the difference.
Two major points:
if you control your smart lights via Bluetooth, you can only connect up to 10 lights in one room.
With Bluetooth control, you’re limited to only being able to operate your smart lights within Bluetooth range — about 30 feet or 10 meters.
Hue’s advice from their website
