Hi all
I’m new here (be gentle) and I’m sure this has been asked before but nothing similar came up when I was searching.
I’m about to embark on my HA journey, coming from Hubitat. At the moment I have all lights going through a Hue hub so they can get updates and also easy for the family to control through the hue app. Also a backup that our google home can access directly if any problem with Hubitat.
Anyway, two things that annoy me currently is the sometimes loss of command (have to click switch/button several times for light to turn on) or the sometimes slow response (have a couple automations that change light colour for an event and then change back again but sometimes the commands get misaligned and the lights don’t show the correct sequence or miss some).
I have seen that MQTT has a QoS that should make sure the commands are received but I’m not sure if that is only the case for directly connected devices or if I can still go through a Hub.
Can anyone enlighten me?
Another reason I used the hub was due to being informed that the smart bulbs often messed with the zigbee mesh so should keep them separate. Not sure if that is a problem anymore.
I have my HUE bulbs and an LED strip working without issues via ZHA connected directly to my skyconnect (firmware updates through that I am not sure if that has been sorted since I last talked about it with others vs Zigbee2MQTT, but non major issue at the moment).
My entire setup has been very responsive and stable as long as I don’t use multipan mode since I have a dedicated thread border router for that instead leaving the skyconnect in zigbee only mode.
The only slight delay I have in activation is my toggle to enable motion sensor automation for the bedside lamps 10s after I get out of bed once my bed occupancy sensor clears (mainly done to prevent false toggles if I am turning in my sleep constantly some nights).
I think Hue bulbs are quite good repeaters so I doubt if there will be much problem there. However if you have anyone in your home who might still be using the wall switches that can confuse things. I have chosen to keep my bulbs on the Hue bridge as it gives me more options for controlling and using scenes that don’t need to be created on HA or Hubitat (yes I have both, as well as Apple Home - I am a tech addict).
That’s what decoupled mode is for if you have the option via a relay or a wall switch that supports the option so that you can leave power always on to the bulbs on the wire side.
Hello @HopsPopsAl,
I stopped using my Hue hub a couple of years ago when I went all in with Home Assistant. They can connect to HA without using the Hue hub. At the time I made the change I decided to go with Zigbee2MQTT (Z2M). My reasons for doing this were that at the time it could:
update the firmware in the bulbs
set the bulbs to not light up after a power outage (replicating an option that the Hue hub had)
Z2M had compatibility with more devices than ZHA (this may not be the case now)
After getting my Zigbee dongle and Z2M running in HA all I had to do was move the bulbs across. To do this I followed these steps:
start with the bulb nearest to the dongle to help the creation of he mesh network
delete/remove the bulb from the Hue app
put Z2M into joining/discovery mode and wait for the bulb to be found
once the bulb is discovered give it a name that makes sense to you
repeat the steps 2-4 with the rest of the bulbs
If updates are available for the bulbs you will get a notification in HA about this. Once you start the update process it can take 1-2 hours for the update to download. While this is happening you do not need to do anything. Just let it work its way through and the bulb will be updated once the download has completed. The bulb will carry on working while the download is taking place.
Yes, off and on, but I can’t blame any one part of home systems. It goes through good and bad phases. I think most of my neighbors are probably saturating the bandwaves with their devices. Currently wifi pretty bad too. I’ve learned to be relaxed about these things
Thanks.
I’m relaxed and take the approach of the benefits outweigh the issues. My wife on the other hand…
I’m actually worried about my 2.4GHz spectrum, I’ve got WiFi from me and the neighbours as well as 3 different zigbee channels used before I even start with HA
I have a strict two-channel zigbee limit imposed on myself, other than when switching from one hub to another. Yeah, very conscious about signal conflicts.
I’m now wondering if part of the lag (which is not consistent) is due to Hue no longer being 100% local. Every now and then it needs to authorise with your account, which is a change that has been made relatively recently
