It definitely does. I am new to HA but I’ve been through probably 15 drivers with my bulbs previous to this last change and every single time the experience has been different.
I have TP link bulbs that you can program to have circadian built in from the native app. Because all my connections were cloud based, the lights were doing this on their own with simple on/off commands. Whereas when I switched to HA with a local connection bypassing the circadian setting in the cloud, HA would just turn on whatever was last. When I added the AL layer on top of it it worked great as long as I was only using HA. While I was migrating 300 devices, I still had TP link connections straddled in Alexa and Hubitat that were using cloud connections so if any automations were still being ran from my old hub or if I would use Alexa to turn on the lights, they would come on in their native circadian, but then HA would detect the light on and then adjust it. It definitely wasn’t ideal but for me it was only temporary while I had multiple connections/configs for bulbs.
I’ve been enjoying the AL a lot. I looked back at webcore and so much of my custom work was just simulating this behavior. HA and AL do this effortlessly.
I’m new to AL and I have a bit of a hard time understanding this :
When only_once is set to false my bulbs only adapt with the “regular” transition time when I switch them on. They do not adapt at the initial_transition time, which means when I switch on a light at nighttime it will light up at 100% and then dim over 30s.
When I set only_once to true it works as expected but then my lights are not adapted throughout the day…
Anyone has an idea as to what may cause this? Or maybe this is expected behaviour?
I turn them on using a “regular” light switch. When they are off they are unreachable for HA. Would this function work only when turning them on digitally?
So to get this working I have no choice but to buy smart switches or an Alexa echo dot for all of my bulbs? Any cheap switches I could buy for less used rooms like toilets?
Not smart switches, just leave the regular light switch on and control the smart bulb with another device. I use Xiaomi wireless buttons. They are really cheap but you will need a ZigBee transceiver like a Conbee 2 or similar.
Thanks a lot for your recommendations! My wife hates you
In France the Xiaomi buttons cost the same as hue dimmer switches (18 vs 20€) so I just bought 4 hue dimmers for high use rooms and 4 Xiaomi motion sensors (which are way cheaper than hue sensors) for less used rooms and corridors
I use these ones where I want local control at the wall switch location: Philips Hue Dimmer Switch, White, Dimmer Switches - Amazon Canada
You remove the regular switch and wire power to the light permanently on. The included plate covers the box and provides a magnetic mount to hold the removeable battery powered switch.
Sorry, I really should have also recommended the IKEA 5 button remotes. I have a few of those and love them. Having 5 buttons means you can set them up to control a few things from the one location. Thery are pretty cheap too.
If I adjust a light’s brightness in HA, I find it very slowly (over a minute) returns back to the AL setting. Take back control is enabled, so I assumed that would mean manual changes would stop AL. Anyone else having the same issue? Is there a workaround?
Has the light that was changed been marked as “manually controlled”?
NM, I fired up a test and if I adjust the color_temp of a light, manual_control: gets set with the entity_id I changed. Not so if I just adjust the brightness though…
I’ve found the issue. I was changing a light (light.living_room_main) in HA Lovelace, but AL was configured to look at the hue group the light belonged to (light.living_room).
I hadn’t realised as there is only one light in that group.
Hey! I have been loving the integration for about a year. However, I have come to the conclusion that my preferred settings are dimming too far too early in the evening during winter. I am looking for ideas on how to keep the brightness and colour-temp constant when reaching some level, say 3500K, until a given time, and then continue with the sunset.
My current plan was to run an automation to check whether the level to freeze at (3500K) is reached, and then disable AL. However, I think there may be nicer solutions?
Just so you know, you can get Hue dimmer adapters that replace the old wall switches. No rewiring or eletrician needed for the task, you just replace the wall switch housing with the adapter and snap the dimmer on top of it.
Samotech sells their SM200 adapters in Amazon. You can also 3D-print those adapters yourself. (honestly, the 3D-printed ones are way better and easier to install).
