Niko friends of hue switch integration

Third party integrations
1

Hello.

I have bought one of these:

https://www.niko.eu/en/campaign/philips-hue

It works really well with the Hue app, although even better with the eve app which lets you use double click and triple click on the buttons.

I can set rules up in the app so that if a light is on, another click on the same button turns it off etc so the switch is mega useful.

My issue is I would really like to connect it HA so that the buttons could maybe start a sonos playing, or operate plug sockets etc but because the switch is hubless/powerless etc HA does not discover it at all?

Unless anyone knows a way of getting the switch to be detected by HA I was wondering if I could create dummy hue lights somehow in HA? some sort of emulator or similar and then use HA to set my sonos play state to on if this imaginary light is on?

Anyway, any thoughts or help would be great.

4 Likes
2

Anyone able to help?

3

I’m interestted in this as well.

I suppose if a third party app like Eve can detect the switch it should be possible for another zigbee controller to detect it.

Question is if it is zigbee complient and how / when it activates.
I don’t (yet) have of these so can’t comment any further unfortunately.

4

Yeah a friend says it will be zigbee too so it’s whether it’s worth the risk of buying some sort of zigbee controller / detector to try and pick up whatever signal it sends then code these.

Will see what options are out there

5

I’m interested in the friends of hue switches but not working with HA is a dealbreaker for me. If anyone knows how to make these switches work with HA I would love to hear it

6

I have this working using the hue custom sensor. There’s a thread on here about the custom sensor. The switch is amazing.

7

https://hacs.xyz/
Start with the above link to install HACS. I use hassio (not regular HA). When installation is done it should show up in the hassio menu as community. Start HACS and install Hue sensor custom component. This will make the friends of hue switches available to HA. Search for entities named sensor.switch_name

States:
‘left_upper_press’
‘left_upper_release’
‘left_lower_press’
‘left_lower_release’
‘right_lower_press’
‘right_lower_release’
‘right_upper_press’
‘right_upper_release’
‘double_upper_press’
‘double_upper_release’
‘double_lower_press’
‘double_lower_release’

2 Likes
8

To sum up:
What hardware is needed?

  • Niko friends of hue switch
  • zigbee USB stick for rpi
  • hue light or other hassio controllable light?
9

Hardware:

  • I use Philips hue lights (any type will do)
  • Philips hue bridge V2
  • Niko friends of hue switch
10

depends what you want to do. The switch can control anything as long as you have a Niko switch and a zigbee stick.

Mine controls my sonos for example

11

Hi SarumaN, thank you for this info. I’m still new in hass.io but am I correct that if I install Hassio + HACS + Hue sensor custom component that I won’t need additional hardware (aside from the Niko Hue Switch)? In other posts I read that you would also need a Zigbee USB stick?

I would like to be able to add the Niko Hue Switch to HA so that I can use I to control other automatons.

12

You either need a zigbee stick (according to other users) or a philips hue bridge (part of my setup). Zigbee devices always need a coordinator (bridge) in the mesh network. Most devices (switches, lights) are also routers at the same time.
Zigbee network image

13

When you connect the Niko switch with a Hue Bridge you can control scenes in Home assistant using the “Hue sensor custom component” mentioned above. However you will need 2 buttons to controle the light (on/of) and only have 2 buttons left on the right side of the switch.

using the deconz app with a conbee , I was able to toggle light on/of & dim up/down with only 1 of the 4 switches and connect the other 3 with other scenes or automations in Home Assistant after tracing what every switch would trigger in het HA.
For example a trigger for an automation using the left upper button:

event_data:
  event: 1000
  id: friends_of_hue_switch
  unique_id: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
event_type: deconz_event
platform: event

depending on the unique_id of your switch

1 Like
14

My setup turns the light on or off depending on its current state.

Button one turns on or off my main bedroom light. Button two turns on or off bedside lights and button three plays or pauses sonos.

15

how did you connect fohswitch to conbee ? which button did you press?

16

Depends on your zigbee channel. Check the Deconz faq on how to configurate. For channel 15 it is the top left ( hold it for 10sec), and then press lower left and top right together once.

17

thanks channel 15 did it

18

Tip for anybody who is interested. I came upon this message looking for a method to make an existing “dumb” Niko wall Switch smart. Because of the limitations of the Niko friends of hue switch I ended up buying the Shelly 1 WiFi Switch for € 15. This is a relay that can be mounted behind your existing Niko Switch. Installation was fast and simple.

1 Like
19

I can highly recommend the deconz setup. I bought a conbee II stick on Amazon and paired my Niko friends of hue switch to it. Some essential info to support the pairing process can be found here:Switch orientation info provided by dresden elektronik and here: Phoscon app zigbee channels. What you need to do is press the right button on the FOH switch that matches your zigbee channel. To confirm this channel you need to briefly press two other FOH buttons simultaneously. If you omit this last step the deconz_event will not show up in HA. It took me a while before I got my head around this one (first tested a regular battery powered HUE dimmer which works really well). Main advantage compared to a regular hue bridge is that HA polls the hue bridge (slow-ish) and the conbee solution is event based (much faster). I am planning to do double clicks etc.

1 Like
20

Hello SarumaN,
Thx for your tips about the Niko friends of hue. I follow every steps :

  • check the channel : ok (it s 15 for me)

  • i push the button 1 (pairing-friends-of-hue-switch)(i ll do in Other --> Add switch in Phoscon integreted in HA by Deconz add-on (new switch is active for 3 minutes).

  • i push briefly buttons 2 and 3 simultaneously. (i ll do in Other --> Add switch in Phoscon integreted in HA by Deconz add-on (new switch is active for 3 minutes).

I can see my switch in Deconz , the integration seems to be ok in HA (i can see the switch in HA but impossible to make an automation and i don t see the deconz_events… I m a little confused.

Any idea ?

Thank you and take care !

Alex