Pairing Hue Bulbs with zigbee Controller. Any Downsides

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So I’ve seen some of the posts about using an MQTT bridge, etc to contoll hue and other zigbee bulbs, but I was wondering if there were any downsides to just pairing hue bulbs with a standard zigbee controller such as the HUSBZB-1. For example, can I still do color loop without a hue hub?

Also, If I try it out using hue thief, and then decice I really want them back on the hue hub, can they be added back? I do also have a couple of hue dimmer controllers. That’s the only downside I can see at the moment. Well also some of the third part apps would not be supported. But other than those two, anything else?

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Hi,

Was this ever answered? I have a similar scenario (First Generation Hue Hub + Bulbs).

The signal from a zigbee button to home assistant when using the hue integration seems unreliable. (it passes through zigbee, to hassio, to internet, to kevo cloud provider, back to hub, then to bulb, can’t imagine why…) Is it associating the bulbs simply with a Home Assistant node + zigbee controller an approach able route?

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I actually ended up doing this about 3-4 months ago. If you have a hue remote it’s super easy. The hue remote can be used to “unpair” hue bulbs. The current zigbee intergration handles the hue bulbs and remotes very well. I have white bulbs, color bulbs, light strips and a couple remotes and they all work perfectly. I have by hub turned off and sitting in a drawer.

I did have to write a few automations to handle some of the hue functions. One for the remotes. I only use it to turn on/off a group of lights, and then I have another automation for the dimmer buttons to turn the brightness up/down by 10% per push, and it works if the button is held down too.

I created another automation for color loop, which is pretty darn close to the hue color loop. I will say that I rarely used color loop before, and still rarely use it now (more just to show off what it can do), so close enough is just fine.

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is there any stumbling blocks or weird procedures that you have to use to pair the bulbs to the zigbee stick?

i guess what i’m really asking is what was the procedure you used to pair them?

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I did this to reset the bulbs

Bulbs can also be reset if you have an official Philips Hue Dimmer Switch at home. With the light in question powered on, hold the Dimmer Switch close to it and hold down the On and Off buttons together for 10 seconds or so. When the light blinks and then stops blinking, the bulb is reset.

Then i just went into zigbee and had it discover the reset bulbs

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Thanks for the replies. I followed through with the hue-thief route and so far the bulbs are functioning directly without so many hops. It was a bit of work. I am glad to see there is an alternative route.

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Do you happen to have any idea if using the remote to “reset” the bulbs would also work on a Philips Hue Light Fixture? And am I understanding correctly that resetting with the remote would then allow me to pair them to my HUSBZB-1?
I have one of these:
https://www.philips-hue.com/en-us/p/hue-white-ambiance-fair-ceiling-light/4100248U9 I bought a long time ago, and it and one single bulb are the last things on my Hue Bridge… I was going to try hue-thief for the bulb, but really didn’t want risk bricking the fixture with hue-thief…

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Just in case someone stumbles on this thread as I did today.

Hue bulbs (at least the ones I have got) can be reset from Hue App. Just have to connect the bulb to the hue app (via BlueTooth) and then we get a reset option for that bulb.

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That might work for bulbs with Bluetooth supports included, otherwise I doubt this can work at all w/o a Hue hub or a remote.

My main concern to drop the Hue hub in favor of a “zigbee stock” is the software upgrade. In the past ~2y many if not all of my devices got at least 1 update if not more like 2-4.

zwavejs2mqtt can upgrade zwave devices’ firmware, I believe this feature is also part of the 500 series standard. Not sure if zigbee has firmware upgrade part of its standard.

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I just did this, and no downsides I can see.
BUT…
I did find rather challenging to get the bulb into Zigbee pairing mode, then figured it out:
So, I just bought a 4 pack plus hub at Lowes on clearance today. I don’t want the hub, but the two boxes of just two bulbs were missing the…bulbs. So I got 4 plus the hub for the price of 2 bulbs…
anyhow, now I want to connect to HA.

I fiddled and faddled, and felt like people were glossing over the important stuff.
or
I was not “listening”.

Here is how you do it:

  1. download the Hue app
  2. connect your bulb to the Hue app (this will be via BT)
  3. once connected, if you stay on that screen simply tap the bulb you just added, or tap Lights, then the 3 dots in the top left, Light Settings
  4. put HA in discovery for Zigbee
  5. now tap RESET not Delete…RESET (this does a factory reset)
    Within seconds the bulb will flash, HA finds it and PRESTO!

It really is that simple.