Philips Hue Bridge or SmartThings Hub?

Hardware
1

Hey,

Just getting started with home automation and HA, which I’ve installed on a Pi.

Planning on getting Philips Hue bulbs, and the obvious question is do I need the Hue Bridge? If that’s a yes, then would opting for the SmartThings Hub be a better choice for the long run, provided the SmartThings Hub works the same as the Hue Bridge.

Thanks for all the answers.

2

If you’re running on 220v you can also give these a go: http://www.gearbest.com/smart-light-bulb/pp_278478.html?

I just ordered a few, they have good reviews.

1 Like
3

Unless you want all your lights to stop working if the internet goes offline, I’d stay away from smartthings. hue bridge you talk to directly from HASS. SmartThings goes out to their cloud service.

I’m completely ditching Smartthings as it is unreliable I personally am going with Zwave as I can control all of it without using any special hub and opens up door sensors and motion sensors and a thermostat that all will work perfectly if the internet goes out.

If you really want to go with zigbee lights, then HUE bridge is the way to go as HASS will send commands directly to the bridge.

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4

Aleary,

If you have not bought a home automation controller for your PI, I suggest that you invest in the Norket HUSBZB-1. This is a USB Zwave & Zigbee controller. I am running this USB stick on a PI 3 and I am able to controller Z wave and Zigbee devices in HA. You can get it from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/GoControl-Linear-HUSBZB-1/dp/B01GJ826F8

As a heads up, the ZHA (Zigbee) component is fairly new and does support all types of Zigbee devices. However, it does support lights and binary sensors. For more information about the ZHA compoment please visit the following links below.

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5

Thanks, this helps.

6

Thanks @Mike_Prophete,

I did not know I needed a home automation controller for the Pi… this is all new to me. I was under the impression the Home Hub was a necessity and HA took care of that part. Many thanks for the heads up.

Going through the links and the list of compatible devices, more reading yes, but it will help me.

Thanks again.

7

Thanks @timgray,

Thanks for the information about the lights going out… that’s certainly useful and also important to know.

I’ll read up on Z-Wave… seems to me I’m not completely aware of all the components that are needed including a home automation controller for the Pi to control things.

Thanks again for the heads up, appreciate it.

8

@timgray - I know. I just got an echo dot and its ironic that it cant do anything without a net connection. Forget cloud services it wont do anything. They ought to have some little “cloud offline resilience”

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Are you sure? I thought that the mqtt communication with ST was all local, at least on Smartthings v2