Support for Hue switches (tab/ dimmer)

Feature Requests
21

What’s not really clear for me is what the advantages are of the different examples in this thread against just creating a sensor based on the rest platform. I have a sensor configured as below which I can use for automations. I have the polling now set on 2 seconds now but this can be set lower. Can someone explain what the advantages would be of the other methods against the method I am using?

- platform: rest resource: http://192.168.1.8/api/PUT-API-USER-HERE/sensors/3 value_template: '{{ value_json.state.buttonevent }}' name: 'Hue dimmer' scan_interval: 2

22

Can you some more examples on how you use that? In automations etc?

23

I turn my kitchen lights on when the on button is pressed. The Hue app has a limit on two rooms, so in this way I can switch additional rooms with the same button or other lights on. I also do this for switching the lights off. I plan to use the switch as a sort of night/kill switch but haven’t looked into this yet. Below the example of the switch on automation.

[code]alias: 004 - Kitchenlights on on Hue dimmer press

trigger:

  • platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.hue_dimmer
    to: “1002”

action:

  • service: script.turn_off
    data:
    entity_id: script.timer_nachtlampje
  • service: light.hue_activate_scene
    data:
    group_name: “Keuken”
    scene_name: “Volle sterkte”[/code]
24

Thanks! I’m going to try your solution as well.

25

Hi. I just saw Hue Tap switches for $30 AUD at my local (Townsville, Australia) Officeworks, so I wondered how integration for them was going?

I don’t have any Hue products, but I was hoping that the Tap switches’ signals could be picked up by something other than the Hue bridge. Does anyone have anything for this?
Thanks.

26

Take this hue mqtt Bridge. This sniffen hue signals and u can add them to your automations. Just read above how to do that

27

for the benefit of anyone/everyone, I can unreservedly recommend the hue sniffer link on github posted by @thundergreen above for using phillips hue dimmer/tap in HASS

I’ve had it running with 3 hue dimmer remotes for a month now with zero problems. literally nothing’s gone awry.

pros:
very simple install
very cheap cost of entry - £20 per dimmer remote here in the UK
(i suspect) the dimmers will hold their (crazy cheap) value for reselling if upgrading to a more permanent system
physically none-destructive due to stick-on fascia
distinct on/off/hold commands for all 4 buttons
WAF is sky high!

cons:
operational latency vs network congestion / hue hub spamming
potential longer term false economy against more integrated solutions

Seriously, this is may be the most effective upgrade/development to my HASS in the year-or-so I’ve been tinkering. having 12 commands available from the tiny, light, aesthetically acceptable dimmer remote is incredibly liberating.

The delay in actions due to polling frequency, whilst noticable, is by no means a dealbreaker.

To anyone already with a philips hub, considering a punt on this system, I say go for it!

28

Thanks for this recommendation. Does it require the hub, or can the tap/dimmer switches be used on their own without a hub?

29

No you will need a hub for this to work

2 Likes
30

Have you tried capturing long press commands also? Just set it up based on your recommendation and seems to be working great. I’d like to capture long presses though but cant see how to ignore the first button press and just capture the x003 code

31

I just checked the prices and the Hue Dimmer switch is $34, so even though the Tap is on a good special ($30 instead of $79), the dimmer seems a better option.
I was still hoping that it might be possible to use these without a bridge/hub and intercept Zigbee signals instead of whatever is used to read from the bridge.

32

Hi @wmn79 ! Thanks for the idea of rest sensor. I’ve implemented and it works well as far as I control the light only with Hue dimmer because dimmer change his state between 1002 and 4002 with every light switch. Problem starts when I use first hue dimmer to turn off light (hue dimmer changes his state to 4002), then another switch or automation turn on my light (hue dimmer still in state 4002) and then I try to turn off light with hue dimmer - hue dimmer sensor change state from 4002 to 4002 and nothing happen as system doesn’t really see sensor state change. If I press then turn on light and turn off, switch shortly change state from 4002 to 1002 and back - light turning off. Any idea how to solve the issue?

33

I moved to a different solution for switching my kitchen lights with the dimmer and that is by programming some extra rules on the Hue bridge with the “all 4 hue” Android app. This works without issues for my purpose of switching an extra Hue room with the dimmer.

What I did before that is to also create a rest sensor for the last updated state in the dimmer and had that as trigger. In this way it always triggers on a press on any of the dimmers buttons. Then you need to find the right conditions, for example state of the lights and the “buttonevent 4002 or 1002”. The only issue with this is that when you do this quickly your light state in Home Assistant might not be updated yet since the bridge is only polled for the light state every 30 seconds I believe.

Hope this is helpful, good luck.

34

@michael

A hack that does exactly what you want is described here.

Good luck :slight_smile:

4 Likes
35

Thank you, totally what I need. Going to try it tonight :grinning:

36

Im ordering another Hue remote as they are pretty handy and thinking about turning my current solution into a custom remote component. Any interest in this or anybody want to collaborate?

37

I’d certainly make use of a HASS component for these remotes. I’m no programmer but i could help with testing.

1 Like
38

is there any easy chance to install the hue-mqtt-bridge under hass.io?

39

Custom component on Hue motion sensors + remotes: custom component

2 Likes
40

Hi, sorry to reopen a so old post, but I have a question about this:
is the the polling is necessary even with the Hue bridge? If so, is it possible to poll the bridge so that the network will not get congested?
Thanks!

1 Like