Philips Hue Lighting - owners thread

[Heartworm]

Working now, exact same process but I used the app on android rather than ios, showing in Google home too.

[dickymint]

stevensdrs said:

Harfi88 said:

Mine paired with the hub at the other side of the house first time . I tried the colour gu10 and they won’t fit in my wall lights with the cover on so they are going back. When I tried to control them the colours were slightly rubbish especially on the white scale.

I was going to buy the bulbs but their physical size put me off. Guess I was right not to bother. The plug is great though, so far, and is working outside in the garden switching the xmas tree on and off through an Alexa routine. For what it costs it's amazing value.

Didn't I read somewhere that their GU10's had been redesigned to overcome this?

[Harfi88]

stevensdrs said:

I was going to buy the bulbs but their physical size put me off. Guess I was right not to bother. The plug is great though, so far, and is working outside in the garden switching the xmas tree on and off through an Alexa routine. For what it costs it's amazing value.

Yeah they are massive didn’t realise until I got home, I bought an e14 for a table lamp just set to a fixed random colour they work well for that.

[stevensdrs]

Heartworm said:

Working now, exact same process but I used the app on android rather than ios, showing in Google home too.

Well done! All things apple are the devils work and should be avoided. IMHO.

[phope]

Thanks for the heads up on the Lidl smart plugs - bought 3 in Aberdeen today (plenty in stock along with their other kit too) - work perfectly and added to the Hue app painlessly

[Heartworm]

dickymint said:

Didn't I read somewhere that their GU10's had been redesigned to overcome this?

The Phillips ones have been redesigned but I think these are the Lidl ones I think being discussed?

[dba7108]

I have some duracell 12v mains lights and they also suffer from water ingress. I think they all suffer it. There is a BQ near me and they have some beefy fancy spots to light up the building and they are also full of condensation.

[Rhonda]

Bought the lidl light strip today, works really well and much cheaper then the Hue one!

[Harfi88]

Heartworm said:

The Phillips ones have been redesigned but I think these are the Lidl ones I think being discussed?

I was talking about the Lidl ones. I have the Hue white and colour in the uplighter part of the wall light and they work perfectly. In the downlighter part I have the IKEA variable white I was hoping that the Lidl ones would replace the IKEA bulbs but no luck.

[Lucas Ayde]

stevensdrs said:

Heartworm said:

Anyone had an issue with the Lidl smart plug not connecting to hue? Might be doing it wrong and can’t find the guide someone did note!

Plug it into the closest socket to your hue hub. If the light on the side is not flashing hold the button in for 20 seconds to reset the plug. It should then flash and connect automatically. It may appear as a bulb in the hue app.

Yeah, bought a couple and both paired painlessly with my Hue hub. No need to put them into pairing mode as they seem to be in pair mode automatically when they are first used. Pretty compact and seem decent quality, especially for the price.

It's just a pity the way that the Hue software handles them. It seems to assume that they will only be used to control a light so gets switched on/off with all the lights in a room, if you have a routine set up to control the room's lighting and the plug is assigned to the room. Same when you go to manually operate an entire room, switch off the lights and the plug goes off too. I guess that's just down to Hue being designed as a lighting system as opposed to a general home automation system.

The Google 'Home' app is actually more flexible in that regard.

As reported, Alexa doesn't seem to pick them up. Probably will be sorted out in the future.

[stevensdrs]

Lucas Ayde said:

stevensdrs said:

Heartworm said:

Anyone had an issue with the Lidl smart plug not connecting to hue? Might be doing it wrong and can’t find the guide someone did note!

Plug it into the closest socket to your hue hub. If the light on the side is not flashing hold the button in for 20 seconds to reset the plug. It should then flash and connect automatically. It may appear as a bulb in the hue app.

Yeah, bought a couple and both paired painlessly with my Hue hub. No need to put them into pairing mode as they seem to be in pair mode automatically when they are first used. Pretty compact and seem decent quality, especially for the price.

It's just a pity the way that the Hue software handles them. It seems to assume that they will only be used to control a light so gets switched on/off with all the lights in a room, if you have a routine set up to control the room's lighting and the plug is assigned to the room. Same when you go to manually operate an entire room, switch off the lights and the plug goes off too. I guess that's just down to Hue being designed as a lighting system as opposed to a general home automation system.

The Google 'Home' app is actually more flexible in that regard.

As reported, Alexa doesn't seem to pick them up. Probably will be sorted out in the future.

Strange. My Alexa picked up the plug a second after the hue hub did and Alexa is controlling mine.

[dba7108]

Can anyone clarify - can i use my hue hub to control and use Lidl strip? Thanks.

[Heartworm]

dba7108 said:

Can anyone clarify - can i use my hue hub to control and use Lidl strip? Thanks.

Yes,

[Harfi88]

I’ve only just got into Hue. I have set some routines that the hue bulbs react to perfectly but the IKEA come on when some of the routines start even though I have them turned off in the routine. Is it down to the way the hub triggers the 3rd party kit ?

[JimbobVFR]

dba7108 said:

Can anyone clarify - can i use my hue hub to control and use Lidl strip? Thanks.

The LIDL strip does NOT work with hue. It uses a slightly different part of the ZigBee protocol which Hue doesn't support.

The LIDL smart plug does work fine though.

[dmsims]

JimbobVFR said:

The LIDL strip does NOT work with hue. It uses a slightly different part of the ZigBee protocol which Hue doesn't support.

The LIDL smart plug does work fine though.

Which strip are we talking about ?

[hantsxlg]

I have 3 of the lidl 3m smart led strips bought last week for £15 each working fine with our hue hub v2. Voice control through alexa is fine as well.

[stevensdrs]

hantsxlg said:

I have 3 of the lidl 3m smart led strips bought last week for £15 each working fine with our hue hub v2. Voice control through alexa is fine as well.

I was so impressed with the Lidl smart plug I got the other day that I went and bought another one and the lightstrip too. Happy to say they all connected instantly and I have full control of them from Alexa and the Hue app. The lightstrip doesn't produce the vivid colours of the Hue strip but it's good enough and does do the scenes too. For the money it's great and a lot more affordable than the overpriced Philips stuff.

[dickymint]

stevensdrs said:

hantsxlg said:

I have 3 of the lidl 3m smart led strips bought last week for £15 each working fine with our hue hub v2. Voice control through alexa is fine as well.

I was so impressed with the Lidl smart plug I got the other day that I went and bought another one and the lightstrip too. Happy to say they all connected instantly and I have full control of them from Alexa and the Hue app. The lightstrip doesn't produce the vivid colours of the Hue strip but it's good enough and does do the scenes too. For the money it's great and a lot more affordable than the overpriced Philips stuff.

Expensive yes. But then out of around 40 Hue lights (mainly GU10's and a fair mix of others) not one has failed yet in three years.

[dmsims]

dickymint said:

Expensive yes. But then out of around 40 Hue lights (mainly GU10's and a fair mix of others) not one has failed yet in three years.

Why would they fail?

LAP here 4 years in, 1 failed replaced, under a quid each