#Smart (Zigbee) light switches with smart bulbs - Candeo + Philips Hue

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

kindred saffron
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Hello, I am kind of new to HA and smart homes in general but throwing myself in and learning as I go!

I have Candeo Zigbee Smart Dimmer switches. My Zigbee controller is a home assistant VM on a windows server (passthrogh Sonoff Zigbee USB dongle)

Everything works well. I can control the on/off state and the brightness either with the physical switch or with Home Assistant . The 1 thing I am missing that I would like is colour.

Candeo's product page for my switches says "compatible with Philips Hue" but I'm not really sure what that means. I'm not sure what to expect if I connect a smart bulb to a smart switch.

I would like to be able to continue controlling the lights with either the physical switch or HA but also allow HA to control the colours. I know the physical switches won't be able to change the colours. Candeo 's website says to go into the Hue app and add the light switch as a Hue "bridge" (I don't understand this) however I would like to avoid reliance on Philips Cloud and keep everything local using Zigbee if possible.

Is what I want achievable? Do I have the right approach?

Thanks in advance for any advice !

twin hinge
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The smart switch would need to have a “smart bulb mode” which basically lets the bulb continue to have power regardless of what the switch does. Switches from inovelli (and others) allow for this. Then you can get any smart bulb (supported by home assistant) you want for the fixture. This could be a hue bulb if you wanted, and you can connect that to your zigbee coordinator— no hue hub needed.

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Without the smart bulb mode, switching the switch off will make the bulb unresponsive in HA until power is restored.

strange horizon
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And dimming the power to smart bulbs is a bad idea.

kindred saffron
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thanks for explaining

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Can't see anything about a smart bulb mode on the product page

strange horizon
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You could add the dimmer as a light to Hue. That's what they meant

kindred saffron
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Right, so in summary, adding a hue light to my setup may allow me to control colours but would introduce other problems such as dimming issues and not being able to use HA when the bulb is off

strange horizon
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Those dimmers are just for dumb dimmable bulbs. Smart ones might break when you dim them via the dimmer or if it fades in/out when turning on/off. Smart bulbs usually need to be permanently powered.