Philips Hue "Personal Wireless Lighting"

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216 posts

Master Geek
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#822726 20-May-2013 22:49

Yeah I like the fact that you get feedback on the status of the Hue bulb, its awesome. Brightness on LED technology in Q1 2013 has only just crossed the acceptable mark (560-600lumens) (spread quite thinly on the Hue). I can't wait for Q3 2013 LED technology such as the LIFX 900+ Lumens, its gonna be awesome. also I can't wait till our new brighter RGB+W is released Q4 2013, hopefully Philips will have another brighter version out by then too. Exciting times ahead.

-Hamish.
LimitlessLED.

Philips Hue.. Source: google images.

peejayw

1913 posts

Uber Geek
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#824025 23-May-2013 11:17

Got my starter set up and running, the Android app is a bit basic but there are a few others available from the Play Store.
One issue I have though is when I go the The Philips Hue site (www.meethue.com), after registering for an account I get told that my bridge is not yet registered to my account. When I select to register the bridge, it tells me i t found the bridge and to press the button on the bridge. After pressing the button, nothing further happens until it times out and says I was too slow pressing the button. Grr.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

LennonNZ

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#824031 23-May-2013 11:25

Yes this happened to me as well for a while.. give the controller a reboot and it may help. sometimes firewalls on routers can stop it working.

peejayw

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Uber Geek
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#824040 23-May-2013 11:32

I have tried rebooting quite a few times now but no joy and I wouldnt know where to start with the router :-)

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

LimitlessLED

216 posts

Master Geek
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#824284 23-May-2013 18:22

Do you have DHCP enabled on your router? and also does your router have direct access to the internet. Other than that, it should get a direct connection to the philips "Cloud". This is the sort of reason I don't like cloud (internet) based solutions.. it relies on the internet too much. some things in life should just not need an internet connection, haha.

peejayw

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Uber Geek
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#824301 23-May-2013 18:35

DHCP is enabled and modem has direct internet access. Seems a few people have the same problem. :-(

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

Lenovo

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LennonNZ

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#826504 27-May-2013 17:18

I just got the rest of my Bulbs..

You can't see how much fun via the image but is time to pppppaaaaaarrrrrtttyyyyyyyyy...
There are quite a few more of them behind me as well

peejayw

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Uber Geek
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#826510 27-May-2013 17:30

Guess you are using the ios app, the android one is still in beta and pretty hopless but there are third party ones around fortunately.
Have you tried ITTT? Quite cool, turn lights on at sunset etc.

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

LennonNZ

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#826514 27-May-2013 17:35

Yes.. there are 2 applications which work well. Disco HUE and Ambify which do the Disco Style lighting.

Here is a Photo with white only. My Phone does too much lens flair. Uggh its on its side..

Yea.. I've played with it all.. The new version of the iOS has Geofencing so I can tell it to turn all the lights off when I leave the house (as I'm lazy) and when I come back turn them all back on. I have some light sensors / movement sensors etc coming so will get it all working together. (ie turn on when it gets dark etc)

peejayw

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Uber Geek
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#826527 27-May-2013 17:49

If you use iTTT then you can set it to turn on all lights at sunset and then you dont need sensors because it reads sunset time from a weather app and adjusts throughout the year.
You can even set it to flash a light when an email arrives although that is getting a little geeky I think :-)

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

LennonNZ

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#826530 27-May-2013 17:56

The lights bottom left and right are Philips Living Colors Aura Lamps behind the speakers which work the same system as the bulbs.

Oh btw.. if people are using them make sure they are not on the same Channel as your Wifi (I think its 7) or everything stuffs up.. With 3 bulbs I didn't notice it.. with 12 my wifi suddenly stopped until I changed the Wifi Channel

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Monza

299 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#976122 28-Jan-2014 18:37

Quite tempted to buy these, just checking on the people who had them a while now still find them useful or has the novelty worn off? Any faults developed with them?

I can only find the Apple store stocks them in NZ, is there any shop that has them on the shelf?

LennonNZ

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#976134 28-Jan-2014 19:02

Yes.. I like them and have 25 of them now and getting some more to finish the house. I have no problems with them at all. Yes they are not cheap but if you like the idea of being able to control any bulb individually (or in groups) they are the thing to get - unlike some other led bulbs.

You can now get GU10,BR30 and light strips now all controllable via the same interface now. Many home automation systems now support them.

The GUI10/BR30 ones are not available in NZ/NZ but there are a number of 230V countries they are available from. (I imported some original bulbs from the UK at the start before they where available in NZ).

Yes turning your house into a disco is a little bit of a novelty yes but its fun :-)

As they are rated for 15000 hours I expect to have over 10 years use of them or Apple will have to replace them (think CGA)

Dunnersfella

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#976202 28-Jan-2014 20:18

I have a grand total of three bulbs, and will most likely buy more to finish the kitchen / hallway downstairs.
Used in conjunction with my Harmony remote, it's great for setting the mode to watch movies with. I still find myself tweaking them quite a bit to suit, so it's definitely a good purchase in my books. Not sure my mates would agree...

Monza

299 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 30

#1292964 28-Apr-2015 14:17

Ended up buying the starter pack plus 3 extra bulbs so could do the lounge. At first the connection to the bridge would drop out every month or so but it seems like a firmware update has fixed this, no issues for the last 6 months.

Want to buy 4 more bulbs for other rooms but hoping to find somewhere cheaper than Apple's $80 per bulb. Keep an eye on trademe and do see the starter pack going 2nd hand sometimes for about $200, so that could save me $40.

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