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Phillips Hue & Dimmer Control


DJDave

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Long time C4 user, trying to integrate Hue lighting into the system.

Until recently, I've had entirely old school incandescent lights in my system, and every switch in the house is a C4 one.   (I believe these are considered the "older" ones, with an LED at the top and the bottom, with dimmer capacity).  Every light in the system dims up and dims down when turned on and off, and every light in the system correctly dims.

That is, until I added Hue.

I added the bridge and replaced 10 bulbs located in just three lamps.    One switch, Living Room, controls a pair of wall sconces with two lights each for a total of four hue bulbs.  The second controls the Recroom Track, which has three bulbs controlled on a single switch.    Finally, Upstairs Hall has a set of three lights on the circuit, one of which has three bulbs that are now Hue lights.    

My dealer added the Hue driver, bridge, and added the lights.  Each now shows up in the system, giving me red, green and blue sliders for everything, as well as a slider control.   

For each of these, adding the lights provides power.   With no programming, the lights now do two states from the switches -- ON or OFF, with no dim anymore.   Again, with no programming, there is no dim control.

I discovered that I could program the switch for each light to act on level changes and match the light level.   However, this results in a "jerky" set of transitions, with no smooth changes.    (See attached picture of the programming)

Several programs from before no longer work right -- for example, we have a motion sensor for the upstairs hall that was set to ramp up the light level to 12% in the evening.  Now, when motion is sensed, it goes right to full ON.

I feel like I'm missing something pretty basic here -- the way this should be configured, or the lights connected to the system.   Without programming guides (is there a driver manual I'm missing?), I'm not sure where to start.

Guidance welcome!

Thanks!

Screenshot 2016-04-06 22.45.24.png

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Hello, this makes perfect sense to me.

What you have described is the result most likely due the the fact that the bulbs cannot be dimmed from the control4 dimmer mounted on the wall. As a quick test, remove one hue bulb from the motion area and replace it with the original incandescent bulb and see if that single bulb reacts as it used to before hue or if it has the same issue as he remains hue bulbs.

This will give you the quickest answer and a direction for me to troubleshoot further. Good luck.

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Dealer needs to set the dimmer buttons to no longer control the load but act as a keypad, keeping load on at all times (add scheduled programming to ensure that).

From there, he needs to create a  group for those dimmers in the main driver, and add a group driver to the system, dropping the individual lights (unless you want to retain individual control).

That group driver then gets tied to the dimmer buttons for control. Programming would have to get changed over to the new driver, NOT the old dimmer.

 

 

Technically, it would be best to replace the dimmer with a switch actually.

 

Note that some of this stuff you may be able to do yourself, but simply put your dealer isn't finished the install...

Curious why you would change already controlled lights to HUE at all? I mean, to basic white HUE lights at least - makes way more sense to use those elsewhere and use 'normal' LEDs instead

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Vineldub:  Yes, swapping the lights out does return it to the old behavior.

 

Cyknight:  Ok, that makes some level of sense.   Sounds like I need to be pushing my dealer — to his credit, I tend to muck around a bit more than his other customers, but not entirely surprised it’s not entirely done.

 

As to your question, these are color HUE lights — want the ability to change colors in these locations.     So, it makes more sense from that sense.  Long term I plan to put in some of the forthcoming HUE lights that handle variants on white in the bedrooms, so some locations will be color, others spectrum of white, and then all the rest just dimmable.

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OK my friend, there are a few tweaks that can be made. But referring back to CYKnight and his previous post, Some more configuration will be needed to make this work the way you want. What you will want ultimately, is for the original Control4 switch to be turned into a keypad. And for the giving part of that switch to always be on. Then the programming in the system will adjust the human lights as if you were using the mobile app that comes with the hue system.

If you need more help with this, let me know. :-)

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I apologize, I was using voice dictation in the last post. A bad habit! What I meant was, you need to have the dimming side of the switch stay on always. And have programming or connections to fake driver in programming control the light bulbs directly leaving them constantly powered from the dimmer. Taking that dimmer out and replacing with a control4 switch or manual switch would be the best choice long term. Then you can use your dimmer somewhere else in the house. 

 

Question? Do you use the HUE bulbs for mood lighting as well or just for white color on and off? @cyknight said it well earlier, if you are using just for on and off with dimming. Might be wise to forgo the HUE system in some areas that already have control4. 

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On April 7, 2016 at 7:46 PM, DJDave said:
 
My dealer added the Hue driver, bridge, and added the lights.  Each now shows up in the system, giving me red, green and blue sliders for everything, as well as a slider control.   

Sounds like you have the correct driver. Let me know if you would like some help configuring it. 

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Is this something I can configure myself, or do I need my dealer for it?   It seems like setting the "base" to always be on, and then the switch to act as a HUE control is possible, just not sure how to do it! 

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Ill add my two cents on this as i have a few bulbs and light strips mixed into my personal system.

The best i have found for hue is to only have the dimming driver in the navigator the colors can be confusing.

If you are controlling  2 or more lights you will need to group them in the driver to avoid the popcorn effect.

I use my hue lights in advanced lighting scenes and have them tied to buttons around the house, having keypads can let HE users do this on their own.

For off i have the dim driver set 0 to turn them off, this can be odd to some if they are and c4 calls for them to off, they will turn on and then off again.

 

For colors

Master bed head board is set a night light of sorts and randomly changes colors every 10 seconds. once the sleep timer is activated it is set to dim to off or 15 minutes. it is not used during the day.

Theater lamp is used as an additional light when using the wall switch. On movie mode it is set to change colors, if pause happens it goes to full white. resumes colors on play.

Kitchen bar 2 bulbs and strip are set as a group, is set for mood lighting at sunrise, sunset, and white rest of the time. party mode they will changes colors.

 

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  • 1 year later...
On 4/11/2016 at 11:52 AM, Matt Lowe said:

Ill add my two cents on this as i have a few bulbs and light strips mixed into my personal system.

The best i have found for hue is to only have the dimming driver in the navigator the colors can be confusing.

If you are controlling  2 or more lights you will need to group them in the driver to avoid the popcorn effect.

I use my hue lights in advanced lighting scenes and have them tied to buttons around the house, having keypads can let HE users do this on their own.

For off i have the dim driver set 0 to turn them off, this can be odd to some if they are and c4 calls for them to off, they will turn on and then off again.

 

For colors

Master bed head board is set a night light of sorts and randomly changes colors every 10 seconds. once the sleep timer is activated it is set to dim to off or 15 minutes. it is not used during the day.

Theater lamp is used as an additional light when using the wall switch. On movie mode it is set to change colors, if pause happens it goes to full white. resumes colors on play.

Kitchen bar 2 bulbs and strip are set as a group, is set for mood lighting at sunrise, sunset, and white rest of the time. party mode they will changes colors.

 

Matt,
So my Hue lights when i turn them off... never really turn off. How did you bypass that? or fix that?

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