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Hue Bulbs with C4


SeeligCJ

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1 hour ago, blub said:

But the lack of 2-way feedback is a driver/Hue bridge issue.

It´s a C4 driver issue. The Hue bridge provides 2-way feedback.

1 hour ago, blub said:

So for anyone located in Germany retrofitting a home with a Control4 compatible lighting solution was basically impossible

Since i´m Germany based as well, i agree with your assessment of the C4 keypads not being a feasable solution.

I haven´t done a research about that yet (no requirements yet), but are there really no options for European System 55 and C4-compatible wireless keypads?
 

EDIT: A quick search gave me this Enocean Gateway that seems to have C4-drivers available. I haven´t done a deeper look but shouldn´t that solve your problem?

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15 minutes ago, Gary Leeds UK said:

Can not believe in a automated home you guys use switches ~ with good programming it’s just not required ~ we have pause / play /etc to program off and movements is the

best way.

No, it´s "your best way", not "the best way".

A good programmer takes care of the needs of his customers.  There´s no "one solution fits all". That´s what a good programmer is for: to find out what fits best to the specific customer. There are customers with kids, without kids, singles, old people, young people, disalbed people, etc. - everybody needs to be taken care of differently. Most of our customers want some degree of automation, but they prefer to stay in control.

In my own home there are a couple of things i like to be fully automated, but there are other things like light where i just prefer switches to trigger actions or sequences/scenes manually.

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It’s the best way 

you live in a home that  is a automated home

why pay this money if you are still going to on and off switches. 
 

it as taken us a few years with help from dealers on this forum ~ you should never use a switch ~ turn aircon on ~ etc

That’s why c4 app is so good ~ otherwise just go the DIY  route 

 

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6 hours ago, Köhler Medientechnik said:

It´s a C4 driver issue. The Hue bridge provides 2-way feedback.

Since i´m Germany based as well, i agree with your assessment of the C4 keypads not being a feasable solution.

I haven´t done a research about that yet (no requirements yet), but are there really no options for European System 55 and C4-compatible wireless keypads?
 

EDIT: A quick search gave me this Enocean Gateway that seems to have C4-drivers available. I haven´t done a deeper look but shouldn´t that solve your problem?

Hi

The thing is that control4's own lighting products are great and I just don't get it why there aren't any adapters for system 55 - it like Control4 doesn't want to sell anything here.

The en-ocean you mentioned was, by the time I checked it out, limited to certain dimmers and switches. The setup would have been to add a  keypad (no battery or wires needed) and then the actual dimmer behind inside the wallbox - the dim modules are about 45x45x35mm, so th Since I needed someone to program the enocean system and then Control4 the cost was adding up and I decided against it.

I currently use the MyOpus system based on Enocean. The physical footprint is a little smaller inside the wallbox so the installation should be possible in any location.
The setup was via Apple Homekit which meant there was no actual cost for it since a kid can do it 😉 - price to performance is good but it is not as good as Control4s own lineup as the MyOpus System has 1 or 2 bugs for the time being, maybe they'll fix them. But its hands down the only retrofit solution that is actually feasible and worht it at the moment for Germany.

 

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IMHO if you want full integration where you can have physical switches to work 100% time or use motion or use a combination of the both just USE native c4 light switches. They just work!!! It doesn’t matter if someone presses a switch( like hue which renders the whole light circuit useless ) they always work and have sooo many combinations so you can custom the look and functionality of Different switches. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

 

we have a mix of hue bulbs (white only) and c4 puck/switches for more than 5 years now and no issues at all.

my little girl and son want colored lights in thier rooms. 
 

what s the best route. Replace their white c4 bulbs with color ones or is there a better way of doing it.? 
 

we control the lights via ipads and phones scattered around the house but 90% of the time it s a simple on/off. How would color bulbs be changed from white to colored desided within the apps.

 

cheeers

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I presume that when you said "replace their white c4 bulbs with color ones" that you mean Hue bulbs, not C4 bulbs.  Yes you can do that.  I would then suggest that you use the Hue app to change the colour after that is done.  C4 does not have good control of coloured lights.

You will need your dealer to make some changes to the system as when you change lights you are adding new devices to C4 as each Hue bulb is a unique device.  Once that is done you continue to do the on/off as you do today, but then you have the option to change the colour which is best done in the Hue app.  The best way to do this is for you to install the new Hue bulbs, add them to your Hue system with the Hue app.  Assuming that you are reusing the old white bulbs move them to their new locations in the Hue app. Then call your dealer and have him add the new bulbs to the correct room and move the old bulbs.

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Thnaks mate,

 

you r spot on.  I want to replace the hue white bulbs with collr for my kids room but if i need to get out of the c4 app, open hue app to change color it drfeats the purpose a little.

i might just instll cheap led strip in their tooms, behind tvs as a stand alone and control them via the supplied remote

 

cheers anyway.

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It all depends how you are set up.  My Hue lights are turned on and off from keypads in my house using the C4 Hue driver.  When I want to change colours I just open the Hue app.  But it isn't like I need two apps to turn on the lights and change colours - it is just a case of turning them on with C4 keypads and then using the Hue app to change colour.

That being said, you could also just use the Hue app to turn the lights on and then change the colour.  But you want to make sure that you don't cut power to the Hue bulbs with a light switch, and that is often the biggest issue with using Hue bulbs alongside C4.

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43 minutes ago, Köhler Medientechnik said:

Well, isn´t it the idea behind colored lights that you can change the color as you believe? And the whole idea behind an integrated user experience is not to use different apps/UIs to control the system....

It is, but if all products integrated well there would not be a need for C4 or the drivers. HUE makes integrating the color changing difficult.

Other colored lighting is more robust.

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2 hours ago, Pounce said:

It is, but if all products integrated well there would not be a need for C4 or the drivers. HUE makes integrating the color changing difficult.

Other colored lighting is more robust.

Is it really Hue's fault?  I thought that C4 didn't have a proper colour wheel available for changing colours of lights?

I thought that it would be cool to change colours but to be honest I find it to be more of a gimmick than anything else.  Kids might find it fun at first.  There are some cool apps for Hue on the iOS app store - there are apps to simulate fireworks, holiday colour themed apps, World Cup Colour Schemes, etc. But you wouldn't really expect this kind of stuff in C4.

It might be cool if someone wrote a seasonal colour driver - Christmas colours in December, Red in Feb, Green in March, Pastel for Easter, Red White and Blue for July (or Red and White in Canada), etc.  You could potentially use that for keypads as well as colour changing lights.

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21 minutes ago, zaphod said:

I thought that it would be cool to change colours but to be honest I find it to be more of a gimmick than anything else. 

I know, but that shouldn´t be the excuse that it´s not available.

Of course you don´t select a differen color of choice every  day. But for instance i´ve got a different system than C4 installed in my house and with that, you can just select your preferred colors and then save it as par of a lighting scene. Not a big deal, but it should really just be possible.

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3 hours ago, zaphod said:

Is it really Hue's fault? 

I didn't really mean to make it a blame game. I really intended to only be descriptive. I have HUE and I like it and hate it. I do not like how the app does not reflect the real state of the bulbs 100% of the time. I think the choices that HUE made around the way the hub works and it's limits make it harder to integrate and live well with other systems. It took years to get power on settings.

I find Tuya bulbs updated with tasmota to be more flexible.

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