Thinking about doing it with my outside wall lights, but most of the ones I’ve looked at get poor reviews for flaky app and/or software not syncing. I’ve looked into Philips Hue, Easybulb Plus and Belkin WeMo. Any experiences please and/or alternative recommendations.
Cheers

Surely, to go with the Audi, log burner and real coffee machine?

We have a few Philips Hue lights and I’m planning to get a few more. Mostly just used on timer (we have a small baby and are often up in the night so on dim all night is handy) but I may get some mono bulbs for things like the porch. It’s all an open/documented standard so there’s plenty of 3rd party apps to control it all or if you wanted to write your own.

If you’re an Apple user and want Hue there’s a new wireless controller coming very soon (square, current one is round) that has the necessary stuff to support Apple’s Homekit stuff.

simon_g I’m steering towards the Philips Hue, altho there don’t appear to be many options to buy a bayonnet fitting starter pack. The only one that appears to be available shows multi coloured bulbs when I just want white ones. http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/philips-hue-b22-starter-kit-a54tr or can you have the coloured ones glow bright white?
I’m an android user, that Maplin info says At the moment, this smart bulb system is only compatible with Apple products , but I’m thinking that’s wrong/out of date.

I got my lad a ‘yeelight’ LED bluetooth bulb from amazon – mainly cos I spoil him i suppose..

Quite fun to have it in disco mode.

It’s a gimmick. But hey ho, that’s life in a nutshell…then you die…

DrP

Not directly the answer you are looking for, but: I am an early adopter of the samsung smartthings v2 platform.
It shows much promise. But…

Their release strategy has been push it out and fix it later, so a bit cross about that.

If they manage to fix the two fundamental problems of the moment, (oath to other systems and multiple users) then it will do so much.

This would allow all sorts of configurations of control for outdoor lighting – e.g. relay controlled power to multiple standard light fittings etc.

It’s a black hole of possibility and money though….

It’s a gimmick. But hey ho, that’s life in a nutshell…then you die…

DrP

Thank you Dr, I’m feeling better already.

Sorry, I really hate to be that guy but why? What advantage is there controlling your lights with a phone other than willy waving geek points?

Honestly, I see a lot of benefit to a lot of things but unless you’re disabled and living in non-adapted accomodation why would you bother?

they go with these

as a beginning to develop the ultimate human goal.

I’ve got wemo, lightify and an as yet uninstalled hue bridge.
Bought wemo first as they were on offer at amazon – app is flaky but the rules you can set up are really good; ie set the hallway lights to come on gradually half an hour before dusk then dim down to minimum overnight (incase the kids get up) then come to full brightness over 30mins when I get up. Can also be controlled by IFTT
bought a load of lightify tunable white gu10 downlights which were supposed to be compatible with wemo, it turns out only the US bulbs firmware is fully supported by wemo so I can’t change colour temp or set rules. Using the lightify bridge and app the bulbs work really well but the scheduling is very basic.
I was given a hue bridge, which the lightify bulbs are supposedly fully compatible with, by a friend but haven’t got round to playing with it yet.

The big problem with all of them is the lack of wall switch support for the kids or mrs, it shouldn’t be difficult to have a wall switch which wirelessly controls the bulbs but other than the philips tap nothing seems to exist.

For outside lights I reckon wemo would work well with the rule based scheduling.

why? What advantage is there controlling your lights with a phone

I have remote controlled lights in my bedroom so the monsters under the bed can’t get me as I leg it from the lightswitch into bed 🙂

Honestly, I see a lot of benefit to a lot of things but unless you’re disabled and living in non-adapted accomodation why would you bother?

Two reasons:
1 – it’s a bit of fun.
2 – cheer up Granddad… 😉

DrP

So it’s basically designed to make life more complicated and expensive than it necessarily needs to be? Why do your lights need to gradually light up over a half hour? If you’re not up you’re not using them.

And to top it off only the phone user can control them?

It just gets better, next you’ll be telling me bulbs are £25 each and that the LED’s really honestly don’t ever I swear to god burn out well short of their hilariously projected 25 year life span.

A bit of fun? You must be easily amused, go down toolstation, buy some poly pipe and head here to get your mind blown: http://nerfhaven.com/forums/index.php?act=idx

I know I mock but it was a genuine question. I get the convenience of night time modes and such but surely hard wiring it is a ton easier and less problematic than messing about with apps that are as reliable as the testers for the next firmware upgrade. And having a working phone.

OK…
It’s a kids toy basically. We play with it to make the bedroom a spaceship on flashing red alert, or a police car (red/blue flashing), or a disco.

Plus, when he goes out I flick it to red and start my pimpin’ duties…

DrP

EDIT – That NERF forum looks fab, cheers!! (that wasn’t in jest – we’re into NERF guns too!)

I have a timer on my lamps in the living room. I live 50/50 in Wales and Austria so the ability to switch lights on and off by phone sounds great to give the impression I’m in even though I’m in another country. That way, nobody can see a pattern of light times and see I’m not home.
Which system would be best for me?

If all you’re doing is switching individual lights on and off with your phone, I’d agree it’s all bit pointless.

The hue stuff is all rather nice if you have lots of bulbs and want different colours/brightnesses for different things. You put them all together into a single “scene” (say if you want lower light in warmer colours) and then it’s much easier to switch between them than if you were changing settings on several lights manually. It’s also easy to do them on timers which would otherwise be a pain for proper ceiling lights – those can also be triggered by certain things so you can have lights on a sunset / off at sunrise based on today’s times rather than a set on/off time. Or random stuff if you want people to think you’re there when you’re not.

The other nice thing is to get stuff to trigger events – eg. if you’re nearly home and the lights are off, switch on the porch/hallway lights so you can see when you get there. Or the Nest smoke alarms integrate with them to flash your lights for attention if it detects a fire.

I can see one reason, say we’re both working late, I can switch on a few lights at home to make the place look occupied.

^
The burglars would have torches to see with, surely?

DrP

This comes under “problems that don’t need a solution” banner for me. The light switch is pretty much perfected as far as i’m concerned.

The burglars would have torches to see with, surely?

I don’t want them to sue me if they trip up in the dark 😉

controlling your lights with a phone other than willy waving

there’s a dictaphone gag in there just waiting to be released…

This comes under “problems that don’t need a solution” banner for me. The light switch is pretty much perfected as far as i’m concerned.

How does your light switch pick a colour?

The whole idea of Internet of Things to me seems pie in the sky at the moment even though the media keep pushing it saying our homes will be full connected very soon. I love technology, heck I run a company that make iPhone accessories, but I just can’t see the benefit to many of these home connected products. So I will be able to switch my kettle on from my phone, ok but what happens if it doesn’t have any water in it!! Connecting things to the internet is great if it does actually reduce the hassle factor or allows you to switch something on that takes ages to get going, heat up etc. But to me all these things just consumer electricity like it is going out of fashion and often add complexity to life.

I have a smart thermostat and the amount of hassle we have had with it let alone it going haywire when the internet is down and slapping the heating on even in the middle of summer. No way has it saved us any money with its so called smart heating algorithms. Another one of these technologies that work fine if you have perfect broadband which never goes down and you never get a electricity cut.

One thing I did see on Dragons Den was a system that alerted you when your ageing parents had not got out of bed in the morning and switched the kettle on. Idea being you would then know there was an issue or they were ill. Now that is a great use of the technology and good reverse thinking.

Moan over!!

I don’t know why I feel I need to justify myself but The light switch for my outside lights is in the house, so I’m often fumbling around In the dark. I’m also a bit of a scaredy pants so the witches might get me in the dark. Having outside lights that come on as you turned down the street sounded like a good idea. Didn’t expect people to consider it as little more than showing off.

We just have an outside light with a PIR (in fact about 10 of them) so the whole garden is lit as you walk down it….

simon_g – Member

How does your light switch pick a colour?lightbulbs that change colour is obviously another invention I deem needless.

I agree that it’s not really necessary, but nor is spending most of my disposable income on bike bits…

I do really like the tunable white lights I’ve got in the kitchen and living room though, full brightness at daylight setting is lovely for cooking/kids homework/rebuilding engines on the kitchen table etc then in the evening you can dim and warm them up to make a nice place to sit and relax.

I have to agree it’s sounding largely like pointless frippery

That said, I like the idea of remote lights. Actually have a little Phillips mood light thingy with 3 Gazzilion colours. So although that’s utterly pointless I also like that.

I have the lightwave RF setup at home in the bedroom, living room and the hallway.

Really nice bit of kit, can be controlled away from home also but the most useful feature is setting up light patterns when we’re away.

I’ve also got a few remote sockets and stuff for AV kit that is hidden away. So far they’ve been really good and the app isn’t too bad either. Does require the wifi link which bulks the initial spend up a little bit more.

I’ll be purchasing some Hue bulbs and the bridge as soon as the latest siri enabled version comes out. Will be renovating a house soon and will have an open plan kitchen / dining / living area. Different scenes would be good for the different functions of the room.

* Must stop reading articles about lighting in magazines.

EDIT – That NERF forum looks fab, cheers!! (that wasn’t in jest – we’re into NERF guns too!)

I KNOW!!

So many projects 😀

I can’t imagine being so rich that I’d consider spending money on phone enabled lighting systems with different colours. An alarm system, I could understand but a dimmer light switch with a low energy (dimmable) lamp is pretty much perfect.