Adding the Hue tap to HC3

[Lode 18]

Is there anyone who was able to add the Hue tap to HC3

According to 

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article it should be possible.

I tried but without success.

 

I removed the tap from the hue app.

Then holding down the fourth button (for 10 seconds) wich corresponds with channel 25 i could not see any pairing.

Adding lights is no problem.

 

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Lode

[petergebruers 1,265]

Ah, the "Green Power devices".... IMHO those devices are not really ZigBee devices but Philips said "oh yes they are because we declare them to be part of the ZigBee 3 standard"

 

?

 

I don't own one but I have been fascinated by the technology, and I happen to have a technical document from Silabs:

 

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It is all very technical but I think it boils down to "they aren't real ZigBee" and this might explain what Zigbee2MQTT has to say:

 

This [hue tap] is a Zigbee Green Power device which allows it to be very energy efficient. Messages from Green Power devices cannot be "understood" by normal Zigbee devices, therefore they need to be "translated" first. Not all Zigbee devices can do this translation, currently the only devices known to do this are Philips Hue devices. This means that the Green Power device has to be in range of a Philips Hue device in order to use it.

 

This suggest to me, they can only be used to control a HUE bulb...

 

Does your HC3 have a Hue bulb joined to it?

 

I am merely thinking out loud, I have never seen a "Green Power device" (and frankly, I would avoid them although the prospect of not having to replace batteries is tempting).

 

 

 

[Lode 18]

It's very technical, i don't understand it at all.

The Hue taps work like a charm. (with the bridge offcourse)

As far as i know they never failed one command.

 

I do have one Hue bulb joined to my HC3 for testing. Why ?

Before i read that article i never heard of green power.

 

Conclusion : I have to use my Hue bridge in order to control my lights.

I have to buy one more so i can use my old scenes to control the light.

Last option : Restart HC2 and use the VD to control everything but that is really the last option.

 

I wonder how he does it.......

 

Nevertheless i'm disappointed........

Edited April 16, 2022 by Lode

[jakub.jezek 353]

I do not think that anything other what has not Zigbee lighting and occupancy standard and some sensors will work with HC3 anytime soon.

 

Z-Wave has enough battery controllers, like those from Aeotec, Fibaro, Heatit just as example. I would use those and few scenes to control Zigbee lights.

[Lode 18]

1 hour ago, jakub.jezek said:

I do not think that anything other what has not Zigbee lighting and occupancy standard and some sensors will work with HC3 anytime soon.

 

Z-Wave has enough battery controllers, like those from Aeotec, Fibaro, Heatit just as example. I would use those and few scenes to control Zigbee lights.

Let's hope !

Other battery controllers is in fact a good idea !!

Like this one.....

 

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To me it's important that i can read the previous state of the bulbs.

Let's say i have this in a scene : hub.call(619, 'setValue', 50) wich sets the brightness.

How can i store that value ?

Edited April 16, 2022 by Lode

[petergebruers 1,265]

12 hours ago, Lode said:

It's very technical, i don't understand it at all.

Sorry about that, I usually try to post for a wide audience, but this one is indeed for a few readers like @jakub.jezek and @tinman and also some Fibaro employees might enjoy it, like @m.roszak and @A.Socha

 

The "translated" version of that document is

 

"The HUE TAP is a special device and at the moment only works with HUE LIGHTS and HUE BRIDGE because it is not standard ZigBee"

 

For the record, Zigbee2MQTT does support "green power" devices, and for the tech guys there is a description of how it was added and what can be expected.

 

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The important message, as I understand it,  is this: "green devices (like TAP) do not support binding". This means you can add them to a ZigBee network, but they cannot trigger scenes. The only yhing you can do is "pair them with another green device"

 

14 hours ago, Lode said:

Then holding down the fourth button (for 10 seconds) wich corresponds with channel 25 i could not see any pairing.

 

When you go to Settings, Zigbee, you see 25 as channel? Mine says "Current channel: #15"

 

It is possible that your HC3 detected that channel 15 is already in use by the HUE bridge network and picked 25, but imho it is not the default.

 

12 hours ago, Lode said:

Before i read that article i never heard of green power.

It is not super-popular. This is a manufacturer of "green" devices

 

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12 hours ago, Lode said:

Conclusion : I have to use my Hue bridge in order to control my lights.

I have to buy one more so i can use my old scenes to control the light.

I am not sure I am following here but let's say I do expect ZigBee on HC3 to improve and at some point you won't need the HUE bridge. There may be one exception, I am not sure if Fibaro will implement firmware updates. Not that they are very frequent, and if your HUE device supports bluetooth you can use your phone to update them.

[Lode 18]

4 minutes ago, petergebruers said:

When you go to Settings, Zigbee, you see 25 as channel? Mine says "Current channel: #15"

 

It is possible that your HC3 detected that channel 15 is already in use by the HUE bridge network and picked 25, but imho it is not the default.

 

Zigbee current channel is #25 and  the options to change that are not activated.

Zigbee channel on the bridge is #25.

 

14 minutes ago, petergebruers said:

I am not sure I am following here but let's say I do expect ZigBee on HC3 to improve and at some point you won't need the HUE bridge. There may be one exception, I am not sure if Fibaro will implement firmware updates. Not that they are very frequent, and if your HUE device supports bluetooth you can use your phone to update them.

My Hue devices are a little bit older then those who support bluetooth.

I checked that already.

 

Yesterday @jakub.jezek told me to replace the Hue taps by some battery controlled zwave devices and then setting things up in a scene.

That's another option of course.

 

I told him it's important to me that i need to know the previous state of the bulbs.

Example : some bulbs have a specific light and brightness, then when somebody opens the gate they turn red for 15 seconds. After those 15 seconds they have to go to the previous state.

In HC2 that was not a problem with the VD.

But let's say i give this command in a scene : hub.call(619, 'setValue', 50). (=brightness)

How can i store that value ?

 

Anyway, there will be a solution in the future and it's not life dependent as they don't work as expected.

 

[petergebruers 1,265]

I am not at home so let me elaborate later... Quick answers:

 

36 minutes ago, Lode said:

Zigbee current channel is #25 and  the options to change that are not activated.

Zigbee channel on the bridge is #25.

Channel change requires factory reset of the ZigBee controller + you have to rejoin all devices.

Both on 25 seems an odd choice of the controller but is not a problem per se, each ZigBee controller has a unique ID. It won't mess up.

 

IIRC the controllers are required to select a "silent" channel when you reset them, and maybe 15 did not meet that criterium.

 

38 minutes ago, Lode said:

My Hue devices are a little bit older then those who support bluetooth.

In that case, in my opinion, they might never get a firmware update anyway so not a big problem if HC does not support firmware update.

 

There were a bunch of updates when the protocol changed from 1.2 to 3.0 but that is al behind us. Unless you kept a spare bulb in the attic

 

40 minutes ago, Lode said:

Yesterday @jakub.jezek told me to replace the Hue taps by some battery controlled zwave devices and then setting things up in a scene.

That's another option of course.

I agree with him, lots of choice there.

An issue might be smooth dimming. In my experience, that requires "binding" the remote and right now the HC3 does not have an interface for that.

You can make scenes to step through several dimming levels, that is somehting I did ages ago on my Fibaro Dimmer 1

 

I don't know the particular device you've mentioned

 

43 minutes ago, Lode said:

But let's say i give this command in a scene : hub.call(619, 'setValue', 50). (=brightness)

How can i store that value ?

I have to verify that but ZigBee lights pretty much behave like dimmers, they are "multilevel" and have the same properties as other devices.

[Lode 18]

34 minutes ago, petergebruers said:

In that case, in my opinion, they might never get a firmware update anyway so not a big problem if HC does not support firmware update.

They have been updated several times.

 

36 minutes ago, petergebruers said:

You can make scenes to step through several dimming levels, that is somehting I did ages ago on my Fibaro Dimmer 1

That won't be hard, i can do that.

 

Peter, i don't want to ruin your sunday, i'm so happy you try to help me again but no need to rush.

 

Enjoy your sunday !!