Hue Lighting

This driver controls the Hue family of lighting devices.

*** This Driver is NOT compatible with ID 9. Apex or ID11 Required. ***

*** Adding more than 50 lights may result in performance issues ***

Version History

2.0 The original release of the driver

2.01 Fixed dynamic naming in the light brightness command, fixed debug setting causing crash, sourceIDs are now dynamically named, added missing discrete on / off command for light power, fixed issue where more than 10 lights would cause dynamic naming to break, fixed issue where more than two bridges would sometimes cause the connection to fail, fixed issue with All Lights Power command, fixed group dynamic naming

2.11 Added temperature control.

2.12 Changes discovery to use mDNS from Integration Designer.

Configuration

Finding the bridge

The bridge communicates with a web portal to report its configuration. The driver can contact the same portal and find the address of local Hue bridges. The processor and the bridge will need to have internet access, the driver configuration script will grab all bridge units on your local network from the Phillips services.

After choosing the correct bridge from the drop-down menu, you can then connect to the bridge to pull in all configured lights directly from the bridge itself. To do this you will need to press the button on the top of the bridge when prompted by Integration Designer. The driver will then grab all lights as they are set up in the Phillips Hue App, and create sources, functions, variables, and events for each.

Authorization

Once the driver finds the bridge it will insert its address into the Bridge Address variable. The first time a processor connects to the Hue Bridge it will need to be granted permission to access it. This is done by pressing the button on top of the bridge after the driver is running.

Once the driver has found the bridge it will get the current system status and fill the variables with the current state of the lights and groups.

System Alteration

If you alter your Hue Lighting system after clicking the “Connect” button in Apex / ID11, you will need to click the Connect button again to pull the new configuration from the Hue Bridge.

Lights

The driver allows for the adjustment and display of several of the lamp’s parameters. It also allows changing several operation states:

Alert: The lamps can be set to flash. The option is to flash a single time, or to have it flash for 30 seconds. It is also possible to stop the alert before the 30 seconds are up. The variable will change to show an alert when the alert starts but will only change back when a stop command is sent (it does not change back on its own).

Effect: The lamp can be set to do a slow circuit through the full range of hue values at the current brightness and saturation levels. This will continue indefinitely.

Color Mode: This variable shows whether the lamp is being operated through Hue/Saturation commands or through Color Temperature commands.

Lamp Names: The driver will pull the lamp names that you have set in the Hue App and dynamically name system variables, functions, and events.

On/Off vs Dim: The Hue system treats brightness and state (on/off) separately. This means:

A lamp dimmed to 0 will very noticeably be on, this is characteristic of LED lighting

A lamp that is off will not respond to any brightness commands

Sending an on command to a lamp that you dimmed to off will turn it on at its lowest dim level.

For these reasons the driver command for brightness will also send state commands to match. If you send a brightness command with a level of zero, the driver will set the state of the lamp to off. If the level is anything but 0 the driver will set the state to on.

Variables in the driver are rewritten as soon as a command is acknowledged by the processor. Any changes to the state of the lamp created outside the use of the ‘Light’ commands will eventually be discovered and transferred to the processor but that can take several seconds. This includes not only the use of the app for external control, but also the use of the group commands (see below).

Increment / Decrement Commands: To send an increment command, use a positive number in command text box. To send a decrement command, use a negative number in the command text box.

Groups

All lights are part of Group 0. You can’t name or edit Group 0 but it is always there. Any command you want sent to ALL lights should be sent to Group 0.

Groups encompass both Rooms and Zones. If a Room or a Zone are configured in the Hue app the Hue driver will pull in the configuration information and allow for Room or Zone control.

Group commands are used to send commands to multiple lamps. They contain the same commands and variables available to individual lights. Large group state changes may take several seconds to be realized by the driver system variables.

To add or edit groups, please utilize the Hue App, then click the connect button in Integration Designer so that the driver properties will update.