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purdnost

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2018
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I recently purchased a Philips Hue White Ambiance starter kit. I set up my automations with HomeKit, but my lamps all turn in with different temperatures. I’ve noticed there’s a way to set brightness and temperature in automations, but the temperature setting doesn’t seem to stay. Is this a known bug as far as compatibility between Philips and Apple, with their recent OS updates?

Also, I’m not seeing a way to match exactly the temperatures in HomeKit with the temperature presets in Hue. I assume this is expected behavior?
 

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
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in the automation, make sure you actually set a color, I've had it were it seems like it just recorded a level, and not a color. It hasn't happened often, so can't really give much more detail, But it has happened a couple times.

you can try making a scene, and have the automation play that instead of using individual lights.
before making a scene, set all the lights the way you want them, Then when you create a scene and add lights, it will pull the current state into that light.


get the eve app, it works for all homekit devices, and adds a ton of features
it will let you look at scenes, you can easily see what's included. You can see if it's got level but not color recorded
you can also drag color from one light to another. It's a new feature, and sometimes it's tricky to actually drag the color. just hold your finger fairly still on the color for 1/2 to 1 second, then you can drag. It feels like it should work in scenes, but doesn't seem to do what it supposed to.


You can also add conditionals to automations, such as sensor values, or the state of other devices.
with home app you can say
if motion sensor comes on turn on light
with eve you can say
if motion sensor comes on turn on light, but only if it's after sunset
 
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purdnost

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2018
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Philips updated the Hue bridge firmware today. First thing I noticed is there are now five color presets in the HomeKit app for my Hue bulbs. Also reading that Germany iOS beta testers now have adaptive lighting enabled. Can’t wait for this!
 
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pup

macrumors 6502a
Dec 31, 2009
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We have the ambient white bulbs throughout our house and to date the color temp has been flawless, though general connectivity has always been better via the Hue app than HomeKit. Glad to know that Apple has decided to screw that up for me.
 

purdnost

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2018
497
131
We have the ambient white bulbs throughout our house and to date the color temp has been flawless, though general connectivity has always been better via the Hue app than HomeKit. Glad to know that Apple has decided to screw that up for me.
The Hue app is perfect, but I prefer the easy-to-access integration of HomeKit in Control Center, and I like to manage all my smart device automations in one place. The issue I’ve had is HomeKit not remembering the color temperatures I’ve set for automations (and you have to eye it, there was no exact color or preset you could select to synchronize light bulbs). Now, there appears to be, but I don’t know if these presets are from Apple or from Philips. I’m guessing Philips since they showed up with the bridge firmware update. Until now, lights would turn on with random color temperatures. Will test and see if that’s resolved.
 

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
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A couple definitions, since I'm still a little confused by your questions.
  • Scene - a "look" involving one or multiple devices, they are triggered with the buttons towards the top of home app, by asking siri using the name.
  • Automation - happens automatically, "if motion sensor activates, turn on light" or "at sunrise, turn off outside lights", they can also play scenes instead of individual lights.


Those 6 buttons under the dimmer, where you set the color??
Those have been there for quite a while, I think they showed up in iOS 13, previously there was a single button labeled "color" which took you to another page, but the same color preset buttons were there, just in a different layout.


If you didn't have those, something didn't work properly during your install. which might have affected the scenes you recorded.


If you look at my post above, it's 100% possible to record a scene and not have all the parameters have been recorded, so it could include level, but not color.
I'm not sure why it does this occasionally, but you can check the contents of all scenes in the eve app.
You can also add/remove parameters to that scene in the eve app.

The eve app even has pages that are broken down by parameter type, so there is a single page that shows all the color parameters for all the lights in your house, and you can drag a color you've made from one lamp to all the others.

you can also edit scenes, by dragging and dropping color from one lamp to another.


You say you want to keep all your stuff in one place.
Don't think of the eve app as a different place, think of it as a different view of the same place.

The eve app runs beside the home app and updates the same backend, it's a second front end for the home app that has more features.
It doesn't replace the home app, you can still use both apps, or just one if you like it better.
anything created or changed in one is automatically in the other.
it works for all homekit devices, not just the ones from eve


I'm a big fan of setting the look for a scene in the hue app, as it's easy to set entire rooms to the same color. And it's also much faster when adjusting large chunks of lights.
Once you get the look in the room how you like it using hue, you then go into the home app, and create a scene. When you add lights to that scene, the home app automatically pulls their current state into the scene. then all you have to do is save the scene instead of messing with going in and out of multiple tiles to get things set.
it's also easier to match colors from one light to another.
Using this method, you can copy the scenes from the hue app into the home app in probably a minute per scene.

You can't change the color on a hue bulb unless it's actually outputting light.
so if you're trying to change color temperature when the lights aren't on, it won't work.
I've written a couple small scripts that interact directly with the hue hub, if the bulb is off it will reject a color command.
 
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