Tech-U-Can-Use (TUCU): The Philips Hue Bridge (S$89) is the starting point for anyone thinking of building a smart lighting system for their homes. It is the hub that connects and controls smart lights and accessories from the Philips Hue family of smart lighting products.
The Philips Hue Bridge is the HEART of the Philips Hue home smart lighting.
Since we’re all spending so much time #WorkingFromHome and doing #HomeBasedLearning – thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to turn as much of my dwelling into a smart home.
ZigBee technology
Philips Hue is based on ZigBee, a low-power and reliable technology to control your lights.
Zigbee is a worldwide standard for low power, self-healing, mesh networks offering a complete and interoperable IoT solution for home and building automation.
Zigbee networks can support hundreds of nodes, and have enhanced security features.
There are already Google Home wireless speakers around the home, so the next step is to introduce some nice lighting to enhance the ambience for both work and play.
One of the easiest ways to fix up smart lighting in the home is the Philips Hue bulbs and lights from Signify (foremely Philips Lighting).
The Philips Hue Bridge is the hub to which all the Philips Hue smart lights are connected and through which the Philips Hue App controls those lights.
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Philips Hue Bridge – freshly unboxed. Excited to take the first step in setting up a smart lighting system at home.
The Hue Bridge is a compact little box that measures 90.9 x 90.6 x 26 mm and weighs 280g.
Connecting the Philips Hue Bridge to a Philips Hue App
Setting up the Hue Bridge is easy.
It comes with an ethernet cable and a power supply in the box.
Simply connect the ethernet cable to a LAN input in the home router and the power supply to the mains.
Philips Hue Smart Home Lighting by Signify
The Philips Hue smart bulbs and luminaires connect wirelessly to a Philips Hue Bridge which provides the status of the lights to a Philips Hue App (iOS/Android).
I can then control the lights individually and wirelessly through the app.
Using the app, I can turn on or off a light, set the colour of the light (out of 16 million colours on a colour wheel) and control the brightness of the light.
The app sends these settings to the Hue Bridge which then conveys the instructions to the respective lights.
Via the app, I can monitor the status of all the lights – whether a light is on/off, what colour it is set to and its dimness.
And I can do that at home or remotely over the Internet.
The app also enables me to set a lighting scheme such that the colour changes over time.
And I can automate my lighting such that a light turns on or off at a certain time or when I enter or leave the home, through geo-fencing.
The Philips Hue system is also compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home and Microsoft Cortana, so you can control the lights by voice and via Google Home.
After a minute or two, the three status LEDs on the Hue Bridge will light up and remain lit.
Having installed the Philips Hue App on an iOS/Android phone/tablet, use the app to search for a bridge and press the big round button on the bridge.
The App will discover the Hue Bridge and connect to it.
Each app can connect to more than one bridge, while each bridge can be controlled by more than one device through the Hue app on each device.
Connecting a Philips Hue smart light
Adding a new Philips Hue smart light to the home is easy.
If it’s a bulb, simply affix the bulb to the socket and switch it on.
If it’s a luminaire, simply plug it into the mains and switch it on.
Using the Philips Hue App, you can Add the new light into your home smart lighting system.
Basically, the Philips Hue App tells the Philips Hue Bridge to start searching, and the latter will find and connect with the new light using Zigbee technology.
Each Philips Hue Bridge can connect and control up to 50 lights and 12 accessories, is capable of automatic system updates and enables you to control the smart lights through the app or via voice (through Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant or Microsoft Cortana).
Tags: bridge, hub, Hue, IoT, lifestyle, lighting, networking, Philips, Signify, smart home
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