Echo Plus Hue integration with the binding?

Add-ons Bindings
1

I was going to order an Echo Plus 2nd generation. It comes with a Phillips hue light for free. Anyone have any experience if the hue binding in OpenHAB will work with the hue hub built into the Echo Plus?

Thanks.

JR

2

That will probably not work. The Echo would need to pretend to be a Hue bridge and I don’t think that Philips would allow that. But you might ask in the Alexa Binding thread, if such a functionality can be added (if it is not already in).

3

Amazon says the Echo Plus 2nd generation comes with a built in hue hub and can setup the Phillips lights and manage them. Are we saying Amazon wouldn’t expose the bridge to be bound with or that the thought is Amazon doesn’t really have this integration? Wasn’t sure. Does the current binding connect to a stand alone Hue Hub?

For reference if didn’t know: https://www2.meethue.com/en-us/friends-of-hue/amazon-alexa/echo-plus

Thanks.

JR

4

The question is only, if the official Hue App works with the Echo. If yes, then the Hue binding will work as well.

5

Guess unless someone knows, I will find out in 1 - 2 weeks when it ships.

Side question, if I find the bulb is only accessible/manageable thru an Alexa skill, there is no way from OpenHAB to send requests to Alexa to turn something on and off that only it can see is there?

Thanks.

JR

6

AFAIK the Echo Plus contains a Zigbee transmitter/receiver not the Hue REST API. I guess the most appropriate binding will be the Zigbee binding.

7

That’s kind of what I was getting from the reading. So does the ZigBee functionality somehow give you a piece of functionality that the Hue hub does? I’ll give this a try when the device gets here, but from what I’m reading so far, either no one thought of this, or it’s not that easy.

Thanks.

JR

8

Forget about the last part of my answer. The Zigbee binding conflicts with the Echo Plus because a Zigbee mesh can only have one coordinator which is the Echo itself.

No absolutely not. The Echo Plus supports limited features and bulbs. No sensors. And so on. Even Philips mentions on their website that you will get way more functionality out of your lights if you use a Hue Bridge.

9

In this document amazon states:
Bring your smart home to life with the full range of Philips Hue bulbs, lamps, switches and sensors. All you need is a Hue bridge to unlock the full Philips Hue experience.

So you still need the Hue bridge. The echo communicates with the Hue lamps via the Hue bridge and the network. The same way is used by Google Home.
Gert

10

Yep, I’m aware of the limitations. Reality is I am getting a free bulb which I would never have had in the first place. And I have a desk lamp I was thinking over how to manage it. And this free bulb popped up as part of the order. So trying to manage it without anything else. I have no intention to have more smart bulbs so wouldn’t bother buying a bridge for one bulb. So was hoping I could do basic management thru OpenHAB and the Echo Plus. One suggestion was to create Routines for on and off and dimming in Alexa’s app and access them from OpenHAB but not sure how to do that.

Thanks.

JR

11

Creating a routine is somewhat intuitive once you begin as the app will walk you thru everything.

I have some of the cheaper sengled bulbs that work with Alexa and the free Hue bulb as well. Both work with or without OH.

What I’ve moved to is a CC2531 USB stick with zigbee2mqtt. So far I really like it and find it highly reliable. From China the USB stick cost around $8 but you will need a few additional item for flashing firmware to the USB stick. If interested see this link for more detail.