Pairing Philips Hue Bluetooth bulb with Zigbee binding

I think I have tested this - I’ve certainly tested a recent white Hue bulb, but I think there are two different ones, so I can’t confirm at the moment if it was LWE002 as I don’t have it here right now.

1 Like

Haha ok. I thought you had managed to pair it.

How did you pair it to openhab? Do I need to get the dimmer?

Just the same way as pairng any Zigbee device. Put the binding into join mode, then reset the device so that it also enters join mode.

I recall there was some sort of issue with recent Hue devices, so I bought one for testing and had no problems getting it to join. It was not the bluetooth version though, but I wouldn’t have thought that would matter (but could be wrong).

thanks. there’s no join on the zigbee binding,only a scan button. and that finds nothing

The zigbee binding simply uses the standard OH mechanism which is the scan button. Bindings don’t implement their own systems as that would be messy for users.

Right, thanks.
This what it looks like.

Am I supposed to just turn the hue bulb off, wait, scan and then turn it on? And that’s it?
How can I see if the zigbee dongle itself works right? It does say “online”

Hopefully, but it depends on the state of the bulb for starters. If it ws ever in another network, then you need to reset it completely. Hue bulbs are very difficult to reset - you need a Hue controller I think to do this. If it has NEVER been in another network, or Hue gateway, then this hopefully is not required, but it’s impossible to be sure, so it is safest to reset the device.

If it is online, then there’s probably not a lot else you can do. You can look at the debug logs to see what is happening, but otherwise you would need to get a sniffer to see what is happening in the zigbee network itself as the binding doesn’t see that traffic.

Thanks again!

They were never used before, but still were not detected.
Do you typically start scan before you plug them in / power them on?

Yes, start the scan first.

Maybe the firmware in the coordinator is not compatible. I don’t know exactly what you’re using, but the join process is mainly a function of the coordinator firmware.

I flashed it with this: https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/tree/master/coordinator/Z-Stack_Home_1.2/bin/default/CC2531_DEFAULT_20201127.zip

It shows “online”, it has a mac address etc. Tried booting as well, still shows up fine as “online”.
Is there a way to watch some logs of the communication with the dongle itself? I see nothing in openhab.log

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0451:16a8  
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            2 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        32
  idVendor           0x0451 
  idProduct          0x16a8 
  bcdDevice            0.09
  iManufacturer           1 Texas Instruments
  iProduct                2 TI CC2531 USB CDC
  iSerial                 3 __0X00124B000FFB7FB2
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0043
    bNumInterfaces          2
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower               50mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass         2 
      bInterfaceSubClass      2 
      bInterfaceProtocol      1 
      iInterface              0 
      CDC Header:
        bcdCDC               1.10
      CDC ACM:
        bmCapabilities       0x02
          line coding and serial state
      CDC Union:
        bMasterInterface        0
        bSlaveInterface         1 
      CDC Call Management:
        bmCapabilities       0x00
        bDataInterface          1
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x82  EP 2 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval              64
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        1
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass        10 
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x84  EP 4 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x04  EP 4 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
can't get device qualifier: Resource temporarily unavailable
can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable
Device Status:     0x0000

My guess is that the firmware doesn’t support these newer devices, but I don’t personally use the 2531 so it’s hard for me to comment in detail.

Thanks, that’s my suspicion too. The fw is stack 1.2. Does it need to be 3.x then? I tried to flash it to the 3.0.x one but then I just got COMM ERROR from the binding

I’m not really familiar with the TI version numbering and given that this is no longer supported by the manufacturer, and is “only” supported by 3rd parties, I’m not sure what numbering is used. However, my suspicion is that the 1.2 means HA1.2 which is the older Zigbee standard, and it probably doesn’t conform to R21 of the standards which changed he joining process.

So probably you need a newer version - one with 3.0 in the name logically sounds like it might be for Zigbee 3 so is worth a try.

Right! Do you have a tip for which dongle I should buy that 100% works with OpenHAB? :slight_smile: Thanks

No really available yet but @NilsOF mentioned earlier in this thread a very affordable Sonoff/Itead EFR32-based USB one that is zb3. Looks like a limited first production run at the moment. Seems like it will be a sort of sucessor to the cc2531. I’ll be interested to hear how he gets on with it.

1 Like

Okay, seems I will just smash the bulb with a hammer and just continue using Z-Wave instead :slight_smile:

I do feel like this too :joy: I have come from very retro X10 and do miss the simplicity of that system, although unreliable at times.

But I have been happy with the sonoff and sage zigbee devices (on openhab), so maybe its just the latest Hue devices. I’ll avoid Philips for now.

1 Like

So, now I got a CC2652 based one (Tube’s CC2652P2 USB Coordinator)
And to nobodys surprise, it still shows up as “unknown”.
Seems to communicate with zigbe2mqtt and the mosquitto broker I set up, but I kinda want to avoid 2 additional docker containers to just have zigbee connectivity. Also there seems to be no discovery / scan.

You might be interested in this discussion about native Z-Stack 3 support in openHAB Zigbee Binding:

https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee/issues/1226

Z-Stack 3 API support is needed in com.zsmartsystems.zigbee for TI adapters with new Zigbee 3.0 FW

For what it’s worth, I was recently able to connect a few new Philips Hue Bluetooth/Zigbee “White and color ambiance” bulbs (model 9290022266A, reported in-app as LCA005, firmware version 1.76.11) to my openHAB 3.1.0 installation via my Ember EM35x Zigbee coordinator (Buy Zigbee USB Adapter | Zigbee USB Adapter Hongkong | Elelabs).

To do so, I just had to click “+” on the Things page, select the Zigbee binding, click “Scan”, and power-cycle the bulb.

After the bulb was registered with openHAB, I was able to pair it via Bluetooth with the iOS “Philips Hue Bluetooth” app and then could control the bulb both via openHAB and via Bluetooth (and I was also able to use the Hue Bluetooth app to set the Power On Behavior for the bulb).

When I tried to pair one of the bulbs first with the phone via Bluetooth before trying to add it to openHAB, I had trouble. I’m not sure if it was truly required, but I was able to add it to openHAB by telling the Hue Bluetooth app to reset the bulb – and then I was able to pair it back to the app.