[SOLVED] Setting up HUE lights for dimmer AND ON/Off switch

Setup, Configuration and Use Installation
1

I have the Hue Bridge and two lights set up in our living room. I have them set up as individual dimmed lights. What I would like to create is:

  1. Have each light dimmable as they are now as there are times we only use one light.
  2. Have 1 UI control to dim both lights at the same time.
  3. Be able to turn ON/OFF both lights at the same time via one UI control.
  4. Be able to turn ON/OFF individually via 2 UI controls.

Yes I know it’s a lot but wives want what wives want.

To be able to do this, do I need to create a UI control for each option I want to use above? I have set them up using the Paper UI originally as individual dimmers.

John Frankforther

2

Create a group and add both lights to that group. Then add a Switch and a Slider for this group to your sitemap.

3

I was playing around and got both dimmers working together, each dimmer working separately and the power ON/OFF working on both lights. The only problem left to figure out is when I use the ON/OFF switch on both lights. When I switch them ON, them come on at the lowest setting instead of 100%.
What am I missing? All of the settings are done via Paper UI.

John

4

You can use the dimmer/slider to turn ON/OFF the light. Why do you need the switch then?

In case you want to use the switch, you can make a small rule which sets the light to whatever value you want. I believe thats the best option.

5

My wife wants an ON/OFF switch besides the slider. I don’t know why!!

6

You can just add a switch to your item definitions (and of course to your sitemap then too). I am using text files and there it would read like this:

Switch  Light1_Toggle       { channel="hue:0210:1:bulb1:color" }

Of course you would need to adjust this item definition according to the bulbs you have.
By the way, the above is taken straight out of the docs: https://www.openhab.org/addons/bindings/hue/#philips-hue-binding.
If you are using PaperUI, I am sure you can take from the above and map an switch item to your color channel.

7

As far as I understand, his last problem is, that the light doesnt turn on at 100% when using the switch… Thats why I suggested using a rule to set the light to 100% when the trigger switch turns on, and 0% when the trigger switch turns off.

8

Thanks, I missed that. In my case, using the switch, the lights come on with the last setting, whatever color and intensity that was. But, yes, if this is not desired or indeed does not work the same way in his case, the only way around is to run a rule.

9

Something must have “hit the fan” today as I was told to take out the dimmer bulbs and put the regular bulbs back in.

So Thanks guys for all your help. I did have everything working though.

John

10

What a sad post. :frowning: Somehow my wife is still putting up with the lights turning on and off at random… I keep telling her that Rome wasn’t built in a day…She hasn’t asked to put the old bulbs back in yet, so I guess she is a keeper.