Hi all. I recently bought a Philips hue smart plug to control a lamp.
I quite quickly realized that it was more complex than I thought.
Not only did I need to install the DIYHue add-on to simulate a Hue bridge, I also needed to download the Philips Hue app, or some 3rd party app called Hue essentials, to connect the smart plug (via the DIYHue bridge add-on?) to the home assistant?
I don’t want to install any app from Philips.
Also it didn’t work.
Isnt there a way to simply control a bulb or plug from the home assistant, running on a Raspberry pi, without having to install any corporate bullshit?
Sorry for the swearing. Im just frustrated that this all turned out to be so complex.
Do you have a Zigbee bridge? Philips Hue things do work without the Hue App, but you probably have to add a manually entry for the device, and you need a Zigbee Bridge. Also, if I remember correctly, almost every device that isn’t a Hue bulb still shows up as a bulb for some reason. This is more due to the limitations of the Hue ecosystem than the HA implementation.
If you just want a smart plug without all the corporate BS, get one that works on Matter (Zigbee or Z-Wave if you have an endpoint), and check the integration before buying. Moe’s is pretty solid, but there’s a ton of open devices out there that “just work” on HA.