HUE with dimmer

[AndyTkd]

I know that Hue bulbs and other Smart Bulbs cannot be dimmed using a standard dimmer switch, because they reduce voltage to dim bulb which smart bulbs don't like.

but, is there a way to use the fibaro Dimmer 2 with a retractive switch that would turn on/off a hue bulb without dimming it and use the hue app to change colours and dim etc? Wondered if there was a way to just use it to turn on /off maybe use the switch to send signal to hub to dim turn on/off instead of reduce voltage.

I would want a retractive switch as its a 2 way switch controlling wall lights and centre light, only interested in putting a coloured hue bulb in wall lights, but want the centre to be controlled by fibaro dimmer 2 on a retractive switch.

I don't like the Philips Hue switches and want a 'normal' light switch so I can just turn on/off as normal

Thanks

[guyank]

Andy,

I’ve done exactly this in 3 rooms. I use a Fibaro Dimmer 2 and retractive switch at the wall. I then use SmartThings to control all the lights. The Fibaro dimmers send scene IDs to SmartThings depending on the number of clicks. I then use WebCore to vary the pendent light brightness and Hue lamp colour and brightness depending on what I want. The only limitation is that you can only send 3 scene IDs from the dimmer.

I can also automate it to make the lighting imitate the same scenes when we’re out to make it look like we’re in.

Guyan

[AndyTkd]

Thats Great, thanks Guyan

Sounds like its worth trying this out for myself

Do you know if there are any setup instructions for this on web anywhere?

[guyank]

Andy,

I've never seen a tutorial to do it all. Are you a SmartThings user? If so its quite simple. I added the dimmer with a custom device handler but I think that it may now be available as standard. I also have WebCore installed and its fairly easy to write a piston to control it. I now use Hue B Smart rather than the standard SmarttThings Hue control as it works much better with WebCore. I could supply you a copy of mine if you need it but you'd obviously have to tweak it for your devices.

Guyan