I currently have Echo Dots in three locations around the house, and two wireless routers. None of the smart bulbs I've purchased have been able to connect to the internet via wireless (and thus to their apps), so I've been unable to add them to Alexa.
I've been told by a salesperson that to have smart lighting around the house, I need a hub to connect all the lights. Can anyone comment, or suggest a solution?
Posted Oct 21, 2019, 5:39 PM UTC
You must have a mesh router you have three choices. Get a router with seperate 5ghz and 2.4ghz networks, get a echo plus or show 2 with zigbee hub and have a limited selection of devices, get a smarthings hub the only one I would suggest to, no offence, someone with your technical ability and you can choose from zwave and zigbee devices.
The ultimate problem is that the main router is 5 GHz, and none of the bulbs would connect to it (stating implicitly to use the 2.4 GHz secondary router instead - which although not close to the lights still show 4 bars on my phone). Thus the question of whether to get a hub to control all the eventual lights across the house.
No offence taken. :) I've been in the IT industry for over 40 years, and I just choose not to struggle with technology that does not install based on the instructions in the manual. If I have to fight with it for an initial installation, I'm going to have to fight to make it work again if it resets for some reason. That doesn't limit my technical ability, just my patience with poorly performing hardware or bad documentation.
Thanks for the info - I'll check out those devices.
Well then look into more home automation hubs but it's all fiddly so you will have to mess with it to one degree or another depending on devices and what you want to achieve with them nothing I have use with maybe the exception of tplink devices(wifi) has not had to be messed with in some fashion.
I have a couple of TPLink outlets and they installed without a problem. It's just that all of the bulbs SAW the 2.4 GHz router, they just couldn't get an internet connection through it. Our mobile phones use this router, so I know there is internet through them.
After following the instructions and then hitting Google for hints with the devices, I just refuse to spend more than an hour messing around with them. So it's either buy a hub, or I have to troubleshoot the router for some esoteric weirdness. :)
I got my whole smart lights setup in IKEA. Hub, contoller and the smart lights were a lot cheaper than the Philips hue or Google equilivant.
It's been a while since I looked at lights at IKEA - at that time they had lights that were going to be compatible, but weren't yet. Thanks for the tip!
FOLLOW UP: Went to IKEA this weekend, and got their set with a hub, remote and two bulbs (TRADFRI). It was a breeze to set up, and I had it running in twenty minutes. Works GREAT.
One thing to note, though. Don't put them in a dimmable socket, they don't work properly and will need to be reset.
Thanks for the tip. Will probably buy more bulbs at IKEA.