I love waking up to the Philips Hue sunrise effect (especially on the Hue Twilight), but I didn't want to use my phone at night just to check the time, toggle the alarm for the weekend, or move my wake-up time by 30 minutes. So I built HueAlarm on an M5Stack Core2 v1.1 (with the 1500 mAh battery module): a standalone, battery-powered bedside alarm clock inspired by the classic Braun BC08. How it works:

• Zero light at night & ~1 to several months of battery life: The screen turns off after 5 seconds and the device goes into deep sleep (~2 mA, waking in ~0.35s when you touch the screen) or complete power-off (~0 mA, waking via the side button or internal RTC timer). Wi-Fi stays completely off 99.9% of the time.
• Native Hue CLIP v2 Sunrise: 90 seconds before the sunrise is due to start, the clock wakes up in the background (screen stays dark), connects to Wi-Fi, and sends the native sunrise timed-effect command over local HTTPS to your Hue Bridge, then goes right back to sleep until the alarm rings.
• Easy bedside controls:
  • Tap the bell: Toggle alarm on/off
  • Long-press the bell: Toggle between Sunrise + Beep (sun icon) or Beep only
  • Tap the alarm time: Smooth momentum scroll wheels (5-min steps) to change the wake-up time
  • When ringing: Tap anywhere to snooze (9 min) or tap the bell to stop
• No hardcoded setup needed: Connects to Wi-Fi via WPS and pairs with the Hue Bridge right from the touchscreen (discovers the bridge via mDNS, lets you pick a Room/Zone or matches "Twilight" automatically, and includes a 1-minute sunrise test button). I open-sourced the firmware (PlatformIO / Arduino) along with all the power & battery-life measurements here if anyone wants to build one: GitHub: https://github.com/ard-pri/HueAlarm

forgive my ignorance but are these compatible with the lights? I assumed the connection port/part looked the same so it should fit ? im guessing the second hue bulb will fit or either ?

Hey all,

I’m not that experienced on how philips hue works. However I’ve acquired some second hand bulbs and wondered if they’re safe to use from a security standpoint?
Could the previous owner have tampered with it and infect my network once I pair them with my bridge, or is this something I shouldn’t be concerned about?

Might be a bit paranoid, I know. Just wanted to make sure

I have a Hue motion sensor set to turn on my living room lights between 11 pm and 7 am when it detects motion, then turn them off after 1 minute.

The problem is that if I'm still awake and already have the living room lights on after 11 pm, the automation interferes with them.

Is there a way to make the automation run only if the lights are off when motion is detected, so it doesn't interfere with lights I've turned on manually?

I thought enabling the "Do not disturb" option is the fix but it doesn't seem to do anything.

Hi Everyone,

I have been gifted a wonderful set of lightstrips and sync box (we already have some light bars so bridge as well) by my wife to go around the TV. We have a 98" TV so we got a 2x2m strips, and 2x1m extensions. I have set it up in this configuration, red is 1x2m and 1x1m extension joined by supplied connector.

The problem I have is being able to accurately tell the hue sync app where this setup is connected, as it see's the 1x2m and 1x1m as one strip.

Is there a more detailed application where you can indicate the path of a strip, especially an extended one?

Hi everyone! I used to have the Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip 27” for my IPS monitor. I bought the ROG Swift PG27UCDM a couple of months ago, but the 27” lightstrip didn’t fit because of the bulky cooling system on the back of the monitor.

Do you think the 32” lightstrip would fit? Has anyone tried it with this monitor?

I’m also a bit worried about sticking something as powerful as a Hue lightstrip onto my OLED monitor. Could the extra heat from the LEDs cause any damage, or could removing the adhesive later damage the back panel?

Hi everyone,

I'm having a frustrating issue with my Hue Play setup on PC with the Hue Sync app.

My setup:

Main screen: 21:9 Ultrawide (3440 x 1440)

Secondary 1080p vertical monitor above it

1x Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip (on the main monitor)

2x Hue Play light bars placed under the main screen

The issue:

Hue Play 1 (Left bar): Works perfectly and synchronizes accurately with the left side of the display.

Hue Play 2 (Right bar): Completely out of sync. No matter where I position it inside the Hue mobile app's Entertainment Area (even when dragging it all the way to the far right edge of the virtual room), it constantly samples and displays the colors from the middle / center of the screen instead of the right side. It only reacts when a bright color passes through the exact center of the monitor.

What I’ve already verified:

In the Windows Hue Sync app display preferences, I made sure my main 21:9 ultrawide monitor (3440x1440) is explicitly selected (not the second monitor, and automatic detection is disabled).

Tapping each light in the mobile app confirms the correct physical unit flashes (Hue Play 1 is left, Hue Play 2 is right).

Has anyone experienced this bug with ultrawide monitors or the right channel sampling zone? Is there a known fix or workaround?

Thanks for your help!

I’ve had a Hue bulb linked to an Echo for a few years now in my bedroom light and it’s worked fine with no issues at all up to now but in the last week it’s been turning itself on randomly during the early hours of the morning. I’ve looked through other Reddit posts and forums for help on this issue but no luck yet. Does anyone have a fix for this please?

I hope this is not a dumb question, but I have the flux strip and I think I might have broken one of the pins that connect to the adapter? It seems like there should be 4 instead of 3.

Is there a way to fix it?
I tried to find a solution but failed to do so

Hi Leute,

Ich habe einen neuen 77 zoll oled und wollte gerne Ambilight ausprobieren, geht das auch mit einem Hue Flux Striplight und der Hue Sync App?

I've been working on a family of Philips Hue lighting apps, all free and open source. One for music on Android, one for Home Assistant, and one for films and games on the PC. They can share an entertainment area by taking turns, so you can run one or all three.

1- CAMusic an android music player (Android 12+) with a built-in Hue light show. Previously, syncing music to hue lights was quite limited, only spotify or samsung sync or windows. Now CAMusic joins the show.

- Made for Sendspin players on Music Assistant: your phone joins the group as a clock-synced speaker, and it plays Navidrome, Jellyfin, Plex, Emby, MPD, local files and more.

- Hue Entertainment light show rendered straight to the bridge at 60 fps from the audio, with lamp positions from your entertainment area, colours from the album art, saved/shareable shows and a tap-along Rhythm Lights game.

- 10-band/parametric EQ with AutoEQ import, gapless, crossfade, ReplayGain, EBU R128 loudness scan, USB bit-perfect output (experimental).

- DJ Radio auto-mixed sets, Set Builder, listening stats, scrobbling.

- Ambience scenes (fireplace, thunderstorm, aurora...), sunrise alarm + sleep dimmer, AirPlay output, listening parties via QR code.

- Android Auto, TV and an LG webOS app

2- Hue Synco a home Assistant integration (HACS)

- Beat-mapped Hue lighting for any HA media player, Music Assistant players first (Sendspin, Squeezelite, AirPlay, Chromecast, Sonos, DLNA, ESPHome).

- Each track is analysed once, so effects are scheduled ahead and land exactly on the beat, with a live 16-band spectrum layer between beats.

- Brightness follows real loudness, drums and instruments drive the beats, vocals filtered out.

- 6 intensity modes, 3 effects, 19 colour options, bundled dashboard card for phones and wall tablets, full automation entities and services.

- WCAG-informed eye-safety limiter on all modes (except extreme), with a photosensitivity warning.

3- Hue Ghost a Windows app for Jellyfin, PC apps and games. It works as a software sync box.

- Plays a silent, frame-synced "ghost" copy of whatever your TV's Jellyfin client is playing, and the Hue Sync desktop app streams that to your lights, your TV keeps its own stream, so 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision work as usual.

- Also syncs PC games (Steam, Epic, GOG...), Moonlight/GeForce NOW streams, browsers, video players and Spotify, each source gets its own mode, intensity and room.

- Automatic on/off, pause and next-episode handling, offset tuning from the couch, multi-room support, OLED care, tray app + CLI

- Controllable from Hue Synco's from HA movie mode or plain REST.

Repo links, docs and releases:

- https://github.com/engabd11/CAMusic

- https://github.com/engabd11/syncoV2

- https://github.com/engabd11/HueGhost

Feedback, improvements and bug reports are welcome!

So I have a few Hue plugs that I use for simple on/off automations. The main one is on a coffee maker that has a physical on/off switch that remains in the on position and the Hue switch just gives it electricity in the morning. There’s no hot plate warmer so it turns off 30 mins later which is more than enough time for the brew cycle to complete. Been working flawlessly for years.

The other plugs do outside lighting. And move between the backyard to do late evening lights for the kids still playing to the front yard for holiday lighting late in the year. The backyard lighting in the summer switches on before dusk and usually I click it off manually in the app because the kids come in before it’s set to turn off.

But I noticed late in the summer that my coffee maker plug would still be on when I got home from work. And i would have to manually turn it off when I prepped the coffee. Figured it was some small glitch so didn’t investigate as it was easy to turn off every night while I was setting coffee up.

But now that I’ve switched the other plugs to holiday lighting late (just some spotlights for Halloween colors) I noticed that NOTHING is turning off on schedule. They turn on just fine but nothing clicks off. And if it was just the holiday lights I would assume it’s something I did but the fact that it also took over the reliable coffee maker Automation with no changes on my side makes me wonder wtf is up.

Anyone else have this and have a solution?

I want backlights that sync with the tv
But I can't find any
Is it just impossible because of the size of the tv ?

I bought the Philips Hue Bridge Pro (BSB003 | 6.1.2071524040) based upon the published specifications (see https://www.philips-hue.com/en-us/explore-hue/faq/controls/how-many-hue-bridges-do-i-need) that said I could have up to 50 accessories (including sensors) attached:

I paired 12 sensors (SML001 & SML003) with no issue, and then the 13th sensor would not pair. I tried three different sensors, including an old SML001 (running 67.166.1 | 100b-10d) and new SML003 (2.85.1 | 100b-11b). I put the sensors right next to pro bridge (touching). Nothing would pair. I removed one of the sensors (making 11 total) and then I could add a new sensor.

Is the documentation incorrect or is there some caveat regarding the 50+ accessories (like I need a repeater)?

Edit: I'm answering my own question. I was able to pair a generic zigbee outlet with the bridge and then I could pair a 13th sensor with no issues. So, there is an undocumented limit on the number of sensors that can be directly connected to the pro, but if you put in repeaters you can get above 12.

Got quite a few years of experience within the Hue ecosystem, however cannot find the answer to the following whether it's possible to do the following:

Got 3 GU10 spots outdoor in a nice sealed enclosure, which are automatically turning on at sundown through an automation within the HUE app. At 23:00hr they are automatically switched off. However now I want to add an outdoor sensor that turns these lights on after 23:00hr when motion is detected and turned off again after 5 minutes of no movement.

Would this be possible by just adding an Hue outdoor sensor to the ecosystem, putting it where I want to and setting it up through some rules?

Hey all!

I bought a HUE Bridge Pro from a coupon I still had, then added a Wall-washer for my Gaming area.

Now I want to take the next step, which should be a gradient LED strip on my 27' inch monitor. However, looking at Philips HUE NL (Netherlands) store, and after going through many retailers' webs hops - it seems definitively the 27' inch LED strip for PC is sold out / out of stock.

The only available thing is the 27' inch LED strip + a bridge (starterkit). But I already have a bridge.

So would anyone know, is this normal for HUE items to go out of stock? How will I know if/when it will get back in stock?

Kind of crazy to me that a regular HUE item like that is nowhere to be ordered as a single item, so not as a starterpack.

Thanks..,

Maurits / Netherlands

I honestly feel like I’m going insane. I set up my new light and the sync box (8k) and no matter what I do I just can’t get them to sync correctly. For example when the left side of the screen is showing something blue and the right side is showing something red, the sides don’t change to the corresponding colors. Instead they just make a pink. The colors are so pale and pastel like and not vibrant at all. Am I doing something wrong??? (First pic is mine and second pic is what ideally it should look like)

I’ve got 11 lights set up in my house and they all randomly decided that they were going to be unreachable at the same time. Because of this I couldn’t reset them with the app. So I deleted my bridge and hard reset it as well as deleted my account hoping it would make my lights available to find again but absolutely no luck. Is there anything I can do to reset them to make them findable again or have I just wasted hundreds of dollars on a faulty product?

Trying to install my Hue Slim downlight to replace an existing downlight on my front porch. However, when I got the original equipment off, I see that there are three cables wound together coming from the junction box. I assume that this is from the other downlight I want to replace on the porch being daisy chained to that source from the house and then the other is to our lights at our garage.

How can Install the new slim downlight here and still connect the other lights in? Pigtails into the Hue junction box and then connect that to the existing wires?

So far, I'm very pleased. I moved over from Govee because literally everything else I owned was Hue. I know the bottom of the screen isn't illuminated with a strip, which is odd (though I'm sure there's a reason)

It doesn't bother be really, though, I am curious what others here are doing to possibly supplement the bottom portion of their set up?

I have a hue bulb in an outdoor light and a hue outdoor motion sensor. I want the light to trigger when there is motion between sunset and sunrise and otherwise remain off. I have the motion sensor set to the daylight performance setting and I have a custom automation that runs from sunset to sunrise to turn on the light. My issue is the light comes on at sunset and won’t go off unless the motion sensor is triggered. What am I doing wrong?

Every other online account I have has allowed me to change my email address except Hue. Does anyone have any idea if/when it might happen?