[grumblez]

Fortunately all of their lights work over a standard Zigbee connection. No need for a Hue Hub or App at all. I was already transitioning my lights from using the Hue Hub/App to directly connecting via Zigbee/HomeAssistant before this was announced.

[psyclobe]

All except their new wifi connected ones... called Wiz.. watch out for those, much more affordable but really crappy app/setup situation.

[spdustin]

Wiz bulbs use ESP-NOW (so that the Wiz remote can communicate with them). They also have an ESP-WROOM-02 inside (a package integrating an ESP-8266EX).

The fact that they use ESP-NOW means they can be controlled (theoretically) by any ESP* that has ESP-NOW support. So far, folks have only managed to go the other way—to intercept remote key presses [0]—but I imagine it won’t be long before they suss out control of the bulbs.

[0]: https://github.com/jesserockz/wizmote-esphome

[KANahas]

Those WiZ bulbs have actually been pretty reliable for me in the few years I’ve had them. Pretty early on I set them up to be controlled by Home Assistant [1], and they are on par with my other Hue devices in terms of performance (maybe not a 100% match in brightness, but close enough). Definitely worth their much cheaper price to me.

[1] https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/wiz/

[antx]

Also the wiz bulbs have one feature that most others don't have: they get their last state back after a power outage. If there's one thing you don't want, it's a full bright room after a brownout in the middle of the night!

[krisoft]

That is good to know! Thank you very much. I will look in that direction then.

[anabab]

can you still set up direct connection between a switch and a light which would work even if the hub is down?

[Dextro]

Yes! This is called binding in zigbee parlance. I have a couple of ikea bulbs and switches and, if memory serves me, you can bind up to 10 bulbs to a single switch.

[SparkyMcUnicorn]

All zigbee devices require a coordinator. It can be a raspberry pi or any other hardware/software with the radio, but it does have to be powered up.

[noamchomsky1]

you still need a hub for zigbee connectivity right?

[ender341341]

yes, I use home assistant cause I don't need any cloud based stuff for it to work, though I did have to buy a raspi and a zigbee stick to run it on (or if you have some extra hardware laying about, I just like having it separated from my other stuff). I have a few cloud based things attached to it, but I'm selective and don't buy things where essential functionality requires it, but it's a extra & optional feature on something I was going to buy anyways (and that I don't care if data is shared on, like my automatic litter box dump box being full).

[Nullabillity]

You need a ZigBee hub, but it doesn't have to be a Hue one.

[pzlarsson]

You need a coordinator talking to the zigbee bulbs, in most cases this is a usb-dongle for $20-50. Zigbee2mqtt has a great list of different dongles and their pros/cons. The other functionality of a propriatary hub will be fulfilled by home assistant or Zigbee2mqtt+nodered.

[dheera]

Yes but there are USB Zigbee dangles that will serve this need. You don't need another box and power supply, there are multiple brands to choose from, and no cloud account or goddamn SMS confirmation needed.