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Innr lights and Hue switch unresponsive during 10 seconds every now and then?

nu1mlocknu1mlock Member
edited June 2018 in Questions & Help
Hi,

I just got my Homey today. Just getting started but I'm loving it so far.

I reset all my lights (Hue and Innr) and added them to Homey (without the bridge). I don't know if this was the best way, but in my mind I wanted Homey to talk directly to the lights instead of going through the bridge (not sure that's how it works, but that's what was going on in my head).

Everything works, but every now and then, all my Innr lights stop responding to commands. They are farthest away from Homey (15-16m when walking around corners, through walls is shorter. Walls are thin something, "plaster" maybe? Don't know the word).

I tried the switch with a Hue lamp just 1m away from Homey and the same thing happened, though I don't know if it was the remote or Hue bulb that lost connection. Come to think about it, the remote actually started blinking red sometimes. It can start blinking red if I'm sitting 5m away from Homey but with line of sight.

Edit: I should mention that the app on my phone doesn't work for those same lights when the lights "lose connection".

I'm using the Philips Hue ZigBee and INNR Lighting B.V. apps to control the lights.

I still have the bridge, but I was hoping there could be something else. Or is the "official" app better if I have the bridge? Would the bridge not add extra latency or be less customizable?

I'm rambling as usual. Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts or inputs on what is currently happening with my stuff?

Thank you!

Edit: At first I thought that it might be because the bulbs might be too far away (though it worked fine with the Hue Bridge), but aren't they supposed to create a mesh network and not be dependant on how far away from Homey they are?

Comments

  • You are walking around with a remote? Define remote? What brand? You are walking throughout the house, because that could be a problem.
  • You are walking around with a remote? Define remote? What brand? You are walking throughout the house, because that could be a problem.
    No, that's not what I meant. I should've explained better.

    The remote I was using was the Hue dimmer switch. I didn't walk around while using it. But I tried using it in two different rooms.
  • Oy1974Oy1974 Member
    Replaced the battery of the dimmer switch? A few weeks ago had the same problem with the switch and the red flashing light. After messure and replacing it, no problems any more
  • Oy1974 said:
    Replaced the battery of the dimmer switch? A few weeks ago had the same problem with the switch and the red flashing light. After messure and replacing it, no problems any more
    I haven't, but it's now happening even from the PC application. I can click the bulb to turn it on/off and it stops responding for a little while.

    It's like the bulbs lose connection somehow. I also did a factory reset on both the Hue Bridge and Homey and re-connected the bulbs back to the Hue Bridge, just to be sure.

    In case it matters, I don't have a crowded wireless network. No neighbours, no wireless stuff except two phones, Amazon Echo and Homey is connected right now.
  • Let me try to understand, so it isn’t the remote specific, but after 10 sec or so the bulb reacts again on the on and off switching? If that’s the case it seems to me that Homey is doing something that blocks the command to be send. Could be a flow or a app that is polling a device. Any other devices in use beside the bulbs?
  • nu1mlocknu1mlock Member
    edited June 2018
    Let me try to understand, so it isn’t the remote specific, but after 10 sec or so the bulb reacts again on the on and off switching? If that’s the case it seems to me that Homey is doing something that blocks the command to be send. Could be a flow or a app that is polling a device. Any other devices in use beside the bulbs?
    Hi, 

    I've noticed that it isn't remote specific because the same thing happens if I use the Homey app on my phone. But yes, after a while it starts working again. Not always 10 seconds though (as I originally said), it can be anything from 2 seconds to maybe 30 seconds, it differs every time.

    I used the Homey app when I was in the bathroom and both lights in there worked fine at first. But after a few on/off switches (in the app), the bulbs stopped responding. After a little while, they started responding again. The two bulbs are right next to each other over the mirror. Sometimes only one of them stops responding, sometimes both.

    Note that this can happen on all my bulbs, both Innr and Hue bulbs, both E27 and E14 bulbs, both regular white, ambience and color bulbs. It can also happen mid-transition between on/off states, meaning when a bulb is off and I turn it on (either with the Homey app or the remote) it can stop responding while it's lighting up, stopping it while dimmed (bulbs dim up from off to max brightness when turned on).

    At the moment, all bulbs are back and connected to the Philips Hue Bridge, which didn't solve the problem.

    When it comes to flows and apps, I've just started and wanted to configure the lights before doing anything advanced. Because of this, I only have two flows. Both flows are for the remote (which is now paired with the Philips Hue Bridge) - one flow for pressing the "on" button, and another flow for pressing the "off" button. That's it.

    I only have two apps installed. One is the "official" Hue app, and the other is the "Philips Hue ZigBee" app. I previously also had the "official" Innr app, but I haven't installed it since I made a factory reset of Homey and paired all bulbs with the Philips Hue Bridge.
  • Oy1974Oy1974 Member
    Ah now we come to a point, 

    Just yesterday i saw on facebook someone with the same problem, en also with the 2 apps. The one with Hue directly connected to homey and also the one with using the bridge.

    For some reasson the do not work together. 

    https://www.facebook.com/Domoticahuis/?hc_ref=ARSMhwFbYdSnvLCzlmUeRG-7EBZ_30awWDBfEUoMSK9vxPisyJjEyyh9eo38OpnpMiM&fref=nf

    I suggest 1 make a github isseu for the problem you have , https://github.com/athombv/homey/issues/new

    and 2 just deleting one app to test if it works then.
  • nu1mlocknu1mlock Member
    edited June 2018
    I'm pretty sure I only had one of them installed when I first tried it yesterday. I paired all bulbs and remote (dimmer) and motion sensor directly to Homey. I'm also pretty sure I only installed the app to use the lights without the bridge ("Philips Hue ZigBee").

    I'll remove it (and the motion sensor that is paired directly to Homey) and only use the "official" app and give that a try.

    I also want to point out that I did some testing this morning. The Hue dimmer switch (that I call "remote") instantly turns on the lights when it is configured through the Philips Hue Android app. But when it is configured through flows with Homey (still paired with the Philips Hue Bridge though), it takes 3-6 seconds from a keypress until anything happens with the light. And when configured with flows, bulbs can also stop half-way and be dimmed.

    When controlling the bathroom lights (two bulbs next to each other), and the remote is configured with flows, then sometimes both turn on/off (after a 3-6 second delay), but sometimes only one of them does (which one is different from time to time).

    If I should only use one of the apps, which one would you recommend? Is it better to pair everything to the Philips Hue Bridge or directly to Homey?
  • Oy1974Oy1974 Member
    edited June 2018
    its a bit personally what the best usecase is for everyone.

    Using the app WITH the philips bridge, you could have some delay, because homey is polling the bridge and so it could give a delay btween +/- 1-6 seconds. Otherhand you can stil using the the scenes from the philps bridge.

    sidenote : only notice delay sometimes with switching the lights off. Switching on Always directly.


  • Well, I don't have any scenes and I don't think that's important to me (though I don't know what I'm missing since I haven't used the feature). I'd rather have no delay at all (or as short as possible).

    I also have a motion sensor, and I read that Homey polls it every 7 seconds or so, which adds a long delay when coming home for example. I don't know if that's the current case, but that's what I read.

    Anyway, just to be safe, I made another factory reset of both Homey and the Hue Bridge and have now disconnected the Hue Bridge. I'm currently pairing some of my lights to Homey and will only use the "unofficial" app.
  • Btw, did you check the zigbee channel on the HUE bridge? Be sure it isn’t on channel 11
  • nu1mlocknu1mlock Member
    edited June 2018
    I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but so far it's working good. I did a factory reset on Homey and the Hue Bridge, then disconnected the Bridge.

    • Installed Philips Hue ZigBee and paired the Philips Hue lights to Homey. One at a time, with the bulb closest to Homey first.
    • Paired the Philips Hue Dimmer Switch to Homey.
    • Made a flow to turn on/off the lights (checking one room at a time, then editing the flow to the next room)

    Since that seemed to work without issues, I then had three more lights, but they are Innr bulbs;

    • Installed INNR Lighting B.V. and paired the Innr lights (one E27 RGB and two E14 Dimmable) to Homey. Again, one at a time, starting with the bulb closest to Homey (and as such, also closest to the last Philips Hue bulb, since the Innr lights are at the "end of the chain").
    • Edited the flows to test the Innr bulbs, again one room at a time.

    So far, all the lights are working and there's next to no delay. One of the two Innr lights in the bathroom (farthest from Homey, around 15m when walking) seemed to lose connection once, but only once during a 3 minute session of pressing on and off on the Hue Dimmer Switch).

    After this, I paired the Hue Motion Sensor to Homey and made a quick flow to make sure it worked. It did, although I haven't put it in the hallway yet, as I've only tried it in my living room for testing.

    Other than that, I also tried another flow for the Innr RGB bulb. Changing to a random color, on and off, and resetting color works without delay as well.

    So far, so good, I think, though I'll have to do more testing before being sure it works properly.

    kasteleman said:
    Btw, did you check the zigbee channel on the HUE bridge? Be sure it isn’t on channel 11
    I didn't specifically check for it, but when I did a factory reset this last time, it said channel 6 in the Hue app on my phone. I don't know if it was on channel 6 the previous times or not. Either way, the Hue Bridge is now disconnected.
  • As an update, one of the Innr bulbs doesn't respond anymore. I'm going to position it in the same room as Homey to see if there's a difference.
  • Sorry, but again the question: the bulb does not respond any more at all, or after a specific time it does? You use the remote for switching and thus a flow? And if, you switch only 1 bulb or more?
  • Sorry, but again the question: the bulb does not respond any more at all, or after a specific time it does? You use the remote for switching and thus a flow? And if, you switch only 1 bulb or more?
    Well, right now the Innr bulb that is the farthest away from Homey doesn't respond at all in any way. I don't have a flow to that bulb yet. I have tried the Android app, the Windows program and even voice activation with Alexa.

    Right now I'm only having issues with the Innr bulbs, which unfortunately is the farthest away from Homey. Could it be because of them being too far away from Homey? As I wrote in a previous post, those Innr bulbs are about 15m away from Homey when walking. Going through walls is shorter, perhaps around 10m. Walls are thin and made of "plaster" (if that's what it's called, I don't know the English word).

    Since I don't have a flow to the bathroom yet, I can either control one light at a time through the apps, or tell Alexa to turn on/off all lights by voice. All lights except the one farthest away from Homey turns on/off.
  • nu1mlocknu1mlock Member
    edited June 2018
    Here's another update.

    Both Innr bulbs in the bathroom lose connection from time to time. I don't know why, but they are placed (as I've said before) the farthest away from Homey. I took one of those bulbs and put it in my livingroom which is where I have Homey.

    With that bulb being closer to Homey, it started working. The second bulb still in the bathroom still doesn't turn on/off, or does sometimes. The time the two bulbs were down seemed very random. It could be until next try, but it has also been down for over an hour (well, it took an hour in-between two tries and none of them worked).

    Edit: sigh Now with one of the Innr bulbs close to Homey, I've started noticing a very long delay on the Innr bulb sometimes. Not all the time, sometimes. Longest delay I counted was 9 seconds. This is when using Alexa to turn on/off all lights.

    I feel like this issue only happens to the Innr bulbs. But I'm not sure, because Hue bulbs also became unresponsive yesterday, along with the Hue Dimmer Switch that also lost connection.

    Those (Hue bulbs and Dimmer Switch) have worked just fine since my last factory reset and while only having one Hue app installed on Homey.
  • Please don’t use Alexa as a reference. The response can vary a lot, or sometimes even dail. Use the mobile app for example. Also, what if you cut the power of one of the INNR bulbs and put it back on again. Does it then react again after half a min or so? I suspect indeed a rang issue. No option to put a zigbee router somewhere halfway? Or move a hue bulb to the INNR bulb location or swap one INNR bulb with a HUE bulb? As mentioned before i have no issues with INNR bulbs not reacting anymore, but i have a lot of zigbee routers of 3 different brands in my mesh and therefore no range issues
  • Please don’t use Alexa as a reference. The response can vary a lot, or sometimes even dail. Use the mobile app for example. Also, what if you cut the power of one of the INNR bulbs and put it back on again. Does it then react again after half a min or so? I suspect indeed a rang issue. No option to put a zigbee router somewhere halfway? Or move a hue bulb to the INNR bulb location or swap one INNR bulb with a HUE bulb? As mentioned before i have no issues with INNR bulbs not reacting anymore, but i have a lot of zigbee routers of 3 different brands in my mesh and therefore no range issues
    I think in this case that using Alexa is a valid example. Which response would vary? I can clearly see all other lights turn on/off. This obviously means that Alexa interpreted me correctly.

    Either way, I have used the remote, app and the Windows program as well. All give the same random result; that it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't.

    It might be range issues, but I checked the range map, and each light is connected directly to Homey. There is no routing going on that I can tell (except the remote and motion sensor), at least not for the range. 

    Maybe it is the Innr bulbs that have a lot worse range than the Hue bulbs, and perhaps they don't connect through the other Hue bulbs. Maybe they're on the edge of what Homey can reach and therefore lose connection from time to time.

    I haven't tried pulling the power to the Innr bulbs while they are unresponsive, but I'll try it next time I notice this happening.

    I have no other routers (though the Hue lights should act as one), but worst case scenario I might be able to move Homey and place it in the middle.
  • kastelemankasteleman Member
    edited June 2018
    Zucht (dutch) Never ever had range issues with the INNR devices and developed the drivers for al the products supported in the app. But please prove that i’m wrong and try swapping the brands and their location if  You can and assumptions don’t solve the problem. Btw Alexa can be an issue: that Homey reacts to Alexa does not say that the commands are executed. Def not if the command applies to switching more bulbs in 1 command! know for sure, using Alexa 3/4 of a year icm with Homey.
  • This is very frustrating! I switched places on some bulbs and now both Innr bulbs are in the same room as Homey and I took a Hue RGB bulb and put it in the bathroom.

    What's making this so hard is that everything is working now (with bulbs moves), but it also worked for quite a while just before I switched places. I can't sit and press buttons for hours on end.
  • I understand the frustation. But big plus you try. Leave it as is and watch how it develops over time if you can.
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