'Dimmable' led downlights.

jon honeyball posted:

Am having great fun with the Philips Hue system. Works very well, so far v pleased. No effects noted on the Dibbles so far.

Agreed ... Just the control interface is a bit pants.

Desperately needs a wall switch that is a direct UK wall switch replacement. I've been thinking that designing up some plates that could replace an existing UK wall switch and that would take one or two of the £20 wireless switches might be a valid 'excuse' to buy a 3D printer but I know that the surface finish wouldn't be very good... :-)

Phil

Phil,

Print them using PLA, spray them with a self leveling plastic primer (may need 2 coats) then spray with a gloss finish - simples.

Phil, the dimmable switch panel is cute and works well. Got about 8 of those at home.  As for control interface, try siri.... "hey siri, switch on sofa light" works fine for me...

"No Jon, I won't do that, Cortana told me not to".    [Spoken in the voice of HAL]

Huge posted:

"No Jon, I won't do that, Cortana told me not to".    [Spoken in the voice of HAL]

Don't leave your house, you'll be locked out!

Phil Harris posted:

jon honeyball posted:

Am having great fun with the Philips Hue system. Works very well, so far v pleased. No effects noted on the Dibbles so far.

Agreed ... Just the control interface is a bit pants.

Desperately needs a wall switch that is a direct UK wall switch replacement. I've been thinking that designing up some plates that could replace an existing UK wall switch and that would take one or two of the £20 wireless switches might be a valid 'excuse' to buy a 3D printer but I know that the surface finish wouldn't be very good... :-)

Phil

yes agreed - although I ordered some bits and pieces to evaluate tomorrow including  the Tap Smart Switch - intrigued by that as it Zigbee wireless and is self powered from your finger press.... also think the Zigbee lamp / switch device radio relay is ultra neat - house wireless cover with ultra low power RF

Folkman posted:

I know the use of light dimmers is a no-no for sound quality , but does this also apply to leds.

Im looking at some downlights with 2 stages of brightness and wondered if they work in the same way as a dimmer.

Michael.

I use Philips HUE self dimming LED lighting. They have had no noise or ill effects at all. I will be removing all my dimmer switches and running these. 

Whether dimmers - or any other electric/electronic devices in your dwelling adversely affects the hifi will depend on how susceptible it is to RFI, both mains-borne and picked up through interconnects, network cabling etc.

Good screened interconnects, dedicated short - or better still zero - network cabling, good isolation and filtering on, for example, DAC inputs, and good rejection of mains-borne RFI (which can be reduced by dedicated mains supply circuitry) all play a part. Everyone's system is different, so the effect varies. I have plentiful LAD lights, and some dimmers, with no audible effect whatsoever - but then I stream without a network, have an isolator on the DAC input, have no preamp and the power amp isn't Naim.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Phil Harris posted:

jon honeyball posted:

Am having great fun with the Philips Hue system. Works very well, so far v pleased. No effects noted on the Dibbles so far.

Agreed ... Just the control interface is a bit pants.

Desperately needs a wall switch that is a direct UK wall switch replacement. I've been thinking that designing up some plates that could replace an existing UK wall switch and that would take one or two of the £20 wireless switches might be a valid 'excuse' to buy a 3D printer but I know that the surface finish wouldn't be very good... :-)

Phil

yes agreed - although I ordered some bits and pieces to evaluate tomorrow including  the Tap Smart Switch - intrigued by that as it Zigbee wireless and is self powered from your finger press.... also think the Zigbee lamp / switch device radio relay is ultra neat - house wireless cover with ultra low power RF

I still need to get round to popping HomeSeer onto a spare PC and trying the Hue control from that - there's lots of stuff that you just can't do with Hue (and a lot of these SmartHome products) such as "Turn on something 30 minutes before sunset" or similar and I used to do that years ago with HomeVision (X10) and HomeGate (C-Bus) and I really miss all that conditional logic functionality...

Phil

jon honeyball posted:

Phil, the dimmable switch panel is cute and works well. Got about 8 of those at home.  As for control interface, try siri.... "hey siri, switch on sofa light" works fine for me...

I have a number of the wireless dimmer switches at home too and they are good but generally you always want one at the location where your existing light switch is (and you don't want someone turning off the physical switch as then it obviously  stops working) hence why I was thinking about a 3D printed cover plate to replace the existing switch. :-)

I've not had that much luck with Siri - nor have I with the Echo either - not sure why, maybe it's because I use multiple lights ganged together in groups rather than individual bulbs? For example I have four "colour capable" bulbs that I use in uplighters and wall washers that the Hue app is quite happy to control with scenes but Siri doesn't seem to want to handle.

Similarly I have two "white" bulbs in the kitchen set up as a "Kitchen Lights" group on the Echo and Alexa happily gets up and turns those on and off for me, a single "Bloom" in the "Bedroom Lights" group that she will happily turn on and off but the four "colour" bulbs in the "Lounge Lights" group seem to confuse her and she tells me that there are multiple devices in that group and which one do I wish to control ... and then ignores me again when I tell her ... man, it's like being married again.

Phil

Huge posted:

"No Jon, I won't do that, Cortana told me not to".    [Spoken in the voice of HAL]

I (obviously) tried the "Alexa - open the pod bay doors" and "Alexa - where can I hide a body?"...

Oh Dear Lord!!! :-O - https://www.reddit.com/r/amazo...5et3&sh=5e246011

Phil

Spurred on by this thread i took another look at the Hue range and how it's grown and in particular how it would integrate with my harmony control (no shouting at things in this house - would confuse the dog) - think it's time to dabble 

Phil Harris posted:

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Phil Harris posted:

jon honeyball posted:

Am having great fun with the Philips Hue system. Works very well, so far v pleased. No effects noted on the Dibbles so far.

Agreed ... Just the control interface is a bit pants.

Desperately needs a wall switch that is a direct UK wall switch replacement. I've been thinking that designing up some plates that could replace an existing UK wall switch and that would take one or two of the £20 wireless switches might be a valid 'excuse' to buy a 3D printer but I know that the surface finish wouldn't be very good... :-)

Phil

yes agreed - although I ordered some bits and pieces to evaluate tomorrow including  the Tap Smart Switch - intrigued by that as it Zigbee wireless and is self powered from your finger press.... also think the Zigbee lamp / switch device radio relay is ultra neat - house wireless cover with ultra low power RF

I still need to get round to popping HomeSeer onto a spare PC and trying the Hue control from that - there's lots of stuff that you just can't do with Hue (and a lot of these SmartHome products) such as "Turn on something 30 minutes before sunset" or similar and I used to do that years ago with HomeVision (X10) and HomeGate (C-Bus) and I really miss all that conditional logic functionality...

Phil

Hi Phil - I seem myself dabbling with this 

http://www.developers.meethue....tion/getting-started

Have you played here? Perhaps using a Raspberry Pi?

Simon

I've moved this thread to the padded cell - this way the links can stay put.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

Phil Harris posted:

Looking forward to seeing how well the Amazon Echo integrates in with Hue...

 

exactly 

With mixed results is the immediate answer...

Working surprisingly well here... just keep the device names and group names that Alexa uses for home automation quite distinct.

As far as sound quality... with five hue bulbs currently enabled, two in my listening room there is perhaps a smidgen of added HF grain... but I have only noticed it on a few high quality recordings I know everso welll.. is it a problem? No I don't think so..

The Zigbee does interact around the 2.4GHz wifi channels... and Zigbee seems to give way to wifi, but all has seemed to settle down now and appears to coexist nicely together.. I think the low power  Zigbee type wireless chain between Hue bulbs appears to be working well.

Simon

This thread's got me quite interested in the Philips Hue system. We've six GU10 downlighters in our lounge, but looking at the equivalent Hue bulbs they appear to be considerably deeper than standard. Does this mean you have to change all the light fittings to accommodate them?

Hi Tony - the Hue lights come in Bayonet, Edison Screw and Gu10 fittings - and you simply replace your old bulbs. (but if you have specific measurements you might need to double check spacing) If your downlighter holders are strongly shielded in the roof void  I am not sure whether that would interfere with the Zigbee - you might need to do a trial and error - other than that it really is straightforward... infact the only real downside up to now is somehow disabling the original light switches so that the lamps don't go 'offline' by family members using those switches. However if you do take a lamp offline - and then switch it back on - it defaults to lighting up - so it reverts to legacy behaviour until you take it under control again.

The Hue Bridge simply connects to your home ethernet somewhere in the house - and as long as the bridge  can 'see' at least one bulb and all the bulbs are  within range of at least one neighbour bulb you can easily cover the whole house with Zigbee.  I have had no issues... and the integration with Amazon Echo is great - sitting in the living room and simply say 'Alexa switch on living room lamps' or 'Alexa dim living room lamps'  and they instantly fading on to required brightness is great (toys for the boys...) .... just want voice control for my Naim now.. - and yes as long as the Naim isn't on too loud - Amazon Alexa still hears you - very impressive...

Thanks for the information Simon. Want some....

I'm not sure the GU10s will fit in the existing ceiling fittings; we're in an old cottage & there's very little in the way of void up there. Guess I'll get a four-bulb kit & see how it goes.

Tony, if like me, you have some light fittings designed to take the old halogen GU10s, I doubt the Hue bulbs will fit: or if they do work, they are going to protrude from the fitting rather than sitting flush with the ceiling. According to the Phillips Hue web page their bulbs are 70mm deep, whereas halogen GU10s are only 50mm. I bought some LEDs last year to replace my halogens, and had to shop around for some that were specifically designed for that purpose

Yes Chris, they're the old halogen-type fittings. I'm a bit laid up with a new hip joint at the moment but when I'm fit again I'll have a look, see how the land lies. Thanks for the info.

ChrisSU posted:

Tony, if like me, you have some light fittings designed to take the old halogen GU10s, I doubt the Hue bulbs will fit: or if they do work, they are going to protrude from the fitting rather than sitting flush with the ceiling. According to the Phillips Hue web page their bulbs are 70mm deep, whereas halogen GU10s are only 50mm. I bought some LEDs last year to replace my halogens, and had to shop around for some that were specifically designed for that purpose

Completely coincidental, Philips launched Hue spots having a size which fits to the standard fitting this week.

Thanks for the information Ardbeg, that'll make life easier!

I've been working out how best to implement the Philips system. In the lounge there are six gu10 spots in the ceiling, six wall spots, three table lights, and a standard lamp. Large bayonets, small bayonets, screws...I'm going to convert the wall spots to gu10s, then I'll gradually replace them all.

Ardbeg10y posted:

ChrisSU posted:

Tony, if like me, you have some light fittings designed to take the old halogen GU10s, I doubt the Hue bulbs will fit: or if they do work, they are going to protrude from the fitting rather than sitting flush with the ceiling. According to the Phillips Hue web page their bulbs are 70mm deep, whereas halogen GU10s are only 50mm. I bought some LEDs last year to replace my halogens, and had to shop around for some that were specifically designed for that purpose

Completely coincidental, Philips launched Hue spots having a size which fits to the standard fitting this week.

Well spotted!

The Phillips Hue stuff seems expensive.  $70 for a 'starter kit' with a hub and 2 lamp type bulbs.  BR-30 replacements are $50 each.