Controlling Vera with Siri

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

Hi,

I have successfully used my Philips Hue in order to have my Vera controlled by Siri. What I have done is simply to dedicate one Hue Lamp, called Siri, and then activate different scenes based on the lamps dimming in percentage. If you name, for instance, your scene in Hue “Off” (=40% dimming) you can activate the “all things Off” scene in Vera by saying “Siri, activate Off”.

Even cooler it gets when using IFTT. As an example: When the last person in my circle leaves the house, all gadgets are Turned Off. This happens by connecting Life360 Channel with Hue Channel.

I also use the Flic Button the same way. Flic Button triggers Hue which triggers respective scene.

Might be old news, but thought I would share it anyway!

//P-a

#2

Another great side effect is that you can use Hue widgets and in this way have fast access for activating your preferred Scenes directly :slight_smile:

#3

[quote=“P-a, post:1, topic:193304”]Hi,

I have successfully used my Philips Hue in order to have my Vera controlled by Siri. What I have done is simply to dedicate one Hue Lamp, called Siri, and then activate different scenes based on the lamps dimming in percentage. If you name, for instance, your scene in Hue “Off” (=40% dimming) you can activate the “all things Off” scene in Vera by saying “Siri, activate Off”.

Even cooler it gets when using IFTT. As an example: When the last person in my circle leaves the house, all gadgets are Turned Off. This happens by connecting Life360 Channel with Hue Channel.

I also use the Flic Button the same way. Flic Button triggers Hue which triggers respective scene.

Might be old news, but thought I would share it anyway!

//P-a[/quote]
This is very interesting, but I’m not sure I completely understand.
How does Siri control the Hue? How does the Vera react to the Hue scene?
Also interested in how you use the Flic button.
More deets please!
|-<:)

#4

Ok, see if I can explain it.

  1. Get a Philips Hue Bridge with HomeKit (HomeKit enables Siri control)
  2. Use a Philips Hue dimmable Bulb and put it in a Lamp fixture (I have mine for visible feedback)
  3. Create Scenes in the Philip Hue app where this bulb is dimmed to lets say intervals of 5%. If you want easier Siri control make sure to name these Scenes with Clever names. Like “Off”, which you later will use for instance to turn all devices off by saying “Activate Off”. I cases with clever naming of the Scenes, “off” will be sufficient. I recommend using the Old Hue app, it was easier to define dimm Level.
  4. Create Scenes in Vera in order to activate all defined Hue Scenes separately: “IF dimmable bulb is dimmed to 5%, turn scene “All Off” Off.”
  5. Flic Button: I had this connected to Hue app, which meant I could trigger different Hue Scenes that in turn triggered the corresponding scene as per above. However, the Flic Button is utter crap. The Scenes are not listen correctly, and I get “runtime 0” in the Flic app frequently which means it does not work. Contacted their support but they could not help. The only “Fliccin” that will happen is when I Flic this piece of crap in the bin.
#5

[quote=“P-a, post:4, topic:193304”]Ok, see if I can explain it.

  1. Get a Philips Hue Bridge with HomeKit (HomeKit enables Siri control)
  2. Use a Philips Hue dimmable Bulb and put it in a Lamp fixture (I have mine for visible feedback)
  3. Create Scenes in the Philip Hue app where this bulb is dimmed to lets say intervals of 5%. If you want easier Siri control make sure to name these Scenes with Clever names. Like “Off”, which you later will use for instance to turn all devices off by saying “Activate Off”. I cases with clever naming of the Scenes, “off” will be sufficient. I recommend using the Old Hue app, it was easier to define dimm Level.
  4. Create Scenes in Vera in order to activate all defined Hue Scenes separately: “IF dimmable bulb is dimmed to 5%, turn scene “All Off” Off.”
  5. Flic Button: I had this connected to Hue app, which meant I could trigger different Hue Scenes that in turn triggered the corresponding scene as per above. However, the Flic Button is utter crap. The Scenes are not listen correctly, and I get “runtime 0” in the Flic app frequently which means it does not work. Contacted their support but they could not help. The only “Fliccin” that will happen is when I Flic this piece of crap in the bin.[/quote]
    Thanks, I think I get it now. Sadly, I have a pre-Home-Kit Hue hub. What the lag time like from command to execution?
    |-<:)
#6

Well it really depends I would say, for instance re-grouping my Sonos speakers, Setting individual volumes and playing a specific playlist would probably take like <5 s. Pause all speakers <2 s. Lighting a Scene <3 sec.

Roughly speaking.