Philips Hue

NETMF & Gadgeteer
#1

Hi there,
I just found my Fez Raptor a few weeks ago and thought it would be great to make it interact with my raising amount of Philips Hue bulbs.
I’ve been looking for Philips Hue frameworks but nothing seems to work. Fx I’ve downloaded HueIO and compiled it and included the dll into my gadgeteer-project only to not being able to make it work.

It’s been a while since I toyed around with my gadgeteer so I don’t remember everything about the framework and stuff but the basic thing about HueIO seems to be that it isn’t working for the Microframework - as far as I can see it uses List which is not supported (and stuff like that).

Anyways: does anyone know how to either use HueIO with gadgeteer or any suggestions for another framework?

  • peter
#2

Does this help

https://developers.meethue.com/develop/get-started-2/

#3

Naaah… been there a few days ago. I just wanted a framework really. I know it’s pretty easy to just send the command directly to the Hue hub but I would prefer a framework as for wrapping my commands.

#4

Haven’t looked into these lights as a protocol but I am interested in having fun :slight_smile: is the protocol simple to talk to them? Can you talk to it directly or have to go through some cloud?

#5

Hi Gus,
Yeah it’s a pretty simple REST-API with a token key to get access to inject commands. Of course I can write my own wrapper but I just thought that someone else already did that, hence the question/post.
You communicate with the Hue hub that basically talks to all the bulbs (and accessories). The hub offers cloud control (so you can communicate while off premise).

I don’t like cloud stuff - it’s basically just someone elses server… so no cloud stuff. I just use REST in LAN.

#6

the endpoint is HTTPS. There’s a good chance that the device will not support older SSL/TLS that netmf libs have.
The easiest way to tell is to open a browser or run CURL and enter the command you think you’ve created. If the bulb does that, then you’re stuck until you can get a better TLS version - time to jump to TinyCLR

#7

the bulbs are not WiFI, right? So I need to also buy a hub?

#8

:nerd_face: yes please

#9

Correct. I think they use Zwave as the radio link. Same with WEMO from Belkin.

The absolutely easiest way to control any of this stuff is to use Node-RED running on a Raspberry Pi. Drag and drop everything you need to control the Hue etc and then tie it all together with suitable HTTP or MQTT commands (MQTT server also runs on the Pi) and with this setup, everything is internal to your network.

MQTT is about the easiest way to get all your devices talking to each other.You can even use MQTT on an external server so you have access to your devices from anywhere. A secure connection is also supported so the system can be made secure.

4 Likes
#10

maybe you can get some information here… https://github.com/domoticz/domoticz/tree/development/hardware/PhilipsHue

1 Like
#11

We haven’t seen you in a while. Welcome back.

1 Like
#12

As far as I know Hue uses Zigbee (from hub to its children like bulbs, sensors and what ever), if concerned to talk via wifi in a secured way … don’t know how far TinyCLR is but nanoframework is. Boards are various of different flavour of technology, STM, ESP32, TI, or NXP but not the Raptor, sorry.

#13

Sorry for following up this late.
I’ve followed the instructions on https://docs.ghielectronics.com/software/tinyclr/getting-started.html but as a VB.NET user I am not sure if TinyCLR supports VB.NET although I am able to create a VB.NET-project.
When I create a project I get ‘Requested operation is not available because the runtime library function ‘Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices.StandardModuleAttribute…ctor’ is not defined.’. Sounds like the VB.NET-framework is not available or?

#14

VB should work and it did at some point but have stopped testing it as it is not commonly used by our customers. We can definitely look into it in the future but the focus today is in TinyCLR 2.0 with C#