Note that you can’t just hold a button down and increase its brightness from the off state-you must press the button to turn the lights on and then hold another button down that you’ve programmed to dim. I programmed the top button to turn those five bulbs on to the Concentrate scene (a very cool white) and to brighten the bulbs when I hold that button down. I created a room called “Pool Table” in the Hue app and assigned all five bulbs to that “room” (even though it’s actually a piece of furniture), so I could control all of them simultaneously. To test the switch, I first set it up to control five Hue bulbs installed in a fixture that hangs over my pool table. You can choose a specific color or a Hue lighting scene. HomeKit Michael Brown / IDGĮach of the Senic’s buttons can be programmed to trigger a single Philips Hue light or a group of them. The Friends of Hue Outdoor Switch can also be operated like a remote control, in your hand or on a tabletop. You can increase brightness, decrease brightness, turn the lights off, or have the action do nothing at all. You can also define what happens when you hold the button down, but your choices are more limited here. Your action choices are to switch the lights to their last-on state, to turn them off, or to choose one of the Philips Hue scenes or light recipes. If you’re using the button to control Philips Hue lights or fixtures, these actions can apply to individual Hue devices, to all the Hue devices in a particular room (you’re limited to selecting three rooms), or to every Hue device in your home. Once installed and configured as an accessory in the Philips Hue app, you can assign an action to each of the switch’s four buttons. Senic rates its Friends of Hue Outdoor Switch as IP44, meaning it can withstand water sprayed from any direction. It’s covered with a rubbery sleeve and it’s weatherized to a rating of IP44, which means it’s not particularly dustproof-it’s protected against objects larger than 1mm (0.04 inches)-but it is sufficiently water resistant that it can be sprayed with a garden hose. Alternatively, you can carry it around with you and use it like a remote control. When mounted, it takes up less space than two conventional rocker switches in a two-gang electrical box. The Outdoor Smart Switch can be mounted to a wall with screws or the provided two-sided adhesive pads. The big difference is that this new product doesn’t require the Nuimo Hub to connect to your network, it relies on the Hue Bridge instead. The Friends of Hue Outdoor Smart Switch is very similar to Senic’s earlier product, the Nuimo Click we reviewed in 2019, and it operates on the same energy-harvesting technology Senic licenses from EnOcean. This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart switches and dimmers, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product. You can learn more about HomeKit in this story). You’ll also need an iPhone or an iPad and a HomeKit hub (an Apple HomePod smart speaker, a third-generation or later Apple TV, or an iPad that won’t leave home. You’ll still need the Hue Bridge to tap into HomeKit, even if you don’t use any other Philips Hue lighting products. If you’re in the Apple HomeKit ecosystem, it will also control any HomeKit-compatible smart home device: Smart speakers, thermostats, garage-door controllers, motorized window shades, and more. The Friends of Hue Outdoor Switch resembles a conventional two-button rocker switch, but it’s a bit smaller than conventional switches in the U.S. The Bridge itself requires AC power, and it must be hardwired to your router. If you don’t already have a Bridge, or if you have a first-gen model, you’ll need to buy one (they cost about $55 on Amazon). This generates enough energy to send a radio signal to a second-generation Philips Hue Bridge, using the Bridge’s Zigbee mesh network. Instead, the switch harvests the kinetic energy generated by pressing one of the switch’s four buttons (one at the top and one at the bottom of each paddle). The secret behind the easy installation is that the Friends of Hue Outdoor doesn’t connect to your home’s electrical wiring-it doesn’t even rely on batteries. If you’re looking to control Philips Hue smart lighting, you might find Senic’s Friends of Hue Outdoor Smart Switch to be pricey at $79, but you can install it yourself in less time than it takes to fetch a screwdriver. Installing any kind of light switch where no wiring is already present is difficult to do on your own and expensive if you pay an electrician to do the work.
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