I’m planning to put HA on a pi, with a usb antenna

I can’t decide which bulbs to use, Philips hue looks great but it’s pricey and I’m pretty sure it’s got too much “phone home” crap. I don’t want anything to leave my network. If I can use Hue bulbs without the hub, or block the hub from phoning home I would consider it?

I found some Sengled bulbs that look fine, but I don’t know if they are any good.

Can someone recommend some decent bulbs? Colour ones preferably, but white is OK too.

Any other advice? Got a home server, so can host just about anything to get this working together.

  • EntropyOPEnglish
    1•2 years ago

    Just wondering how you set up the Hue bulbs, did you need any workarounds or the bridge? Do they just link up to the dongle?

    • @ilikedatsyukEnglish
      3•2 years ago

      I have about two dozen Hue bulbs paired to my Sonoff Zigbee stick using Zigbee2MQTT. No workarounds or Hue hub necessary.

    • @fluxxEnglish
      2•2 years ago

      Any ZigBee device should just be able to pair with the dongle directly and no other settings or hardware is necessary. Check out the https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/supported-devices/ , find the particular device/bulb/switch and read the setup steps. If it has any quirks, it will be listed there. If not, you can be sure it will work without issues. I have a lot of Ikea tradfri bulbs, switches and also cheap Chinese devices such as tuya, they all work without issues.

      • EntropyOPEnglish
        1•2 years ago

        I don’t see any B22/Bayonet Hue colour bulbs that are supported, but other kinds like E27 are there. Is there something about B22 bulbs that’s different? All but 1 of my bulb sockets are B22

        • @fluxxEnglish
          1•2 years ago

          Wouldn’t know, I only have Ikea bulbs. Those all work. But I think hue is better, since Ikea ones don’t dim very low, whereas I’ve heard Hue ones dim very low. Maybe give the b22 ones a Google search?

          • EntropyOPEnglish
            1•2 years ago

            I’ve asked in the discord, if I can’t use hue b22 bulbs it’s not an issue, but I would prefer them due to their quality, even though they are more expensive.