With its latest application update, Signify-owned Philips Hue now lets you have two or a lot more Hue Bridges tied to a one Hue account, but that doesn’t resolve the greatest limitation of the Hue Bridge: its 50-device limit.
The Hue update went reside this week (as 1st famous by HueBlog), and it provides the new possibility below the “My account placing.” Here’s how it is described in the app: “Multiple bridges for every account using Hue Homes. Constantly out of residence command.”
The critical element below is “out of house control” specifically, you have to indication in to your Hue account to handle your Hue lights when you are away from household, and up right until now, you could only assign one particular Hue Bridge per Hue account.
Earlier, end users with much more than 50 Hue devices–and thus, more than 1 Hue Bridge–had to generate independent Hue accounts to manage their lights when they were being away. Now, Hue end users with more than a person bridge at household no longer will need to juggle accounts when attempting to handle their lights though they are out and about.
That is a action in the ideal direction, but it does not change the actuality that the Zigbee-enabled Hue Bridge only supports a highest of 50 equipment, and working with a lot more than a one bridge is a royal suffering. (Certainly, to start with-planet troubles, but nonetheless.) The Zigbee protocol that the Philips Hue method is based on typically supports up to 250 nodes. It is feasible to have Zigbee networks with more than 250 nodes, but that can grow to be additional complicated than a Do-it-yourself program these types of as Hue must be.
Fifty Hue devices may seem like a good deal, but it is shockingly uncomplicated to reach that limit following all, most of us have much more than a single gentle in just about every space (my kitchen area, for case in point, has 6 Hue bulbs, as perfectly as an below-counter light strip.) And you can have Hue lights indoors as perfectly as outside–on your porch, outside exterior doors, and in your landscaping. Also, you’ll have to have to think about that the device limit contains Hue accessories, these as buttons, movement sensors, dimmer switches, and third-celebration Mates of Hue units. If you’re all-in with Hue lighting, you could hit that 50-device quite speedily. (You really can cram a lot more than 50 devices on a single Hue Bridge 63 is the tricky restrict. But once you cross the 50 mark, reliability can just take a nosedive).
Variation 4. of the Hue application added the capability to speedily swap involving two bridges, but there’s however a digital wall concerning the Hue equipment on a single bridge and the Hue products on yet another. In other words, you cannot tap a button to command all your Hue lights across two bridges at the same time, nor can a single automation include Hue lights throughout both of those bridges.
The good thing is, there are workarounds, these kinds of as third-bash applications like iConnectHue that seamlessly guidance two Hue bridges. Apple’s HomeKit system will also let you incorporate and management various Hue bridges at when. Still, it is vexing that the formal Hue application only enables you to management just one Hue bridge at a time.
Hue creator and head of know-how George Yianni dealt with the Hue bridge’s 50-device limit at past year’s IFA conference in Berlin, the place Hue app variation 4. was initially introduced. Here’s what he mentioned at the time:
We continue to keep the limit the way it is for now because we do not want to compromise the trustworthiness. This limit that we have at 50, that definitely allows us ensure no matter how your house setup is produced that it will get the job done actually properly.
That logic can make ideal perception, but it also leaves the Hue ecosystem with (as a single Reddit user described it) with an inherent “scalability” difficulty. Certainly, there’s a lengthy thread at the Hue subreddit riddled with problems from dedicated Hue people hunting for tasteful means to regulate many Hue bridges at the same time. Sadly, there are not any silver bullets so much.
It is not apparent if Hue is actively performing on greater ways to prolong the 50-gadget restrict of the Hue Bridge, or no matter whether it is even probable to do so without the need of releasing all-new hardware. I have achieved out to Hue for remark.