anyone using Phillips Hue for lighting control

[Donald]

I bough the Hue Lux starter kit. I have it set for the lights to go on a sunset and off at 11:00 PM. Sunset changes obviously. Does my smartphone with the Hue app need to be near the hub at sunset or does the hub calculate that.

Or maybe my smartphone just needs to have connectivity to the hub over WIFI or cell data.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Donald, I'm not sure what you're asking here. Are you asking if the Hue system knows on its own when sunset is? It could...it could be programmed to know when the sun goes down in your area (or connect to a server to gather that information).

Or are you asking about manually controlling them through the smartphone app? It would depend on how the app "talks" to the individual units. It could be that it requires your phone to be on the same Wi-Fi network as the units, similar to the Roku app. For lighting applications, however, I think that'd be somewhat limiting. It could be that it's like some home thermostat or security apps, where you can connect to it from anywhere, as long as the units have a persistent internet connection.

 

[Donald]

I am asking does the smart phone just "program" the hub or is the smart phone the program that drives the hub.

Sunset was at 7:59 last night and my smart phone has a Hue task set to turn the outdoor lights on. What if I was on a trip and was flying in a plane at 7:59?

 

[Hokiefyd]

I see. I highly doubt that the smartphone app has to send the command to turn on the light every night. I believe the smartphone app probably sets the program in the hub. You can test this tonight. Physically power your phone off at 7:55 and see if the light turns on.

To your other question...how does it know what time the ever-changing "sunset" is? That, I don't know. I bet Google does.

 

[Donald]

I agree it would be odd if the phone needed to be internet connected to the hub every time a command was to be sent to the lights. But I cannot see the hub being smart enough to either calculate or find out sunset (or sunrise).

Maybe the hub does have a clock and the smart phone sends over several days worth of commands once and awhile.