Integrating Philips Hue with Home Assistant via Zigbee

Question

As Philips is going to force users to create accounts and share data online with them, I embarked on a journey to integrate my Philips Hue bulbs and light strips with Home Assistant using a Zigbee adapter, and I'd love to share the process to help anyone looking to do the same.

This journey involved a series of adjustments and troubleshooting but eventually led to a successful integration, paving the way for a more centralized and flexible smart home setup. Please feel free to criticize my approach. I'm here to share and learn. Thank you.

Answer 1

1. Initial Setup

• Hypervisor Proxmox 8
• Virtual Machine Running Docker Host 24.0.5
• Docker Container running Home Assistant 2023.10.1
• Zigbee Adapter: SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2

2. Pass-through USB Zigbee Adapter

• Plugin Zigbee Adapter to physical server
• Pass-through the USB port to the VM in Proxmox via Hardware section of the VM, it is quite self-explaining and needs no re-boot of the VM
• Run ls -l /dev/serial/by-id in the VM to double-check your setup, it should be something like this:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Oct  6 22:54 usb-ITEAD_SONOFF_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_20230324155149-if00 -> ../../ttyACM0

3. Docker Compose Adjustments

• Ensured the Docker container had necessary permissions to access the host's serial devices by modifying the docker-compose file.
• Here's a snippet of the docker-compose file used:

    devices:
      - /dev/serial/by-id/usb-ITEAD_SONOFF_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_20230324155149-if00:/dev/serial/by-id/usb-ITEAD_SONOFF_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_20230324155149-if00
    volumes:
      - '/dev/serial/by-id:/dev/serial/by-id'

4. Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) Integration

• The ZHA integration should detect the new adapter and guide you through a bunch of setup screens
• I faced screens asking for Zigbee type, Port, Port Speed, and Data Flow Control. Selected EZSP for Zigbee type, provided the USB path /dev/serial/by-id/... mentioned above, set the Port Speed to 115200, and Data Flow Control to Software.
• After that the setup was done

5. Bulb Pairing

• Attempted to pair bulbs via ZHA integration, but the bulbs weren’t discovered initially.
• Ensured the bulbs were removed from the previously used Philips Hue bridge by removing them in the Philips Hue app (this is very important)
• Checked and experimented with Zigbee channels to avoid any interference, ensuring a clear channel for communication.
• Pairing bulbs and light strips involved some waiting but worked reliably
• Pairing dimmer switches required to set them in pairing mode:
  • If the switch has been paired with a hue bridge before, you need to find the reset button and reset it
  • The reset button is within a small hole you need to push hold with a needle or other pointy device
  • New switches have that underneath the battery cover
  • After that press and hold the power button for 3 seconds until the LED on the front of the switch starts to blink

6. Scenes and automations

• Go to Settings > Automations & Scenes > Scenes and a scenes you want to activate, when pushing a button on your switch (or in the app)
• Add all bulbs which should be active and set the colors, brightness etc.
• Then go to Settings > Automations & Scenes > Automations and create one automation for each button
• The trigger is the button, the action is the scene