[quote=“lingerba, post:4, topic:189153”]I found it interesting that the Harmony Hub without the extender works directly with SmartThings with nothing else needed. I wish it would work with Vera like that.
@integlikewhoa, can you tell me more / share a link to detail about the Phillips Hue bridge that you are talking about. I don’t have any Hue bulbs, can this still be an option for me?[/quote]
Bit of info in laymans terms that even I can understand.
I have not one HUE device either, so we are the same. I have a VERA (alot of devices) and I have a Harmony Home Remote which comes with the Harmony HUB. I also have an Amazon ECHO but that is not needed.
What it all started out with was a emulator or Fake Hue HUB (software) which runs on JAVA. This can run on a windows computer (has to be left on) or a Raspberry Pi. I have opted for a PI myself.
We had our amazon echo that communicates with HUE lights. We have our Harmony Hub that also communicates with hue lights. Someone (don’t know who was the first but there are several software updates and new versions out now) created this HUE Hub emulator that sends commands to VERA via HTTP and can turn on, off and dim your devices. Well ECHO and Harmony Hub also can communicate to it.
So now I have a Raspberry PI running a HUE HUB BRIDGE software and it plays the middle man. I can tell echo to turn on living room light or I can press the light button on the Harmony HUB and they both talk to the raspberry PI which sends HTTP command to VERA to turn ON,OFF or DIM lights. You can also run scenes or other things in order to control non standard groups or devices like AC controls or the like.
Now setup you might think is hard or difficult and I would say the hardest part is running the file on Raspberry Pi. I never used a PI before and the instuctions on this forum is good, but it does take bit of learning if you never used a PI to download a file to the pi and tell it to run this now and every time the PI is rebooted. Now it is rock solid, never crashes, is on wifi, uses little power, is very small, can be used for other projects. Once your up and running on the PI i can unplug and re-plug, move it anywhere in the house and it just works again.
Setting up the VERA is easy. There is a web UI that you login to the Raspberry PI IP after the software is running on it. Enter your vera IP and it find all your devices in the VERA and will create Http commands and setup each device you choose to put a check box next to. After that you can now use your ECHO or Harmony Hub Discovery setting/button to search for a HUE HUB (which you ofcourse don’t own but have a fake) and it will find all the devices you have just created in the Web UI of the PI.
From there it works just like anything else.
Here is some info and this is a big thread but the latest software is on post #772 as of today.
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,31920.msg251520.html#msg251520
Instructions for install are further back.