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Common Ground News

Do Hue lights act as repeaters?

Author

Christopher Snyder

Updated on February 23, 2026

Do Hue lights act as repeaters?

Hue bulbs are fine acting as repeaters for each other when connected to a hue bridge, but have the same problems as the Sylvania when connected directly to the smartthings hub.

Likewise, are all Zigbee devices repeaters?

Battery-powered devices do not act as repeaters. Most mains-powered devices that have a Zwave or Zigbee radio will act as repeaters. Z wave is limited to a maximum of four hops per message. Zigbee devices only repeat for other zigbee devices of the same profile.

Similarly, how far can Hue bridge be from lights? about 30 feet

Also know, does the Philips hue bridge have to be in the same room?

New Philips Hue smart bulbs are powered by a new chip that has both Bluetooth and Zigbee radios on board, rendering the Hue Bridge optional for the first time. Since Bluetooth has much more limited range than Zigbee, Signify recommends that you be in the same room as the bulb to control it with your smartphone.

Can I use Philips hue without bridge?

The new generation of the Philips Hue is embedded with a Bluetooth chip allowing you to control your lights via the Philips Hue with Bluetooth app. Philips Hue with Bluetooth, allows you to control your Bluetooth-enabled lighting with the Philips Hue Bluetooth app, thus eliminating the need for the Bridge..

Can I have more than one hue Bridge?

Can I control multiple Hue Bridges with the Philips Hue app? Yes, but you can only control one Bridge at a time. To switch between two Bridges, go to Settings > Hue Bridges and select the Bridge you want to control.

How many lights can Philips hue?

You can add up to 50 Philips Hue lights and accessories to one Bridge.

Does Philips Hue need a hub?

Sponsored Links. The Philips Hue light bulb lineup is often recognized as the best smart lighting you can buy for your house. But if you're new to the smart home game, there's one catch: you need a hub to set up and control everything, which means an extra up-front cost and additional complexity.

Does Philips hue connect to WIFI?

The Hue Bridge connects to any available Ethernet port on your wireless router using an Ethernet cable. The Hue Bridge does not have built-in Wi-Fi.

How do I fix unreachable Hue lights?

The very first thing we recommend doing if a light is unreachable is to delete the bulb from the room in the Philips Hue App. Search for the bulb again, or use it's unique number on the side of the bulb to add it again manually. If found just assign it to your room again and it should work as intended.

Can ZigBee interfere with WiFi?

ZigBee and WiFi Coexistence. ZigBee and WiFi channels both exist in the 2.4 GHz band, existing in the exact same frequency space. Operating a ZigBee network and a WiFi network on the same frequency will cause them to interfere with each other.

Why ZigBee is better than WiFi?

As opposed to WiFi, it's a mesh networking standard, meaning each node in the network is connected to each other. It's maximum speed is just 250kbps, much lower than the lowest speed WiFi offers. ZigBee Battery Life. ZigBee's best quality is its low power-consumption rate and battery life.

How far can ZigBee transmit?

Its low power consumption limits transmission distances to 10–100 meters line-of-sight, depending on power output and environmental characteristics. ZigBee devices can transmit data over long distances by passing data through a mesh network of intermediate devices to reach more distant ones.

What products use Zigbee?

Some well known smart home brands and devices that support Zigbee (otherwise known as Zigbee certified products) include:
  • Philips Hue.
  • Samsung SmartThings.
  • Amazon Echo Plus (with Alexa for voice controls)
  • Hive Active Heating and accessories.
  • Honeywell thermostats.
  • Ikea Tradfri.
  • Innr.
  • Belkin WeMo Link.

Which is better ZigBee or Z Wave?

Z-Wave can support up to 232 smart devices on its mesh network, while the Zigbee protocol can handle a whopping 65,000, making it a better option for larger businesses that might be packed with smart devices.

What is the range of ZigBee?

The in-home free space range of ZigBee is about 40 feet.

Can ZigBee go through walls?

ZigBee can operate at either 2.4 GHz or 915 MHz. That means that 2.4 GHz ZigBee devices are subject to more interference than 915 MHz Z-Wave and ZigBee devices. They also don't go through walls as readily.

Can you have more than one SmartThings hub?

The SmartThings app does support multiple Hubs in one Location. This means that while the Hubs and their devices will exist on the same Location, devices can only be controlled by the Hub that they are paired to. You can also control multiple Hubs from one account.

What is the difference between Philips hue 2nd and 3rd generation?

The 2nd and 3rd generation Hue light bulbs are 25% brighter than 1st-gen bulbs. The first generation bulbs are 600 Lumens, whereas the second and third generation's light bulbs are 800 Lumens. With the 3rd generation Philips Hue bulbs, you can enjoy richer colors that actually match the spectrum you're looking for.

Do I need 2 Hue bridges?

One bridge should be fine unless you try adding more than 63 lights. For bulbs that are far from the bridge make sure to have intermediate bulbs. They can pass the ZigBee commands to the distant bulbs.

What is the difference between Philips hue Bridge 1 and 2?

The Hue Bridge 1.0 (the first generation bridge), has round shape and doesn't support Apple HomeKit. The 2nd and 3rd generation Hue light bulbs are 25% brighter than 1st-gen bulbs. The first generation bulbs are 600 Lumens, whereas the second and third generation's light bulbs are 800 Lumens.

Can Alexa control Hue lights without bridge?

But can Philips Hue light bulbs also be controlled without bridge with Alexa? Yes! With the Philips Hue Dimmer Switch you can control up to 10 Philips Hue bulbs and the two Alexa devices Echo Plus and Echo Show even have a built-in Zigbee Hub.

Does Philips hue bridge need Ethernet?

The Hue Bridge is a device that connects Philips Hue lightbulbs (which speak the ZigBee wireless protocol) to the general internet. The Bridge connects wirelessly to the bulbs, but requires a wired Ethernet connection to the Stanford network.

How many hue hubs do you need?

Sometimes people have more than two Philips Hue bridges. On this blog post, we will show how you can control all your lights without switching between bridges. Yeti make smart home easier for people. Maybe you have more than 50 Philips Hue bulbs at home and you need two bridges.

Is Hue a mesh network?

Hue Mesh Networking - Does it work? Hue uses Zigbee, and Zigbee is told to to support a "Mesh Networking" topology. So if you have devices in your house, that are not reachable by the bridge directly, other (permanently powered) devices can act as gateway to distant devices.