HUE reset and intro to ESP8266/ESP32

 



   When I bought the HUE bridge, the bridge was used and accompanied by seven used HUE color changing bulbs. 

   I've learned, in the interim, a lot about programming the bridge and bulbs. But not only that, different ways to do the programming. Typically, the bridge has a web page designed esppecially for programmers and debugging. That page is one way to proogram the system.

   Another method for programming uses the cURL command, most common in Linux/Unix systems, but possible in Microsoft Windows. In Windows, a version of curl can be downloaded and installed. Alternatively, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) can be installed in Windows and some version of Linux installed in that software environment. I have two versions of Ubuntu which is very similar to the debian operating system I use on the Raspberry Pi 4b in my solar power station, hence no learning curve, a plus.

   The bridge had been user programmed by the previous owner and still contained that programming. My  modifications apparently overwrote existing programs and other programming referred to devices I do not use orhave.

   I turned the bridge upside-down and pushed a toothpick into the hole containing the reset button, held for five seconds and released. All programming had been erased and I began the process of re-programming the bridge.

   In the course of re-programming the , I developed and refined a script to speed up and partially automate the progrmming of the bridge. For this I used a series of curl commands. Bugs were worked out and modiifications made. Done. I still need to make a geofence.

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   A device that is very common and usedful in residential IoT (Internet of Things), is the ESP series of chips/cards The ESP-8266 is a small WiFi card that does most of what a full size WiFi router does, except routing. The ESP-32 is an updated version of the ESP-8266.The ESPs can be programmed using a PC. I use my laptop. I also use the Arduino IDE which makes editing, compiling, testing programs for the ESPs easier. Different sensors can be attached to a unit. I have tested distance sensors, light sensores, motion sensors, temperature sensors and more. The units can be programmed as web severs to make sensor data available on a local network.

   The ESP series is one of the possibilities I have considered in designing a geofence.


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