Simplifying your Hue configuration with Home Assistant

I think this post and video are kind of like maintenance posts for Home Assistant.   The Phillips Hue component and integration have been around since the very beginning of the project so for many of us, it is now configured wrong.   The standard YAML configuration of old is well OLD and you should consider updating it.  You should take the time and delete all of the Hue Configuration data from the YAML and properly integrate it with Home Assistant via the UI integration tab.  This will put all the relevant entries in the entry registry and allow you to clean out some YAML and some configuration files.   Keeping everything neat and in order.

I did all the tests with my configuration and in the end had a blended result where my pairing was done via the integration and then some added customizations were done with the YAML configuration files.  Things like allow_unreachable which are critical for me since I am running a lot of inexpensive GE Link Lightbulbs with my Hue Hub and the allow_hue_groups setting with allows me to prevent the importing of Hue Rooms/groups.

The resulting YAML looked like this :

hue:
	bridges:
	– host: 192.168.10.75
	# filename: phue.conf
	allow_unreachable: true
	allow_hue_groups: false
	– host: 192.168.10.76
	# filename: phue2.conf
	allow_unreachable: true
	allow_hue_groups: false
	– host: 192.168.10.77
	# filename: phue3.conf
	allow_unreachable: true
	allow_hue_groups: false

Parts List:
Hue Hub: https://amzn.to/2LVSxlT
GE Link Lights: (No longer recommend due to overpricing!) Plus they have been discontinued: https://amzn.to/2LUNQJi

Three functional Hue Hubs with the proper configurations and customization and no .conf files.

These are the little steps that I think are necessary to bring your configuration more in line with the way Home Assistant is headed.

Happy Automating!

–CARLO