In developing applications with the Philips Hue lights, it's become painfully apparent that the "bridge" (the white circular control device that comes in Hue starter kits) is pretty inadequate. Philips has not been very developer-friendly to those of us with more advanced needs than a disco smartphone app.
The woefully inadequate bridge has rate limiting... it does stuff that you may not want it to, in ways that you may not desire... not to mention that you're pretty much stuck with their paltry API and its limited functionality, etc. Basically, it's like being stuck with an old un-rootable Android phone, when you could otherwise breathe new life into it (and have advanced capabilities) by flashing a custom ROM to it (Apple fans: substitute jail-breaking for this analogy).
So, I got to wondering: why couldn't the lights can be controlled without going through the Philips-supplied, Philips-controlled bridge? The bridge is just an IP-to-Zigbee gateway... in other words, it connects two separate networks: your IP network and the lights' wireless Zigbee network.
If there were some other third-party device that would do this -- one which would give you more direct control of the lights, then you could seemingly go completely around Philips' restrictive control, right? If my server could have more "direct" access to the Zigbee network, I think I could do some pretty slick things... right?
Enter, the Digi ConnectPort X2e.
I found this product via a co-worker's suggestion (he's had recent experience with Zigbee devices), and it's basically just a programmable IP-to-Zigbee gateway (probably just an embedded Linux SoC). Hmmmm.... now I just need to figure out how to develop it's Python-compatible programs on a Linux machine (they seem to only offer an IDE running under Windows or Mac).
So it begins, my venture deeper into advanced Philips Hue light development; and, moreover, further opening the door to the M2M world. More hopefully to come...
how did this turn out?
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