Continued from Part 1, where I ripped out the Hue Bridge and got all the lights working on ZHA. The Voice Control Question At the end of Part 1, everything worked except voice control. The last checkbox on Issue #9. Two options: set up Google Cloud manually (free, but you have to deal with OAuth and consent screens and API keys), or pay $6.50/month for Nabu Casa and have it just work. ...
The Problem That Finally Broke Me Every morning, same thing. Wake-up automation fires at 6:30. The Hue bulbs fade up nicely to 70%. The IKEA bulbs? Sitting there at 4%. Barely glowing. I kept thinking I’d configured something wrong. Checked the automation. Checked the bulb settings. Tried different transition times. Nothing helped. Turns out it’s not me. Hue bridges just don’t handle third-party Zigbee bulbs properly. The IKEA Trådfri bulbs receive the final brightness value but ignore the fade duration entirely. They jump straight to whatever you set. Known issue, apparently. Forums full of people with the same complaint. ...