innr Smart Plug (SP 222) connected to Hue Bridge shows as Light, not Switch

[jamespreedy]

The problem

I have a innr Smart Plug model SP 222. It's a "Friends of Hue" device and so can be added to the Hue bridge using the Hue iOS app. It shows fine in the Hue app, provides a simple on / off switch (it does nothing else), and is even picked up correctly by HomeKit as an on / off switch. Once added to the Hue hub, it immediately appeared in Home Assistant => Integrations / Philips Hue / Bridge / Devices. The manufacturer shows correctly as "innr" and the Model correctly shows as "On/Off plug (SP 222). However HomeAssistant has added it as a light entity rather than as a switch entity. I have a fan connected to the plug, and I wanted to use a "Switch as X" helper to turn it into a fan. Sadly I can't do with with a light entity, so I'm a bit stuck for now. I've downloaded the diagnostics for the device and included them below. Thanks in advance for your help.

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

core 2022.11.4

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

Philips Hue

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/hue/

Diagnostics information

config_entry-hue-7e0a015126e67a7cc03081eb9fac9312.json.txt

Example YAML snippet

No response

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

No response

Additional information

If you need any additional information, please let me know - I'll be happy to help. 👍🏻

[home-assistant]

Hey there @balloob, @marcelveldt, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (hue) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

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[marcelveldt]

This is by design. Hue only supports light and although you can attach other devices to a smart plug, it is intended to be used with a light. For now you could use a template switch: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/switch.template/

I think we should treat this as a feature request where we can allow a smartplug in Hue to be imported as switch.
In any way it is not a bug.

[ChristophCaina]

you can setup a helper to change the behave. This can be done easily within the UI of homeassisant:

Sorry for missing images... I am currently behind a proxy that seems to block the image sources :D

Another option would be, to switch from the Hue Integration directly to a Zigbee integration, which would require an additional zigbee coordinator.
But - the benefit of it would be that everything is working without a cloud service - and for several zigbee based devices a better support :)

so, yes, while you can easily add Zigbee based plugs into Hue, they will be recognized as a Light bulb by default.
(When it is no "friend of hue" product...)

So even for these devices some options are not available inside the hue platform.

[marcelveldt]

@ChristophCaina Hue does not require a cloud service. It is in fact one of the integrations we prefer because of its dedication to provide a good working local api. Also Hue lights will always work best with the official Hue bridge. Things like dynamic scenes and entertainment services simply will not work with a generic Zigbee implementation, let alone the official firmware updates.

If you have mostly Hue devices and or care about entertainment or the various dynamic scenes (or other unique hue features) my recommendation would be to stick with the official Hue bridge. If you have a mix of devices, you have other (better) options.

[ChristophCaina]

ok, that's a valid argument :)
But - I would only stick to hue for actual hue products.

Everything else, like plugs etc.... would be better in any other zigbee integration... (imho)
(even if labeld as "friend of hue")

For example:
I have a Lighbulb - Osram Ledvance+
It is a zigbee device and working with Hue ... but it just provides basic options, on / of - dimm / and color temperature.

After switching this bulb from Hue to ZHA - I could configure "On / Off Transitions" by default...
So, yes - Hue is a good platform. For Hue Products.
And I think, this should always be considered - even if Hue 'can' support other zigbee products.

[marcelveldt]

Ah yes, very true. It is indeed also the other way around.

[jamespreedy]

Thanks both - @marcelveldt and @ChristophCaina - I really appreciate your time.

I've got 34, 44, 43 (121 total) devices sitting across 3x Hue Hubs. Just two are these smart plugs from innr.
In my mind, as they show as a plug in the Hue app, I thought they would do the same in HA, but as you say, not a big thing.

I've never been sure if trying to mode to a different Zigbee controller would be a sensible idea given the number of devices, and the loss of official Hue firmware. I'm a bit of a chicken really 🤣

I went for the "switch as X" idea, but hit a stumbling block, perhaps you could please advise ...

My understanding is that this will take a "switch.something" entity and let you turn it into something else - e.g. "light.something". I guess I'm out of luck then as I want to do it the other way round? It's presented as a light by the HA Hue integration and I want to turn it into a switch as it's really a smart plug. Have I got that right?

(If so, will do it with a template as advised.)

[ChristophCaina]

yes, the helper would just create an entity of the type "switch".
It does not provide any other smart options - like power consumption or similar... (don't know, if the device does support this at all)...

This is a power-plug shown in my ZHA integration:

While it is no "official" friend of hue product, it could be added to the hue integration - and was there only recognized as a light bulb - that could be switched on and off...

So... as already mentioned: I am not sure how hue does support such products at all...

In your case - since you only have two devices that are not Hue products, having a dedicated Zigbee integration would really be a bit too much...

But if you consider to implement more zigbee based devices (and there's a wide range) - without worrying if they are compatible to hue and so on, I would really keep that option in mind ;)

[marcelveldt]

You are not the first with this question. While Hue focusses on lightning (and treats the power plugs as lights) there are cases where people have all Hue lights and an incidental power plug for something else.

While normally my answer would be to use Hue for lights and all other stuff on a more generic Zigbee implementation (or matter, bluetooth, wifi etc.) I understand the case that you just want to add that one device as switch using the Hue platform you're already familiar with.

At this time we don't have some out of the box "light as switch" feature other than using template entities I mentioned above. Maybe we can have something like this in the future considered the fact that this question pops up more often.

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