# Phillips HUE Light Bulbs for Haunting?



## GhoulishCop (Sep 25, 2009)

I just came across this YouTube review of Phillips ridiculously expensive HUE LED lighting system (about $200 for 3 bulbs and the controller; extra bulbs are $60 each) that you can control with your iPhone or Android based phone.






While it seems a rather expensive application and would likely be limited to just indoor situations, there does seem to be uses for it for home haunters (particularly since you'll likely get double duty out of them by using them in your house all year round).

As gmatochautube notes, this is essentially a beta controlling application. Phillips has provided a whole bunch of base level applications that you can use with the bulbs to set ambient lighting and that developers will no doubt write programs to enhance its capabilities soon enough.

That seems to be happening already. I came across a separate YT video that shows how someone wrote some code for the bulbs that give them a flickering candle look (link to code in video description).






I imagine a little searching would find additional code that could have haunt applications too.

Admittedly this is a bit high-end for the average home haunter and a pricey option, but for those who would consider using the bulbs year 'round in their homes (but why wouldn't you?), it might give some haunters additional lighting options that they otherwise wouldn't have available to them.

One of the features that I like is that you can individually control a light bulb's color by dragging its icon onto a picture and the application uses the color that it lands on to set the bulb's color. You can also upload photos and use them to set lighting colors.

I don't think I'll be buying it anytime soon myself because of the price right now (and there are a couple of limitations, such as that noted by gmatochautube where when you control the bulb by a light switch the bulb resets to default white light setting), but for some of the more advanced haunters I think you might find it an interesting option.

Cheers,
Rich


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Yawn...., I do not like the fact that you have to be connected to the Philips website. They are way too expensive and haunters are prob better off with RGB leds and DMX. Just my thoughts.


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## GhoulishCop (Sep 25, 2009)

Joe,

_"...haunters are prob better off with RGB leds and DMX."_

Sounds like a good topic for an upcoming M&T. I'm not familiar with running DMX stuff or other controllers, and while it's probably simple once the item is in hand, having someone there to run you through it would be a big help.

Thanks for volunteering! :jol:

Rich


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

It's a neat concept - thanks for sharing the info. Too bad the 'store bought' product is so horridly expensive...that is the biggest scare most will get out of it  As the reviewer said, the box alone must have cost $10. Hopefully won't be long for DIYers to get it down to about $5-10 per bulb - at that price, it's very competitive and relatively low cost.

I don't know about the Z-wave protocol, if it's anything like X10, its a little too slow for a real 'show' ...ie taking 1/2 to 1 second to render a single command. Though DMX and some other methods can drop that pretty easily to 1/20th second or less.


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