Transform your smart lighting experience with Hue Log, the ultimate macOS companion for Philips Hue enthusiasts.
Hue Log is an efficient, native macOS application to get real-time events from your Philips Hue system, and insights into your setup.
It started out with a lightbulb lighting up in the middle of the night - literally! What is really happening in my Philips Hue smart lightning system...? Given that it was in the middle of the night I didn't dig that deep into the problem. But the day after I discovered there is no log of events. And it is really hard to get an overview of rules, groups of lights, scenes, senors, and so on.
There must be a way... but I couldn't find it. So scratching my own itch I tried to dig up data using the Philips Hue bridge API. And what started as a hack turned out into a much bigger side-project while I was discovering more and more pain points I could solve using that dat.
Hue Log is a native macOS application, giving your real-time logs of everything that happens in your Philips Hue system. Additionally, it visualize temperature over time in different rooms, gives you instant overview of all devices battery status, all different rules and automations configured and their dependencies, how much of the internal resources you are using and how close to reach the limit you are, a way to discover if and of your devices have ZigBee range problems, and much more. Support multiple bridges for the true hardcore Philips Hue enthusiast.
I've got some really great ideas about features, but I had to draw the line somewhere and get a first version out there. I decided for an up-front price, rather than a subscription (I think I have a bit of subscription fatigue in general...). It does also mean I sell more of what you get now, rather than a future promise that someone may expect if they commit to an annual payment.
From a maker perspective - my thought is that the target audience are hardcore home automation enthusiasts. If it gets traction, I can broaden the perspective with a slightly more mainstream consumer product built on a lot of what I've already developed. So in a way the idea is to use a niche product for validation, and then do cross-selling and widen then audience.
It is also my first commercial indie-product in over 10 years after doing the startup-race for a long time. It is great to be back!
@silisolutionist good luck with your launch - will check it out!
I’ve worked about 2 months part-time with this app. I was familiar with the Hue API but never used Swift and SwiftUI, so initially development was a bitter slower while getting up to speed with a new language and framework.
@stpe Amazing! 2 months is a great turnaround time. I've had non-Phillips lightbulbs lighting up at random times at home but I think that might be because of aliens! Lol.
All the best Stefan. I hope it goes well for you.
@silisolutionist Thanks Pam.
Yes. Quite happy with 2 months. But most importantly I’m now up to speed and can hit the ground running doing another project while gathering the feedback of this.
@stpe Launching Hue Log sounds like an intriguing journey! I have to admit, I knew nothing about the depths of smart lighting systems and your tool provides a fascinating insight! So, what was the most unexpected thing you learned while developing Hue Log?
@mocarg I must say that discovering the depths of the Hue API, and how it has evolved over versions - with some functionality supported by the latest official API version, but not everything. And how Philips Hue's own functionality is a mix of both of their API versions.
Resulting in that there are a lot of stuff that isn't surfaced in the official iPhone app, but still relevant for the user that really wants control. Finding "left over" rules created by Philip's own experiments, like Halloween light scenes, that are referencing stuff that doesn't exist, but still occupy resources.
In a way that has been "good", because it gives my app an even greater purpose in that sense. :)
Congrats on the launch @stpe - Your journey from "lightbulb moment" to creating Hue Log is really neat.
Clearly the app addresses a gap in managing the Philips Hue system, particularly for those invested in home automation. An upfront price, given subscription fatigue is a cool approach (and something that I am going to look into haha)
Q: Given Hue Log's ranging functionalities, how do you plan to ensure new users (Specifically the ones not into home automation) find the app user-friendly?
@layourandom It is not quite the use-case of this app, but technically it would be possible!
My plan is to branch out and do other apps building on the technology of Hue Log, for other (perhaps more mainstream) use-cases. It is a great idea!
@sarah_wright7 Thank you! This is indeed for the enthusiasts - thanks for sending them this way.
Funnily enough, especially men +30 years old tend to go crazy with smart lights and home automation. You can typically hear them by the "No! Don't use the wall switch - I'm just about to install a sensor/use the app instead!" - those are the target audience! 😂
I was looking for a way to log temperature data from Apple Home when I stumbled across this. The temperature graph alone was worth the investment to me, but I appreciate how Hue Log deepens my understanding of the system. Like instant battery status for all devices. Finally I can be the Hue Janitor I was meant to be! 😁 UI is a bit minimalist but very snappy (and the app bundle is just ~8MB!). Good work! Edit: I notice it does not seem to remember the log between sessions. That would be my #1 feature request.
p/general
p/ama
p/introduce-yourself
p/self-promotion
p/zencoder
p/producthunt
p/kraftful
p/wisprflow
p/screaming-frog-seo-spider
p/xnapper
p/google-chrome
p/fine
p/openai-api
p/bolt-new
p/elevenlabs
p/notion
Replies
Hue Log
Hue Log
Swappit
Hue Log
Videobolt
Hue Log
Hue Log
Hue Log
BeeDone
Hue Log
AI HomeDesign
Hue Log
Chatbase
Hue Log
Hue Log
AI Notebook App
Hue Log
AStime
Hue Log
Product Hunt
Hue Log
Hue Log
Hue Log
AppManager by CompanyDNA AI
Kuasar Video AI
Vivaldi