Kim Burgestrand
Heartfelt software development. Sometimes other things.
Reverse-engineering the Philips Hue
~ 1 minWith the help of tcpflow and the current Hue iPhone-application, I’ve managed to capture parts of the Hue API. As a result of this, I’ve begun working on a complete Hue API reference — available on GitHub at the Ruhue repository.
A few notes about the Hue hub API:
- Hub discovery is done via SSDP. This makes it very easy to find a Hue hub connected to your home network, without any manual setup necessary.
- Commands to the Hue are sent via HTTP, and allow full access to lamp color, brightness, and schedule. Data payloads are sent as JSON!
Further details can be found in the Ruhue GitHub repository. It will be updated as the API calls are explored. Pull requests are very welcome, so fork away and send patches and I’ll accept them into the repository!
Technical Hue hacking discussion is on the mailing list
In addition to the GitHub repository, there is also a Google Groups mailing list, Philips Hue Hackers, a mailing list for anybody exploring their Hue lights. Expect a lot of technical discussions on this mailing list.
The mailing list e-mail address is [email protected].
For you who are eager to start hacking the Hue…
The Ruhue repository contains a console script, allowing you to use an interactive ruby interpreter to control your Hue lights. Further details are in the Ruhue README.
Additional resources
A few others have begun exploring how their Hue lights really work as well, and have written articles about their own progress. These articles existed before I started the documentation effort, and they’ve helped immensely.