Astro-COLIBRI

Setup and configuration

The setup and configuration of the smart-home integration with Astro-COLIBRI are comprised of three main steps: setup of your smart-lights, integration of them into Astro-COLIBRI, and configuration of the alarms.
The first setup is either already done because you already use smart-lights or you should follow the (easy) steps outlined in the documentation that comes with your equipement. Typically the includes:

connect your Philips Hue bridge to your wifi router via the Ethernet/LAN cable
use the Philips Hue app to find and connect your Philips Hue light(s)
test your setup with the Philips Hue app

Tutorial video

Step-by-step integration into Astro-COLIBRI

We now need to connect Astro-COLIBRI with your Hue bridge and select the light(s) you want to use for the visual Astro-COLIBRI alerts:

make sure your phone is connected to the same wifi network as the Hue bridge
open your Astro-COLIBRI account (settings menu in the top right corner => Account => Smart home connection)
press "Connect to Hue" to search for your bridge
press the link icon "🔗" next to the bridge (select the one you want to use if you have several)
press the central, physical button on your Hue bridge to confirm the connection attempt
press "Confirm" in the Astro-COLIBRI app
the app should show a successfull connection and has retrieved the necessary technical information about your bridge
press "Refresh lights" to search for connected smart lights
select the one(s) you want to use and save the configuration; you can use the toggles to switch the lights on/off to verify that you selected the correct ones
"Refresh lights" allows you to update you selected lights at any time

That's it, your Astro-COLIBRI notifcations are now triggering a visual alarm on the selected lights. The following steps are not necessary but enable you to further configure your setup.

Configuration within Astro-COLIBRI

Now that your smart-lights are connected to the Astro-COLIBRI notifications, you'll see a visual alert for each incoming alert. At the moment the connected lights will flash red for 5 seconds. The lights will then remain switched on in the mode the were last used.
While we believe that this integration is helpful to not miss important cosmic events, it may be inappropriate and unwanted at times. We therefore implemented a do-not-disturb mechanism that allows you to define time periods during which the visual alerts should not be triggered. You'll still get all Astro-COLIBRI notification, just not the additional smart-light alert.
Here is how to configure the do-not-disturb periods:

open the smart-home integration panel within your Astro-COLIBRI account
open the "Set Do-Not-Disturb period" drawer
select the start and stop time (local time)
select the weekdays

Explanation: The time period between the start and stop times defines the do-not-disturb period, during which no visual alerts will be triggered. Periods that span a night are determined by the day of the evening. For example, if you want to avoid visual alerts on Thursday night, you should select a time period between 22:00 to 07:00 and choose Thursday. This means visual alerts will be disabled from 22:00 on Thursday night until 07:00 on Friday morning.

Known caveats: the iOS and iPadOS operating systems are stopping applications that are running in the background. This currently prevents the visual alerts to be triggered reliably.

Astro-COLIBRI

Smart home integration

Overview

Setup and configuration

Tutorial video

Step-by-step integration into Astro-COLIBRI

Configuration within Astro-COLIBRI

Acknowledgements