Sensors API

The sensors API allows you to interact with the sensors features of the Hue Bridge.

• Sensor Objects
• getAll()
• getSensor(id)
• searchForNew()
• getNew()
• renameSensor(sensor)
• updateName()
• createSensor(sensor)
• deleteSensor(id)
• updateSensorConfig(sensor)
• updateSensorState(sensor)

Sensors

There are many different types of Sensors that can exist in a Hue Bridge. Some of these are actual Physical Sensors and others can be Programmable CLIP Sensors.

Consult the documentation for the CLIP Sensors here.

getAll()

This function allows you to retrieve all the sensors that are stored in the Hue Bridge.

api.sensors.getAll()
  .then(allSensors => {
    // Display the details of the sensors we got back
    console.log(JSON.stringify(allSensors, null, 2));
  })
;

This will return an Array of Sensor objects that exist in the Hue Bridge.

A complete code sample for getting all sensors is available here.

getSensor()

The getSensor(id) function will obtain the sensor identified by the specified id value.

// Get the daylight sensor for the bridge, at id 1
api.sensors.getSensor(1)
  .then(sensor => {
    console.log(sensor.toStringDetailed());
  })
;

The Sensor that is returned will be an instance of Sensor or one of the many specializations that the bridge supports. See here for more details.

A complete code sample is available here.

searchForNew()

The searchForNew() function will initiate a search for new sensors.

api.sensors.searchForNew()
  .then(result => {
    console.log(`Initiated search for new sensors? ${result}`);
  })
;

A Boolean result is returned indicating the success state of starting a search.

A complete code sample is available here.

getNew()

The getNew() function will return the new sensors that were discovered in the previous search for new sensors.

api.sensors.getNew()
  .then(result => {
    // Show the time of the last scan
    console.log(`Last Scan Performed: ${result.lastscan}`);
    // Display the new sensors
    console.log(`Sensors found:\n${JSON.stringify(result.sensors, null, 2)}`);
  })
;

The return Object has the following properties:

• lastscan: The timestamp of the last search
• sensors: An Array of the sensors that were discovered in the last search

A complete code sample is available here.

renameSensor()

The renameSensor(sensor) function will allow you to rename an existing Sensor in the Hue Bridge.

The parameters are:

• sensor: The updated Sensor object with the changed name.

// The sensor would have been previously obtained from the bridge.
sensor.name = 'Updated Sensor Name';

api.sensors.renameSensor(sensor)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(`Updated Sensor Name? ${result}`)
  });

The result from the function call will be a Boolean indicating the success status of the renaming action.

A complete code sample is available here.

updateName()

The updateName(id, name) function will allow you to rename an existing Sensor in the Hue Bridge. This has been deprecated, use reanmeSesnor(sensor) instead.

createSensor()

The createSensor(sensor) function allows you to create software backed CLIP sensors.

For details on creating the various types of sensors that the Hue Bridge supports, consult the sensor documentation or the example code

api.sensors.createSensor(sensor)
  .then(sensor => {
    console.log(`Created sensor\n${sensor.toStringDetailed()}`)
  })

The promise will resolve to an instance of a Sensor that will be an instance of the type of sensor data that you passed in. e.g. a CLIPOpenClose sensor.

A complete code sample is available here.

deleteSensor()

The deleteSensor(id) function allows you to delete a sensor with the specified id.

• id: The id of the Sensor or the Sensor itself to be deleted from the Bridge.

api.sensors.deleteSensor(sensorIdToRemove)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(`Sensor deleted? ${result}`);
  })
  .catch(err => {
    if (err.getHueErrorType() === 3) {
      console.log(`Sensor was not found`);
    } else {
      console.error(`Unexpected Error: ${err.message}`);
    }
  })
;

The function call will return a Boolean with the success status of the deletion of the specified sensor. If the Sensor is not found in the bridge, an ApiError will be thrown.

A complete code sample is available here.

updateSensorConfig()

The updateSensorConfig(sensor) function will update the Sensors config attributes on the Hue Bridge.

• sensor: The Sensor from the bridge with the config attributes updated to the desired state.

api.sensors.updateSensorConfig(sensor)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(`Updated sensor config? ${result}`);
  })

Note: The config attributes differ depending upon the type of Sensor that you are dealing with. To identify what config attributes are available you can get the Sensor from the Hue Bridge and use the .toStringDetailed() function on it to show the config attributes for that Sensor.

The function will resolve to a Boolean indicating the successful updating of the config values.

updateSensorState()

The updateSensorState(sensor) function allows you to update a CLIPSensors state using the current state of the provided sensor object.

• sensor: The Sensor object with the updated state values to be stored. You can get the Sensor by retrieving it from the Hue Bridge via a get(id) or getAll() call.

api.sensors.updateSensorState(mySensor)
  .then(result => {
    console.log(`Sensor Updated? ${result}`);
  });

The function will resolve to a Object with the keys being the state values that were attempted to be updated and the value set to a Boolean indicating if the bridge updated the value.

For example for an OpenClose Sensor it would return the following object (as it only has a state of open):

{
  "open": true
}

Note: This will only work for CLIP Sensor types as other sensor types are usually hardware devices. Each type of sensor has different state attributes that can be modified. Consult the Sensor documentation for the state attributes for the sensor type that you are interacting with.

A complete code sample is available here.