Yesterday I bought a
Link Starter Kit that had a miniature hub and two bulbs. It was $50 at home depot.
The Link Hub that came with it is about the size of a small power supply and plugs into an outlet. Unfortunately, unlike some others, it doesn't also provide a power outlet to replace the one you need for it. Those are handy.
Setting up the hub seemed easy. Download the Wink (not Link) software and add it. Done.
Adding the light bulb turned out to be a problem. I spent a good hour and the hub couldn't pair with it.
So I tried a Wink hub that I had bought a while ago but not used. I used the Wink software to add it and then the Wink hub needed to update itself. I thought great. Now it will work.
Still no pairing. The bulb could not be seen.
So after another half hour, I went back to the Link hub, the little one. I found a reset button on it and held it down for 15 seconds. It took a while (maybe updating?) and then it came back.
While I was waiting, I also tried a reset of the bulb. The instructions for these things are funny. "Turn the bulb off for 3 seconds, then on for 3 seconds and then do this five more times. The bulb will blink three times when it has reset." Well,, no matter how many times I did the 3 second, then 5 second, then 6 times, then 7 times, no blinking occurred after completion.
However, when I tried to pair the bulb with the hub again, it worked.
So after maybe an hour and a half, I had control of the bulb from my phone.
Then I went on to try an Osram bulb, and that worked the first time.
