How to Convert Your Philips Hue Bridge to Work With PoE

How to Convert Your Philips Hue Bridge to Work With PoE

DISCLAIMER: Perform at your own risk. I take no responsibility if you damage/fry your Hue Bridge!

I love the Philips Hue bulbs. I’ve got some in my living room, and a couple in my bedroom that sync with my alarm clock app to slowly light up and simulate a sunrise when it’s time for me to wake up. The one thing that makes me crazy is having the bridge laying on the floor in a random bedroom because it has to have access to an Ethernet and power source. It boggles my mind that the Hue Bridge doesn’t support Power-over-Ethernet (PoE).

After a couple years I finally decided to figure out how to make this thing work over PoE. I’ve got a closet in the house that has an Ethernet port but no power source, but is centrally located and would be the perfect spot to place my bridge. Turns out it’s really simple to do with the right parts.

TL;DR;

Here’s all you need (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases):

• A PoE switch (I like the UniFi Switch 8 from Ubiquiti) , or a PoE injector (this one from TP-Link works great as well)
• A PoE Splitter – I used the TP-Link TL-PoE10R
• A Philips Hue Bridge v2. If you don’t know what version you have, version 2 is the square shaped bridge. Version 1 is round.
• A 2.1mm to 2.5mm barrel connector converter

If you want more details, keep reading.

Details

The TP-Link PoE splitter (figure 1) has two sides (not pictured, unfortunately) to it. One side has an Ethernet input that receives power and network, and the other side has a power port, and Ethernet-out port (that plugs into the Hue).

It also comes with a power cord that has 2.1mm barrel connectors on both ends. The power port on the Hue bridge, however, is 2.5mm, so the included cord won’t work. You can use the converter listed above, or you can use choose to hard-wire / solder a barrel connector (figure 2) on like I did.

I decided to solder the barrel connector on, so I just cut the included cord in half, attached the new end, and used heat shrink tubing to make it look finished (figure 3).

You’ll need power going over the Ethernet port that plugs into your PoE Splitter, and typically this would be done at the network source, either with a PoE switch (I’m using a UniFi Switch 8), or a PoE injector that also plugs into a power source.

Connecting everything is pretty simple. First, the output side of the PoE Splitter will plug into the Hue Bridge (figure 4).

Finally, plug your Ethernet source into the input side of the PoE Splitter (figure 5). This particular splitter has a voltage setting on it, 5v, 9v, and 12v. Make sure it’s set to 5v, and while all of the bridges should be 5v, double check yours to make sure. You can check by reading the output voltage of the power supply that came with the Hue Bridge.

That’s it! Everything is powered up and working as expected. I hope this helps, and good luck!