Hi all,
I’m trying to make motion-based lighting behave naturally throughout the day, evening, and night but I’ve run into a structural limitation in Hue Essentials.
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Goal
Lights should always turn on when motion is detected, but revert differently depending on the time of day:
• Day (Sunrise → Sunset): turn off completely after motion.
• Evening (Sunset → 00:00): return to the “Evening Atmosphere White” scene for ambient lighting.
• Night (00:00 → Sunrise): turn off completely again for darkness.
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Timer automation (independent of motion sensor)
Sunset → Activate scene “Evening Atmosphere White” → 
00:00 → Turn OFF all lights
This part works fine on its own as a simple time-based rule.
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Motion sensor setup
Day (Sunrise → Sunset)
• Scene on motion: Motion Day
• After 3 min no motion: All lights OFF
Evening (Sunset → 00:00)
• Scene on motion: Motion Evening
• After 3 min no motion: Return to scene “Evening Atmosphere White”
Night (00:00 → Sunrise)
• Scene on motion: Motion Evening (same scene as evening)
• After 3 min no motion: All lights OFF
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Core issue
Hue Essentials can’t currently combine dynamic (Sunrise/Sunset) triggers with a fixed time condition (00:00) within the same rule.
That makes it impossible to separate “evening before midnight” from “night after midnight.”
Such a mix would allow adaptive lighting that follows seasonal daylight but still resets reliably at midnight.
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Why “return to previous light state” fails
A common workaround — returning to the previous light state — breaks around midnight.
If motion occurs at 23:58, the Evening Atmosphere White scene is stored as the current state.
At 00:00, the timer turns off all lights, but three minutes later the sensor restores that stored scene — keeping it on all night long.
This shows why true time-based conditions are needed, not state recovery.
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Why this matters
With hybrid timing, lighting would stay context-aware and predictable: always responsive to motion, yet correctly reverting to the right state for that period.
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Question
Has anyone found a workaround using Hue Essentials or native Hue Bridge rules?
Or is Home Assistant / iConnectHue the only way to achieve such hybrid logic?
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Thanks and interested to hear how others approach this setup.
(Feature request: Allow mixed Sunrise/Sunset and fixed-time conditions in a single rule.)
Regards,
Tom