Philips Hue Bridge (2nd generation)
Philips · lighting control bridge, desktop · BSB002
what it is
A square bridge, 88 mm on a side and 26 mm high, with one 10/100 network port and a power jack for an external adapter. On one side it has the wired network, on the other — Zigbee, the wireless protocol that lamps, switches and sensors speak.
This is hardware that is easy to leave out of documentation: it is not in the rack, it does not look like a network device and it usually sits next to the router. When the bridge fails, the lamps stay in their last state and stop responding to Hue switches and the app; the only thing left is cutting the power.
The firmware updates itself from the manufacturer's cloud. The bridge's serial number is its MAC address without separators — there is no separate number.
what we read from it
Without pairing with the bridge: reachability, whether its API responds correctly, model, firmware version and API version, and wired link data — speed, duplex and the port number on the switch. A firmware version change is visible, even though the bridge updates without asking.
The bridge has no SNMP agent; everything goes through its API (JSON over HTTPS).
port layout
On the top face there is a large round pairing button, 37 mm in diameter, surrounded by three status indicators: power, network and connection to the manufacturer's service. The button is the only control.
On the back face: the network port, the power jack and a recessed factory reset button. The manufacturer does not show this face straight on.
what to watch out for
- HTTP code 200 does not mean the bridge works. An access denial comes with code 200 and an error description in the body. What shows it works is the response body, not the code alone.
- The firmware version has two forms. A readable API version (e.g. 1.78.0) and a raw, increasing manufacturer number. The manufacturer's release notes use the latter.
- The port is 10/100. A gigabit switch will link with it at 100 Mb/s, and this is the correct state, not a fault.
what we cannot read
- The state of lamps, scenes and motion sensors without pairing an app using the button on the housing. The motion sensor and lamp state reveal whether people are present in the room.
- Lighting power consumption — Hue does not report watts.
- Zigbee link quality as a number — the public API gives it only as a descriptive state.
full parameter list
A full parameter list for this model is not here yet — the ones described above are those we have read and verified. A missing list does not mean the device exposes nothing more.