Done with Hubitat Homekit for now

This was more of a comment on the rule that @holmes posted rather than the beta. So making a new topic there wouldn't have made much sense in that context. But thanks for the suggestion.

2.3.9.184 is working great for me. I will probably stay on this version until someone posts that HomeKit is fixed.

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FWIW, I struggled with No Response on C7 and C8 for years. It got worse a few months ago with near daily occurrence. I implemented the HomeKit Ping but was getting several reboots a day - not a great workaround. Then I did the non-obvious, turned off the Restart Hourly option. For me, the problem disappeared. Haven't had a single instance for over 2 months.

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Interesting. I just rolled back to .184 and haven't had one reboot since. Looks like I'll be staying with the for now since everything is working as intended.

C-8 Pro. I can confirm that 2.3.9.184 completely fixed the problem (all previous builds for ~2-3 months made HomeKit unusable).
I do have "restart hourly" enabled in HoneKit settings and Network -> Bonjour options -> "Periodically restart Bonjour service" enabled.

I wonder if the developers still haven't figured what the problem is and just added native service reboots instead of fixing the real bug.

I will turn off Bonjour service restart first and will report back.

The periodic (every 20 minutes) bonjour restart has been an in place band aid for a while. But it was also found to be causing an mDNS storm every restart wreaking havoc on the LAN for multiple people. So the option to turn it off was recently added. IMO it should be off by default.

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so far no changes: it's stable.
I turned off "Restart hourly" in HomeKit integration. Let's see if it makes a difference in stability.

For what it's worth, after rolling back to .184 I had zero issues. Eventually I updated to .201 and I'm still having zero issues. So, for me at least, things are working as intended. I'm not going to take on 2.4.0 until some other brave soul can verify it's working.

Ok, confirming again. After disabling all of the "automated HomeKit restarts", it continues to work with no issues. I consider it is fully resolved.
C-8 Pro
2.3.9.184

The rest versions should be confirmed separately.

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Hubitat's implementation of HomeKit still is extremely buggy. Another bug I encountered is with exposing RGBW bulbs. When using the Apple Home App's color slider, it sometimes will send out the wrong color. In addition, when adjusting the dim, the Home App will not show the correct current color.

Unsure if my issue is related to all this troubleshooting on this thread. My issue seems similar, but maybe a bit different.

I have tried both C7 and now running a C8, and my issue persists. Ethernet wired.
I have 2 ATVs and have tried manually setting HK to use the one located right next to the C8. Also Ethernet wired.
I have both set to static IPs on my network.
I have mainly Roller Shades (16), but one Switch and 2 Bulbs. Bulbs are matter, the switch and shades are all Zigbee.

I do believe about a year or so ago, I did experience Not Responding in HK at times, which I rebooted HE and it would work again. But I think that eventually went away with updates and my issue is a bit different as such.

What I'm seeing is, when I ask Siri to set a scene involving shades or operate shades (and many of them are grouped shades), some shades work, some don't respond. Its random each time, but I think there are a few shades that never have an issue.

Back up just a minute for context. I have been adding shades over the year in batches. 6 of them from over a year ago, don't seem to ever have this issue. The other 10 I've added this past year, seem to be the ones at random that won't operate. They are seemingly the same zigbee motors (purchased from same vendor Graywind), and are pretty much generic, but unsure of the variations.

Here's what I have found:
"Hey Siri, Full Privacy" (supposed to operate 12 shades closed: 3 groups of 3 shades, and 3 individual shades).
All but maybe 2, or 3 will close as they should.

In HK, those shades, even though they didn't operate, show as closed. i.e. HK thinks it did everything it should've. It closed all shades and now their state is closed.

Over in HE, those shades that didn't operate, don't show any log of triggering the zigbee command.

Now, without restarting anything, I can get those individual shades to work like this:

  • HK thinks they are closed, so saying "Siri, Close Porch" "Siri, Close Couch Middle" "Siri, Close Front Window", doesn't trigger an event since it thinks those are already closed.
  • IF instead I say "Siri, Open Porch 10%" .. the shade will then operate to 10%. Which means HK sends a new command, which HE DOES pick up this next time.
  • I then see that shade go from fully Open, to 10%. But of course, I can then send a 3rd command of "Siri, Close Porch"
    I would have to do this for all the shades that didn't respond the first time. But the key thing is, they do work once I try again.

In essence, I think HE is just not capturing every command sent from HK at all times. i.e. a scene that operates a few groups of accessories, and solo accessories, creates a string of commands in HK, and HE is missing a few of those. I don't think HK is the issue, since it does seem to think it operated all these shades and reflect the new state. And those shades that worked, show the command and timestamp in their device logs, but the ones that didn't show nothing.

Additionally, I think I have noticed, if I trigger shades in HE dashboard, they always work since this is taking out the HK disconnect to HE, and instead just issuing a zigbee command out of HE. I even set up automations to open shades in the morning, close at night in the HE automations, which always works (again, use of zigbee works fine). If I do those same automations in HK, some dont' work.

I've done the settings for bonjour restarts, the hubitat restart every hour, the Zigbee ping devices every 3 hours. And combination of them, and it still happens.

Separately, I do want to try @TArman's method of ping/ack, but still not clear on how I set that up specifically on HE and HK. Wonder if someone can walk thru those steps a bit more clearly for a layman, including the script copy/paste instead of screenshot. I wonder if this ping would do something different.

Thanks

How many different scenes do you have setup in HomeKit? Could you set the scene up in HE and the share the activator to HK? Then only one command goes over to HE when you activate it.

HE doesn't seem to allow grouping or scenes for Motorized Shades. If I use the app for it in HE, it shows only bulbs, dimmers, switches as to what I can use. Unless I'm missing something else I can do this in HE?

I thought they added shades to room lighting or the groups app, one of the two I thought could work. I know there was some way people do it, maybe someone else will know how.

I use room lighting to control all of my shades that use iblinds motors. If I use the iblinds driver from their site you can set them up as dimmers in groups, the HE default driver needs them to be set up in room lighting. Then you can use activators to control them in batches.

Over a year of hubitat and HomeKit with zero issues. If anyone wants to compare / contrast setup to try and deduce the source of their issues, let me know.

I stick to hue, thirdreality and zigbee only. Rock solid

Matter only for blinds

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Do you have the Smartwings Matter blinds by chance? Have they been pretty solid? I always hear issues with z-wave and zigbee blinds I feel like the Matter ones would be more reliable if you have good thread coverage.

I have eve motion blinds but yes, I use the driver you mentioned and they work great. Zero issues in 2.5 years

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Anyone want to help me with the scripting and setup (step by step for a newb) that @TArman references? I think that's something that could help with my issue.

It's pretty clear.
After a while (like overnight or after hours of non use), if I tell Siri to run a scene involving the blinds, at 1-3 won't activate (out of 12 blinds).

Those blinds think they activated.. for instances report all Open.

I then have to tell Siri to open those blinds 95%, which then they work (to 95%).

It's like they are asleep, the command wakes them but doesn't work.
I feel like if these blinds are continuously pinged (like every 30 min), they will work better.

Of note, I don't have issues with Zigbee Smart Plugs. I have a couple, and they work every single time. I know its something with these blinds not being completely compatible with the Hubitat to Homekit translation. But I can't swap out these blinds, and technically they work with just Zigbee.

Any other thoughts on testing my theory, like getting a homepod instead of using aTV as my homekit hub?

Convert to using Alexa with these blinds to see how that works?

Rich

Sounds like your issue is more related to the devices and not a HomeKit issue.

You could just set up a rule in Rule Machine to do a "refresh" on those devices every couple of hours. That should keep them more alert I suppose? It will possibly increase battery drain if they are battery powered.