Forgive this Newbee

In Home Assistant there is the add-on that they call the “HomeKit Controller”. This allows HomeKit devices to be brought into Home Assistant. My question is; Does this solution exist for Hubitat?

Today, I have a HOOBS server to address all home automation devices that I have that are not HomeKit devices. This is great but I have the need to reverse that and give the capability to a Home Assistant or Habitat solution so I can create additional refined automation In my Smart Home.

Just for reference Hoobs is a prepackaged Homebridge offering and there's at least one other I know about. It's HomeBridge plus the lovely GUI that makes it a lot easier than editing text files. :slight_smile:

However, Homebridge is a one way solution. It adds an Accessory (not a controller) to Apple's HomeKit. Accessories are defined by Apple, not the Homebridge developers and not Hubitat. Apple's decided that they are the center of the universe and that there's no need in that universe for 'sharing' accessories.

The workaround is to define virtual devices in Hubitat that are sent (via Homebridge) to Apple and then use Apple's Automations to tie devices together.

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Thank you for the reply. I am very familiar with Home Bridge and HOOBS. HOOBS is actually running very well and serves my needs for bringing devices into HomeKit like the Nest thermostat for example. This has worked great for me. The thing that I would like to do is refine the automation intelligence beyond what HomeKit can provide. Here enters a solution like Home Assistant or Hubitat.

This solution exist in HA and it is an add-on named “HomeKit Controller”. Does this exist in Hubitat?

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Here are some HB Plugins ...

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No. It doesn't. The solution for Hubitat would be the one described by @csteele (mirroring of virtual devices using Homekit automations). Recently, @SmartHomePrimer has eloquently stated the need to develop the equivalent of Homekit Controller for Hubitat.

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Lol. I’d call it begging, but yes. :wink:

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Thank you For all the excellent replies. I much appreciate it. It’s unfortunate that this feature does not exist in Hubitat. This is a dealbreaker for me. I am scheduled to receive my Hubitat server tomorrow. I assume at this point I’ll be returning it to go the Home Assistant path. Thanks again!!!

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FWIW, there are many people here who integrate Hubitat and other systems, including Home Assistant.

For instance, @JasonJoel uses them together (?) to control his homekit-compatible ecobee thermostats.

I don't think that feature exists directly in any hub EXCEPT home assistant... All other hubs I can think of you have to use something external like home bridge and integrate with that as a middle man.

But if you are ok with a middle man to bridge to homekit, you can get it done in any hub - including hubitat.

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I am a little confused - are we talking controller or integration?

HA's HomeKit Controller allows you to connect to HK compatible devices - I think that's what @SmartHomePrimer and maybe @CupertinoGeek is looking for (correct me if I'm wrong!!). They wouldn't be connected to HK at all except if you wanted to use some sort of integration like HB to put back into HK? Or maybe both (connected to Apple & HE)? Is that even possible?

I thought there is some serious funky security going on with HK devices but dunno...

OpenHab has it. The problem with it here is for commercial, you have to go through Apple licensing and adherence to their terms, which makes it pretty useless for what we need by the time Apple restricts the crap out of it.

Open source, not for commercial use has no restrictions. So if someone in the community developed it for use here and it was then distributed for free by the developers, no problem. We then get what we need and just about anything can show up in HE as if it’s a local device. Not limitless, but pretty darn open.

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