Guide: Hubitat devices in Homekit through Hoobs, Homebridge and MakerAPI

The homebridge-config-ui-x tool makes it pretty simple to get a homebridge server running as well.

3 Likes

That's what I use. Also, you can use hb-service to load multiple instances of homebridge as services. This is useful if you have multiple Hubitats. Homebridge plugins are shared across the instances.

Question:
What is the advantage of using this approach to get control in an IOS device,
Hubitat (via MakerAPI) -> Homebridge (under HOOBS, running on a Synology NAS) -> HomeKit (running on an IOS device)
versus the other approach:
Hubitat (via HubConnect) -> Homebridge (running on a RPI, or similar) -> HomeKit (running on an IOS device)
aren't both these approaches very similar?

I assume by HomeConnect, you mean HubConnect?

There's no functional difference. @dan.t wrote both plugins for HomeBridge, and the HOOBS plugins are the same as the HomeBridge plugins.

In terms of plugins, if someone isn't using HubConnect, then the MakerAPI plugin makes for an easier setup.

Yes, I meant HubConnect (Which I've fixed).

The interface from HubConnect offers a number of advantages, I believe because it's going through a very robust program , which may even be improved in the future.

I'm not a big IOS fan, but I've been asked to make up a "control platform" for someone who is. The Home routine seems basic, but very functional. Apparently there are also other packages that are even more comprehensive that the Home routine on an IPad.

Really - the two options are great options and I have tried both. The other option I have tried is the homebridge for hubitat app too.

HubConnect adds a lot of functionality and if you have multiple hubs alongside hubitat (like smarthings which many do) is probably the best option.

I prefer HOOBS/MakerAPI option as it is the fastest integration. It is nearly instant with a small footprint. MakerAPI is a Hubitat focused tool and is solid. Now that hubitat is my only hub (other than my apple tv homekit), I'm focused on stability and speed. As I have been a former smarthings, wink, and homeassistant....I have moved towards one 'brain' which is hubitat and one 'ui' which is homekit.

,

Edit: @dan.t explained it in simpler terms:

1 Like

This is great. Thank you for posting.

As a total noob, would you have any tips on the best way to kick start this on Windows10 server? I already have NodeJS + Sonos HTTP running there for better Sonos control through HE and would like the easiest path to get HomeBridge running on it as well.

oznu has a great set of directions for doing this on Windows 10 server ....

1 Like

I set this up successfully once but deleted it and have been getting "accessory not found" when I try to re-add HOOBS as an accessory in iOS for the last few days. After some googling, I thought I would share what I found as the fix, as it was not obvious to me. Context: your phone and the hoobs device are connected wirelessly.

Make sure you are on the same Wi-Fi network as HomeBridge is. Yes the Wi-Fi bands matter too.

The bands part is what I didn't catch at first. Hope this helps anyone else who may run into trouble setting this up.

Hello and thanks for sharing this Hubitat/homebridge bridge through MakerAPI,

I'm new in home automation and even more in the HE environment. So i followed what was presented here but I keep getting the same connection error that seems to send info from the homebridge to the Hubitat:

[2020-09-18, 10:00:23 a.m.] [Hubitat_MakerAPI hhm:0.4.11] attempt connection to ws:///eventsocket
[2020-09-18, 10:00:23 a.m.] [Hubitat_MakerAPI hhm:0.4.11] HE Eventsocket encountered error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND eventsocket Closing socket
[2020-09-18, 10:00:23 a.m.] [Hubitat_MakerAPI hhm:0.4.11] HE Eventsocket is closed. Reconnect will be attempted in 5 second.

Would anyone know what turned wrong?

There's a superb/excellent tool from @dan.t to assist in creating a working config for HomeBridge:

https://dantapps.github.io/

He recently added the "I need this for HOOBS" toggle to make it even simpler/better.

For MakerAPI You only need two pieces of info.. the IP address of the always-on system that will be running Homebridge. And a copy of the first URL found at the bottom of the MakerAPI screen.

Couple clicks later and you'll have a paste-able config that HOOBS will just eat right up.

Thanks @csteele!!
I made a mistake when I first configured the homebridge. It run super smoothly now

1 Like

This might be a dumb question, but if I don't have a Synology NAS, could I install HOOBS on a raspberry pi and use MakerAPI to connect Hubitat to HOOBS to homekit?

Yes, you sure can!

If you’d like to try a different image, @csteele has created a raspberry pi image with node-red and homebridge.

Just a heads up for anybody using regular Docker not on Synology, I ran into issues with the mdns implementation within the official hoobs/hoobs distribution. It appears the Homebridge is using their own HAP stack which doesn't provide a means of defining which network interface to broadcast its services. The container appeared to be running fine, as well as handling the MakerAPI, but I just couldn't add the accessory in Home Kit. Performing a network scan for Bonjour services just would not find Hoobs' HAP on my docker host no matter what I seemed to do.

In any case, rather than reverting to installing on yet another Pi, the "easy" Docker method was to provide the container with its own IP address on the LAN using a bridge network configured with macvlan. The benefit of doing so is not just that the Hoobs install will then have its own ip address, but it also alleviates port conflicts many of us might have with other containers. And of course, since the mdns stack has direct access to the LAN, the HAP is actually visible to your Home Kit device when trying to add the accessory.

2 Likes

Hi guys,

I have this running and seems for the most part to work great the only issue I seem to get is arming and disarming HSM from HomeKit. It seems to disarm or arm on Hubitat but seems like the status never gets back to HomeKit and it just sits on disarming... or arming....

Anyone else have this issue??

1 Like

Same issue. I'm new to Hubitat though, so not sure if it's an issue in Hubitat or in Homekit/Hoobs. If you solved the HSM issue, let us know how :slight_smile:

Hi Peterw1,

Mine is now working not sure exactly what I did but here’s my configuration that I played around with a bit, I’m still only learning hubitat too so I used the tool in the how too to make my configuration up but I since modified it and now it works. I think it was some exclusions in the original.

{
"platform": "Hubitat-MakerAPI",
"name": "Hubitat MakerAPI",
"app_url": "YOUR MAKER API URL",
"access_token": "YOUR ACCESS TOKEN",
"local_ip": "YOUR HOOBS IP",
"local_port": 20011,
"temperature_unit": "C",
"mode_switches": true,
"hsm": true,
"debug": true,
"logFile": {
"enabled": true,
"compress": true,
"keep": 5,
"size": "10m"
}
}

Thanks! I just switched devices around on the home vs away triggered and it started working. Not sure if it just didn't like one of those, or if I needed to have a contact sensor for the home mode to work :man_shrugging: