I started down the Homebridge road today with little or no knowledge of how I could benefit from this.. My initial reason was to integrate Nest products. So far, I have Homebridge running on a rPi4 with a few Hubitat devices and Nest Thermostat/Protect. I thought this would allow me to include the Nest products as Hubitat devices but what I have found so far this is not the case.
I can control Hubitat devices from Homebridge but Hubitat does not "see" Homebridge Accessories. Is this correct? If so, my main question is, why/how are you using Homebridge?
Siri voice control (“Hey siri, turn off all the lights downstairs” is convenient), there are some devices homebridge integrates with that Hubitat does not and w/ homekit on simple devices (ie switches) you can sync state between the 2.
Homebridge allows me to use Apple’s home app as my Hubitat dashboard, which is the primary appeal for me. HomeKit devices can’t be directly exposed to a different platform, but you can create virtual switches in Hubitat and expose them to Homebridge. You can then use homekit automations to cause the state of the virtual switch to mirror the state of a homekit-only device.
For example, you could create a “Nest alarming” virtual switch, and use a HomeKit automation to turn the switch on when the Nest detector goes off, then trigger Hubitat automations based on the state of the virtual switch.
Most use it as a way to control from iOS or Mac and get status on Apple products. Some iOS user utilize the presence sensing.
You have to automate between HomeKit and Hubitat somehow with Homebridge to get a device in Homebridge to interact with a device from HE.
For what you’re trying to do, if you’re not an iOS user, and don’t have an Apple TV 4 or later, or a HomePod or HomePod mini, then this would probably be more useful to you.
Actually I am using an iPhone12 atm but.... Apple doesnt like me much (asks for my apple id at least once a day. Ongoing since I first got my iPad mini4) and if it wasnt for my Apple Watch which I love, I am not sure I like apple all that much. Besides the apple id issue I have never gotten the Home app to work. It gets to the screen "Loading accessories and scenes" and there it stays.
Some of the ideas posted here really appeal to me. Particularly using Siri voice control. I take it this feature requires the Home app?
Yes and for me there are several reasons for using Homebridge.
1 - The ability to use Apple's Home app as a UI
2 - Apple watch integration
3 - Siri voice integration
4 - Remote access to my devices via Homekit hub
5 - Apple shortcut integration
6 - Expands the use of third party integrations not supported by Hubitat.
7 - iOS Presence
8 - Camera integration
9 - etc, etc, etc...
HomeKit via Homebridge is something I use in the same way as @EdMcW -- to be a dashboard for my total Home Automation system.
I have one instance of Homebridge for Hubitat communications and another instance of Homebridge for my Thermostat. Multiple instances can (and do) run on a single computer.
However, to make the most of HomeKit, one does need to have an always on/always available Apple device (Apple TV (4), HomePod or an iPad) to run Apple's Automation features. I use this to "push" presence from Apple to Hubitat exactly as described above... exposing Hubitat presence device to Apple then having automations "sync" the state.
Ugh, you guys are giving so many good reasons to get this working. Unfortunately, my problem (corrupt DB?) with the Home app is not unique and the solution appears to require a second ios device.
My problem is, I always look for a more complex solution when all I had to do was delete the Home app and all its data, reinstall, restart app and select the "re-init Home Data" button (or something obvious like that) on bottom of the screen.
Thanks everyone for all the good ideas. Now to get to work
Something I didn’t see mentioned above; I have a virtual switch from HE to Homebridge that is triggered by smoke detectors (First Alert ZCombo). This then automates shutting off the Nest thermostat and turning specific lights red. The switch turns off when all clear and turns the thermostat back on. I also use the MyQ Homebridge plugin that has been solid.
I would recommend getting a Homepod mini or Apple TV for use as the home hub. I found the iPad to be slower and less reliable (and the need for it to be plugged in all the time).
These are the plug-ins I’m using that have been very reliable:
I have done both and then some There are quite a few articles about this same problem and it appears I am not alone). My wife has an iphone and ipad as well and never has this problem.
I had that problem once, and I unfortunately do not remember how I resolved it. I'd reach out to Apple if you haven't already. There is no way you should have to deal with that for the price you paid for their products. Call them. The support cost is literally in the cost of the product already, so take advantage of what you have already paid for.
I get the impression there isnt one fix for all. When I google "iphone keeps asking for apple id login" there are tons of pages and many more ways to fix the problem. One being different from the next The problem is the issue cant be duplicated at will. You think you fixed it then a few days later it starts again.
HomeKit-native devices are a one-way street, but you can get two-way communication with Homebridge devices. I’ve been using node-red-contrib-homebridge-automation to pass events to Node-RED and then back to Hubitat. It’s not elegant, but it works. If you’ve already got a computer set up to run Homebridge, you can install Node-RED on the same system and keep everything local.
There’s a similar plug-in for using Alexa as the middleman (same author, I believe):
I do this as well except I keep all my "rules" in Node-RED, a lot more flexible for my use-case + lowers resource usage on my HE hubs.
In fact when I started I did not have any iStuff at all - was using Homebridge to integrate my Ring doorbell and activate an old Aeotec 5 siren (chime) when pressed.
Well I started down this path slowly and must say I can understand why others like to use the Home app as a dashboard(s). I only added Hubitat bulbs, outlets and switches then, within the Home app, I created rooms and moved each device accordingly. Even its is simplest form, these rooms looked pretty good. Then this happened..
Several hours after setting up the App/Rooms/devices I reopen the iPhone Home app to find all my devices and server unavailable. This is only true within the app as loading the web interface homebridge-ip:8581 shows the server is running fine and all devices are available. Long story short, I had to remove the server from the Home app and start over. This time I decided I would not move all these devices into rooms. If this happens again I'll start even smaller, say with one bulb
This has nothing to do with rooms. I suspect that for whatever reason your home app lost its connection to HomeBridge. If you see this again restarting HomeBridge should restore the connection.
I just dont want to go through all the work again of creating rooms and moving each device only to find several hours all devices all no longer available. If a server restart would fix this problem I could live with it but nothing I did, including server restart, brought back these devices within the Home app. As a last resort, I removed the server from Home app and re-added it. This is where I am now and we'll wait and see what happens. Googling this issue suggest one or more of the included devices may be causing this when they do not respond on time.
There are quite a few articles about this same problem and it appears I am not alone). My wife has an iphone and ipad as well and never has this problem.
The problem is the issue cant be duplicated at will. You think you fixed it then a few days later it starts again.
