Homebridge Plug-in

So if you remove the Roomba plugin, how does it run? I used to try to run an Insteondirect plugin together with my Hubitat plugin for Homebridge, but when I had the option to remove the Insteon component and run it in a stand-alone instance (even though it's still on the same computer as homebridge), everything became faster and more stable.

I’m going to try and remove the Roomba and Neato plug-ins next. There is a http local interface for Roomba to control the vacuum locally which means I can say ‘Siri start my Roomba’ And it should work and I can use ifttt for cloud automation.
I think for now Netatmo is the cause. The HE integration is a bit unpolished.

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Question: How do you change @Cobra's presence from a light to a switch? I have noticed if I accidentally ask Siri to "Turn off Home" she also turns off those "lights."

Suggestions?

I would not expect you to have to change it...

Cobra's driver is a hybrid driver that combines a Presence Sensor with Switch. The driver keeps On / Off for the switch in sync with Present / not Present of the Presence Sensor and vise versa.

In iOS Home.App, you can press and hold the tile for the switch and then tap Details. You can change the Room and the Type to be Switch (or light or fan.)

This doesn't provide an option for a switch. Just bulb. Looking for this to be like an outlet perse'.

Cobra's hybrid Presence driver is here:

https://github.com/CobraVmax/Hubitat/blob/master/Drivers/Presence/Virtual%20Presence%20Plus.groovy

metadata {
        definition (name: "Virtual Presence Plus", namespace: "Cobra", author: "Austin Pritchett") {
        capability "Switch"
 //       capability "Refresh"
        capability "Presence Sensor"
		capability "Sensor"
        
		command "arrived"
		command "departed"
    }
}

There's nothing about a "light" in there... it's explicitly "switch".

When you Added it to the Homebridge app in Hubitat, did you select it as a Light (top most selector) OR in the second section "All Other Devices" where there is a Switch category. ??

That was it! Switched it over. Now to see if it really made any difference. :slight_smile:

I did want to pass a long a bit of knowledge that I can hopefully get confirmed. I think I solved the Homebridge issues for the time being and it boiled down to Homebridge itself and not HE. So here was/is the scenario.

Several plugins leverage cloud services as part of the Homebridge integration (HE not being one of them it seems).

If the cloud service providing the connection to Homebridge went down/haywire for any reason this would cause Homebridge to start throwing all sorts of log errors related to the problem causing plugin.

It seems this would, in turn, cause lagging issues between HE and Homebridge. If there error on the cloud side was significant enough, Homebridge would simply crash. This would then throw an error log into HE that Homebridge was not accessible each time any command needed to be sent/received from Homebridge. This error would be exacerbated by the fact that I always had Homebridge automatically restart. Since the problem causing plugin could no longer reach the cloud, the start up process would spin out of control as well. This would cause HE to then become quite overloaded and stop.

I am now on 5 days with 0 issues between HE and Homebridge as all plugins run locally and do not require a cloud connection (except Nest which seems to never have issues).__

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I hate to see you got bit by that but I sure like that you've gotten it figured out and set an alarm off in my mind. I have a plugin for my WiFi Thermostat that hit's Honeywell's cloud.. and it could go down... I'll keep this "cure" in the back of my mind.

Thanks :slight_smile:

This is the main reason I run three separate instances of HOmebridge.
I put my oddball nonessential plug-ins in one instance, and leave my SmartThings plug-in running on its own as well as my habitat plug-in

So if one of them decides to start crashing and won’t bring every single thing down

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Does the

Notice:
Would you like to restart the Homebridge Service to apply any device changes you made?
  Restart Homebridge plugin when you press Save?

work for multiple instances or only for the standard one?

I've been manually restarting my 2nd instance.

The restart works with multi-instance setup.

It sends an HTTP request which triggers an app.exit() to the plugin the app communicates with.

It will only restart if you are using process manager to restart it.

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Hi, @tonesto7 !

Thank you so much for your work on this project. I purchased a Hubitat Elevation after I saw your wonderful Homebridge plugin, and it's working well so far.

Two requests:

  • Support for PushableButton, DoubleTapableButton, and HoldableButton (what HomeKit calls StatelessProgrammableSwitch). I have a handful of Almond Click buttons that I'd like to use in the Home app.
  • Support for a thermostat's fan switch (a linked HomeKit Fan service). This would activate the system's circulating fan without changing the heating/cooling mode.

Let me know if I can help.

Thanks!

Just morbid curiosity, why add a button?
Maybe to replace a seen you have to duplicate in Apple Home?

That's fair. If you'll forgive how this may sound, my goal in purchasing Hubitat was to use it mainly as a Z-Wave and Zigbee gateway to HomeKit. I don't plan on using the built-in automation. This is in an effort to keep everything simple in a house of about 40 sensors, as I'm not the only one using it.

The household is thoroughly an Apple ecosystem, and I'm catering to what's familiar to everyone. I want the household to be able to maintain their own automations in the Home app (an Apple TV serves as the HomeKit hub).

The HE is replacing an aging Securifi Almond+ router, paired with a Homebridge plugin of my own design. My criteria for choosing a new hub:

  • Z-Wave and Zigbee compatibility
  • Full local control
  • No dependence on any cloud
  • Extensible driver system
  • Ethernet jack
  • Active community of users
  • Mature Homebridge plugin sourced by the community

Hubitat was the clear winner.

I'm sure I'll eventually be curious enough to dig into Rule Machine, as it looks quite comprehensive. For now, the install needs to be as transparent as possible to the household (HomeKit automations and all).

Thanks for understanding. :wink:

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No understanding required. I get it!
Apple Home takes the cake for true automations amongst the big three players. It's my primary interface!

Heed the warnings in the last couple posts though. Lost all of my room assignments because I should be backing up some files.

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I love home bridge as an app, but I still have one lingering issue. For some reason I am unable to control my blinds to close them.

I can open them using 'Home' or Siri but cannot close them.

Any ideas why?

I don't have blinds so I can't Test.

@tonesto7 may have a better answer.

What Driver are you using? Maybe I can test with a virtual.

Generic z wave blinds

Is it possible to run two instances of this? I have two hubs and I would like to have both of them connect separately. they can’t both be on the same port, and if I change the port, then I don’t think the home bridge app can find the instance any longer. i don’t see a way to change to a custom port (from 8005)

my reason for doing this was that hub link doesn’t work well with garage doors, so I thought i’d try a direct connection to home bridge, however, it doesn’t seem that home bridge works with garage doors either. I can select the door as a sensor, but not as a switch that I can open and close.