I’ve been using the new HomeKit integration and it is great for the most part. My only recurring issue is how the integration handles the dynamic switching of the lead hub in Apple Home. Whenever this switches, my devices go unresponsive. This does not happen when the same devices are on homebridge so I know it is fixable. More on the situation below:
Apple Home hubs: AppleTV 4k (2021), HomePod Mini, Apple TV 4K (older)
Hubitat: C7 running latest firmware
Issue: on the Apple Home side the hub that is “primary” changes 1-2 times per week. There is no apparent way to control it or choose a primary, unfortunately. The AppleTVs are connected via Ethernet so they would be my choice but Apple Home seems to prefer my HomePod for whatever reason. I suspect these changes are at least partially caused by my mesh Wi-Fi but regardless, my homebridge integration never had any issues with this.
It is almost as if the Hubitat-HomeKit Integration gets locked to the lead Apple Home hub and does not repair itself when Apple Home switches to a backup. Hope this is helpful.
I can't find a way to disable the HomePods as a home hub, but if you go into the HomeKit settings of the AppleTVs (Settings > AirPlay and HomeKit), you can disable them as a hub (Click on hub under the Home Up section and it will show Disabled). Perhaps if you disable the hub on both AppleTVs and as a result HomeKit keeps HomePod as your primary hub, you won't have the issues with the switching back and forth (assuming that your HomePod works ok as your main hub).
I don't use the built in Homekit app I use homebridge. I don't think it's on the hubitat side of things that's causing your problems. I ended up turning off the apple TV's as huomekit controllers. Fixed the same problem your describing.
Unfortunately, it’s the HomePod that struggles to keep the Wi-Fi connection so if I disable the AppleTVs (connected via Ethernet) I end up losing HomeKit altogether fairly frequently. Would be great if Apple would give me the ability to choose or even just prioritize Ethernet over wifi but they don’t.
When I use Homebridge I still get the flaky apple Home experience but my devices don’t fail as it switches from hub to hub. So there is definitely something that can be done in the Hubitat integration.
