HomeKit

Does the new native HomeKit integration support thermostats? I currently have two Lutron RadioRA2 HVAC controllers integrated with Hubitat, I'd like those to show up in iOS Home without having to use HomeBridge. If yes, any limitations? If no, any idea when this will be supported?

Yes. The limitation/restriction is of course, you have to use a Hubitat built-in driver, not a community one.

The Thermostat I own is WiFi and therefore has no builtin driver. I have two choices and I use BOTH :smiley: 1) I use Homebridge for this... 2) There is a Homebridge plugin for my WiFi thermostat.

Fortunately for me, my family has zero interest in Dashboards and thus the fact the same thermostat shows up twice in Apple's Home app has never been noticed :smiley: They will never notice the virtual thermostats I have exposed via Hubitat's HomeKit Integration either :smiley:

I don’t think Hubitat can expose these to HomeKit, because they are a LAN integration through another bridge.

If you had zigbee or zwave thermostats, they could be exposed to HomeKit via Hubitat directly.

This will probably not happen unless Apple changes requirements for certified HomeKit bridges.

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The additional restriction (even with a native driver) is that it cannot be connected via another bridge like Lutron devices are.

Although the Lutron devices can be directly added to HomeKit via it's hub.

Yeah, Apple wants you to have a direct integration for LAN devices, which includes these by the time they reach Hubitat. With some other devices, that means you're out of luck — but for RadioRa2, all you have to do is (wait for it...) pay more: the Lutron Connect Bridge supports HomeKit, though it has to be the CONNECT-BDG2 model (the old/original model, no longer available officially, won't work).

Note that community drivers are still fine for Zigbee and Z-Wave devices (unless Apple makes them change something as a result of certification; I recall that the wording in the requirements was not clear, but this was their best interpretation).

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Lutron RadioRA2 thermostats cannot be exposed to HomeKit directly through the Lutron/HomeKit installation (and neither can RR2 scenes/scene buttons). Can this new Hubitat/HomeKit integration expose Lutron thermostats on RR2 and Lutron scenes/buttons/button states to HomeKit?

No, because Hubitat is seeking to become an Apple certified HomeKit bridge.

Will you please elaborate on your answer, and explain why their desire would prevent these two types (thermostats and scenes) from integrating through the new hubitat/homekit integration.

Apple wants to be the center of the universe, so if there is an existing cloud interface, they want it to directly connect to their cloud

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What @thebearmay said.

Hubitat wants it's hubs to be Apple-certified HomeKit bridges. So they have to work within the limitations Apple places for certified HomeKit bridges. One of those limitations is that all WiFi devices have to integrate directly with HomeKit, and not through a bridge.

That being said, there is a simple work around for your situation. Setup a virtual thermostat on Hubitat and expose it to HomeKit. Then setup Hubitat automations that mirror changes in temperature/humidity from the real thermostat to the virtual thermostat. Also setup automations that mirror changes in thermostat settings from the virtual thermostat to the real thermostat.

This setup will work as long as you do not make changes to the real thermostat from outside of Hubitat.

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Lutron RadioRA2 thermostats are not wifi - they use Lutron’s proprietary Clear Connect (Type A) to connect to the Lutron Main Repeater. Secondly, there is not currently an integration for RR2 thermostats and HomeKit, they are excluded from the devices you can enable for HomeKit integration. Also Lutron scenes (and the buttons/LEDs they live on) do not integrate with HomeKit. No one at Lutron has ever given a good explanation for either of these. Scenes (and their buttons/LEDs) are also not supported in RR3+HomeKit.

Correct. But the bridge is LAN connected. And Apple requires that all IP connected devices integrate directly with HomeKit. You'll have to ask Lutron why their Connect Bridge doesn't support thermostats over HomeKit.

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In your case i would simply set up a Pi with a homebridge instance and use this plugin

Or.. if you already have an instance of HomeAssistant running;

Some device are just easier to expose to HomeKit using a dedicated bridge.
I have used HomeBridge for years this way, only slowly migrating them to another automation system when i found a more robust way to expose devices.

Dont get me wrong, Hubitat is great and versatile, but IMHO its strength is in exposing Zwave and Zigbee devices to HomeKit.

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Community ones work fine for me at least. community made virtual devices do not.

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