Hubitat and Apple Devices - Help a beginner out! :)

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Help! - Apple and Hubitat

I am new to Hubitat. I've managed to do sort of the most simple things, which is to add a bunch of switches, dimmers, and fan controls into the system.

Everyone in my family has Apple everything, iPhones, iPads, Macs, Watches, TVs, you name it. We're an Apple centric home (except for me and my monster gaming PC)

There are a couple of things that I really want to enable:

  • "Hey Siri turn <whatever> on"
  • "Hey Siri <do relay control for pool stuff>"
  • "Hey Siri set scene/mood <whatever>"

I have purchased the HTD (Home Theater Direct) LYNC system which uses their "GW1" smart device to control the sound switching. They have a plugin for a homeseer system, so I bought a bridge for that.

Also, I have two more Hubitat hubs that I've tried to work with using the hub link, but I don't know what I am doing. I ordered the "HOOBs in a box" device which should arrive soon.

I'm a network engineer by background, so I can understand a technical explanation when given one. I'm hoping that there's someone who is willing to assist me by pointing me to an excruciatingly detailed explanation of how this all works.

I appreciate any help given, and I appreciate your time. It's all more than a little confusing for me at the moment.

Thanks!

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This is the simplest way to integrate Hubitat with HOOBS:

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Homebridge is.. a bridge between something and Apple's HomeKit. Homebridge has plug-ins that integrate a something. There's an astonishing array of Homebridge plug-ins... and Hubitat has two that you should consider.

homebridge-hubitat-makerapi and homebridge-hubitat-hubconnect

They are made by @dan.t and are functionally equivalent. You can integrate using a built-in App called MakerAPI or via a Community created way to interconnect hubs, called HubConnect.
If you are connecting Hubs then you will want to use HubConnect. You can have both MakerAPI and HubConnect running, and many do. But once you've spent the time to get HubConnect working and 'mirroring' devices between hubs, why not stick with the same interface? :slight_smile:

Either way, you select the list of Hubitat devices you want HomeKit to know about, and your Apple devices will find a Homebridge Appliance to add and the devices will become available in the Home app. It's Apple's restriction to not allow other devices discovered via other Appliances to be sent back to Hubitat. You can work around this by creating 'virtual' devices like switches and dimmers, that can be sent to HomeKit and via Apple Automations get tied to the virtual device back to Hubitat.

HOOBS is the Homebridge product with a lovely User Interface pre-integrated. It makes it easy to alter the config of Homebridge and all of it's plugins.. of which maybe you only have one.. like me.

HubLink is an early mechanism for tying 2 hubs together. It has some limitations but for a basic interconnect, it still works. HubConnect was created to eliminate all of the limitations. Because it's not built-in, the installation process has a lot of steps but once you get it installed, it will amaze.

You begin by choosing one of your Hubitat hubs to be the Server, the hub that all other hubs will connect to, and add a pair of Apps and a Driver as code. A simple copy/paste, repeated. On each Remote hub, you add an App and a Driver, as code, simple copy/paste.

From there you tell Server to create a remote hub, define it and copy a Key from the server to the Remote. The two hubs will connect and the "highway" between is ready for you to allow cars and trucks (Zwave, Zigbee, LAN, etc. devices) to use the highway. :smiley:

There's videos and installation instructions for everything mentioned...

For Homebridge, use this tool:
https://dantapps.github.io/
To create a perfect config that will paste right into HOOBS.

For HubConnect, there's a pair of sites:
https://hubconnect.hubitatcommunity.com/
and
https://hubconnect.to/

You'll have more questions I'm sure, ask away... :slight_smile:

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I just bought this system as well, I don’t think anyone has created an integration for hubitat from what i have seen. But from what the HTD rep was telling me, they have a documented (but unsupported) RS232 interface, so most likely it’s possible to integrate with hubitat for someone that’s motivated (me) and has the necessary skills (not me).

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This may help you get started with serial to TCP/IP I am sure there are others out there that a cheeper and work with telnet or even a websocket natively.:

https://www.amazon.com/USR-TCP232-302-Serial-Ethernet-Converter-Support/dp/B01GPGPEBM

I had a really old one I used to keep in my kit that would allow me to use putty to telnet to the ethernet port and poke commands into the serial port. That one is no longer made and is lost in my Indian Jones warehouse of antiquities.

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