Ok homebridge is awesome. Should have done this forever ago. I assumed Node.Js and Homebridge were much more involved in setting up. Turns out it can be done in 10 minutes without any expertise beyond copy/paste of command prompt lines. Something to that effect in the instructions might be informative.
Now, as far as scenes go, what’s the best approach? I know I could set up a virtual button but was hoping I could sync native HomeKit scenes to my HE scenes - seems like that would be more intuitive for keeping the HomeKit experience in tact. Can’t figure out a way to do that tho since doesn’t appear you can set up an Apple automation that is triggered by a scene….
Hubitat scenes (either old Scene app or new Room Lighting app) have activators that can be shared to Apple Home as switches. You can create Apple Home automations based a switch turning on/off. You don't need to create any virtual devices in Hubitat for this scenario.
Perhaps the largest reason for creating virtual switches is for getting Apple Home device information back to Hubitat. One of the most common is presence. Apple Home geofencing is probably the most reliable presence method. You have to create a combo switch/presence virtual device in Hubitat and 2 Apple Home automations to chance the switch based on presence changing.
Any suggestions on getting the Konnected Sensors to be usable with HomeBridge? Especially the Konnected Contact Sensor. Really would prefer not to have to create virtual sensors (or can Homebridge even use virtual sensors?)
EDIT: Ahh. Konnected sensors ARE integrating. They are just kind of hidden in Homekit it seems. Have to go into the room itself and then only displays in the top summary, not as a tile.
Homebridge is working amazing. Loving it. Now, anyone know of a good way to get a nice interface in Homekit for Rachio? I don't know how it works with the native HE Rachio integration does, but with the community HE integration the Rachio zones just show up as individual valves. Not as nice as having a single screen showing all valves in the irrigation system, like what it used to show when the direct Rachio Homekit integration was working (before Rachio had the 'no response' error and abandoned direct integration efforts). Anyone have experience with getting a nice Rachio Homekit setup via HomeBridge?
Did you check the HB plugins? Looks like there are some available but don't know how well they work.
One of the more interesting things I've done in the past was to use Node-RED and the HB nodes. Doing this allows you to control devices both on HB and HE. I was using for the Ring connectivity for things like triggering events via motion detection etc.
I did not. Noob on this. Thanks for pointing me to them. I'll have to fumble through them - curious as to how to connect a certain HE device to use a certain plugin...
Quick question on plugins - are those plugins used to directly integrate Rachio (or whatever) to Homekit? Without HE being a middleman? If that's the case, then obviously I would need to NOT integrate Rachio zones via the HE Homebridge plugin and only integrate Rachio via the direct Rachio Homebridge plugin - is that right?
Yes that's correct - but the issue then becomes getting info back into HE which you can do with virtual switches etc or like I've done using Node-RED. Interestingly Node-RED can be installed on the same server as Homebridge.
Note: I would NOT install NR just for this purpose though. I use NR as my platform independent rules controller.
Is it possible to announce a message on a Homepod from Hubitat? I'm trying to move away from Alexa and need to replicate the below, but with homepods. I already have homebridge running for presence.
My current setup is I run a "good night" routine in Alexa and it sets a vswitch. That triggers a rule machine routine that checks to see if any doors are open/unlocked, announces them back through Alexa, and then resets the vswitch.
You would do the same thing - Off the top of my head.. expose your virtual switch to homebridge like you do Alexa, have Apple set it when you speak the "good night" routine then do your lock check in HE and have the result toggle another set of switches and play an announcement when set. Not sure how to get it to speak dynamic messages yet but all you need is a set of hard-coded announcements - one for each lock and state maybe. something like that..
Disclaimer - while I have a HomePod Mini running I have not really used it for Apple Home stuff yet. Like you am still using Alexa.
Copy that, I knew I could do it with enough virtual switches, but my Alexa-Hubitat integration lets me send a voice message directly from Hubitat to Alexa (each Dot is added as a Hubitat device). I was hoping that HomeKit would also be able to do this, but doesn't appear it can.
I don't need to get rid of Alexa bad enough to do that, yet.....
For giggles was messing around and was able to do this with Node-RED using HA via a TTS service call (google translate for this example) so it definitely should be possible...
I confirmed TTS works in Home Assistant. Home Assistant uses the excellent pyatv for it's Apple TV/Home Pod integration.
It would be great for a Hubitat developer to create an Apple integration. On the TV side pyatv allows direct control of the app/service/channel much like the Roku integrations do.
Yes, getting PyATV functionality into Hubitat would be killer. I had to do crazy things to surface ATV on/off status into HE for webcore automations. But per the PyATV site, they are only a library and their library does not maintain a constant connect to the ATV for "instant" response/control. Applications that use PyATV CAN keep a constant connection for "instant" response. So if HE does support ATV, it really should focus on low latency status/control to be really optimal.
