Proper HomeKit Support

[madmax]

With the news today of Apple open sourcing HomeKit Accessory Development Kit (ADK), what are the chances we'll see proper HomeKit integration with HS4?


https://github.com/apple/HomeKitADK

[kideon]

It’s free for non commercial use. Someone here should just write a plugin and take donations they would make a couple grand likely. Based I’m what I read it would be a winters weekend of coding and a case of Tab worth of energy. They’d also be a hero. I’d be more interested in seeing HomeSeer put resources into fully supporting Alexa.

[Tillsy]

They’d also be a hero.

THIS

[jvm]

For those interested, I have updated my HomeBridge plugin which is available here: https://github.com/jvmahon/Homebridge-HomeSeer4 and on npmjs as homebridge-homeseer4. Though it says HomeSeer4 it still supports HomeSeer 3.

The update is in a "late beta" stage - I think the bugs are out of it, but I still need to do updates on the documentation.
This replaces the earlier version homebridge-homeseer-plugin-2018.

Would welcome having additional people give it a try and let me know (by posting a github issue) if something isn't working.

[randman]

For those interested, I have updated my HomeBridge plugin which is available here: https://github.com/jvmahon/Homebridge-HomeSeer4 and on npmjs as homebridge-homeseer4. Though it says HomeSeer4 it still supports HomeSeer 3.

The update is in a "late beta" stage - I think the bugs are out of it, but I still need to do updates on the documentation.
This replaces the earlier version homebridge-homeseer-plugin-2018.

Would welcome having additional people give it a try and let me know (by posting a github issue) if something isn't working.

I haven't updated to homebridge-homeseer4. Will upgrade soon. I'm still on homebidge-homeseer-plugin-2018. I just wanted to say, this is a great, high quality, well supported, stable plug-in. Works great with HomeSeer and HomeKit!!

[jvm]

I haven't updated to homebridge-homeseer4. Will upgrade soon. I'm still on homebidge-homeseer-plugin-2018. I just wanted to say, this is a great, high quality, well supported, stable plug-in. Works great with HomeSeer and HomeKit!!

The two biggest changes are (1) Device control is now over a telnet interface which remains open over the lifetime that the plugin is executing. Previously, device control was by HTTP. This change means that if you are controlling a large group of devices, control is noticeably faster; and (2) I've reduced the amount of information needed in a config.json file and many device types can now be specified by their HomeSeer reference number alone, so that makes it much easier to set up the plugin. The plugin has had more testing with Z-Wave (I don't personally use Zibbee or other technologies), but I know that at least lights do ("should") work with JowieHue.

[dibble9012]

I’m running the latest homebridge-homeseer4 plug-in and it’s great! It’s a lot faster with the new telnet communication.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[troy.lynch]

Mine never works right I keep getting the following error.

[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] Attempting to re-start ASCII Port Interface, Attempt: 2
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] Successfully connected to ASCII Control Interface of HomeSeer.
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] Sent Authorization Data
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] * Warning * - Unable to connect to HomeSeer ASCII Port: 11000. Fatal error.
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] To enable ASCII Port, see WIKI "Enable the HomeSeer ASCII Commands Interface Port" entry

of course the port is open no firewall.

[jmaddox]

The two biggest changes are (1) Device control is now over a telnet interface which remains open over the lifetime that the plugin is executing. Previously, device control was by HTTP. This change means that if you are controlling a large group of devices, control is noticeably faster; and (2) I've reduced the amount of information needed in a config.json file and many device types can now be specified by their HomeSeer reference number alone, so that makes it much easier to set up the plugin. The plugin has had more testing with Z-Wave (I don't personally use Zibbee or other technologies), but I know that at least lights do ("should") work with JowieHue.

I use it and it's working great. My biggest gripe is that fans are treated as either on or off switches. I suspect that is homekit behavior however. I also wish there was a way to add some of my multi-state virtual devices; ie I have a device that I can set to 'announce only', 'video only', 'both announce and video', and 'off'

[wpiman]

I use it and it's working great. My biggest gripe is that fans are treated as either on or off switches. I suspect that is homekit behavior however. I also wish there was a way to add some of my multi-state virtual devices; ie I have a device that I can set to 'announce only', 'video only', 'both announce and video', and 'off'

What does Homekit support actually provide?

I use Apple shortcuts to send siri voicecommands to Homeseer over JSON and it works well. Pretty simple to implement.

[jmaddox]

What does Homekit support actually provide?

I use Apple shortcuts to send siri voicecommands to Homeseer over JSON and it works well. Pretty simple to implement.

Homekit provides another dashboard/room setup similar to HSmobile. The layout is saved and preserved when you invite someone to use it which may appeal to some as this has been requested for HSmobile. If you have AppleTV or a Homepod you can access the system remotely.

There is an event engine but I haven't explored it, when I was importing devices it tried to suggest actions to perform automatically for things like arriving home etc.

And of course it works with Siri; Siri can interpret what you want to some degree in a conversational and fluid way; ie I can say 'turn on the great room accent lights' or I can say 'turn on the accent lights' both work just fine since I only have one accent light device. Other than importing devices, making sure the names were reasonable and putting them in rooms I didn't have to set up anything else. I have a gate controller and garage door (both used the homebridge garage door config). interestingly enough when I say 'open garage door' I get 'you have two garage doors which one?' I have to say 'open the garage garage door' specifying the room it's in and the device. Luckily the gate works just fine without having to specify the room it's in. You can also ask Siri what things are set to; mainly I use this for my thermostat; 'whats the thermostat set to?', or 'raise the temperature one degree'. Unasked for Homekit sends me a notification if I'm on the home wifi when my gate or garage door changes state.

Overall My favorite item is that I can conversationally control my devices without having to use some exact convoluted phrase (notwithstanding my garage door)

My biggest peeve is that the ceiling fan control is either on(high) or off. Also you must unlock your phone to control devices or Siri complains she can't find them/they aren't responding, likely a security thing...

here are a couple of screen shots just to give you an idea

[Eman]

There are also other plugins you can implement for things to happen automatically : https://libraries.io/search?keywords...;platforms=NPM


And : https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...meseer4-plugin



Eman

[randman]

Also you must unlock your phone to control devices or Siri complains she can't find them/they aren't responding, likely a security thing...

Strange. I don't have that problem. The only time I have to use my iPhone is when I tell Siri to unlock a door, in which case Siri says "You'll have to authenticate on your iPhone to continue". Other than that, I can control any device with HomeSeer via Siri w/o having to pull out my iPhone

I gotta say, for those who haven't tried the plugin, the homebridge-homeseer4-plugin is amazing. It's added so much more value to HomeSeer. Not only does it give the ability to use the Home app on iOS devices (and many other Homekit-compatible apps), but also provides access via HomeSeer, Apple Watch GUI, Siri via Apple Watch, etc. I can even have Siri control devices when I'm not home (either from an Apple Watch, or my iPhone, or even my car's CarPlay). Nice to have even while driving, such as when I'm arriving home and I want to control devices via Siri.

There are also other homebridge plug-ins so one can interface web cameras (that are not natively HomeKit) with HomeKit. One example is homebridge-camera-ffmpeg. I can see my cameras using the Home app or even on my Apple Watch.

[jvm]

I use it and it's working great. My biggest gripe is that fans are treated as either on or off switches. I suspect that is homekit behavior however. I also wish there was a way to add some of my multi-state virtual devices; ie I have a device that I can set to 'announce only', 'video only', 'both announce and video', and 'off'

Actually, Fans should be able to work with a dimmer / slider control, so if your isn't, its a bug.

What device are you using for the Fan and can you show me the Status Graphics page for it.

My recollection - if you're using one of the HomeSeer Fan Control switches, they set up the "Status Graphics" page in an odd way and you might need to just re-adjust some of the values.

Oh, and I don't check the forums often - you'll get a quicker response posting this to Github issues.

As for your virtual devices, this I can't help you with -- homekit doesn't support a device type that would do this (at least not if I"m understanding you correctly).

[jvm]

Mine never works right I keep getting the following error.

[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] Attempting to re-start ASCII Port Interface, Attempt: 2
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] Successfully connected to ASCII Control Interface of HomeSeer.
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] Sent Authorization Data
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] * Warning * - Unable to connect to HomeSeer ASCII Port: 11000. Fatal error.
[8/31/2020, 4:26:08 PM] [HomeSeer] To enable ASCII Port, see WIKI "Enable the HomeSeer ASCII Commands Interface Port" entry

of course the port is open no firewall.

You must enable the ASCII interface and then you must re-start HomeSeer before you start Homebridge. Please confirm that you've tried this.

If you continue to have proglems, post the issue on the github site - I check there more often.