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HSPRO3, Razberry and HomeKit - working.

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    HSPRO3, Razberry and HomeKit - working.

    I know that there are some other threads that talk about the Razberry device (Raspberry Pi with a Z-Wave+ GPIO card), and there are others that talk about HomeKit, though I've been somewhat successful in combining the two.

    I have been using HSPRO3 (and the earlier versions) for some time. Liked all the automation, and it's likely to stay as the primary controller ... but I have been wanting to be able to use Siri on iPhone to control lights, etc for some time. I stumbled on the Razberry solution (http://razberry.z-wave.me/) because they announced support for HomeKit in their upcoming S/W release (currently I'm running Release Candidate code).

    The Razberry is running as a secondary controller in the Z-Wave network, and it's also running their HomeKit bridge app. Setup was not so bad .. just added it as node (Learn on the Razberry with an "Add Node" on HSPRO3). All the devices showed up on the Razberry interface, but they then require discovery/Interview to proceed. Most of the devices, including the Linear Garage Door controller work just fine, but there are still some issues on some light controls, primarily those with dimming control.

    Their HomeKit gateway then surfaces up many (not all) the devices, and assuming you have a HomeKit enabled app on iPhone (I noticed that Insteon had such an app, and it was free). The app discovered the gateway, and subsequently the Z-Wave devices.

    Once the devices were included in a HomeKit app, and assuming that the device type maps to something supported, then the device becomes instantly available under Siri control. The app allowed manual naming for devices - the devices appeared with naming that included the Z-Wave node ID, so renaming them was required to be usable with Siri.

    What Apple haven't necessarily made a great deal of noise about, was the ability for an Apple TV (Gen3 and higher) being able to provide remote access via iCloud account services. So if you have the appropriate AppleTV, and use the same iCloud account on the AppleTV and iPhone - all those devices can be controlled while you're away from the home WiFi network.

    As I said, not all devices are working correctly, and I had to set up a Virtual device for the garage door - which now looks like a On/Off switch to a HomeKit app. Turning "on" the device opens the garage door, and of course, turning it "off" closes the door ... though it's odd to tell Siri to turn it on to open. Still it's working.

    I'm still missing the Dimmer controlled devices, and I have a few of those .. but I might have to hack these in the same way as the Garage Door ... I'd rather be able to use Siri to turn them on and off ... and live without the dimming for the moment.

    So it's possible ... and it's been fun hacking at some of this stuff. Might not be the answer for anyone who just wants something running out of the box. It's not a hassle free experience!

    #2
    Where did you manage to purchase your razberry gpio board? I looked and most are out of stock.
    huggy_d1

    Automating made easy

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      #3
      Bought both the Raspberry Pi (as a kit) and the GPIO daughter card on Amazon. There are a couple of versions of the GPIO, and it seems like Z-Wave.me requires the latest chipset, not sure if the earlier versions would work .. Direct link is http://www.amazon.com/Z-Wave-Me-RaZb...words=razberry

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