HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Posted on
Fri Mar 02, 2018 5:33 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

I'm going to put the call out once more, this time sort of a free-for-all of whomever wants to test the system. The original plan was to go to public open beta next Friday but that's in the air depending on a few outstanding UI issues to resolve. What I really need are people who are going to actively test the beta system rather than sign up to get early access :shock:.

Active beta testers are needed, inactive beta testers are going to be dropped from the private Git access for the project.

Where are we now? In my mind I could go open beta at any time, it's that stable. I'm using it in a production environment and it's about 95% awesome for my needs (and after all I wrote it for me as much as anyone). There are currently 25 "issues" (be that they are actually issues or wish list items) and none of them are critical. My house is running about 235 devices in HKB right now and I'm as happy as a pig in... ummm.... slop I guess. :D.

Let me know if you want an invite, but don't just tell me to invite you I need your GIT ID so I CAN invite you :).

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:15 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

C4W - what's the elevator pitch on multiple servers? Is it just if you have more than 99 devices you want accessible? Or is there some other reason to split things up that way?

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:35 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Each Homebridge server will take between 40 and 60mb memory on the server so that is something to consider. In my setup I’m running 8 servers.

You can go the 99 device limit route and just create what you need and that is fine but I like creating group servers myself. Here are some pointers:

  • When you add an accessory to HomeKit you have to touch every device on that accessory, so if you have 99 devices then you have to touch/assign to a room/set favorite for 99 items, that can be a pain all at once
  • Grouping servers means I that when I add the first device to a room in HomeKit that the devices that follow generally default to that room, that makes it easy
  • If you want to use the same Indigo device for multiple HomeKit devices (at least until complications) then they need to be on different servers. Example: use a thermostat device for your thermostat on one server and use a fan device for your thermostat fan control on another
  • For security I put all my security devices on a server and then I add that server to another server so I can turn off the ability to control security devices if I want. So lets say I’m going out to dinner, I’ll tell Siri “turn off security server” and it then becomes impossible to unlock a door, open my garage or anything else on that server using Siri
  • Having different servers in different “houses”. I don’t want to clog up my main HomeKit home with 235 devices, so I put “admin” items on a second “house” called Admin, these are devices that I rarely need to control but might want to. There are all sorts of ways to utilize this strategy. Another example of this is that I have a couple houses that have my “testing” devices that I’m coding for and “working” devices so I have a catalog of all working devices that the plugin supports. Finally, in this regard, sometimes HomeKit can hiccup talking to the server and switching to a different home and back is generally enough to prime the pump (alternatively you can kill the HomeKit app and restart it)

How’s that for an elevator pitch?

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:42 pm
FlyingDiver offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Longer than the 30 second standard, but I'm not complaining. ;)

I understand all of them except this one:

When you add an accessory to HomeKit you have to touch every device on that accessory, so if you have 99 devices then you have to touch/assign to a room/set favorite for 99 items, that can be a pain all at once


What does "touch" mean in this context? I added a bunch of items to my one server, and yes I did eventually go into the Home app and assign them appropriately. But I don't recall it being necessary to do it all at once. Though it would have been nice to get them automatically assigned to a room.

Is there any way to not have them added as a favorite with notifications on?

joe (aka FlyingDiver)
my plugins: http://forums.indigodomo.com/viewforum.php?f=177

Posted on
Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:02 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

FlyingDiver wrote:
What does "touch" mean in this context? I added a bunch of items to my one server, and yes I did eventually go into the Home app and assign them appropriately. But I don't recall it being necessary to do it all at once. Though it would have been nice to get them automatically assigned to a room.

Typically when you add the server it goes each device one-by-one that is attached to the server, alternatively you tap and hold to go into details to change it. Unfortunately there is no way to auto assign rooms but you can bet your bottom dollar that when it is possible that I’ll have it in the app.

This is also the best time to turn off favorites and notifications if you want. Now notifications only happen to critical devices like doors, windows, smoke sensors, etc - those are the only ones that will pop a notification on your device, but there is also the Status that you can change, this sets whether or not it shows on the HomeKit home screen as a list of what is on, open, active, etc.

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:11 am
Colly offline
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Location: Ireland

Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
Let me know if you want an invite, but don't just tell me to invite you I need your GIT ID so I CAN invite you :).

IndigoColly is my new GIT ID. It will be next Friday before I get to have a play around as I have a nice work trip to Tucson for the week :wink: Well I'm assuming it'll be nicer than a snowy Ireland at present.

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 4:49 am
Vaillant offline
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Location: Belgium

Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Like to help out with testing.
Got some free time now so I can do the work.
First time on GitHub for me.
Taking the plunge to learn so I can migrate my plugins to the Indigo Store.
Git ID IndigoVaillant

Very exited about this plugin.
Seeing the amount of work you put in, Matt and Jay better make you a partner :mrgreen:

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:14 am
mlooss offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

C4W:

I am already on the wait list to beta test and I have been following this beta discussion with excitement. My Github id is mloosss and I am ready and eager to provide feedback on this new HKB plug-in.

It is a shame to hear that this project is getting derailed due to UI issues, because it looks very promising. I am not a developer, more like someone that can copy and paste code to hack something together. Your initial invite for beta testers was limited to actual other active plug-in developers and this may have lead to a UI that is very well understood by someone with coding background, but not a novice user and in retrospect having a non-developer in a beta test may have revealed this UI shortcomings earlier. I am not critiquing your efforts, which have been phenomenal to get Indigo integrate with HomeKit, but we all learn from our past decisions. I have not yet had access to the documentation, but if the documentation would explain the UI, like you did here on this forum, a lot of users would be able to implement it. But than again, lots of people don't read and just go ahead installing or upgrading and then run into so many issues. E.g., I too use Alexa and read the upgrade instruction to the new v 3 release and I have not had any issues at all. I don't post a lot on this forum, because I don't experience many issues, but I follow this forum almost daily and learn a lot just doing it.

I do like to extend my gratitude for the time you have put into this excellent and challenging project and taking a moment to reflect and sip on that bottle may actually do you good :lol:

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:43 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Vaillant wrote:
Seeing the amount of work you put in, Matt and Jay better make you a partner :mrgreen:

LOL, I nearly spit my coffee out when I read that :shock: :D

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:46 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Vaillant wrote:
Git ID IndigoVaillant

Invited.

Colly wrote:
IndigoColly

Invited.

mlooss wrote:
mloosss

Tried to invite multiple times as you were in the original beta test groups:
Screen Shot 2018-03-03 at 9.45.05 AM.png
Screen Shot 2018-03-03 at 9.45.05 AM.png (29.54 KiB) Viewed 2249 times

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:21 am
itopota offline
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Joined: Oct 26, 2014

Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Hi, I like test the system on my home for you if I can

thanks!

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:41 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

itopota wrote:
Hi, I like test the system on my home for you if I can

thanks!

Ok, please let me know what your Git ID is so I can invite you :wink:

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:43 am
itopota offline
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Joined: Oct 26, 2014

Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
itopota wrote:
Hi, I like test the system on my home for you if I can

thanks!

Ok, please let me know what your Git ID is so I can invite you :wink:



itopota
thanks!!! ;)

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:43 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

itopota wrote:
itopota

Invited

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

Posted on
Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:48 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge New Beta Testers

For new beta users getting on-boarded, please make sure you are aware of the current known issues before reporting a problem. Feel free to comment on the existing issues on Git. There aren't too many global issues and all of them are fairly minor issues anyway but it just makes it easier than answer with "see issue #..." :).

Also, some of the issues are closed because they are in the yet-to-be-released version of the latest beta that should drop today with a ton of bug fixes.

My Modest Contributions to Indigo:

HomeKit Bridge | Device Extensions | Security Manager | LCD Creator | Room-O-Matic | Smart Dimmer | Scene Toggle | Powermiser | Homebridge Buddy

Check Them Out Here

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