ATTENTION ALL HOMEBRIDGE BUDDY INSTALLERS

Posted on
Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:56 am
philc offline
Posts: 156
Joined: May 17, 2011

ATTENTION ALL HOMEBRIDGE BUDDY INSTALLERS

Folks,
Can't thank these guys enough for all the hard work with HBB. While the documentation catches up, thought I might save some of you some work (because I found it out the hard way).

The newest version of Homebridge Buddy includes everything you need. EVERYTHING. No need to install home bridge or homebridge-indigo. Just download the plugin and go. No need to futz with config.json files either. After you install the plugin, go to the newly created Homebridge Indigo server and install via the GUI (very nice).

I spent a few days installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, etc., only to realize that I should have just done the one step process.

Also - dunno if it's just my install or what, but it seems that whatever name you have in Indigo is the name that comes into the Home app in iOS. I can't seem to change the name of any devices in the iOS app. So if that's actually a hard coded thing (and not just my buggy install), then your naming convention may be a problem. I use Room-Device as my convention, and in Home all I see is the room name because the UI truncates the name down to what fits in the window.

EDIT: It seems I only have a problem renaming Hue Lights devices for some reason...still investigating.

Anyhow, thought I'd pass this along. Developers, please jump in and correct me if I'm wrong.
Best,
Phil

Posted on
Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:24 am
rycardo offline
Posts: 53
Joined: Jul 10, 2015

Re: ATTENTION ALL HOMEBRIDGE BUDDY INSTALLERS

Hey philc,

I am still researching this plugin, so reading the forums and asked the dev a couple questions. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I'v been using Homebridge and some non Indigo plugins for almost a year now, and have a hint that might help you. They way you name your devices, is same as me, except I don't use the hyphen: Living Room Floor Lamp.

If you create Rooms and or Zones in Home, and when you assign devices to those rooms, Home automatically drops the room name from the device's name if it's the same. So in my example, Living Room shows on the first line, as that is the room, and Floor Lamp on the second line. When you look at the details of the device, it shows as Living Room Floor Lamp as that is the name.

I use hyphens in my Action Groups, and I'v found they tend to get in the way, I have a handful of Hue related Action Groups, and they are named "Hue - Room Name - Scene Name" and I have them assigned to the room "Hue - ", it works okay. But I'm leaning towards dropping the hyphen along with the word Hue.

In case you weren't aware, you can change the name, icon, zone, and other properties of devices in the Home app, and it doesn't change Indigo/Homebridge.Just long press on the device, or maybe force press on device in Home.

If you want to keep using the hyphen, I think you will need to add a hyphen to your room names. So, Living Room - Floor Lamp would be the device, and Living Room - your room name. Then the top line would show Living Room - and the second line Floor Lamp. If you leave the devices in the Default Room, or a room with a different name, then it will be all included.

I can't remember how it handles Zones, I had zones at one time, but when I bought a new Mini, I dropped them.

Hope this helps,

Rycardo

Posted on
Mon Feb 06, 2017 8:45 am
Different Computers offline
User avatar
Posts: 2533
Joined: Jan 02, 2016
Location: East Coast

Re: ATTENTION ALL HOMEBRIDGE BUDDY INSTALLERS

If you're running Sierra you should probably read this thread viewtopic.php?f=131&t=17847 before installing Buddy.

Seems there's a problem with stability.

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Page 1 of 1

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests

cron