Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

Posted on
Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:01 am
vtmikel offline
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Joined: Aug 31, 2012
Location: Boston, MA

Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

In the past few months, I've explored with a separate install of HomeBridge outside of the Indigo HomeKit Bridge plugin (which runs Homebridge under the hood). I still use HomeKit Bridge, in particular for bridging my Z-Wave devices to Apple HomeKit. However, I've found there are a couple of benefits to running another instance of HomeBridge:

  • C4W's Homebridge binary that is running on HomeKit Bridge is quite dated.
  • The plugin community for HomeBridge is quite strong and has some interesting additional features. For example, the NEST plugin supports both Nest Accounts and Google Accounts. It also supports the NEST Protect. The metadata for these devices are much better as well, so they show up as the proper objects in HomeKit. Another example is the MyQ, which supports push events. So as a result of this, I've removed any cloud devices from my Indigo HomeKit Bridge and added the community plugins directly with HomeBridge. The UI for HomeBridge is fantastic by the way. It makes HomeBridge far less of a techy exercise than in the past.
  • Finally, Security Cameras have come a long way in HomeBridge. I've had my SecuritySpy cameras linked to HomeKit through the Indigo HomeKit plugin, but moving them to the newer instance of HomeBridge improved performance, allowed me to improve quality, and adds the integration of motion events.

I know there are a number of SecuritySpy users in this community. Here is my config for HomeBridge to connect to SecuritySpy using the Homebridge Camera FFmpeg plugin https://github.com/Sunoo/homebridge-camera-ffmpeg#readme. The UI will walk you through the fields. I'm showing my resulting config in JSON for you to use. You can edit this directly in your own config, or use the wizard in HomeBridge UI.

Just change the Login, Password, IP, Port, Camera Number, and Resolution.

Code: Select all
        {
            "name": "Camera FFmpeg",
            "porthttp": 8590,
            "cameras": [
                {
                    "name": "Outside Camera - Front",
                    "motion": true,
                    "motionTimeout": 30,
                    "unbridge": true,
                    "videoConfig": {
                        "source": "-rtsp_transport tcp -i rtsp://<LOGIN>:<PASSWORD>@<IP>:<PORT>/++stream?cameraNum=2&codec=h264",
                        "stillImageSource": "-i http://<LOGIN>:<PASSWORD>@<IP>:<PORT>/++image?cameraNum=2&width=2560&height=1440",
                        "maxWidth": 2560,
                        "maxHeight": 1440,
                        "audio": true
                    }
                }
                }
            ],
            "platform": "Camera-ffmpeg"
        }


To set up motion events, place this command in your SecuritySpy config under the "Actions" tab. Change the IP and the camera name. The camera name needs to match the camera name you entered into the HomeBridge config. This will trigger a motion event, which will be automatically turned off after 30 seconds.

Code: Select all
curl -X GET -i 'http://<IP to HomeBridge>:8590/motion?Outside%20Camera%20-%20Front'

Posted on
Fri Nov 27, 2020 1:45 pm
Ramias offline
Posts: 272
Joined: Nov 24, 2015

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

How responsive is the RTSP stream in the home app? My cameras with the security spy plugin load live video fast. The ffmpeg plugin on my homebridge docker container -- pretty slow -- several seconds.

Posted on
Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:03 pm
vtmikel offline
Posts: 628
Joined: Aug 31, 2012
Location: Boston, MA

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

Yes, about three seconds for me. With the config that HomeKit Bridge used, I had a slower experience, and sometimes the video feeds would cut out after a bit. Latest HomeBridge + ffmpeg I do not see that problem. I'm also running HomeBridge on a docker container.

What do you mean about the Security Spy plugin? The SS iOS app for me takes several seconds to connect to the server. Once connected, bringing up a feed is near instant.

Posted on
Fri Nov 27, 2020 6:03 pm
siclark offline
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Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

Now I’m on Big Sur the Home app using HKB to bring up camera from SS via plugin is near instant.

Posted on
Fri Nov 27, 2020 6:11 pm
Londonmark offline
Posts: 509
Joined: Feb 29, 2012

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

So I’ve also taken this route to integrate a Ring doorbell into HomeKit. Works extremely well - even get video notifications on my Apple TV and can trigger Indigo actions when someone’s at the door by using HKB to get the actions into HomeKit.

Fully agree the homebridge Ui works well. Not sure HOOBS necessarily gives much more than that if one has a Mac always running.

One question: in the homebridge UI I can see homebridge indigo is running and that it’s out of date. Not sure if it’s worth updating it...

Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:31 am
durosity offline
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Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

Just FYI C4W does plan to update the HKB plugin at some point. He replied to a message I posted on GitHub a while ago when I asked about it when I was having an issue (it’s still outstanding but I found a work around of just having an old iPhone SE on 24/7 that actually makes Home app respond super quick!). Basically he’s been super busy this year, but he does plan to come back to all this stuff at some point, hopefully soon!

Also to add I’ve been using a stand alone HomeBridge setup with Home for some time too, and it works great! At present I’ve got it setup to show my 10 Unifi Protect cameras (come on Unifi, release the video doorbell in the EU store!) and the aforementioned ring plugin, although I’d love to ditch that as soon as possible.. my ring doorbell is rather flakey and even although the wifi AP is about 2 meters away from the doorbell it still randomly drops . I also use it to present the sure cat flaps I have to HomeKit so I can easily lock and unlock them! And probably the most useful of them all is the Harmony plugin that presents my remotes as if they were HomeKit TVs.. works bloody marvellously!


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Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:45 am
siclark offline
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Location: UK

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

That’s amazing. Why didn’t I know about this Harmony trick before. A definite improvement in the WAF

Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 6:39 am
Londonmark offline
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Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

And probably the most useful of them all is the Harmony plugin that presents my remotes as if they were HomeKit TVs.. works bloody marvellously!


Which one are you using? I'm trying the nicoduj one but can only get volume and mute to show up in the Home App. Homebridge says I have a television accessory, but I can't see it anywhere in the Home App. :?

Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:19 am
cesarvog offline
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Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

vtmikel wrote:
In the past few months, I've explored with a separate install of HomeBridge outside of the Indigo HomeKit Bridge plugin (which runs Homebridge under the hood).


Please forgive me for asking, but I've read your post a few times and could not be totally sure that, when you mention " HomeBridge " (note the capitalised letter B) you are actually referring to " https://homebridge.io ", while when you mention " Homebridge " (note regular non capitalised letter b) you are actually referring to " http://www.indigodomo.com/pluginstore/172/ ", the indigo plugin developed by C4W.

Care to clarify?

TIA
Cesar

Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 11:38 am
yassi offline
Posts: 468
Joined: Sep 06, 2015
Location: Germany

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

I‘m also a little bit confused.
I have only the Homebridge plugin running, works very well, but I would like to integrate some other devices too.

So, is it possible to have for instance Homebridge.io on a Raspberry Pi running and also still have the Indigo plugin on the Mac running?
Will it act as a second bridge and will be visible this way in Homekit?
Any drawbacks/interferences?

Yassi


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Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 11:45 am
durosity offline
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Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

yassi wrote:
So, is it possible to have for instance Homebridge.io on a Raspberry Pi running and also still have the Indigo plugin on the Mac running?
Will it act as a second bridge and will be visible this way in Homekit?
Any drawbacks/interferences?


You can run it on a raspberry pi, or indeed the same Mac as Indigo

it will add a second bridge

no drawbacks/interference that I've experienced

Computer says no.

Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 11:47 am
yassi offline
Posts: 468
Joined: Sep 06, 2015
Location: Germany

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

durosity wrote:
yassi wrote:
So, is it possible to have for instance Homebridge.io on a Raspberry Pi running and also still have the Indigo plugin on the Mac running?
Will it act as a second bridge and will be visible this way in Homekit?
Any drawbacks/interferences?


You can run it on a raspberry pi, or indeed the same Mac as Indigo

it will add a second bridge

no drawbacks/interference that I've experienced
Thx, durosity!


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Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:15 pm
siclark offline
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Location: UK

Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

I've just installed it on my indigo Mac. Had to t a few different ports before it worked but now for Sonos and Harmony set up
Harmony is great but lots of options so got to spend some time on it.

There's even a plugin for my tumble drier

Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:37 pm
durosity offline
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Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

siclark wrote:
There's even a plugin for my tumble drier


Which tumble dryer do you have?

Computer says no.

Posted on
Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:09 pm
durosity offline
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Re: Separate HomeBridge instance outside of Indigo

Londonmark wrote:
And probably the most useful of them all is the Harmony plugin that presents my remotes as if they were HomeKit TVs.. works bloody marvellously!


Which one are you using? I'm trying the nicoduj one but can only get volume and mute to show up in the Home App. Homebridge says I have a television accessory, but I can't see it anywhere in the Home App. :?


Yup it's nicoduj's.. it's probably your config, wanna send me your config.json and I can have a lookie?

(Sorry meant to post that earlier and forgot to click submit after writing it )

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