HomeKit Bridge Closed Beta Testers [INVITES COMPLETE]

Posted on
Sun Feb 25, 2018 10:52 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

The next round of testers have been invited, we are getting super close to the first finish line of having an open beta. Right now I'm a week ahead of where I expected to be in this, and I'm very excited to unveil this to the rest of the Indigo community. I'm very proud of how this has developed and humbled by the support from the people who have done the testing thus far. I expect that, if all goes well, the open beta will likely start the end of this week.

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
Sun Feb 25, 2018 3:55 pm
siclark offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Colorado4Wheeler wrote:
The next round of testers have been invited, we are getting super close to the first finish line of having an open beta. Right now I'm a week ahead of where I expected to be in this, and I'm very excited to unveil this to the rest of the Indigo community. I'm very proud of how this has developed and humbled by the support from the people who have done the testing thus far. I expect that, if all goes well, the open beta will likely start the end of this week.

Amazing, great work and can't wait for the invite.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted on
Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:42 am
durosity offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Interesting. I've kinda missed this whole thing so really not sure what the differences are between this and HBB but it'll be interesting trying it out. :)

Computer says no.

Posted on
Mon Feb 26, 2018 8:04 am
Different Computers offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

I can't speak for a lot of the technical answers to this question, but I notice:

HKB is faster to start, faster to respond.
The iOS Home app receives updates to status from HKB faster than it does from HBB. I notice this in particular when devices in a virtual group are turned on by HKB vs HBB. The individual devices take a LONG time to update in HBB, and it happens almost instantly in HKB.

I also understand that this ground up rewrite will make it easier in the long term to add other homeBridge functionality. Things like homeBridge-camera.

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.

Posted on
Mon Feb 26, 2018 8:28 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Different Computers wrote:
I can't speak for a lot of the technical answers to this question, but I notice:

HKB is faster to start, faster to respond.
The iOS Home app receives updates to status from HKB faster than it does from HBB. I notice this in particular when devices in a virtual group are turned on by HKB vs HBB. The individual devices take a LONG time to update in HBB, and it happens almost instantly in HKB.

I also understand that this ground up rewrite will make it easier in the long term to add other homeBridge functionality. Things like homeBridge-camera.


That is pretty much spot-on. The camera thing is still in the wings, I haven't explored that yet but it will likely require a terminal installation of FFMPEG to get it to work but I've not given up hope yet!

A few other things that differentiate HKB from HBB:
  • HBB supported 8 devices for HomeKit, HKB supports 21 currently and will support all HomeKit devices soon
  • HBB pseudo supported device features, such as the basic operation of a thermostat, while HKB supports the entirety such as the thermostat fan and filter change notification (if the thermostat supports it), this is across all devices (like having color on color supporting bulbs for example)
  • HBB's Homebridge integration was very specific and required significant code changes to add devices or features, HKB can implement a new device for the most part within a few minutes so that when Apple adds more device support HKB should be able to follow quickly
  • The flexibility of HKB means all the things you may have wanted "full Homebridge" for are gone since all the add-ons to Homebridge are based on the creative use of the very HomeKit devices that HKB supports natively. To give you an example, the iTunes add-on was nothing more than three switches that allowed you to skips songs and a lightbulb to change volume - if there is a plugin for Indigo that can do those thing (i.e., iTunes or Songs) then we can do the same mapping without the weight and bugginess of an add-on

There is actually a lot more and I will likely do a big HBB vs HKB chart to post when it goes live.

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
Mon Feb 26, 2018 10:52 am
durosity offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Nice well I look forward to it (although I have to say I’ve never had an issue with performance with HBB.. status updating is nearly immediate for me all the time!) It’s one of my most useful plugins I have and critical to my continued use of indigo. Thank you so much for keeping at it and making it even better.. and same goes for all the other plugin makers out there.. you’re all awesome. Except howartp. :twisted:

Computer says no.

Posted on
Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:50 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Me too, it has gotten stable enough now that I'm already switching everything away from HBB and retiring it from my Indigo - although I'll still do some updates until I whittle it down to what it's original purpose was, then I'll likely sunset it in case someone wants to use it for something.

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
Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:18 pm
durosity offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Cool! I’ll be fascinated to see how it works. Shame I wasn’t in at the ground floor on that.. woulda probably given you twice as much to do :twisted:

Computer says no.

Posted on
Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:33 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Then it's not a shame at all! :P

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
Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:25 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: HomeKit Bridge Beta Testers

Last round of closed beta testers have been invited. Almost to open beta!

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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