HomeKit Bridge Q&A

Hi C4W,
Would you mind expanding on what you mean by blue iris and security spy being supported natively within the plugin....do you mean within the home kit bridge plugin or within their own plugins?

Would LOVE a way to get camera feeds into HomeKit as if my understanding is correct this would give slick apple push notifications with images

Cheers
Noel

I had posted a lengthy reply to that, it must not have saved or something....

My answer was that SecuritySpy and BlueIris are supported natively in the plugin, general IP cameras are on the roadmap but not yet implemented. Without retyping everything I typed before, what kind of setup are you talking about?

HomeKit Bridge will directly support adding cameras from your SecuritySpy or BlueIris Indigo plugins. Pretty much plug-and-play.

Hi C4W,
Would you mind expanding on what you mean by blue iris and security spy being supported natively within the plugin....do you mean within the home kit bridge plugin or within their own plugins?

Would LOVE a way to get camera feeds into HomeKit as if my understanding is correct this would give slick apple push notifications with images

Cheers
Noel

I had posted a lengthy reply to that, it must not have saved or something....

My answer was that SecuritySpy and BlueIris are supported natively in the plugin, general IP cameras are on the roadmap but not yet implemented. Without retyping everything I typed before, what kind of setup are you talking about?

FYI at the moment the plugin doesn't do the rich notifications for cameras.. I think C4W is planning that at a later date. I'm really looking forward to that plus the complications to add things like 'open garage door' to my garage camera feed, etc.

Awesome thanks guys

I had hk buddy installed previously.. Can I uninstall NPM and Brew now that I am using the new plugin?

Also, am I able to edit the config file behind the new plugin?

Can I uninstall NPM and Brew now that I am using the new plugin?

Yes, unless you want to also run Buddy or Homebridge-Indigo along with HKB.

Also, am I able to edit the config file behind the new plugin?

No, it is regenerated each time the server starts. What would you want to edit in there?

thanks for the quick reply!!!

re: the config file - due to a crash and subsequently a migration to HKB, i thought if I could insert the devices manually it would be quicker (i have over 50 devices so..)..

speaking of backup - how would I backup the configuration once it is final?

thanks for the quick reply!!!

re: the config file - due to a crash and subsequently a migration to HKB, i thought if I could insert the devices manually it would be quicker (i have over 50 devices so..)..

speaking of backup - how would I backup the configuration once it is final?

There is a migration utility to bring in the HBB devices, even if the HKB plugin is disable (in fact having it disabled is the recommended way to do it). This is still going to reset your HomeKit, so all the rooms and assignments have to be redone no matter what but I built migration in so you wouldn't have to hand add everything again.

As for backup you don't need to back it up ever, that is why it is rebuilt on each server start so that if something happens to it then it makes no difference. So long as you back up Indigo and the preferences folder under Indigo then you should always be fine.

Ive been searching, with no luck, for any discussion of the inverse control scenario to HomeKit Bridge (ie having Indigo operate a native HomeKit device it cant directly interact with). Apologies if i've missed this elsewhere.

With the home app coming to Mac in the next OS, I imagine scripting this could become quite straightforward (unless actively blocked by Apple)? Or is there already a viable method I'm missing?

My use case is that I have an irrigation valve that can't practically be reached by power or other cable connection. My old battery operated tap controller has stopped working and so I'm contemplating options for integration with Indigo. The homekit/bluetooth enabled Eve Aqua controller is really interesting because the valve will be in bluetooth range of one of my home pods - and therefore HomeKit. I'd be equally happy with a zwave option but can see nothing on the market (at least not for AU frequency).

Or is there already a viable method I'm missing?

There's no 100% Indigo way of doing this, but here's how it can work.

Create a Virtual Device with no other purpose. Publish that to HomeKit with HKB.

Create automations in Home app based on the state of that Virtual Device to control the HomeKit only device. You can also do this the other way, where the incompatible device's state controls the Virtual Device, which Indigo can then notice changes in and act upon them.

Different's solution is the best one to "back feed" a HomeKit only device back to Indigo.

As for the Mac version of Home, as far as I can see there won't be any API for that - or if there is then it's going to be very limited like the iOS version is now. I expect a full API in the future but for now no dice so I don't know how straightforward scripting will be. Given the possibilities of serious security breaches I don't think the API will be available for a while - at least not until they figure out a good way to lock it down.

FYI at the moment the plugin doesn't do the rich notifications for cameras.. I think C4W is planning that at a later date. I'm really looking forward to that plus the complications to add things like 'open garage door' to my garage camera feed, etc.

That is quite difficult. I've played at it and it's not going to be something that pops in with complications. A couple folks have managed to get this done but there is no documentation on how it was done so it's stabbing in the dark. Heck, it's taken this long to finally figure out how the best utilize the Irrigation features of HomeKit!

Just a general curiosity question:
Why do newly added cameras show up as individual new devices to be added to the Home app, while newly added other devices just show up in the default room? For example, I've got a HKB device set up for all (6 now) my cameras. I recently added two cameras to this HKB device. I also have a separate HKB device for all (about 20) my lights. I recently added 4 new light devices to this HKB. When I open the Home app, the light devices appear in the default room. But the Cameras don't appear until I specifically add them and enter the default code.

Again, this is just a curiosity question on my part.

Why do newly added cameras show up as individual new devices to be added to the Home app, while newly added other devices just show up in the default room

That's a legit question. Cameras have to be specially encoded using a special plugin for Homebridge while devices use the Homebridge-Indigo2 plugin for Homebridge. Since they are not the same plugin for Homebridge they are treated as separate accessories.

The two plugins likely could be merged but it creates a high level of complexity and many places where things can break so it makes sense to do it this way. Since there are so many pieces of data that are required to make a camera work each one must be a new accessory.

Thanks C4W! Really appreciate the functionality of this plug-in!!!

Just double checking here to make sure I haven't missed something major:

Cameras are currently only supported with Security Spy in the mix, right?