Homekit, Thread and Indigo

Posted on
Fri Nov 13, 2020 11:22 am
Welshdog offline
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Homekit, Thread and Indigo

So the relationship between Homekit and Indigo has always been a little strained. Apple didn't offer anything that would help integrate the two so someone had to make HomekitBridge. That's fine, but it didn't seem ideal to me and added more complication and instability to any Indigo setup.

So Apple has announced Thread compatibility in Homekit. Thread seems to be a unifying network tech that could help bring things together. I noticed that Insteon was a member of the Thread group as well as many of the other home automation tech companies.

So is Thread going to be something that will work with or extend Indigo? Will it offer a way to get Homekit integrated into an Indigo home?

Posted on
Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:36 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

There is a consortium of vendors that have agreed to some degree to try to create a unified standard. This goes far beyond Google Thread - it's the entire stack from the physical layer (802.15.4 which thread and ZigBee are built on, ethernet, bluetooth, wifi) all the way up to the application layer (HomeKit, Alexa, Indigo, etc).

We LOVE standards. We are, unfortunately, in a business where there is very little in the way of standards.

If such a standard appears, we will definitely want to support it. I have no idea how that will effect Apple's HomeKit walled garden since they haven't said anything more about it (AFAIK).

It is still very early so there isn't much information beyond the original statement (I don't believe they've released the draft spec yet), so we clearly can't comment on something that has no real substance. We are very interested however, and we really do hope that something comes of it. We were super hopeful about ZigBee, but that really didn't pan out too well in the end. Hopefully, this new group will get things moving in the right direction.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:16 pm
Welshdog offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

Ah I see. So Thread is part of CHIP and we haven't heard anything worthwhile about CHIP since the initial announcement. Time will tell I suppose.

Posted on
Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:47 pm
durosity offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

Welshdog wrote:
someone had to make HomekitBridge. That's fine, but it didn't seem ideal to me and added more complication and instability to any Indigo setup.


Just chipping in my two cents here but I’d argue that HomeKit bridge is more stable than native HomeKit devices, and it’s certainly not complicated to setup. I’d also say it’s a better and more efficient interface to Indigo than indigo touch is (sorry Matt and Jay!) I currently push 120 devices from indigo to HomeKit using it and it’s as stable as a rock.. I had a bit of an issue with it with iOS 14.0 but .1 fixed that.


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Computer says no.

Posted on
Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:29 pm
RAID5 offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

If you are looking for an easy way to connect HomeKit and Indigo, have a look at Hoobs.
Also there are things on the way with Apple and Chip. The new HomePod mini has a thread antenna integrated.


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RAID5 "A happy Swede addicted to automation"

Posted on
Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:11 am
durosity offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

RAID5 wrote:
have a look at Hoobs.


Oh I didn't know they'd added Indigo support to Hoobs! How does it differ from C4Ws Indigo plugin?

Computer says no.

Posted on
Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:13 am
RAID5 offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

I just hade a quick look and it look a lot similar.


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Posted on
Sun Nov 22, 2020 11:17 am
durosity offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

I'll have to have a poke at it! Thanks for the heads up!

Computer says no.

Posted on
Mon Nov 23, 2020 12:32 am
mundmc offline
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Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

https://homekitnews.com/2020/04/17/hoob ... ox-review/

This is intriguing. It reminds of the Revolv (i think that was it’s name), only via the software layer.

Posted on
Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:11 pm
Espressomatic offline
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Joined: Dec 30, 2018

Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

durosity wrote:
RAID5 wrote:
have a look at Hoobs.


Oh I didn't know they'd added Indigo support to Hoobs! How does it differ from C4Ws Indigo plugin?


This? https://github.com/webdeck/homebridge-indigo2

From github page: "This plugin is designed to be run in an embedded homebridge instance that is installed as part of the HomeKit Bridge Indigo plugin."

Posted on
Tue Jan 05, 2021 4:39 am
mclass offline
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Joined: May 13, 2015
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

jay (support) wrote:
There is a consortium of vendors that have agreed to some degree to try to create a unified standard. This goes far beyond Google Thread - it's the entire stack from the physical layer (802.15.4 which thread and ZigBee are built on, ethernet, bluetooth, wifi) all the way up to the application layer (HomeKit, Alexa, Indigo, etc).

We LOVE standards. We are, unfortunately, in a business where there is very little in the way of standards.

If such a standard appears, we will definitely want to support it. I have no idea how that will effect Apple's HomeKit walled garden since they haven't said anything more about it (AFAIK).

It is still very early so there isn't much information beyond the original statement (I don't believe they've released the draft spec yet), so we clearly can't comment on something that has no real substance. We are very interested however, and we really do hope that something comes of it. We were super hopeful about ZigBee, but that really didn't pan out too well in the end. Hopefully, this new group will get things moving in the right direction.
Rumour has it that the draft spec has been issued to participating companies: https://staceyoniot.com/project-chip-releases-draft-specification-just-in-time-for-2021/


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Posted on
Tue Jan 05, 2021 5:12 pm
siclark offline
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Location: UK

Re: Homekit, Thread and Indigo

I’m looking to upgrade my zigbeeUSB stick and was looking at this stick
https://electrolama.com/projects/zig-a-zig-ah/
That interestingly for this discussion also supports thread as is 802.15.4g.

I’ve also seen that Google has released openthread.io

Not that I know what any of this means, and certainly no use to end users before there are devices available but interesting that it’s there to play with now.

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