Homebridge for HomeKit hack

Hmm.. so i've updated to the latest version but i've got an odd issue where when adding to the HomeKit app on my iPhone i'm getting an error stating:

"Adding Failed: Could not connect to the accessory"

I am getting the same problem

It would be useful if there was some way in Indigo to identify devices that you want to allow Siri to control - it would cut the list down a bit

Ive decided I'm going to duplicate my DB then delete 20 devices at a time until it works, then work out which one of those is causing the issue, then rinse and repeat until it's working. Hopefully I'll see a pattern emerge that I can report on. If only I wasn't stuck at stupid work


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I'm getting similar "cannot connect" messages from MyHomeTouch. When I try the iDevices app, I also get a Pairing failed, device may not be in pairing mode message. I'm flummoxed.



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Any news on external access for this? I can only get it working internally. Or do we need to wait for the new Apple TV for that to work?

It requires an Apple TV 3, and there's some bugs which seems to cause issues for some people: https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge/issues/256

(my hope is these issues will be squashed with the new tvOS.. but experience tells me not to get my hopes up)

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Webdeck/Mike,

I'm stuck trying to add actions. I checked my code in here: https://github.com/dgarozzo/homebridge/. Can you have a look? Maybe you can tell what I've done wrong. When I go to connect from my iPhone to Homebridge, it tells me that my "device" doesn't conform to Homekit. Right now, I have the lines commented out that are responsible for adding the action, so you won't see the problem until you uncomment those lines.

The plan was to make actions the same as switches that you can "turn on (or off)" to execute the action.

I don't know for sure, but if I had to guess, HomeKit doesn't like the concept of a "write-only" switch. Try giving it read permission and always returning 0 as the value.

-Mike

I think you hit the nail on the head. Thanks!

Your thoughts on pushing this version to "prod"?

I received the iDevices Switch via Post; it does respond remotely using my Apple TV 3.
Unfortunately, I'm still stuck on the Homebridge not paring problem reported earlier so I can't tell how the Switch effects remote connection when used along side Homebridge. I get the feeling I'm missing something really simple; can anybody point me to a good "npm for dummies" guide?
.


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Webdeck/Mike,

I'm stuck trying to add actions. I checked my code in here: https://github.com/dgarozzo/homebridge/. Can you have a look? Maybe you can tell what I've done wrong. When I go to connect from my iPhone to Homebridge, it tells me that my "device" doesn't conform to Homekit. Right now, I have the lines commented out that are responsible for adding the action, so you won't see the problem until you uncomment those lines.

The plan was to make actions the same as switches that you can "turn on (or off)" to execute the action.

I don't know for sure, but if I had to guess, HomeKit doesn't like the concept of a "write-only" switch. Try giving it read permission and always returning 0 as the value.

-Mike

I think you hit the nail on the head. Thanks!

Your thoughts on pushing this version to "prod"?

Nick Farina, the owner of the Homebridge project, has announced a major change. He's proposing to split off all of the platforms out of his project, to be picked up by other maintainers. Folks would need to install Homebridge first, then install any platforms they want to use from separate repositories.

I'll need to revamp the Indigo.js platform module to work in this new system, and then I'll wind up hosting it in my own repository. I don't know the timeline for that change, but it sounds soon. Details are here: https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge/pull/293. So I would say hold off until that's happened, and then I'll be able to make changes directly without having to wait for pull requests to be approved.

-Mike

Webdeck/Mike,

I'm stuck trying to add actions. I checked my code in here: https://github.com/dgarozzo/homebridge/. Can you have a look? Maybe you can tell what I've done wrong. When I go to connect from my iPhone to Homebridge, it tells me that my "device" doesn't conform to Homekit. Right now, I have the lines commented out that are responsible for adding the action, so you won't see the problem until you uncomment those lines.

The plan was to make actions the same as switches that you can "turn on (or off)" to execute the action.

I don't know for sure, but if I had to guess, HomeKit doesn't like the concept of a "write-only" switch. Try giving it read permission and always returning 0 as the value.

-Mike

I think you hit the nail on the head. Thanks!

Your thoughts on pushing this version to "prod"?

Nick Farina, the owner of the Homebridge project, has announced a major change. He's proposing to split off all of the platforms out of his project, to be picked up by other maintainers. Folks would need to install Homebridge first, then install any platforms they want to use from separate repositories.

I'll need to revamp the Indigo.js platform module to work in this new system, and then I'll wind up hosting it in my own repository. I don't know the timeline for that change, but it sounds soon. Details are here: https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge/pull/293. So I would say hold off until that's happened, and then I'll be able to make changes directly without having to wait for pull requests to be approved.

-Mike

Yeah, I read that yesterday. I committed my changes to my repo this morning after a successful test of actions. If you want to take it, feel free.

Now I need to figure out if there is a way to make actions into scenes instead of switches.

It would be useful if there was some way in Indigo to identify devices that you want to allow Siri to control - it would cut the list down a bit

I agree. Would it be appropriate to add an array of devices to exclude (or include) to the config.json file? Then only those devices not found in the exclude array would be imported.

I think it'd make more sense to specifically add devices you want picked up. I certainly have more I want to exclude than include!


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Or possibly even wildcards.

*light*
*socket*
*curtain*


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I was thinking about adding something to the name of the devices as an indicator. For example "(HB)" to make it HomeBridge enabled. Then in HomeBridge, code it to remove (HB) from the name so it is identified correctly. Or, could make it work the other way, and add "(noHB)" and HomeBridge would then exclude items with those names.

[jay (support)]

Since I haven't actually tried any of this yet, I'm unfamiliar with the process. But the Global Property Manager plugin will allow you to add generic properties to any device, so you could add a property that would indicate if it's a device you want controlled by HB. Not sure how it would get used though since I don't know the process.

Alternately, you could examine the remote display property of any device and only add those that the user has specified to view/control remotely - this is what Indigo Touch uses.

Since I haven't actually tried any of this yet, I'm unfamiliar with the process. But the Global Property Manager plugin will allow you to add generic properties to any device, so you could add a property that would indicate if it's a device you want controlled by HB. Not sure how it would get used though since I don't know the process.

Alternately, you could examine the remote display property of any device and only add those that the user has specified to view/control remotely - this is what Indigo Touch uses.

I think the list of devices is being obtained from the REST API. IS there a way that the list returned by the REST API could be qualified using a value set using the Global Property Manager e.g. setting 'Homebridge' to true or false?