Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Posted on
Sun Dec 04, 2016 4:44 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Downloads

Official Release On The Indigo Plugin Store

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Install according to the Indigo documentation.

Development/Interim Release Directly From Git

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Introduction

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Homebridge Buddy
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Please note that a few users have reported high utilization issues when using this plugin, I have not yet determined what may be the cause but I believe it has to do with another plugin. The solution is to simply disable HBB if this problem occurs, I am still investigating the cause.

Homebridge Buddy is a companion plugin built for the Homebridge-Indigo plugin. I began development of this during Indigo 6 and rewrote it entirely for Indigo 7 while doing the beta testing so that this is a 100% Indigo 7 only plugin.

What this program does is bring together almost all of the elements of the Homebridge-Indigo configuration and management into a single plugin, but also adds considerable functionality to what Webdeck has already put together. On the surface the plugin allows you to easily manage what is include, excluded and how things are treated as in Homebridge right from the UI as well as giving you the ability to tweak your HB configuration, restart the HB service and more. This is simply a UI to Homebridge.

Deeper down Homebridge Buddy gives you bonus features such as being able to have a device named one thing in Indigo but referred to as something else when talking to Siri. This comes in handy for people, like me, that have complex naming in Indigo to keep things in order but want a simpler interface for Siri like "Outside Front Porch Sconce" in Indigo and simply "Front Porch" for Siri. HomeKit allows for this but the HomeKit configuration is easily lost so this keeps your name constant regardless of other factors. This functionality is an Alias device.

Also available is the Wrapper device - which does everything that the Alias device does times 100. With a Wrapper you can wrap ANY Indigo device into a HomeKit friendly device that you can control. This can be complicated such as having your Wrapper execute a different Action Group for the On/Off and Dim commands or as simple as just treating your garage door as a dimmer device so you can give it special commands when you ask Siri to "dim" it.

This plugin also allows you install HB on a 2nd (or 3rd, 4th, etc) computer and extend the current limitation of Homebridge's 99 devices to become infinite. The plugin will manage local AND remote HB servers from one location.


Configuration and Use

All documentation for this plugin is regularly updated and posted on GitHub.

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Plugin Images

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Including Devices
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Including Actions
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Treat Device As
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#Version|1.0#

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 Dec 06, 2016 4:38 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Location: Colorado

Re: New Plugin: Homebridge Buddy

Version 0.13 RC5

Release Notes
  • Changed the server web password field to be character hidden in the plugin configuration
  • Unlocked the PIN field so the PIN could be changed if a user desires
  • Added MANUAL addition of Homebridge-Camera configuration - this does not yet incorporate the actual plugin itself but allows the user to define a device that modifies the configuration file to utilize an already installed Homebridge-Camera configuration. This is experimental and I have tested this in my own environment and it works great. Being that it is experimental, please know that future releases that finalize this new feature will almost certainly require that you edit each camera device to make a few minor changes (for instance the "re -i rtsp://" line will be have to be removed in future versions). Please install ffmpeg and homebridge-camera-ffmpeg on your own prior to using this (also, using homebridge-camera-ffmpeg will require you are on the latest versions of Homebridge and it's libraries, see Webdecks post for updating)

Current Known Issues
This is BETA, probably several!

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 Dec 20, 2016 4:37 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: New Plugin: Homebridge Buddy

Version 0.14 RC6

IMPORTANT CHANGE: Installing this version will utilize the new built-in version of HB and HB-Indigo and will effectively wipe out your current HomeKit database! It is advised that before you re-add your Homebridge to HomeKit that you remove ALL of your current accessories tied to HomeBridge from your preferred HomeKit app so that you are starting with a clean slate.

NOTE: It should go without saying, but back your stuff up if you use a BETA of any kind, so get copies of your config.json file!
NOTE: Since Homebridge-Indigo won't be run on the hand-installed version of Homebridge any longer you may want to run
Code: Select all
sudo npm uninstall -g homebridge-indigo


Release Notes
  • Added complete Homebridge and Homebridge-Indigo builds to the plugin pre-compiled and ready to run, as of this version you will no longer need to manually install Homebridge or Homebridge Indigo unless you want to incorporate non-Indigo Homebridge plugins
  • Added new device called Homebridge Custom Server which will use the manually installed ~/.homebridge configuration and will NOT be used for Indigo devices. This is for advanced users that want to use a custom 3rd party Homebridge plugin. This is more or less the direct device replacement for RC5 and earlier installations.
  • Changed the device Homebridge Server to become Homebridge Indigo Server as it's only purpose will be to serve Indigo devices to HomeKit and is 100% managed by the plugin. It's just easier to let the plugin manage everything about the Indigo experience, but if you want to use Homebridge-Indigo on your custom server you can simply create an Indigo Server that never starts so you can copy and paste your ID's manually to your custom server.
  • Added option to add to new HB-Indigo feature for inverting on and off commands in server configuration
  • Added checkbox to Alias devices to invert the on and off commands for the device to utilize new HB-Indigo feature. This was not added to Wrappers since they are hand configured anyway.
  • Added Alias action to enable or disable the device commands
  • Added migration routine that, upon starting RC6 for the first time, will automatically split your Homebridge servers up into Custom and Indigo server devices so you don't have to manually split your old configuration
  • Changed Camera-FFMPEG device to only allow the user to select a custom server, not the built-in server
  • Added ability for the plugin to merge accessories and platforms from the current ~/.homebridge/config.json file so long as they don't include Homebridge-Indigo or Homebridge-Camera-FFMPEG platforms - this effectively allows you to allow HBB to write your config file while also keeping your own custom platforms and accessories intact
  • Changed the advanced settings of a Server device to only show the HB user as a field that can be manually changed since the plugin now handles all aspects of HB-Indigo
  • Added tool tip warnings to the "Show Advanced Options" warning the user about changing those fields
  • Added routine that will automatically assign a unique username and port to any Server device created
  • Added new routine that automatically creates a new HB instance in the built-in build for the server that is currently starting in the plugin
  • Added option in the Server device to start and stop Homebridge automatically upon loading and unloading the plugin. If enabled then HB will stop itself when you unload the plugin and restart when you load the plugin, if you want to keep HB running regardless of if the plugin is running or not then disable this option and HB will continue to run even if you shut down HBB and/or Indigo.

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 Jan 01, 2017 1:09 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Location: Colorado

Re: New Plugin: Homebridge Buddy

Version 0.18 RC7

Release Notes
  • Fixed bug where saving a custom configuration was not retaining any customization done outside of the plugin
  • Added new Guest Server device that will allow you to mirror a given server and exclude items you may want to share with a guest or roommate (or spouse) to make it simpler or more secure without sacrificing your preferred HomeKit configuration. The concept of this is that you essentially duplicate one of your other servers that you can exclude items from and run it as a new HB instance that they can either add on their own to HomeKit or your can share to them. For example, your main HB configuration may include the ability to unlock your front door but you don't want to give that ability to your kids that may use it insecurely but you want your kids to access everything else in HB, therefore you create a Guest device that is identical in every way except the door lock is excluded.

For the new Guest device please note the 2nd to last issue below!

Current Known Issues
Please refer to subsequent update posts.

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 Jan 08, 2017 10:03 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Location: Colorado

Re: Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Version 0.20 RC8

This also includes release notes from the interim 0.19 release.

Release Notes
  • Added support for motion sensors (as per HB-Indigo issue 15) to aliases, wrappers and the server configuration
  • Released with latest HB-Indigo build to incorporate motion sensors
  • Added Alias and wrapper devices defined as motion sensors will display the motion sensor and motion sensor tripped icons in the device list
  • Changed addresses for Alias and Wrapper devices to show the device, action or variable they are referring to instead of how they are treated. In the case of wrappers it will use the value for whichever device, action or variable is used for the On action.
  • Changed addresses for servers to represent their PIN and port rather than location
  • Changed addresses for cameras to represent their HomeKit name
  • Fixed bug with aliases where dimmers were properly turning on and off but switches were not
  • Changed plugin caching routine to add a bit more debugging and to not "raise" it's exception when it encounters one - this to specifically address Durosity's and one other users issue when starting HBB and getting XML errors for other plugins

Current Known Issues
  • When setting up a new device it doesn't immediately pick up the state of what it is wrapping, it doesn't do that until you change the device being wrapped or the state/attribute/variable that defines that state
  • While the icons are (somewhat) appropriate now, still need to tweak the actual display value since everything is essentially an Indigo dimmer we need the values to reflect the Wrapper type (i.e., open/closed, locked/unlocked, etc) - note, this is not possible until the API changes since modifying the deviceState value cannot be done on non-custom Indigo devices
  • Copying a device does not raise a new device event, therefor it does not auto-restart Homebridge - this is low priority because typically someone would then change the name of the device which DOES queue a restart
  • setServerRestart doesn't seem to pass the description on new Wrapper devices
  • Uploading a config to a remote computer is a little slow and Indigo will time out on ConfigUI actions, need to find a good way to upload that more efficiently - it works now so somewhat low priority
  • Some devices (such as WeatherSnoop) build their states dynamically in the plugin, so on these devices it is impossible to resolve their full state descriptions and we will end up with the raw state name instead - nothing can be done about this at the moment
  • When using a sprinkler device as an alias some advanced handling isn't supported such as changing zones mid-schedule, it will count down the percentage of time remaining based on the original schedule, the same applies to pausing and then resuming a schedule
  • Certain conditions may cause Sprinkler Alias device icons to stick in an ON state even though it is off
  • Not all Alias types are enabled yet, currently the Alias only supports Dimmer, Relay and Sprinkler devices (the rest are coming, just not yet ready)
  • Plugin configuration options for how to treat Sprinkler Alias brightness currently only controls when a brightness level is set but should also control what is displayed in the Indigo list
  • When selecting an irrigation controller as a Wrapper device it does not default to the correct "default" action
  • Guest Server device currently does not support using a server that specified ALL in devices or actions, use of this device is currently dependent upon having hand-selected your devices and actions and/or using wrappers and alias devices
  • Need to check alias device on/off commands, only dimmers were specifically accounted for and this caused problems with switches, need to check all remaining alias types to see if any others have problems
  • When added to wrapper devices, motion sensors don't show any actions, they should show on and off commands

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
Sat Sep 23, 2017 8:39 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Version 1.0.0

Release Notes
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: Always back up your plugin before upgrading. The plugin file itself stores your HBB configuration but HBB has been designed to automatically re-create the configuration from the values saved in Indigo so there SHOULD be no loss of data, however you should back up to be safe.
  • Integrated Homebridge and Homebridge-Indigo updated to support IOS 11 and uses Node.JS 8.4.0
  • Added framework to allow for future storage of configuration files to a fixed location outside of the plugin structure (requires some updates from HB-Indigo before final implementation)
  • Added Homebridge-iTunes plugin to the core package (experimental, this may be removed in future versions if it proves unstable)
  • Added option to enable or disable the iTunes plugin on all HBB servers (Homebridge-Server and Homebridge-GuestServer) in the Homebridge configuration drop down of the server

Core Package Changes
  • Added ignore list to exclude any installed plugins that are causing problems
  • Added Prowl to the plugin ignore list

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 Sep 24, 2017 7:56 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Version 1.0.1

Release Notes
  • Fixed typo that prevented the plugin from creating its config folder
  • Fixed typo that would try to load the iTunes plugin when it was not configured to be loaded
  • Removed erroneous folders from the plugin structure that was causing user confusion

These were just dumb mistakes on my part, I didn't test on a fresh Indigo before release and I should have.

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 Dec 19, 2017 3:00 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Re: Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Version 1.0.2 (Development Release)

Release Notes
  • Integrated Sonos Zoneplayer plugin into embedded Homebridge (Homebridge-ZP) (experimental, this may be removed in future versions if it proves unstable)
  • Added Sonos Zoneplayer enable/disable to server configuration
  • Fixed issue where a Guest server would not toggle on and off via the Indigo home UI
  • Added Weather Underground support but found that it was far too unstable and useless to be included in HBB, a device reference still exists but it will be removed in an upcoming version

This release represents a development and/or interim release meaning that this has NOT been pushed to the Indigo Plugin Store as an official release as is "use at your own risk" to test upcoming new features or to address any specific feature request or issue that you may be having. This will be pushed to the Plugin Store once all bugs have been worked out and will represent a different release number when officially published.

ALWAYS BACK UP BEFORE UPGRADING YOUR PLUGIN!

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
Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:59 am
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Posts: 2794
Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Location: Colorado

Re: Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Version 1.0.3 (Development Release)

Release Notes
  • Added better recovery when encountering an XML header problem (such as with Prowl or Network Devices) so that the plugin doesn't stop starting the HBB server
  • Added special exception for Network Devices to automatically skip the plugin until the XML header issue is resolved

This is a quick patch in case you are getting XML parsing errors that are preventing HBB server from starting, it will be incorporated into the next Plugin Store release as soon as the other updates are completed. You will need to download this directly from Git (see link above).

This release represents a development and/or interim release meaning that this has NOT been pushed to the Indigo Plugin Store as an official release as is "use at your own risk" to test upcoming new features or to address any specific feature request or issue that you may be having. This will be pushed to the Plugin Store once all bugs have been worked out and will represent a different release number when officially published.

ALWAYS BACK UP BEFORE UPGRADING YOUR PLUGIN!

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
Wed Dec 20, 2017 6:33 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Posts: 2794
Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Location: Colorado

Re: Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Version 1.0.5 (Development Release)

Release Notes

  • Added If-This-Then-That plugin 0.2.2 to core Homebridge package
  • Added IFTTT accessory device to add IFTTT Webhook commands to your HomeKit
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Sonos configurations from reaching the Homebridge config file properly
  • Removed all Weatherunderground devices and references (NOTE: if you added any WU devices please removed them prior to updating the plugin)
  • Homebridge updated to 0.4.33
  • Homebridge-Indigo updated to 0.3.11
  • Homebridge-zp (Sonos ZonePlayer) updated to 0.2.11
  • Extensive documentation updates, including full instructions on the new IFTTT implementation made to the GitHub document repository
  • Skipped over 1.0.4 as a minor change was made after pushing it to Git so 1.0.5 became the version published on the forum

This release represents a development and/or interim release meaning that this has NOT been pushed to the Indigo Plugin Store as an official release as is "use at your own risk" to test upcoming new features or to address any specific feature request or issue that you may be having. This will be pushed to the Plugin Store once all bugs have been worked out and will represent a different release number when officially published.

ALWAYS BACK UP BEFORE UPGRADING YOUR PLUGIN!

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
Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:01 pm
Colorado4Wheeler offline
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Joined: Jul 20, 2009
Location: Colorado

Re: Homebridge Buddy Info & Updates

Version 1.0.6 (Development Release)

Release Notes

  • Added a new device validation to check that the user has selected a server from the list when creating a device
  • Added a new device validation to check that the selected server is a valid and active server in Indigo
  • Added auto configuration saving and reloading for the new plugin devices (Sonos, IFTTT) if the options are selected in the plugin config
  • Added auto configuration saving and reloading when plugin devices (Sonos, IFTTT) are changed if the options are selected in the plugin config
  • Added validation to IFTTT devices to prevent the user from using duplicate button names or duplicate triggers within the same accessory device
  • Fixed issue where when starting HBB it would report that it was starting the server(s) and to not try to use Siri until a confirmation but if the server(s) was already running it was a confusing message, now it will report the the server(s) is ready for Siri commands. This also impacts any command to start an already running server after the plugin has been started
  • Removed Homebridge package update option from the menu
  • Removed Plugin Updates option from the menu (now controlled by Indigo Plugin Store)
  • Added new menu option for Advanced Plugin Actions - this is in advance of changing all base menu actions to be performed on the "default" server only and any additional servers will be managed via this new menu option, this new menu also allows for additional diagnostic or plugin actions to be taken that are not visible in the menu
  • Added Advanced Plugin Action to view all logs instead of just the most recent, allowing the user to get a snapshot of any possible issues over a wider span of time
  • Removed Data Dump and Comprehensive Data dump from the plugin menu and added them to the Advanced Plugin Action form
  • Removed Start Homebridge and Stop Homebridge from the plugin menu and moved them into the Advanced Plugin Action form since they were redundant given you can start and stop the servers from the device list and this is just more clutter on the menu
  • Added functions to the Advanced Plugin Actions to view a servers States, Plugin Properties and a full Indigo data dump of the server
  • Cleaning up the plugin menu in an effort to make the plugin more plug-and-play and simpler for less experienced users to grasp while still giving advanced users places to tweak the system
  • Added iTunes plugin defaults property to the auto built HBB server if none are found
  • Fixed bug in server config builder that would cause an error if the iTunes plugin property was not found
  • Added upgrade command to add iTunes control property to existing servers on startup if they didn't have it before

This release represents a development and/or interim release meaning that this has NOT been pushed to the Indigo Plugin Store as an official release as is "use at your own risk" to test upcoming new features or to address any specific feature request or issue that you may be having. This will be pushed to the Plugin Store once all bugs have been worked out and will represent a different release number when officially published.

ALWAYS BACK UP BEFORE UPGRADING YOUR PLUGIN!

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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