Apple homekit integration!

Hi Daryl, no never had it even come up on my ipad.

Not sure if this helps but I've attached the config/myplatform and the XML.

Any help really appreciated

 

Looks OK to me
Your config file does not have any accessories enabled or type specified.
I’m not sure if that will prevent the bridge being visible in Homekit but you could try that.
Then reboot.
Go make a coffee and come back to Homekit and select add accessory.
Select I don’t have a code or cannot scan, then manual code.
The bridge ”myhome” should become visible.
If not there are some other things to try.

 

https://github.com/greiginsydney/Homebridge-cbus-installer/blob/master/SETUP.md
Have a read about this script Greig has put together to help automate the whole raspberry pi cgate and homebridge install.
It is very impressive and makes creating the project config.json file much simpler.

 

Not sure if you got this solved but:

looking at your config file, nothing is enabled. "Unknown" accessory types, I think you will have to make them "switch" type to get going. If they are for IR codes from a NIRT, then I have mine set up as "trigger" types.

{"type": "trigger","application": 202,"id": 41,"action": 12, "name": "Open Master Skylight" },

Maybe just test with one c-bus accessory in your config file first.

If you can't pair, either choose "Reset Homebridge" under the three dots at the top right of the Homebridge UI webpage. This will create a new Username (looks like a MAC address), Port and PIN or do it manually. i.e. Make up new ones...

Then try to pair again with the QR Code or manually.

You may also benefit from using the:

"mdns": {
"interface": "real IP address of your homebridge machine"
},

at the beginning of your config file for machines that have more than one network interface. Choose the interface you connect to homebridge on. My machine is connected via ethernet. The wifi is done by other devices so there is no option really.

e.g. mine is:

"mdns": {
"interface": "192.168.1.12"
},

Hope thishelps.

Cheers

Jason

 

Just looking further through your thread. Your log files say that 254/115/5 is an invalid tag name. You have it as an "unknown" type. Make it "switch" to get started.

Also, if there are no "enabled" accessories for your platform, it has nothing to add and you wont see it come up in homebridge.

Try with one accessory with a valid "type" and and "enable" it.

Cheers

Jason

 

Hi all,

The Home app isn't finding my Raspberrypi after following Greig's set up instructions.

Seems to have gone smoothly, I've looked over the steps again but when I enter the code into the Home app it just continues to try and nothing.

Any suggestions on how to trouble shoot? Any logs I should review or upload? I've tried on two different iPhones

Thanks,
Rob

 

Hi Rob
Can you telnet to the pi on port 20023 and type net list, then project list and provide the responses.

 

Net list comes up with 'command not found'

Is there a difference if I'm logged in via Telnet or SSH? Asking as I tried both and they look the same. Using Putty

Thanks,
Rob

 

Scratch that, I missed using the different port.
I get:
NET LIST
131 network=254 State=ok InterfaceState=running
PROJECT LIST
123 project=MATIUK state=started

 

Ok
CGate is running.
SSH to the pi and See what Homebridge is doing.
sudo journalctl -u homebridge.service -f

 

Daryl, thank you very much! I'd typoed in the json file. Fixed it and we're cooking with Gas =)

There are some entries that are redundant, so I'll need to play with the settings a bit.

On early inspection, I noticed blinds can't be stopped half way. They're either open or closed...my misses has a prefernce for half in the morning. Any fixes?

Thanks again!
Rob

 

I’ve never used blinds but maybe try ask Siri to set them to a percentage.

 

Cbus shutters don't have a concept of percentages, they run until the blind itself knows it is fully open or closed but it does allow you to stop when you would like.

Homekit doesn't have the stop feature. Otherwise I would try to do a open for say 4 seconds and then stop scene but no can do. I'll do some googling.

Anyone integrated Cbus with Home Assistant?

 

Turns out Homekit can do percentage of blind open. It's not perfect as in 50% open for me is 100% open but I can make it work by adjusting inside that.

So can't manually stop but you can set a percentage including for scenes. Found the solutions here:
https://github.com/anthonywebb/homebridge-cbus/issues/66

Excellent community!

 

The shutter relay uses the failsafe timer value to determine how long to run the blind to get to a specific position. You need to set this time as close as you can to the actual opening/closing time, plus a small margin.

You can use the arrow keys on the slider to get finer control than just dragging.

 

Would anyone be interested in being able to display, and act on, c-bus light levels in homebridge?

I have written up a light level sensor for the homebridge-CBus plugin to allow display of the light level GA that can be configured to be broadcast from the CBus multi sensors and light level sensors. These sensors are easily configured in toolkit to put out the lux level divided by 10 to a lighting GA at a preset interval. The code just reads it, multiplies it by 10 and sets it up as a light level sensor in homebridge.

It will facilitate them to be displayed in the home app and allow automations with the elgato eve app. For example, open/close blinds or turn lights on/off at a particular light level.

Let me know if you are interested and I can put it up on my fork of the homebridge-CBus repository.

I also created a leak detector accessory that I use for my somfy rain sensor. This is wired up to just turn a group address on/off so it can be universally applied in CBus with an Aux Input, bus coupler or General I/O unit. So if you have a leak/rain sensor or a water level sensor in a sump wired into any of the above you can use it.

Cheers

Jason

 

Jason, light level sensor concept sounds useful but for me it's baby steps before I get to that!

Currently trying to get the Homebridge Config UI X to work. I've installed it, added the config lines to the homebridge config.json file, restarted homebridge but no luck. I only connect to the RPi via the netowrk so I use its IP address and 8080 for the port but nothing.

If I change the port 8080 to something else in the config.json, will that let me use a different port or is there a separate UI config file I need to edit first?

Thanks,
Rob

 

Hi Rob,

this is what I have in my config file under the : "platforms": section in my Windows machine

{
"name": "Config",
"port": 8080,
"auth": "form",
"theme": "auto",
"tempUnits": "c",
"lang": "auto",
"debug": true,
"log": {
"method": "file",
"path": "C:\\Users\\jason\\.homebridge-one\\homebridge.log"
},
"accessoryControl": {
"debug": true
},
"platform": "config"
},
You are correct that the port is the port on which you point your web server. i.e. http://192.168.x.y:8080
You can change this to anything you want to. My log path looks funny as it is on a windows PC.

Here is the version on my pi. It is using port 8581 here.

{
"name": "Config",
"port": 8581,
"auth": "form",
"theme": "auto",
"tempUnits": "c",
"lang": "auto",
"sudo": true,
"debug": true,
"accessoryControl": {
"debug": true
},
"platform": "config"
},

This is the only place to manage the port number for the Homebridge-UI-X plugin. Not sure why you would be having this problem.

So...

Is the plugin definitely installed and running from the homebridge log?
Do you have any other web service running on this port?
Try to change it to 8081 on the config.json file and see how you go.
What message are you getting from the browser?
Silly question, is the IP address correct?
If the pi has a screen, or you can get to it with VLC, and have the full version of raspbian installed you can run up chromium on the localhost i.e. http://127.0.0.1:8080 to confirm if it us running locally and its not a network problem.
Is the pi connected via ethernet and wifi? Maybe you are using the wifi ip address and not the ethernet one...this can be possible
homebridge should be running in -I mode (that is minus capital i not a number one or lower case L). So stop homebridge and run it as "homebridge -I"

Lots of things to check, apologies if I have dumbed it down, but always start with the basics and check them off...

Carefully look through the webpage for the plugin: https://github.com/oznu/homebridge-config-ui-x

Cheers and let me know how you go...

Jason

 

I've copied in from the instructions here https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-config-ui-x

{
"platforms": [
{
"platform": "config",
"name": "Config",
"port": 8124,
"sudo": false
}
]
}

- I've added this to the end of my file, rather than to the above plaforms section that has the cbus devices. Does it need to be included in the above rather than a new section?

- I'm using the same IP address as I use to log into the pi, would it be different? It's only on ethernet, no wifi
- Browser returns 'unable to connect'
- Where do I find the homebridge log?
- I've changed the port to 8124, still doesn't work
- No screen on the pi, just on the network only

 

Although I don't think it makes a difference, it is probably better to have it at the beginning straight after the platforms section at the very least for ease of reading the file.

The live homebridge log can be viewed with:

sudo hb-service logs

command in a terminal window.

To view the log, it is here:

/var/lib/homebridge

and is called, oddly enough: homebridge.log

Cheers

Jason