Apple homekit integration!

I'm not really comfortable to supply an image only because when something breaks or doesn't work you really need to understand why it's broken & the process of getting certain components working.

That being said I've made a step by step which is really basic & links to the pages others have made in a chronological order. Follow the order and you'll be good to go.

http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=57201&postcount=5

That's as good a Cbus-homekit dummies guide I can provide, hope it helps

 

sounds interesting, but where can i get a product sheet or documentation on the 5000SM/2?

there's nothing of interest (that i can see) on the product page.

-s

 

ambro, that's a good start. i'm hoping that folk flesh it out some more -- preferably on the github page. (perhaps in the wiki?)

the holy grail would be for folk who know nothing about linux to get it running -- nb. your internet modem almost certainly is running linux and unless you're L33T you've never dropped into the shell and edited config directly.

but that'll require a bunch of software development to get us there. working on it...

 

Hi Simonhac,

I was quoted $220 before discount. It has been mentioned in the forum once before. The carrier board which plugs into the SIM was described by this diagram.

http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6163

It connects to power, CBUS and Serial. Thats it. The carrier board supplied is the developer kit.

http://www.cbus-enabled.com/pdf/C-Bus Developers kit.pdf


Hi Ambro,

Should i purchase a small screen for my Pi ?

Should I consider running 2 or 3 pi boards so that I may determine the problems of each server when it happens ?

 

who's up for a Raspberry Pi HAT that includes:
* 5000SM/2
* tiny screen for status
* battery backup

seriously, would folk be up for this?

i wouldn't bother, if you don't mind telneting/SSHing in.

i reckon 2 or 3 boards would be 2 or 3 times (at least) harder to manage.

-s

 

I think the idea is very sound. I was looking into getting this case http://au.element14.com/phoenix-con...meResp=All&searchView=table&iscrfnonsku=false

A video of the DIN rail concept


This UPS https://www.power-supplies-australia.com.au/blog/din-rail-ups-power-supply

I notice that Teamviewer runs on Pi also. I will probably run the GUI on mine.

3D printable DIN mount for a screen (as a concept) http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1076986

Im currently looking for a screen which might fit into 100mm x 40mm

 

Does anyone have information on a large heatsink for the Pi CPU ?

 

The best part of this equation is the ability to run a NAS with no hard drive at all. Some brands do not have a drive resident OS.

QNAP and Synology basically come out of the same production environment. All of the Taiwanese producers of NAS speak to each other and have common production teams for different aspects of manufacture.

The OS for the NAS does not come from the same place the chassis comes from.

 

i've been running homembridge via marcoraddatz's docker image on my Synology for 4 months without any problems.

(i'm also running cgate on it, but from the command line as a docker image doesn't yet exist.)

 

thanks tobex -- great links.

i'm very keen to work put a small Pi + OLED screen + battery (possibly more like this one) + 5000SM/2 into that DIN rail mount enclosure.

i wonder whether i could crowdsource enough to make it worth putting together a couple of dozen?

 

If I was to go down this road I would consider this product from QNAP because it would provide the music server and handle the ARM based languages with good support for add-ons.

https://www.qnap.com/en-au/product/model.php?II=216&ref=product_overview

I am not sure if there is a limit to which models may handle Java. Some of the smaller servers have restrictions on the expansion modules. There is also a super-silent model aimed at the home theatre market. This model has HDMI output, music server and is capable of handling the software which runs on Raspberry Pi.

 

Hi Simonhac,

I am wary of enclosing batteries near my projects. The types of battery I want to use dont fit in a wall mount case. I know that wescomponents sell a 12V system which is much more efficient than a standard UPS because it runs 12V appliances at 12V and not through an inverter.

https://www.wes.com.au/login.aspx


They also sell those odd little right angled adaptors and cables.

I think boutique projects like these have some traction if they can appeal to a broad market. I like the fact that some of the DIN enclosures have expansion modules which may transfer the signals from the R-Pi board to the adjacent enclosure.

Because I can see a situation where the alarm people want to get something into or out of the R-Pi and people want to do some non-CBUS expansion.



Im thinking Siri and Alexa will be the norm in 2-3 years. I will assume the DIN fad will continue for the moment until something better comes along.

I have already begun speaking to an expert in CNC manufacture and want to handle the heat problem with a custom made heat sink (a monolithic block). One of the failings of this technology is the heat management. I was thinking thermal mass + a GPU fan.

This would in theory stabilise the temp to around 60C and give a good buffer to the 80C upper limit which cripples the R-Pi speeds.

I would be happy to supply the heatsink for consideration if such a thing becomes available. There is no production value in tiny heatsinks as they saturate in a few minutes.

It just so happens that this combination of parts perfectly matches the vent grille on my DIN casing and can still allow a HAT project on the side or above the board.

The Pheonix case also has a data rail option to an adjacent project.

 

Thats true, but the fan is just a secondary implement. A backup device. Hopefully the Raspberry Pi 4 incarnation will use an underclocked CPU.

Speaking of which, i think 70C makes a good base for a lava lamp.

 

tobex, i didn't know that heat management was an issue with the Pi. any pointers to a background on this?

(i'd be happy to underclock it, if possible, and wouldn't be using the GPU.)

-s

 

yep, schneider clearly can't get behind homebridge-cbus in any official capacity*, unless they want to become homekit certified, but as a user and developer i'm not fussed about the unofficial nature of homebridge...

i would really be surprised if apple pulls the plug, but if they were to do so, i'm confident that the entire (large) homebridge ecosystem would move quickly to amazon alexa/echo. in fact some folk are already working on alexa support. they do some strange things at apple (i've been a customer for 30 years) but i know they'd be watching alexa/echo closely, especially as they're reportedly on the verge of announcing their own similar system.

* if there's any appetite at scneider to get behind homekit-cbus in an unofficial capacity, i would love to hear and i'm sure anthony would too...

 

Homebridge support via nodejs / Gate

Hi all,

Looks like this has been covered already.

Given I already had a Raspberry Pi running C-gate connected to a PCI via usb-serial, it wasn't too hard to get homebridge-cbus up and running.

I've attached a screenshot from my iPhone showing some groups that I've added to the Apple Home app.

There's currently a bug with starting the homebridge-cbus plugin but I think the author will have that sorted shortly (see https://github.com/anthonywebb/homebridge-cbus/issues/48).