Apple homekit integration!

Thanks DarylMc

 

ha! here it is: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Homebrid...ed-on-SanDisk-16G-Micro-SD-Card-/302300375868

good on them -- the more people who use it, the better it will become.

 

Except when the non technical person who buys it, suddenly finds out it won't work anymore because homebridge is an apple unsupported configuration, and they have just been ripped off $180.

Everyone here understands how homebridge functions and the possible future risks of it being shut down by Apple. However for somebody to sell it as a product without any such warning is dishonest.

Rohan

 

My point is, you know all that, and can make your own value decision, but not everyone else does.

I'm not saying that somebody shouldn't be able to sell an hour of help on eBay, but fully disclosing the fact that what they are paying for is based on an open source project and may or may not be supported or even functional in the future would be the honest way.

What they are really doing is saying, I'll provide you with a turn key solution so you don't have to understand the technicalities. But in doing so it is designed to attract non technical people who don't know any better.

If they did know better then they would know they can get your image and all the help needed right here for free, and also understand any risks. Selling like they are is praying on the less technical.

Rohan

 

I was waiting for someone to make a comment like that.
Rest assured you could not be more wrong and please don't assume you know anything about the motivations behind my comments in future.

 

I might not be the first person to think of this but I realised that I can make the CBUS talk over fibre optic using CNI associated with a Raspberry Pi.

The question is, how do I do this with a second CNI ? Do I even need to ? (I have spare 5500CN and SERIAL with Ethernet converters).


HOME CBUS --- CNI --- LAN ---R.PI
....................................|
... __OPTICAL FIBRE____|
...|
...|
LAN --- BUILDING 2 --- CNI --- CBUS

We know this is a non-issue with ONE single CNI talking to a single R.Pi but here I am doubling up on the CNI and making two of them part of a software controlled CBUS solution. Plausible ? Can I use the Pi as a command bridge like a CBUS bridge, only in this instance we have a different software and hardware layer.

I can easily see this becoming a Fibre optic solution if the R.Pi can communicate with 2 CNI at the same time.

Im not bothered about timing. I dont mind if it takes 3 seconds longer. None of that matters.


The alternative is that I can make a bridge using an alarm panel of all things and send the CBUS commands by relay from the alarm panel. Such as the Protege WX from ICT.

 

This will tell you what you are up against:

http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4174

 

Good one Ashley.

I *THINK* the main issue with chopping a bridge in half is satisfying the signal quality. Thanks for sharing that one.

Im still wondering if I may address a bank of CNI with a single Pi. Perhaps what I need is a pair of identical Pi with outputs to two different CNI. I can see that becoming uncoordinated but I dont mind the delays as I said.

I intend to replace an inch thick bundle of copper with four strands of optical cable. Given that everything is now either Ethernet or WiFi I really want to push ahead with tunneling the CBUS through fibre. I have waited a good long while and I think at this stage it will be via the alarm panel OR via a CNI. I cant see myself chopping a bridge because that is not something I can certify.

I dont mind doing it for fun on a bench.

 

I'm really NOT 100% sure, but it seems to me that if you run (perhaps two) netcat (i.e. `nc`) processes (i.e. one for sending and one for listening) on the Pi you have on the home LAN, such that traffic on port 10001 (or is it 20023?) is echoed to the remote CNI in Building 2 and vice versa, then the cbus network would effectively be bridged across the fibre. I don't think you need a second Pi or cgate process on the remote network.

Would be fun to try.

Hmm, thinking about it more, you might need a second Pi + PCI on the remote network to be able to capture the traffic and echo it back in the other direction.

edit: missed the NOT the first time!!

 

You can't "echo" traffic between 2 CNI's because the received messages (out) are a different format to the transmitted messages (in).
You have to read and re-encode the message including a new checksum.
This has to happen for every possible message type for every application type (not just lighting).
You also then have other complexities such as the timekeeping messages and keeping the 2 ends in sync.

It's all doable, but not simple.

This has come up several times over the years, and I have often thought about a solution that is functional and secure enough to be used commercially. I don't want to commit to anything, but I am currently looking at it more seriously.

Rohan

 

Fair enough.

In the back of my mind I guess what I was wondering about was whether the cgate command interface could be used as the bridge, as that traffic can definitely be echoed across any distance.

While I don't doubt this stuff has been discussed at length before, it's still interesting to ponder as the RPi etc. and embedded RS232-IP bridges are pretty routine these days.

 

Hahah I must get back to that, I have a handful of fibre transceivers and half bridges kicking around in a box somewhere. In my playing I didn't get anything reliable but enough to tell me I think it is quite feasible. I need to build a little op amp circuit that is able to drive the laser diode properly.

 

I was thinking more in terms of a "push" message. As I am essentially breaking an old network into two pieces. I am on a fibre optic upgrade path. Mostly 10GbE backbone and a lot of 1GbE.

I am hoping that Clipsal puts an end to this by allowing the firmware inside their newest wiser to bridge across LAN. But I think the "smoothness" of CBUS is the main complaint here. You would never get the timing right across the optical bridge. Making the response time "mushy" and double keystrokes possible. I recall many years ago in the infancy of TCP/IP drive sharing over WAN you could use an LMHOST file to log the destinations of the remote hardware. I am thinking that for encapsulation to work across a LAN it would need a main list to work from on the originating side. The R.Pi would be good in that role. Because the R.Pi is good with being agile and pointing the traffic to a port. It really sounds like a database function feeding the main server.

The alarm panel is winning at the moment. All I need to isolate a network is a burden and a clock. Then it can be manipulated by any analog inputs via NO or NC relays. As I said many years ago, any alarm panel is CBUS capable so long as you use the analog input module.

 

Wiser plug in for Homebridge

Hi,

After having it on my mental "to do list" for quite a while, I finally got around to making a Wiser plug-in for homebridge.

It works with the original Wiser. I don't know whether it works with the Wiser 2. If someone has one they can test it with, that would be great.

It should be pretty straightforward to get it up and running. Let me know if you have any issues.

Paul

 

Hello Paul
Could you describe the operation after this is set up and any benefits compared to existing Homebridge-CBus?
Thanks

 

Once you have installed homebridge and the homebridge-wiser plugin, any group addresses you have defined in your Wiser project will appear in HomeKit as switches or dimmers. You can then control them with the Apple Home app, with Siri or with any HomeKit compatible app from the app store.

The main advantage over the current homebridge-cbus plug in is that you don't need C-Gate running anywhere; homebridge-wiser connects to the Wiser in the same way that the iOS or Android app does and you can continue to use the WiserHD app in parallel.

 

Hi Paul
That sounds amazing.
Nice work.

I've got CGate and Homebridge-CBus running on PI3 at the moment.
Since I don't have a Wiser I can't try your setup.

I set up a PI3 in another home recently.
It took some time for sure.
Next one will be easier.

I think the best thing is Siri voice control rather than the Homekit interface.
Since you already have Wiser what do you think.

 

I have been using the Wiser HD app up until now and it is OK.

What I really wanted was the Siri integration.

Also, since I have an Apple TV 4, it can act as a home hub, which means I get Siri and Home app control via the cloud without needing to open my Wiser up to the Internet directly.

I have just installed homebridge on a Pi3 today. It was pretty straight-forward following the guides on the homebridge page.

 

Looks like SONOS is supported now too. We live in interesting times.

https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge-sonos

 

Presumably this is good news and might present new opportunities.

https://www.macobserver.com/news/apple-shakes-smarthome-market-opening-homekit/