Community Hass.io Add-on: Homebridge

frenck · November 26, 2017, 10:02pm

This add-on is provided by the Community Hass.io Add-ons project.

About

Homebridge is a server that emulates the iOS HomeKit API, allowing you to control your Home Assistant via Apple devices (including Siri).

Since Siri supports devices added through HomeKit, this means that with Homebridge you can ask Siri to control devices that don’t have any support for HomeKit at all. For instance, you could say:

Siri, unlock the back door.
Siri, open the garage door.
Siri, turn on the coffee maker.
Siri, turn on the living room lights.
Siri, good morning!

Deprecation warning

At this point, it is unsure how long this add-on keeps being available or updated.

This add-on was originally developed to add HomeKit support to Home Assistant. Meanwhile, Home Assistant gained native support for HomeKit.

https://www.home-assistant.io/components/homekit/

Because of this, it is very likely that the plugins this add-on rely on, will no longer be developed or maintained.

We STRONGLY suggest to migrate to the Home Assistant HomeKit component.

Installation

The installation of this add-on is pretty straightforward and not different in comparison to installing any other Hass.io add-on.

Add our Hass.io add-ons repository to your Hass.io instance.
Add the following URL: https://github.com/hassio-addons/repository
Install the “Homebridge” add-on.
Start the “Homebridge” add-on.
Check the logs of the “Homebridge” add-on to see if everything went well
moreover, to find the pin code needed to add your Home Assistant instance to
your iOS device

Please read the documentation for more information about the use and configuration of this add-on.

Support

You can always get support here at the Home Assistant community forums, join the conversation!

You have several options to get them answered:

The Community Hass.io Add-ons Discord chat server for add-on support and feature requests.
The Home Assistant Discord chat server for general Home Assistant discussions and questions.
Join the Reddit subreddit in /r/homeassistant

You could also open an issue on GitHub, in case you ran into a bug, or maybe you have an idea on improving the addon:

Open an issue for the addon: Homebridge
For general repository issues or add-on ideas open an issue here

We will do our best to help you out!

Repository on GitHub

Looking for more add-ons?

The primary goal of our add-ons project is to provide you (as an Hassio / Home Assistant user) with additional, high quality, add-ons that allow you to take your automated home to the next level.

Check out some of our other add-ons in our Community Hass.io Add-ons project.

frenck · November 26, 2017, 10:06pm

About the author of this add-on

Hi there!

I am Franck Nijhof, and I have 30 years of programming experience, in many languages. I am using this experience to work on the Home Assistant project by giving back my knowledge and time to the open source community.

The add-on you are currently looking at right now was developed/packaged by me. It is not the only add-on I have created; there are many many more

However, I have a problem… I am an addict. A addict that is. Lucky for you, I turn that C8H10N4O2 (caffeine molecule) into code (and add-ons)!

If you want to show your appreciation, consider supporting me for buying a cup of high octane wakey juice via one of the platforms below!

Enjoy your add-on, while I enjoy the brain juice.

Thanks for all the

…/Frenck

P.S.: In case you want to ask me a question: AMA (Ask Me Anything). Most of the time I am online at the Discord chat. (I go by @Frenck in there as well).

Schneider · August 19, 2017, 6:40pm

Sorry, posted on the wrong pool:

Hello guys!

Just a heads up: new version arrived: https://github.com/home-assistant/homebridge-homeassistant/releases/tag/2.3.0?platform=hootsuite

Thanks!

frenck · August 19, 2017, 6:50pm

Thanks for the update Schneider!
I’m currently in the process of creating a new add-on release as well (which fixes a Homebridge plugins issue).

Will report in as soon as it is released.

hblaschka · August 20, 2017, 7:02am

Good to know, suffered by this (most probably)…

frenck · August 20, 2017, 1:58pm

Add-on: Homebridge v1.0.2

Full Changelog

Changed

Updated homebridge-homeassistant to version v2.3.0
Changed repository file structure
Changed/simplified build scripts
Updated the documentation to match recent changes

Fixes

There was an error when installed the plugin #6

This update is now available via your Hassio panel.

hblaschka · August 20, 2017, 6:15pm

Just updated and got this (no other plugins installed yet and plain vanilla config.json)

    starting version 3.2.2
    [ADD-ON] Ensuring old PID files are absent
    [ADD-ON] Ensuring D-Bus unique ID exists
    [ADD-ON] Starting D-Bus daemon
    [ADD-ON] Starting Avahi daemon
    Found user 'avahi' (UID 86) and group 'avahi' (GID 86).
    Successfully dropped root privileges.
    avahi-daemon 0.6.32 starting up.
    WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-mdns!
    Successfully called chroot().
    Successfully dropped remaining capabilities.
    Loading service file /services/sftp-ssh.service.
    Loading service file /services/ssh.service.
    *** WARNING: Detected another IPv4 mDNS stack running on this host. This makes mDNS unreliable and is thus not recommended. ***
    Joining mDNS multicast group on interface docker0.IPv4 with address 172.17.0.1.
    New relevant interface docker0.IPv4 for mDNS.
    Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.178.91.
    New relevant interface eth0.IPv4 for mDNS.
    Network interface enumeration completed.
    Registering new address record for fe80::24c5:e8ff:feab:30f6 on vethda155f2.*.
    Registering new address record for fe80::5835:7dff:fe50:6cf5 on veth9228230.*.
    Registering new address record for fe80::7033:93ff:fee3:1c5d on vethac8a5a2.*.
    Registering new address record for fe80::42:b7ff:fe71:db93 on docker0.*.
    Registering new address record for 172.17.0.1 on docker0.IPv4.
    Registering new address record for fe80::1d9a:ebd5:97bf:40a7 on eth0.*.
    Registering new address record for 192.168.178.91 on eth0.IPv4.
    Server startup complete. Host name is hassio.local. Local service cookie is 2943143647.
    [ADD-ON] Applying HAP NodeJS IPV6 HOTFIX
    patching file /usr/lib/node_modules/homebridge/node_modules/hap-nodejs/lib/util/eventedhttp.js
    [ADD-ON] Starting Homebridge
    /run.sh: line 339:    25 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) homebridge -U /config/homebridge

frenck · August 20, 2017, 6:20pm

@hblaschka Sorry to hear you have some problems with using the add-on.
I’m not sure what could go wrong here. Segmentation faults are pretty hard to debug.

What platform do you use? Rapberry Pi? Generic Linux install?

hblaschka · August 20, 2017, 7:08pm

Latest Pi, which will not reboot now (was just trying to do that several times).

Had another Segmentation fault with your Web-Shell the night before - might therefore also be a non-SW-related thing.

Will hopefully find the time during next week to do some more analysis.

It is a playing machine trying to use HASS to interface with my commercial HA-Gateway in order to implement some missing functions (Presence, Sonos-Audio-Messages, Homekit) - so no hard feelings

frenck · August 20, 2017, 7:12pm

It definitely could be a hardware thing. I’m testing the add-ons on a Pi 3 before releasing (since I figured out it will probably the most used device).

You could try building an add-on locally, by adding the add-on repository as a repository in your Hassio. One warning tho, building the Homebridge add-on cloud take up to 30 min.

SFAB · August 20, 2017, 8:57pm

I’ve just encountered an issue with the homebridge addon. Suddenly none of my devices showed up in Homekit anymore.

While checking the logs of the homebridge addon I found a line regarding the default device visibility. I’ve fixed the issue by adding

"default_visibility": "visible"

to the platform section in config.json:

"platforms": [
{
  "platform": "HomeAssistant",
  "name": "HomeAssistant",
  "host": "http://172.17.0.1:8123",
  "password": "",
  "default_visibility": "visible",
  "supported_types": [
    "binary_sensor",
    "climate",
    "cover",
    "device_tracker",
    "fan",
    "group",
    "input_boolean",
    "light",
    "lock",
    "media_player",
    "scene",
    "sensor",
    "switch"
  ],

Now the addon works fine again.

Has this visibility option just been introduced or why didn’t I encounter that problem before?

frenck · August 20, 2017, 9:03pm

Seems that this has changed in the latest release of the homebridge-homeassistant plugin (which is included in this release).

You need to specify the default_visibility apparently.
I may need to modify the default template of the plugin in that case.

Maybe @Schneider or @schmittx can give a definitive answer on this?

schmittx · August 20, 2017, 9:26pm

@SFAB @frenck You’re correct. You’ll need to specify default_visibility in the config with the latest release of homebridge-homeassistant.

If not specified, default_visibility will be set to hidden currently. However, I’ve submitted a PR which will set to visible if not specified (to mirror the old behavior).

My apologies for not making this new change more clear.

Schneider · August 21, 2017, 3:58am

Hello @frenck!

I’m glad you mentioned me! I’m really sorry but I am still learning the basics on Home Assistant language and syntaxes. I’m not a programmer or very advanced user!

I would love to help you guys with but I lack the knowledge, sorry

Thank you all for your efforts!

SFAB · August 21, 2017, 4:41am

Since the log file included that advice directly it wasn’t that big of a problem to figure out the solution.

However, I think making visible the default would be a good decision.

frenck · August 21, 2017, 6:49pm

Add-on: Homebridge v1.0.3

Full Changelog

Fixed

Adds ‘default_visbility’ flag to the default configuration of Homebridge #2

This update is now available in your Hass.io panel.

Note:

This release does not fix the configuration for existing users. If you upgrade and loose all your devices in HomeKit, then please add the default_visibility flag to your configuration. For more details read this post by @SFAB

hblaschka · August 23, 2017, 8:34pm

Seems to have been an issue with the SD-card (probably too much R/W). Up and running again

schmittx · August 24, 2017, 2:20am

FYI, Homebridge-HomeAssistant has been updated to 2.3.1 which includes the patch for default_visibility not specified in config.

kolossboss · September 18, 2017, 3:31pm

Hi, thx for the work.

I migrate my AIO installation to Hass.IO. Everything works fine.
Today I installed and setup Homebridge with the Community Repo.

Now I have a problem.
If I turn on a switch in the Homeassistant UI the Status did not change in homekit.
If I turn on a switch in homekit the status changed in the HA just fine.

After restarting Homebridge, I get one single update of all states.

What can cause this issue. I have no problems with AIO installer and manuell Homebridge installation.
I made an

my config.yaml

    {
  "bridge": {
    "name": "Home Assistant",
    "username": "XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX",
    "port": 51826,
    "pin": "853-81-325"
  },
  "description": "Homebridge for Home Assistant",
  "accessories": [],
  "platforms": [
    {
      "platform": "HomeAssistant",
      "name": "HomeAssistant",
      "host": "https://192.168.2.25:8123",
      "password": "XXXXX",
      "verify_ssl": false,
      "default_visibility": "visible",
      "supported_types": [
        "binary_sensor",
        "climate",
        "cover",
        "fan",
        "input_boolean",
        "light",
        "lock",
        "media_player",
        "scene",
        "sensor",
        "switch"
      ],
      "logging": true
    }
  ]

Schneider · September 18, 2017, 6:02pm

Hello @kolossboss!

I am also facing this behavior. Is it like this? https://photos.app.goo.gl/6EOHfY1Em0WDc9Yd2

It only works when I set my host to the public DNS domain…

Thanks.