Now that’s just a good idea. Doing exactly that now. Many thanks!
1 Like
Where do you end up with this because I am in the market for a lock at the moment? I have very sophisticated flows in Node Red and would like to know if it is possible to use the HomeKit integration to feed me the device types and states
The August locks are good, and integrate well with HA. But you’re not going to be able to push it directly into HA through the HomeKit controller integration because August connects to HomeKit over bluetooth rather than wifi. The HA HomeKit controller integration will only connect to HomeKit devices over wifi.
@Tol did a little trickery by pushing input booleans into HomeKit and toggling them with HomeKit automations.
@_Mike When I add the HomeKit Controller integration I get “No unpaired devices could be found”. Might you know why that would be? I have plenty of HA devices - do I need to add HomeKit before HomeKit Controller?
First question: Is it a HomeKit compatible device? Assuming it is, you’ll probably need to pair it with HomeKit first in order to get it onto your WiFi. Then remove it from the Home app, and it should then show up in HA as an available device.
I know this thread is about the lock but what you say is exactly correct and I am able to make a HomeKit Controller from the Aqara Hub which is a separate use case I also have so thank you. I think I saw that in your advice or somewhere else but that does indeed do the trick.
I also installed a software on the mac called Discover and can see when the Aqara Hub disassosiates from the iPhone HomeKit. However when I do associate it with Home Assistant this happens:
tl;dr I’d like to get as much information as possible out of the devices but when I pair the Aqara Hub with Aqara Devices assocated to it with HomeKit for HA only a limited bit of information translates to sensors or binary_sensors and in one case one device only reports its battery level. But when I pair the sensors directly to my Zigbee/Z-Wave dongle (HUSBZB-1) I get different information. What more can I do to get Zigbee device information if using the native Hub for the device and pairing it to HomeKit isn’t a working solution?
Separate question but more on-topic: What information are you able to see about the August Lock and what actions can you perform? How did you get to the August Lock in the first place?
EDIT: It looks like I might be able to pull more information with Aqara using this integration:
With this advice for setup: Xiaomi Gateway (Aqara) - Domoticz
I don’t have any Aqara devices (at least not yet, but considering it one day). But my experience with various integrations is this - The native HA integrations tend to have more services and sensors than the corresponding HomeKit controller integration. However, HA often uses cloud polling and is subject to outages or changes in the API. While HomeKit is local and pretty solid. In some instances, I have added both so I get the best of both worlds. For example, the HA ecobee integration has much more granular control so I use that for my automations. But I also have my ecobees connected through HomeKit controller so that I can get instant local status changes from the sensors.
Thanks again Mike and I think you’re right. The Aqara devices pairing directly with the HUSBZB-1 gave me more stuff while the HomeKit through Aqara Hub gave me slimmed down stuff or just stuff I’m not interested in like for the Aqara Mini Switch (a button) it only gives me Battery‽ Lame.
Back to my question again if you don’t mind: what did you get to work with August Lock 4 and most important HOW‽
Here is a screenshot of the entities that loaded with the lock. I am using the HA integration. Like I said, you can’t use HomeKit controller because August connects to HomeKit via bluetooth.
One other note - The battery life on the wifi lock is abysmal. I was going through new batteries every 4 weeks. And those batteries are not cheap! But I complained to August. A bunch. And they ended up sending me an August Connect unit. I am now at about 6 weeks and still have 63%.
August is able to push updates as of the April release so state changes should be near instant (sometimes the connect takes a moment to wake up or talk to the lock – this is actually the slow part). This does still depend on the cloud.
1 Like
I have tried literally every possible combination on August gen 3 and gen 4 wifi locks on bluetooth, wifi, and z-wave. Not one of them is reliable enough for the long-term if your internet isn’t reliable. I have a comcast GB internet plan and a Verizon 5G fallback through my unifi networks, and using these locks through wifi ALWAYS has at least 5s of latency, and through homekit with bluetooth it’s more like 15s. gen4 doesn’t even have z-wave and gen 3 locks basically don’t support z-wave on their latest firmware unless you use the app to wake them up. Apple’s HomeKit bluetooth connections are completely invisible - there is no interface whatsoever that tells you a BT device is connected to your homekit (if anybody knows differently please tell me). I’m going to go back and try the HA integration one more time, as the mirrored BT switch like @Tol suggested is just not reliable enough, but ultimately the only solution I will call good is a local push integration. Is there any thought on progress toward that?
1 Like
Given the new HomeKit Bluetooth support, has anyone tried this lock again?
The August locks need additional auth data so they won’t work. They are the only HK BLE devices I’ve found that need this.
If you want to beta test the new yale/august lock BLE integration, send me a PM and I’ll send the details
2 Likes
That’s a shame. Is there any way a workaround can be developed for the additional required authentication?
The instructions that @bdraco sent me got it working with my gen 4 lock! Do note you’ll need a rooted Android phone or some means of pulling a key from an iPhone backup.
2 Likes
I just saw this in the release notes for 2022.9
- August locks are now supported under the Yale Access Bluetooth integration. Thanks @bdraco
So does that mean there are no additional authentication steps that were required with 2022.8?
Please see the documentation for authentication options
1 Like
August Locks can connect via Homekit or Yale Access integration now as Homekit in HA now supports Bluetooth. With that said, my August Gen 2 does not report battery level to Home Assistant via the Yale Access integration, but the lock and unlock functions are now very reliable. Previously I used the August Connect, which was flakey and really not reliable at all and that is not good for a lock.
I haven’t actually tested how well the Homekit connection works, but via Yale Access it works well if you are within bluetooth range of your HA hardware.
Hopefully Bluetooth Proxy via ESP Home will have active bluetooth support soon as that will fix all the range issues completely.
If you have the August integration setup in HA, it shoudl pull the “offline key” from that automatically to allow the Yale Access bluetooth integration to work.
3 Likes
On that note, does anybody know the advantages/disadvantages of the Yale integration vs. HomeKit? Or any opinions? I can see HomeKit being preferred as being standardized and part of base Hoome Assistant, but I could also see the device/vendor-specific integration being preferred for more thorough/accurate/direct support.