Hi there
Per the title, wondering if there are any best practices when using this with Apple HomeKit ? Specifically do you setup separate bridges per device type, i.e. sensor bridge, light bridge, power socket bridge, etc etc or just use one ?
Any other things to be aware of ? For reference, using about 120 devices.
Thanks
Do you really need that many entities exposed to HomeKit? Personally I would only expose the entities you actually need, as there is a limit of 150 devices per bridge. Using multiple bridges would add unnecessary complexity.
The HomeKit Accessory Protocol Specification only allows a maximum of 150 unique accessories (
aid) per bridge. Be mindful of this when configuring the filter(s). If you plan on exceeding the 150 devices limit, it is possible to create multiple bridges.
Also don’t make any automations in HomeKit unless you absolutely need to. Having automations implemented in different locations will quickly make it a nightmare to figure out why something isn’t behaving as expected when adversarial automations start competing against each other.
Hey, let me be helpful rather than unnecessarily and most likely incorrectly prescriptive, unlike the previous poster. Per this unrelated thread from a third-party, the claim is that for each bridge, HomeKit can only sequentially send one request and await the response, before sending another request.
Therefore, I would use that assumption, rather than organization, as your forcing function: anything where you may wish to operate on 5+ entities simultaneously, it may be wise (although unintuitive) to give them each a bridge, e.g. “close all shades in the house” → if you have 15 shades, you will get better performance from having 15 separate bridges, which I’ve experimentally confirmed.
There is a question as to how well the number of bridges scales, in terms of HomeKit, HA, and network, but my best guess (I’m very good at engineering) is that 30 bridges should be fine. So, put your fast-twitch, likely to be bundled in a single call accessories in separate bridges, put everything else possible in one bridge. Thus, you’ll probably end up with something like 5 bridge groups and 25 individual bridges, and as mentioned that seems to scale well on my system.
Good luck!
And re the previous poster, there’s plenty of reason to port stuff into HomeKit. Some of us care about high quality engineering so we don’t use Home Assistant as the primary driver.
I don’t think so. But for miscellaneous types, I use separate bridges: one bridge for covers, one for sensors, one for lights and plugs, one for vacuums, and so on. For me, it’s much easier to manage and gives me a better overview.