Custom HomeKit device

1

Hi HA community,

I‘m a very happy Home Assistant user looking to solve a bit of an advanced issue:

  • I want to create and integrate a custom device (water barrel with two valves, one for fill, one for empty) in HomeKit and Home Assistant
  • the custom device can be created in Homebridge easily (two linked valve services in one device) but is not a directly supported component in Home Assistant
  • I‘m looking for a clean and nice solution (not a hack with two separate valves but the goal is one device in HomeKit)

Potential directions in my mind: use Homebridge in addition to Home Assistant and integrate the custom Homebridge device somehow also in Home Assistant (ii) extend the existing HomeKit HA component to support my custom device somehow.

I‘m running Home Assistant Core on a Nuc in a Docker, the HomeKit controller runs on a Apple TV.

Any advice on how I could move forward? Any help or pointers are highly appreciated :grinning:

2

Spent some more time thinking about it and I think I found a solution for my specific case: I will create the device in Homebridge. That’s the interface exposed via HomeKit. If a action in the HB device is triggered, it will actually make an HA API call (to link my HB barrel device to two HA valves).

3

Due to no valve support in HA homekit, HA doesn’t show valve type but if you want to have a switch ( simple on off) then just make a toggle (with helpers in HA), and have an automation trigger the fill and empty services. Then expose that toggle to homekit and you’ll have a switch that depending on the state it’s in, it triggers an action.

1 Like