One more thing…

Blog
41

Really loving this so far!

A feature I’d really like to see is reporting on the network connection/status, like in the Android app. For my phone, I can see info about the Wifi connection, bssid, signal strength, IP address (public and local), etc.

It would be nice to see whether or not I was on a wired connection, and what my local IP is for both wifi/wired connections.

There are two offices in my house and both have a Caldigit dock, and so what I am trying to accomplish is knowing if either my wife’s or my own Macbook is docked and in which location.

I am currently using the ping sensor since both docks have a static IP, but I figure a direct sensor from this app would be much more immediate than waiting for the scan interval on the ping sensor. It would also allow me to know which computer is connected vs just knowing that one of them is.

Anyway, just throwing it out there, I know this is a brand new application! Thank you for the gift!

42

Got my motion lighting override going now. OMG this is so nice. I almost stuck a motion sensor under my desk and then boom here comes this app. I’m finding the computer activity sensor to be working really well. The new build didn’t fix the fuzziness on my end, so i’ll post up on github about it.

All in all, great work so far

43

I’m having trouble getting the syntax right for setting up automations based on the attributes on the active sensor. My trigger looks like this:

platform: state
entity_id: binary_sensor.c02yt81zlvcg_active
attribute: Locked
to: 'true'

But the automation never seems to fire when I lock my computer. Any suggestions?

44

I think I may have solved my problem. For booleans, looks like just taking out the to: part altogether is the trick.

45

I’m trying to set up the app and I get this error:

An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made.

then it stucks on the “Connecting to Home” screen, with V cheks near all points apart from the last one (“Sensors Configured”).

Edit: Somehow it works. Seems great!

46

The app sensors are extremely unreliable for me. I’m routinely seeing the computer as “ACTIVE” when it’s completely shut down for example. What can I do?

47

Am I just blind or why can’t I find home-assistant-mac.zip anywhere?

48

You can find the home-assistant-mac.zip download at the bottom of this page.

2 Likes
49

Hey,
MacBook Pro Active sensor has been working great for a few days,
but for the last two days, it keeps showing “on” all the time. what could cause it?

50

I’ve installed the app, it finds my home assistant instance, but when I click the connect button nothing happens. Suggestions?

51

It appears to be an issue with the Big Sur beta. Try the temporary workaround Zac posted on GitHub, others have reported success with that.

52

Thanks @SeanM. I didn’t think about checking GitHub. Worked perfectly. Excited to try things out now.

53

Maybe updating the link at https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2020/09/18/mac-companion/#getting-the-beta “Getting the beta” to https://github.com/home-assistant/iOS/releases/download/release%2F2020.7%2F5/home-assistant-mac.zip would be helpful for those of us who really only know enough about GitHub to be dangerous :grimacing:
Thanks @SeanM

2 Likes
54

perfect - thanks!

55

Does anyone know how to control a mac from home assistant? eg skip song, volume, etc.

56

Oh yes - For Windows PC’s a daemon sending a microphone and web-camera MQTT state. Setup which devices to “track” and which MQTT-broker to send the MQTT package - that would be so nice - then both On-air sign turns on and autoturn-off office music when starting a Call (in Teams or Zoom or what ever).

57

Take a look at HASS Workstation Service, which publishes the Webcam status (along with others) over MQTT

1 Like
58

Any plans to add visual widget support?

I have a few widgets/cards in Lovelace I’d love to display as macOS widgets.

59

I posted this elsewhere, but what I see is that the app prevents my Mac from sleeping. Running HA in a browser doesn’t prevent sleep. The output from pmset -g assertions is:

PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: “xpcservice<com.apple.WebKit.Networking([application<io.robbie.HomeAssistant(502)>:35508])(502)>:35511281-35508-11234:NetworkProcess Foreground Assertion”
Created for PID: 35511.
pid 281(runningboardd): [0x00008abe00019e0c] 02:27:33 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: “xpcservice<com.apple.WebKit.WebContent([application<io.robbie.HomeAssistant(502)>:35508])(502)>:35510281-35508-11231:WebProcess Foreground Assertion”

60

This is really powerful! I’ve been looking for a way to reliably start my Work from Home automation.

alias: Working From Home
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id: sensor.my_macbook_pro_frontmost_app
    to: Citrix Viewer