Sooooo… I have a weird situation. Up font, everything - as far as I can tell - is working just fine.
But, I have a Starling Hub hooked up to Home Assistant. Attached to Starling is my Sensi thermostat (I was unable to get it directly into HA or HomeKit). Through the Starling Integration, I have my thermostat brought into HA and HomeKit.
Now, every time I restart Home Assistant (due to a change or update), it adds ANOTHER version of my thermostat. I have SIX now lol! And each one ALSO gets added to HomeKit! It’s funny and ridiculous - but I really would like it to stop.
It’s not a huge deal, I suppose. Like I said, Everything works fine - yep, all six thermostats work just fine lol - when I turn on one, they all turn on. But I really do only need one… anyone have any ideas?
TLDR - Starling is a device that brings Google (and "works with Google) devices into HomeKit.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… I was a die hard PC/Android user. My smart home (which was VERY limited at the time) was Google based. This included a Google Nest doorbell.
For various, uninteresting reasons, I switched to Apple/Mac. But, since Apple stuff is RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, I had to make the switch slowly. So my Nest doorbell remained. But I did want to incorporate it into the Apple HomeKit setup. I found out about something called the Starling Hub - a device whose entire existence was to bring Google devices into Apple HomeKit.
It worked - it worked AMAZINGLY good. It was such a “set & forget” solution that I actually forgot I even had it (mind you it has been plugged in and working perfectly since the day I got it - it still is right now!) I finally remembered I had it when I was trying to get my Sensi thermostat into Apple or Home Assistant. Being that I am in an apartment without a C wire, it seemed hopeless. Neither HomeKit nor HA would see it. I still have Google hooked up, so I figured it was better than nothing, and attached my Sensi to Google…then, like magic, Starling did its job and sent the Sensi over to HomeKit!
To say I was happy would be an understatement! So I did some research and found that I could integrate Starling into HA - so I did… and it worked great! Except for the constant addition of Sensi clones lol!
Hey, I’ve had my Starling hub for a few months and it’s been flawless as well. Would you mind telling me how to integrate it into HA? I don’t seem to see it in homekit in HA…
Hey there, sorry for the delayed response!
So, there is a Starling integration in HACS. I installed that and set it up following the instructions. As I mentioned above, it wouldn’t work for me until I copied and pasted the info I got from the Starling Developer page.
Do you happen to have a nest doorbell? I’m using the HACS integration and have everything integrated into HA, but my battery has been draining RAPIDLY and I suspect it’s the integration.
I do, but it’s hardwired. I honestly have zero firsthand experience with the battery-version. I’ve read too many horror stories about them dying at the worst time, plus I prefer 24/7 recording lol.
It’s possible it’s continuously streaming video in the background somehow?
Highly likely, but idk where. I had a picture glance card for the doorbell, but I changed it to a button to open the stream to make sure it wasn’t constantly streaming. I still have Starling connected to Apple Home and HA simultaneously (not exposed to Apple Home with Homekit bridge) so I wonder if I’m using more battery because of that. Do you expose back to Apple Home at all?
I only have the battery doorbell because I got it included with an ADT package, but now I wish I never got it… I’ll probably just bite the bullet and get the hardwired version instead.
Yep, I have it exposed to Apple. In fact, the main reason why I got the Starling hub was to have the doorbell video feed appear on the ATV when someone was detected
That being said, I would opt for a hardwired Reolink doorbell instead. It’s much more HA friendly from what I’ve read.
I would have upgraded to it, but Google swapped out my doorbell for free because if that delamination issue.
