I’d love to attach a timer and expose it together with a switch to HomeKit. Having the timer visible in HomeKit whenever I turn on the sprinkler would be really helpful.
There is no timer category (type) in HomeKit.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/homekit/hmaccessorycategory/accessory_category_types
“Official” HomeKit sprinklers have a runtime component that they can use. To me, the first thing that comes to mind which is currently available in HA is a timer (but maybe it should be something else? Don’t know but) that’s why I’m asking
I thought maybe you could start a timer (on your phone) using a HomeKit automation based on an HA sensor you have, but it doesn’t seem possible.
I think your best bet is to make a sensor that gets updated e.g. every 30 sec while your timer is active with the remaining time and expose that to HomeKit.
The input and output are possibly two different things. The output looks like it is a switch for which the state text gets updated, but I’m hugely speculating now. One will need to check the HomeKit dev docs to see what’s possible.
Ah realize now indeed that the runtime aspect in HomeKit might not come from the device/HA but could very well be something that is handled by the HomeKit network or something. Would really be interested to know if support for this could be added.
Were you ever able to expose the timer as part of the sprinkler switch in HomeKit? I am using Hydrawise and running into the same issue.
AFAIK there is currently no way to expose timers to homekit unfortunately