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iOS 11 HomeKit Software Authentication Support

addilapi

By addilapi
in Product Requests

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jasont New

jasont

Posted
Posted

Homebrige runs on RPi with a CPU that is 100x faster than ISY. Also, it's in development mode and not official production (as far as I know). Once you take HomeBridge to production, there are no guarantees that you don't need a chip.

 

 

Homebridge is just an open-source NodeJS GitHub project that hobbyists can download and run on their own equipment (with the Pi probably being the most popular, but folks are running it on all sorts of Linux/Windows boxes).  In that sense, it'll always be in development and will never be taken to production.  Doesn't seem much different in concept than how the Polyglot Node Servers on here work, but I'm a rookie when it comes to those.

 

Someone took the time to write an ISY plug-in for Homebridge that works (IMO) remarkably well for the Insteon and ELK devices that my ISY manages.  It only sees one of my z-wave devices, though.  Lucky me, it's my most commonly used one (fan control).   :)

 

The author of the ISY plug-in isn't supporting it (or expanding the functionality) any more.  The plug-in code is there for anyone to pick up where it was left off, but I'm not a programmer.

 

I haven't read much about Polyglot, but wonder if there would be any way to integrate HomeKit functionality with the ISY that way...

daveman918 Newbie

daveman918

Posted
Posted

Ok - So Home-assistant.io is a no-go. Introduces way too much latency on any device status change. Strait up Homebridge on a new RPi 3 performs exceptionally well. In fact status updates are as fast as native. Pretty cool. When you add the Homebridge as an accessory/bridge you get a warning that it's not certified. Otherwise it lets you proceed just fine. I'll be running this way for awhile with an Apple TV 4k as the home hub using Simple Home 5.0 as the user interface and I'll report back on stability. What may be the shortest path is continuing to enhance this open source code base and be OK with it as a "non-certified" HomeKit device. I like the polyglot approach and could give a crap less that I have to acknowledge non certification. :-)

Scottmichaelj Advanced

Scottmichaelj

Posted
Posted

Ok - So Home-assistant.io is a no-go. Introduces way too much latency on any device status change. Strait up Homebridge on a new RPi 3 performs exceptionally well. In fact status updates are as fast as native. Pretty cool. When you add the Homebridge as an accessory/bridge you get a warning that it's not certified. Otherwise it lets you proceed just fine. I'll be running this way for awhile with an Apple TV 4k as the home hub using Simple Home 5.0 as the user interface and I'll report back on stability. What may be the shortest path is continuing to enhance this open source code base and be OK with it as a "non-certified" HomeKit device. I like the polyglot approach and could give a crap less that I have to acknowledge non certification. :-)

Thanks for the info. Please keep us updated. If you end up liking it, I would love to know how you did it or places to go for the info. I purchased a Apple Watch and at first thought it would be more a trinket but it has become more liberating for me since now I am not attached to my phone. Using Siri on it to turn on my lights, scenes, etc would be awesome. IFTTT works well with it but Siri would be better.

jasont New

jasont

Posted
Posted

What may be the shortest path is continuing to enhance this open source code base and be OK with it as a "non-certified" HomeKit device.

 

I like the polyglot approach and could give a crap less that I have to acknowledge non certification. :-)

 

I agree on both thoughts.  No problem here if a future Polyglot solution triggers the "this device isn't certified" HomeKit warning when pairing.  But to Michel's point, this would never be an Apple certified solution.  UDI couldn't advertise HomeKit compatibility, ... it'd just be something that owners figure out, like with most of the Polyglot integrations.

 

Thanks for the info. Please keep us updated. If you end up liking it, I would love to know how you did it or places to go for the info. I purchased a Apple Watch and at first thought it would be more a trinket but it has become more liberating for me since now I am not attached to my phone. Using Siri on it to turn on my lights, scenes, etc would be awesome. IFTTT works well with it but Siri would be better.

 

 

Scott, I've been using Homebridge on a Raspberry Pi (with the ISY plugin) for about a year now to control things via Siri (and the native iOS HomeKit UI).  I use my Apple Watch a lot.  It's been what I would consider reliable...  I've had to reboot the Pi maybe three or four times over the past year when Siri/HomeKit says it can't communicate with the devices. 

 

Homebridge info:

https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge

 

ISY plugin info:

https://github.com/rodtoll/homebridge-isy-js

 

Note the ISY plugin is no longer maintained, and it doesn't support all ISY devices.  It does do all of my Insteon and ELK devices, but only one of my z-wave devices (a GE fan controller wall switch), so I'm pretty happy.  I also had a separate plugin to control my LiftMaster garage door opener.  That's the one I used from the watch probably the most.  LiftMaster recently came out with an official HomeKit bridge, so I'm using that now.  Honestly, the Homebridge + plugin was quicker to respond.  Grrr

daveman918 Newbie

daveman918

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the info. Please keep us updated. If you end up liking it, I would love to know how you did it or places to go for the info. I purchased a Apple Watch and at first thought it would be more a trinket but it has become more liberating for me since now I am not attached to my phone. Using Siri on it to turn on my lights, scenes, etc would be awesome. IFTTT works well with it but Siri would be better.

 

 

Jason T is right on with the links, etc. above. I've also found that the most reliable method to run Homebridge is on a dedicated Raspberry Pi. I also have zWave locks working. There are a few good ready to go raspberry kits available up on amazon. I used this one:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Essentials-Kit-board-Connectivity/dp/B01LWVVMUI/

 

Then if you want to be totally lazy, look at this video (script that runs and installs all the Homebridge basics):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S66mtwNkQo

 

Then you add the ISY moodule:

 

https://github.com/r...mebridge-isy-js

 

The most work is in building your config file.

 

There are good tutorials to get Homebridge to start on boot and such. 

 

Dave

Scottmichaelj Advanced

Scottmichaelj

Posted
Posted

Thannks to you both for the info, much appreciated. I was looking at IFTTT with Siri integration. The downside is you have to do a applet for each light, scene, program, etc. while Homebridge will do it all. I have a QNAP NAS and thought it would be nice to put all this in a “Docker” image and run it directly on the NAS. Although a rPi is cheap enough and not much power required either.

dbc55438 Newbie

dbc55438

Posted
Posted

https://9to5mac.com/2017/06/07/homekit-ios-11-sprinklers-faucets-qr-code-nfc-authentication/

 

I would love if someone at UDI could look into the feasibility of developing this code and comment for us. I would be willing to chip in to Kickstarter or some such to enable this functionality. I would also consider paying for an additional ISY module that would integrate with HomeKit since there are now about a dozen iOS devices in various locations in my house with reasonably good voice control capabilities... and I'm sure I'm not alone in being heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem and wanting to leverage that with my ISY / Insteon footprint.

I’d definitely be willing to pay for the module

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

stusviews Advanced

stusviews

Posted
Posted

A few posters have indicated that they'd be willing to pay for support, but no one has specified how much?

daveman918 Newbie

daveman918

Posted
Posted

An update:

 

Stood up another Raspberry Pi 3 last night to use at our weekend place and the 2 ISYs that are there. It's so simple to get this up and running and with good design of your config.json file, you end up with well functioning homekit integration. The first setup has been up and running in our main home since my post on the 22nd. The 10 easy steps are:

  1. Buy a Raspberry Pi 3
  2. Hook it up to KB and monitor
  3. Boot up the Pi in Noobs
  4. Install Raspbian Lite for command line (or desktop if you want that)
  5. do an apt-get update and upgrade
  6. Run the script in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S66mtwNkQo
  7. Install the Homebridge NPM package: https://github.com/rodtoll/homebridge-isy-js
  8. Follow the instructions to configure the ISY module at link in step 7
  9. Configure Homebridge to start on boot. I like this method: https://timleland.com/setup-homebridge-to-start-on-bootup/ 
  10. Be sure to enable SSH in raspi-config if you want to get into the Pi later via SSH

The place where you'll run into trouble is in the config. It has to be structured properly. :-)

 

Edit: For those who want a bit easier way to edit configs and add packages you can use this HomeKit add-on:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-config-ui

 

Dave

  • 4 weeks later...
daveman918 Newbie

daveman918

Posted
Posted

Update to my Homebridge adventure...

 

This week I added the the Homebridge-isy-maker package to Homebridge and this thing is super cool. You can specify state values and create virtual HomeKit devices, sensors, etc. Now I can manifest my insteon leak sensors in HomeKit and I can also create fake switches, lamps, etc that I can then have spawn programs. For example I can tell Siri to start music by turning on that virtual switch which flips the state of the device and triggers a program that triggers a network resource. :-)

 

More info can be found here: https://github.com/suderman/homebridge-isy-maker

 

One Caveat: This is all being done on 4.6.2. I have yet to do a full test on 5.

 

Dave

  • 3 weeks later...
biffom Newbie

biffom

Posted
Posted

Thanks for posting all the info on this thread.  I finally tried the Raspberry Pi/ Homebridge solution.  Asides from the complication of a headless (no screen/keyboard) setup of the Pi - it was a breeze.  

 

The results are really very good.  Can now control everything using Siri/Home app on the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.  Been running for a couple of weeks and no issues to report at all.  

 

It's really added a lot of "value" to the system for very little outlay.  Strikes me that this solution is something that Universal Devices could package up for the less technically adept. 

asbril Advanced

asbril

Posted
Posted

Thanks for posting all the info on this thread.  I finally tried the Raspberry Pi/ Homebridge solution.  Asides from the complication of a headless (no screen/keyboard) setup of the Pi - it was a breeze.  

 

The results are really very good.  Can now control everything using Siri/Home app on the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.  Been running for a couple of weeks and no issues to report at all.  

 

It's really added a lot of "value" to the system for very little outlay.  Strikes me that this solution is something that Universal Devices could package up for the less technically adept. 

".............Strikes me that this solution is something that Universal Devices could package up for the less technically adept. ......................"  :-)    :-)  For me and a few others over here  !!

lilyoyo1 Advanced

lilyoyo1

Posted
Posted

Hi Michel,

 

You mentioned that you need an Apple certified chip in order to work as a HomeKit hub. I actually do not think this is correct.

 

ikea is updating it’s TRÅDFRI Hub with HomeKit support. The hub does not have any special Apple sanctioned chip. This is a software upgrade to HomeKit.

 

If this is possible for this cheap Ikea Hub I really can’t imagine why the same would not be possible for your hub?

 

Am I missing something?

 

Thanks!

 

Philipp

The Ikea hub does have a mifi chip. Ifixit found it during their tear down.

  • 2 weeks later...
jimbrammer Newbie

jimbrammer

Posted
Posted

That's dissapointing Michel. Last I heard you were investigating the possibilities, so I'm just curious as to why the sudden change of heart? Much like Homebridge, there was the Hue emulator prior to native Echo integration via the ISY portal and though it worked, it was a clumsy solution which required a fair amount of knowledge and configuration not to mention ongoing babysitting. Like many other ISY owners, I have a mixed environment comprised of several Echo's around the house as well as many iOS devices including the one I always have on my wrist. That said, in my opinion having native Siri integration via the ISY would greatly enhance the benefits of the ISY making it an even more dynamic HA device.

 

Just my two cents...

Chuck

 

My two cents in addition to Chuck's - I've had my ISY-994i for a number of years and appreciate the great HA solutions and support provided by Universal Devices. That said, like Chuck and many others in this forum, I too have a mixed HA environment that includes Echo and many iOS devices (iPads, iPhones and AppleWatch). Would really appreciate if you would please reconsider native support for HomeKit. Any chance this can happen?

ahwman Advanced

ahwman

Posted
Posted

With the info about IOS 11.3 Apple will enable software authentication... 

 

 

 

 

If I remember correctly, the issue was that software authentication ONLY applies to accessories whereas hubs still require a physical authentication chip. I hope this has changed to allow ALL devices to authenticate via software, however this is still unclear...

  • 2 weeks later...
stusviews Advanced

stusviews

Posted
Posted

asbril, thanks for the article and especially for the effort. I really appreciate it.

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