I’m new to HomeAssistant so bear with me. I’m using it mostly to just simplify what shows up in HomeKit. Is there a way to “forward” the scene controller switch (not sure of the exact term) to HomeKit’s native app when trying to use Smart Bulb mode?
I’m talking about the device that is called “Theater Switch” in this guide once ungrouped from the source switch, that acts as a controller for HomeKit scenes without affecting the light circuit. I am aware this guide is intended for natively pairing with HomeKit, I’m just hoping there is a way to forward this “device” to HomeKit via HomeAssistant.
The HomeKit Bridge integration has an option to export trigger items. I think that is supposed to allow what you are looking for, but I’ve not had much luck with it myself (though I haven’t tried very hard - I just defaulted to using HomeAssistant due to better Automation support.).
Until iOS fixes its issues with multi-endpoint devices, a better solution, IMO, is to handle all button taps / automations in HomeAssistant. The HomeAssistant automation feature is much more powerful anyway (but takes some time to learn).
An issue arises if you have a mix of non-Matter HomeKit and Matter devices. Obviously, if you are doing all button press processing on HomeAssistant, then any HomeKit devices paired directly to iOS Home can’t be included in the HomeAssistant Automation. The solution is to unpair those non-Matter devices from HomeKit and add them directly to HomeAssistant using the "HomeKit Device integration (HomeKit Device - Home Assistant). You can then include them in automations. You can also re-export them from HomeAssistant to iOS using the HomeKit Bridge integration (HomeKit Bridge - Home Assistant) . Setting this all up is easier than it may sound.
Note that to use the HomeKit Device integration you also have to install the Bluetooth integration of it is a Homekit-over-thread device and be within bluetooth range of HomeAssistant when initially pairing the device (my guess - rough estimate of being within 25 or so feet of HomeAssistant).
That is unfortunate. I’ve tried to set up an automation of Phillips Hue + Home Assistant + the switch and I find it very unreliable, and also I’m not sure why but it never registers “switch down button” or “switch up button” in home assistant, instead it seems to require me to set it based on when the switch is changed from on to off or vice versa which means if I ever control the lights from anywhere else in the current attempt the switch gets confused.
I feel this is off topic slightly so I won’t drag it on long, PM me if you can.
Do you know if Home Assistant can use other devices to repeat bluetooth signal? I feel like this is one of my main reason that’s keeping me from switching away from apple home as my primary since my home assistant instance runs down in the basement in a server cabinet. (as well as all the time wasted reconfiguring everything automation wise, and losing adaptive lighting), also I’m pretty sure apple has figured out a way to repeat bluetooth over the network such with access points that have bluetooth built in. (I believe this as I have a shop behind my house at about 120 ft away and have a unifi ap in there and somehow HomeKit is able to control the Aqara u100 lock and I do not have a Aqara matter hub)
Have you used HomeKit yourself before home assistant? I’m curious of your setup and any pains you’ve expericend doing this.
I was pure HomeKit before this, and I’m still primarily HomeKit, I just set up the switches and added Phillips Hue to the service while leaving it directly paired to HomeKit as well. Due to this, I’ve kept Adaptive light control.
I am frustrated that I’ve even had to add HomeAssistant into the mix, but I get this is like 50% on Apple. It was an absolute pain to get the switches to pair to Home Assistant, and both devices are within 10 feet of the HomeAssistant controller. Each switch (I have 2) at least took 30 minutes, half a dozen factory resets, and at least 3 breaker resets. (vs my initial attempt with HomeKit that had to spin for what felt like 5 minutes but added with no further issues.) That’s not even counting the amount of time it took for me to realize that the first one couldn’t even pair with matter via HomeAssistant because IPv6 was disabled on my router, requiring a reboot of HomeAssistant after turning it on.
It’s possible that this is being caused primarily by me using a Raspberry Pi 3, but that’s all I had lying around and I don’t feel like swapping it out right now.
The switch that I have in “real” light switch mode works perfectly now as far as I can see, it’s almost unbelievable how fast it responds to commands. (I keep fiddling with it in HomeKit and annoying my housemate.) I have it set up with a “template” that makes it present to HomeKit as purely an on/off switch with no LED bar, dimmer control, etc. If you do something similar, make sure to enable “instant on” mode, which can be triggered by holding up and pressing the config button 7 times. I’d also like to forward the config button to HomeKit as a scene controller but that appears to not be in the cards for now.
The one I’m attempting to use in smart bulb mode + phillips hue is currently giving me nothing but trouble, but I am 100% willing to accept the possibility that’s on me. I’m not completely sure if that would break adaptive lights, I can’t get it to work reliably enough to find out. If I could just use it as a HomeKit scene controller as I desire there wouldn’t be any issues there though.
I apologize, I was replying to jvm33, but it’s also good to hear your side of it. There are only a few reasons I still prefer HomeKit over HA but I think if I can figure out a few of my worries I’ll probably leave HomeKit as primary. I don’t run any Philips hue so I don’t have any input on that.
