DIY Home Automation with Apple Homekit

[rage2]

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You've automated your shitter?

https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/403...Toilet-Warning

[schocker]

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Before you start because you only have a Google Home, you'd want to know where the status of each voice activated home automation setup is at today. Choose the right one that works for you and your existing devices before embarking on home automation, and stick with your platform.

Google Home

Still in it's infancy for home automation. Basically, you can buy anything that has Google Home support, and trigger it individually. Scenes, that just got launched with next to no support.

What that means is if you want to turn off all the lights in the living room, you would have to go, Google Home, turn off ceiling light. Google home, turn off lamp. Google home, turn off mantle light (and whatever other lights you have).

With scenes, you would say Google Home, activate living room lights off.

Unfortunately, very minimal support for scenes right now: https://www.androidauthority.com/goo...iances-817566/

I think this could be controlled via just asking it to turn off all the living room lights? I do that with my Hue stuff. Shortcuts also work too for longer names ie turn family room lamp into just lamp. My issue is that 'and' doesn't work yet even though it is supposed to so like you said, you have to do one after another unless you are doing ALL lights.

[rage2]

So posting this for others that are looking at getting the MyQ Smart Garage Hub and the MyQ Home Bridge, as well as reference for myself as I wasted an hour trying to remember how to set this shit up after making some WiFi changes tonight. These guys here:

https://www.chamberlain.com/smartpho...art-garage-hub

https://www.chamberlain.com/smartpho...yq-home-bridge

This is probably the most unintuitive setup of a product I've ever seen. The Homekit part isn't bad, but to get it all up and running prior to that step was a pain in the ass because the manual is outdated and doesn't correlate with the setup whatsoever.

The key is to setup the Smart Garage Hub first. This one isn't too bad, but it doesn't match the manual that I have.

1. Plug in Smart Garage Hub. The manual says install it in a visible area in garage, but you don't have to. The reason for this is when you trigger it to close the door, it beeps loudly and strobes a light for 5s to warn that door is closing prior to closing the door for safety. Kinda stupid. Feel free to put it in a sound deadened box or something so you don't get annoyed by the sounds after setup.

2. On your iPhone, connect to a 2.4Ghz only SSID, if possible. These devices do NOT support 5Ghz and has problems connecting if you're on a mixed 2.4/5Ghz SSID. YMMV.

3. Once you're verified on wifi and online, go to Bluetooth. You'll see MyQ there, connect to it.

4. iOS will ask to share your wifi settings with this guy. Go ahead. After 10-20 seconds, the LED goes green.

5. Open up MyQ app. Register for an account if you don't have one. Grant Homekit access for the app when asked.

6. Click + to add the device. Enter the serial # found on back on device. Name it whatever (this will be a temp name so use something else other than final name).

7. Follow instructions to add garage door(s), install the door sensor(s) and garage light(s) (if your opener supports it).

8. Verify you can open/close/turn on/turn off all your garage doors and lights through the app.

Next comes the fun (fucked up) part, setting up MyQ Home Bridge.

1. Plug in the Home Bridge. It just needs to be within WiFi range of the Smart Garage Hub for final installation, but you'd want it close by during setup.

2. On your iPhone, connect to a 2.4Ghz only SSID, if possible. These devices do NOT support 5Ghz and has problems connecting if you're on a mixed 2.4/5Ghz SSID. YMMV.

3. Once you're verified on wifi and online, go to Wifi screen (not Bluetooth) on the iPhone. You'll see MyQ there, click on it.

4. iOS will ask to share your wifi settings with this guy. Go ahead. After 10-20 seconds, the LED goes green.

5. Open MyQ app. Click + to add the device. Enter the serial # found on back on device. Name it whatever you want, this will be your final name.

6. It'll ask to add garage door. Click Cancel.

7. On the main screen you'll see your Smart Garage Hub temp name, and the new Home Bridge place name. Click on the Home Bridge place name. Click on Transfer Devices. Once the process is done, the temp place name for the Smart Garage Hub will be gone and your garage door(s) and light(s) will be under the Home Bridge place name.

8. Follow the instructions and be patient. What this process does is reset wifi on Smart Garage Hub, then connect it to the wifi of the Home Bridge so that the Home Bridge fully controls the Smart Garage Hub.

9. Verify you can open/close/turn on/turn off all your garage doors and lights through the app under whatever you named the Home Bridge place.

So that's the tough part. Finally, go to your Home app, add device, scan the HomeKit code on the back of the Home Bridge, and voila, the hub and garage door(s) and light(s) gets added to HomeKit and you never have to deal with the POS MyQ app ever again.

If at any point the install stalls or fucks up, you'll have to reset both devices and start again. The reset procedure is different on both devices (of course).

For the Smart Garage Hub, hold down the gear/config button until the blue LED starts flashing. Let go and press it again until blue light stays on, then blinks or beeps.

For the Home Bridge, hold down the gear/config button until the blue LED starts flashing. Let go and press it again until the blue lights turn off and all 3 lights blink on quickly. Let go of the button, then press the 2 button twice. This turns on all 3 LEDs. Finally, press and hold the 2 button till the lights turn off.

As a final "Fuck You" to usability, the manual and app has the 1 and 2 button in the wrong place in photos. It's hard to see the damn label physically being black on black, so make a note where the damn 2 button is.

Hope this guide helps someone who's deciding to go this path at some point.

[rage2]

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I think this could be controlled via just asking it to turn off all the living room lights? I do that with my Hue stuff. Shortcuts also work too for longer names ie turn family room lamp into just lamp. My issue is that 'and' doesn't work yet even though it is supposed to so like you said, you have to do one after another unless you are doing ALL lights.

Correct, that's because it's really controlling the scenes and rooms setup in Hue as explained in my "workaround" section. The problem is if you have multiple manufactures in your living room, ie Hue lights + Lutron switches. Google Home can't handle that today as a scene.

[schocker]

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Correct, that's because it's really controlling the scenes and rooms setup in Hue as explained in my "workaround" section. The problem is if you have multiple manufactures in your living room, ie Hue lights + Lutron switches. Google Home can't handle that today as a scene.

Whoops, I cant read. Yeah I just tried it now with a tp smart plug for christmas tree and hue lamp, both in the family room and it did not work. 'OK Google, lets get spooky' still works though Even if they got 'and' working, it would help a lot.

[lilmira]

The MyQ homebridge was terrible to setup lol. Pretty much ignored the instruction and tried my own thing. Once I had it working it's great.
Now I just need a new phone so that I don't have to do touch ID.

[rage2]

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Whoops, I cant read. Yeah I just tried it now with a tp smart plug for christmas tree and hue lamp, both in the family room and it did not work. 'OK Google, lets get spooky' still works though Even if they got 'and' working, it would help a lot.

Yea, "and" doesn't work in Siri either, but really with scenes rooms and groups/zones, there is zero need.

My biggest scene (goodnight) has 55 actions across 7 manufactures and every type of device, from smart plug (fireplace), to lights, to light switches, to garage door, blinds, and door locks. One word to trigger to shut the home down.

[schocker]

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Yea, "and" doesn't work in Siri either, but really with scenes rooms and groups/zones, there is zero need.

My biggest scene (goodnight) has 55 actions across 7 manufactures and every type of device, from smart plug (fireplace), to lights, to light switches, to garage door, blinds, and door locks. One word to trigger to shut the home down.

Whoa, I can see how one would need a hub to set up something as complex as that. I only have nest/hue/tplink stuff for now but want to try out some other stuff next year like locks, garage door and more lights for which a hub would probably be of benefit.

[rage2]

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Whoa, I can see how one would need a hub to set up something as complex as that. I only have nest/hue/tplink stuff for now but want to try out some other stuff next year like locks, garage door and more lights for which a hub would probably be of benefit.

Of those 7 manufactures, 3 are on hubs, the rest are individual devices. Not that it matters to HomeKit, they all act as individual devices. Once you add a hub in HomeKit, it exposes everything connected to the hub as individual devices and you don’t interact with the hub at all, nor does it care about manufacturer. It's just a device. You deal with each device separately and organize them under the HomeKit rooms and groups/zones layout, with scenes controlling things individually as well as organizational units.

Sample scene with devices behind hub (lights) as well as individual devices across multiple manufacturers:



Adding actions to scene by device:



Adding actions to scene by group:



For now, HomeKit is by far the most usable and versatile until everyone else catches up. Smart things is close, it’s scenes can only control lighting at this point AFAIK, but you can use routines to control things such as locks, but it doesn’t allow you to adjust color and brightness with routines. Don't expect google to get better anytime soon, they’re the king of fragmentation and will probably drop a whole new way of doing the exact same thing in 2 years and drop support for what they have now.

My prediction is that Amazon will catch up really quickly if you want to make a gamble.

[schocker]

Huh, well that does seem a lot better setup than google. I still believe in google. Nest thread has been opened sourced for a year and a half now and I hear about it all the time I am hoping that when google absorbs nest, something might come of that. They really wiffed that security system but ring can't even sell theirs currently. I do like my home better than my echo as I prefer google vs alexa but I can see amazon with their acquisitions getting bigger quickly. Just a matter of releasing things in canada faster than they do currently.

[rage2]

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Huh, well that does seem a lot better setup than google. I still believe in google. Nest thread has been opened sourced for a year and a half now and I hear about it all the time I am hoping that when google absorbs nest, something might come of that. They really wiffed that security system but ring can't even sell theirs currently. I do like my home better than my echo as I prefer google vs alexa but I can see amazon with their acquisitions getting bigger quickly. Just a matter of releasing things in canada faster than they do currently.

Nest was the first to introduce a home automation platform way back in 2011. Google bought them out in early 2014 and did fuck all. Don't get your hopes up.

Looking at the competition, SmartThings came out at the end of 2013, acquired by Samsung in summer 2014, and have slowly improved since. HomeKit products wasn't even available until 2015, and Apple is slow as fuck getting things done but here we are, both years ahead of Nest's platform which is insane.

Typical Google, instead of improving Nest, they just launched their Google Home integration as a new platform and forgot about Nest. OK to be fair, they've forgotten about Nest since they bought them in 2014 haha. It's the same old shit from Google, dead end a technology by introduce a new technology that does the same thing as what they're leaving behind and fuck over early adopters. It's how we ended up with Google Hangouts, Google Allo, and Google Duo chat platforms that all do the same fucking thing. They're doing the same thing now with Google Play Music and YouTube Music.

Don't get me wrong, Google has some great products, but the fragmentation and the way they keep moving the target is annoying as fuck.

As for Amazon, they're going to steam ahead not from acquisitions, but by improving their API and services to make it easier for anyone to integrate, while improving the native functionality that Alexa can access and organize. You never win by build everything in house, you just have to provide a common language and interface for developers and users to use with a rich set of functionality. They'll eventually catch up and probably beat Apple HomeKit because it'll be license free for device manufacturers, and cheap for end users. $30 with an Echo Dot gets you into the game, killer app right there.

[kenny]

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Huh, well that does seem a lot better setup than google. I still believe in google. Nest thread has been opened sourced for a year and a half now and I hear about it all the time I am hoping that when google absorbs nest, something might come of that. They really wiffed that security system but ring can't even sell theirs currently. I do like my home better than my echo as I prefer google vs alexa but I can see amazon with their acquisitions getting bigger quickly. Just a matter of releasing things in canada faster than they do currently.

I wouldn't build a system based off of Google Home directly for the reasons rage mentioned. Smartthings is the platform to go with if you aren't going with homekit IMO, it is very versatile and Google Home supports it if you want voice control. If a device/product isn't officially supported, chances are someone has built a device handler for it. Nest as an example isn't officially supported, but you can add a custom smartapp (NST manager) to get it all integrated.

Smartthings + ActionTiles is slickest setup IMO

[rage2]

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I wouldn't build a system based off of Google Home directly for the reasons rage mentioned. Smartthings is the platform to go with if you aren't going with homekit IMO, it is very versatile and Google Home supports it if you want voice control. If a device/product isn't officially supported, chances are someone has built a device handler for it. Nest as an example isn't officially supported, but you can add a custom smartapp (NST manager) to get it all integrated.

Smartthings + ActionTiles is slickest setup IMO

As a note, HomeKit has HomeBridge with can add unsupported devices as well.

Have the money, spend it on HomeKit or SmartThings depending if you're iOS or Android.

Short on cash, take a risk on Amazon Alexa.

[Impreza]

Where is everyone buying the Chamberlain Home Bridge? I can't seem to source one in Canada.

[lilmira]

bought mine from wantboard for 99. now it's listed for 119.

you can also try this one.

[lilmira]

Been eyeing the hunter fans for homekit for a while. Finally the price came down on Amazon few days ago. Went back up after I ordered one. Came back down today, ordered another one.

https://www.amazon.ca/Hunter-Company...70_&dpSrc=srch

I like the darker colour or the Apache model more but for 200 bucks saving, this will do.

[s_havinga]

What are you guys using for locks? I keep looking at the Weiser Kevo deadbolt but the reviews are so mixed- I’m not sold

[killramos]

I think all the smart locks are way too big.

Call me when they lose some of the depth.

[s_havinga]

Ok, I picked up a Weiser Premis Lock for my detached garage. Was really stoked to not have to run out to it every night to verify it was locked. Got the lock installed and man am i disappointed! Approaching the garage I need to be within 10 feet of the door before the signal is good enough for my phone to recognize it. From inside the garage, it works OK but the door seems to do a great job blocking the signal. Does anyone know of a way to get this working? If I can't get it to work, I am looking at picking up this one https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.t...000774100.html and a wink hub 2 as I have great wifi in the garage but I haven't been able to confirm that the wink hub plays nice with the HomeKit. @rage2 Any suggestions?

[rage2]

Get an Apple TV at home as your HomeKit hub. Or if you have an iPad, enable it for HomeKit hub. The hubs will talk to the lock over BT, and anything else will go through wifi or LTE to homekit to trigger it if it's not within BT range.

I'm surprised the range is so bad though on that lock. I have the Schlage Sense, my active Homekit Hub is my basement Apple TV, that's at least 30 ft and a floor away. The one you linked is the older Schlage, and isn't homekit compatible, and prob why it's on sale. This one is:

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.s...000854585.html

Yea I stopped worrying about locks now. Garage door ensures it's closed and all doors lock at night on a schedule, as well as when I trigger my goodnight scene. Not that a lock is going to stop someone from breaking in anyways haha.