{"id":53292,"date":"2022-08-22T23:54:43","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T23:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-to-make-homekit-see-more-of-your-gadgets-with-home-assistant\/"},"modified":"2022-08-22T23:54:43","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T23:54:43","slug":"how-to-make-homekit-see-more-of-your-gadgets-with-home-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-to-make-homekit-see-more-of-your-gadgets-with-home-assistant\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make HomeKit see more of your gadgets with Home Assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> The Apple Home application is seen on an iPhone screen on November 15, 2017. The Home app allows people to control accessories in their home, like living room and kitchen lights, from their phone.<\/div>\n<p>Jaap Arriens\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside id=\"social-left\" class=\"social-left\" aria-label=\"Read the comments or share this article\">\n<\/aside>\n<p><!-- cache hit 848:single\/related:6d708d48449f058adac5b74775f298f0 --><!-- empty --><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">I&#8217;ve been buying and tinkering with smart home devices for years.  As a result, my home network resembles a kind of Model UN of devices, bridges, protocols, assistants, and apps.  I try to broker alliances, resolve disputes, and assure everybody, myself included, that this whole complicated thing is still worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">My salvation has been <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Home Assistant<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">a little server that gives you <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">local control and lots of automation power<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">.  Every device in my home is connected to Home Assistant, which runs on a tiny <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Raspberry Pi 3B+<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">  underneath my printer.  I have a custom dashboard with all my switches, sensors, speakers, and lights.  I have complete control, a custom dashboard, and infinite automations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">But sometimes, I just want to change the thermostat from the lock screen on my iPhone or tell Siri, on my phone or watch, to turn on a lamp.  Yes, Home Assistant has its own app, plus a mobile-friendly website.  But I also want to save my partner from learning how an entirely different, somewhat fiddly app works to access lights and switches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Conveniently, Home Assistant isn&#8217;t an all-or-nothing proposition.  Sure, you can use it to cut the big tech companies out of your smart home and design your own dashboard.  But you can also use it as a gateway between a motley collection of non-HomeKit-friendly gadgets and Apple&#8217;s Home system.  Or you can switch between both for more control or easier access.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Let&#8217;s dig into how Home Assistant can help HomeKit find every device in your home, even the devices it doesn&#8217;t officially support, for free.  It can also connect Google and Amazon&#8217;s apps and assistants to the rare devices they don&#8217;t support, though that costs $5 per month (but also supports Home Assistant&#8217;s development).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One more note before heading deeper: if you only use Apple devices to control your smart home devices, you only care about HomeKit compatibility, and you have a spare Raspberry Pi, HomeBridge is another solution.  It&#8217;s more limited in scope than Home Assistant, but that might be a plus for some folks.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"md-end-block md-heading\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Getting your home in order<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"md-plain\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"image shortcode-img center large\" style=\"width:100%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Home Assistant setup, pre-organization.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/home_assistant_messy-640x415.jpg?resize=640%2C415&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/home_assistant_messy-1280x830.jpg 2x\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Home Assistant setup, pre-organization.<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">First, you&#8217;ll want to get Home Assistant up and running and connected to your devices.  It&#8217;s outside our scope here to walk you through that process, but there are many resources you can consult.  start with <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Home Assistant&#8217;s official guide<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">  to get the system running on a Pi, a NUC, a NAS, an always-on system, a Docker container, or in a virtual machine.  Basically, Home Assistant can live on any little computer that can always be on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Once Home Assistant is running, add to it as many of the devices and services in your home (termed &#8220;Integrations&#8221; in Home Assistant) as you want accessible from your phones or speakers.  If you hit a wall, the Home Assistant <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">subreddit<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">, <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">forum<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">and <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Discord<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">  are good places to look for troubleshooting tips.  I&#8217;ve found quite a few tips on <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Kiril Peyanski&#8217;s blog<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">If you&#8217;ve looked in Home Assistant and can&#8217;t find an integration for one of your devices, consider installing the <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Home Assistant Community Store (HACS)<\/span>, <\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">an unofficial community-maintained compendium of integrations and other add-ons.  Search (in the upper-right corner of the HACS page) to see if your device or brand is offered.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"image shortcode-img center large\" style=\"width:100%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Home Assistant Community Store (HACS), the place to look for the quirkiest gadgets you own (and Nest Protect).\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/HACS_example-640x446.jpg?resize=640%2C446&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/HACS_example-1280x892.jpg 2x\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Home Assistant Community Store (HACS), the place to look for the quirkiest gadgets you own (and Nest Protect).<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"md-end-block md-p\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Some HACS integrations may require more work to configure.  I had to set up a <\/span><span class=\"md-meta-i-c md-link\"><span class=\"md-plain\">Mosquitto messaging broker<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">  on a friend&#8217;s Home Assistant setup to access his Ring pathway lights.  For some devices (typically the cheaper, off-brand variety), you might sign up for an API key at a little-known company&#8217;s developer portal.  You can decide whether the extra steps are worth having instant, pull-down-on-your-phone access to these gadgets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"md-plain\">If you already have Home Assistant running and connected to everything and you want to add a HomeKit bridge, you have a special task: Ge<\/span><span class=\"md-pair-s \"><span class=\"md-plain\">t rid of as many old, redundant, or non-responsive devices as possible<\/span><\/span><span class=\"md-plain\">.  Head to Settings, Devices &#038; Services, and then the Entities tab and sort by status to see what&#8217;s no longer connected or responding.  When you connect Home Assistant to HomeKit, Google, or Alexa, the server sends over entire categories of devices, whether or not they&#8217;re duplicates or non-responsive.  On HomeKit, in particular, it&#8217;s annoying to get rid of dead or duplicate entries, and the Home app will bug you to configure devices until you do.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>enlarge \/ The Apple Home application is seen on an iPhone screen on November 15, 2017. The Home app allows people to control accessories in their home, like living room and kitchen lights, from their phone. Jaap Arriens\/NurPhoto via Getty Images) I&#8217;ve been buying and tinkering with smart home devices for years. As a result, &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-to-make-homekit-see-more-of-your-gadgets-with-home-assistant\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to make HomeKit see more of your gadgets with Home Assistant<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20753,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/amazon-says-matter-will-make-alexa-smarter\/","url_meta":{"origin":53292,"position":0},"title":"Amazon says Matter will make Alexa smarter","date":"July 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Amazon wants every smart home device to work with its Alexa ecosystem, and it says Matter is key to achieving that goal. \u201cWe really believe in ambient intelligence \u2014 an environment where your devices are woven together by artificial intelligence so they can offer far more than any device could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48108,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/this-new-startup-uses-the-iphones-uwb-feature-for-controlling-your-smart-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":53292,"position":1},"title":"This new startup uses the iPhone&#8217;s UWB feature for controlling your smart home","date":"August 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The smart home has an interface problem, and six undergrads from Duke think they've solved it with a Raspberry Pi and Apple's U1 chip. 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