HomeKit and home automation

Apple General
#81

I saw this video last night and I’m wondering if anybody here has found a smart lighting solution as rock solid as the Lutron Caseta he’s using. I know they sell the Lutron RA2 series here but it seems to be hard to acquire as an end-user.

What appeals to me from his setup over my existing Lifx setup is how you can use them as regular light switches, use regular light bulbs, and also that when the power cuts in the middle of the night you’re not blinded by all the lights turning on when the power comes back.

#82

I’m seriously ticked off with the August lock. The only thing its good for is me locking/unlocking with the app on my watch, and auto-unlock when I get home from wherever. It completely failed to work for guests, which is why I bought it, apart from the Homekit integration which also simply does NOT work. I’ve installed it to Homekit, removed it, reinstalled and I am nearly over it.

Now what is next? I need a lock on the front door that can allow people to get in if I become incapacitated… a friend thought that had happened the other night, and when she came to the house, her guest access completely failed. I’ve subsequently set up guest access on another phone and guess what, it doesnt work. August seems to be ignoring my email request for help, since their FAQ gives no assistance whatever.

#83

I mentioned I changed from the August to the Yale Secure which has a digital pin pad as well - it works much better than the August and the pin would be useful for you for guests.

#84

Yes, I remember you changed. Anyway, August suits my uses and now I have had a response from August and they pushed through a BT update, its all working as it should. I did not want to change anything because I already changed the lock so I could have the August, the thought of another change is more than I can deal with at the moment.

I’ve stopped caring about Homekit. The app works, autounlock works, guest access works. Happy, me.

#85

Hey mate, I know this is a little old.

Have you seen the app “home controller” it saves all your HomeKit details.

I just had a drastic failure at home, ( trying to get a Telstra modem/router into bridge mode, to allow a dns server) and had to reset every thing on my home network.

Contoller looks like it is the solution for HomeKit backups, it’s paid and not “cheap” though I reckon it’s value for what it does.

1 Like
#86

I’ve got that app. It doesn’t save all your automations so it’s not that useful. Four example it doesn’t save 3rd party HomeKit app automations.

#87

Thanks for the suggestion but my Homekit stuff is not in need of backup, theres hardly anything of it. I’m happy to keep using the app for August, it responds to instruction and auto-unlock is working, and it unlocks from my watch within the house. It would be nice to have it working with Siri but you can’t have everything I suppose.

1 Like
#88

Thanks for that info, I wasn’t aware of it.

One the things I thought would be good with this is app, is the backup of device id’s and the ability to restore to a new wifi network, which I’ve just gone through, as I had to do a factory reset on my modem/router, I lost everything and had to add all smart things manually again, nightmare.

#89

I recently moved and went all in on Unifi for networking (PoE WAPs on the ceiling) and CCTV (PoE cams running on a Dream Machine Pro + PoE switch in a mini rack in the garage … it’s nice👌).

I’ve been wanting HomeKit compatible cameras for ages but have given up. When I previously hacked my Ring stuff to show there it was slow and clunky. And I’m not interested battery cameras - I want PoE. Don’t want to have to take them down and charge them every now and then (was annoying with my old Ring doorbell). I ended up getting a Ring Elite for the front door, as it’s PoE too.

I’m done with Homebridge – it’s too clunky and unreliable in my experience. So as far as HomeKit for me, it’s limited to lights (100% IKEA with the bridge) and speakers (100% HomePods now) and garage door (I too have the iSmart Gate Garage unit).

I’d love a front door that’s HomeKit, but they all seem chunky, battery powered and a bit crap. I’m think I’ll invest in a Unifi Access system once they release their phone support I think. I can run it also off the Dream Machine, and I already provisioned a spare CAT6 run to the front door. :wink:

That said, I seriously LOVE my HomePods. I have a pair on the TV as default audio out (such a good feature, works so well) and a couple of small ones in the bedrooms. Love the automation & multi-room Siri for Lights/Audio playback etc.

1 Like
#90

Have you looked at “Contoller for HomeKit”?
It’s in the App Store, looks V.good, I’ve only moderately played around and I’m considering paying for a year sub.

Guess it won’t fix the home bridge issue though, so you most likely won’t get unsupported clients on your network, which is obviously a big deal.

I’m new at the smart home stuff and I’m enjoying playing around with it, agree with you though, it’s clunky, I do like the iSmartgate garage door remote, I’m buggered why the cam doesn’t work with Home Kit , yet the motor controller does???

#91

I use Eve. I have no Eve gadgets, but the app is happy to manage my homekit stuff. And its free.

image
image2224×1668 301 KB

#92

Thanks for that mate, I’ve seen a guy on YouTube putting big wraps on EVE, I’ll definitely give it a look.

Appreciate it.