Homekit bridge options

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johno1234

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#311958 1-Mar-2024 08:10

I've been slowly sucked into the Apple ecosystem, now including Homekit. I know, I know. I was powerless to resist.

Started with a garage door opener, but now have some other bits and pieces that are non homekit that I would like to add. I can see two bridging options, homebridge and HOOBS but have a problem with both.

Homekit repository appears to be unavailable. Following the instructions I get to this:

sudo apt-get install homebridge

Which results in:

E: Unable to locate package homebridge

I've searched but found no resolution to this.

HOOBS looks like it would work for me, but it seems to come only as an image or preloaded device. I want to add this to the pi that also does other stuff such as pi-hole and don't want to accumulate one pi device per service.

Would it be possible to install HOOBS on an existing pi-hole? I couldn't see any alternative to just putting a whole image on.

Or any other bridges to get my old devices onto homekit?

Cheers

JohnO

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#3201909 1-Mar-2024 10:00

I use homebridge, (and homekit as part of homeassitant). But if you don;t want/need all of hojeassistant, then I'd persist with homebridge.

I run a docker version of homebridge. It's just a nodejs app I believe. So expect you could install nodejs then install homebridge from that (sorry, I've never done it baremetal).

Tried this: Install Homebridge on Debian or Ubuntu Linux · homebridge/homebridge Wiki (github.com)

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johno1234

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#3201917 1-Mar-2024 10:23

OK the docker option sounds like a good plan, thanks. In the past I've found docker a bit obscure and mystifying (was running HA under it)... but for something as "appliance" as homebridge it should be fine.

Was following that exact URL but it breaks down on the apt-get install - the package is not found.

davidcole

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#3201919 1-Mar-2024 10:26

johno1234:

OK the docker option sounds like a good plan, thanks. In the past I've found docker a bit obscure and mystifying (was running HA under it)... but for something as "appliance" as homebridge it should be fine.

Was following that exact URL but it breaks down on the apt-get install - the package is not found.

and you've done this step?

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/homebridge.gpg] https://repo.homebridge.io stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/homebridge.list > /dev/null

josephhinvest

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#3201926 1-Mar-2024 10:35

I run Homebridge in docker on my Synology and it’s pretty solid. I don’t have a huge number of devices under Homebridge, mostly TP Link smart plugs.
I also run Scrypted, it links my old Swann IP camera DVR into HomeKit, and it works well.

Cheers,
Joseph

davidcole

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#3201927 1-Mar-2024 10:39

Yeah docker is a lot to install though if you don’t have anything else for it,

mdooher

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#3201990 1-Mar-2024 13:18

I have an old raspberry Pi with wifi. I just stuck the homebridge image on it and plugged it in to power in an out of the way place. I use it as a way of linking my C-Bus wired house to the TP link smart plugs and allowing siri to control some c-bus stuff

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johno1234

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#3202006 1-Mar-2024 13:55

davidcole:

johno1234:

OK the docker option sounds like a good plan, thanks. In the past I've found docker a bit obscure and mystifying (was running HA under it)... but for something as "appliance" as homebridge it should be fine.

Was following that exact URL but it breaks down on the apt-get install - the package is not found.

and you've done this step?

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/homebridge.gpg] https://repo.homebridge.io stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/homebridge.list > /dev/null

Yep.

johno1234

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#3202007 1-Mar-2024 13:58

Oh blardy hell I just re-ran the steps and now it's working!

michaelmurfy

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#3202014 1-Mar-2024 14:07

@davidcole there are also a bunch of helper scripts if you run Proxmox: https://tteck.github.io/Proxmox/

They're pretty good and really lightweight too. Alternative to running it in Docker if you use Proxmox already.

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Handle9

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#3202114 1-Mar-2024 15:55

I use homeassistant as my primary platform and also as a bridge to Homekit. I used to run homebridge but found it clunky and a bit flaky.

Home assistant is a much bigger platform and suits me better. YMMV.

davidcole

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#3202233 1-Mar-2024 20:10

Yeah while I also use home assistant it’s much bigger than just homebridge. And there are things homebridge does better Like cameras.

I use a mix of both. Mostly the alarm is homebridge and media devices.

For simplicity if I just had a few devices and not a whole house plus automations, I’d choose home bridge.

If I wanted to start a whole house automation journey, I’d use home assistant

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Handle9

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#3202237 1-Mar-2024 20:34

davidcole: Yeah while I also use home assistant it’s much bigger than just homebridge. And there are things homebridge does better Like cameras.

I use a mix of both. Mostly the alarm is homebridge and media devices.

For simplicity if I just had a few devices and not a whole house plus automations, I’d choose home bridge.

If I wanted to start a whole house automation journey, I’d use home assistant

I gave homebridge a go but most stuff I want has a home assistant integration. I also had a couple of homebridge intergrations that were a bit crap so that soured me on it.

Home assistant is my primary platform but it's nice to be able to use the apple home interface.

davidcole

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#3202238 1-Mar-2024 20:50

Home assistant is my primary as well. I pass a subset to homekit (lights, alarm, garage door etc). So they’re Siri enabled. “Hey siri, turn off the rocket”. (Coffee machine)

AKT

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#3202255 1-Mar-2024 23:01

I use HOOBS and you can definitely run other software on the same Pi (I have nodeRed running).

HTH

A

johno1234

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#3202691 3-Mar-2024 12:42

Inexpensive HOOBS box alternative:

https://www.athom.tech/home-bridge

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