Apple iOS Homekit / Z-wave

[TechBill]

I learn something interesting today while looking into Homekit. I haven't fully read up on it but I am posting this to share and maybe someone here already experimented on it and can chime in more on it.

The Apple Homekit doesn't really have a hub but it uses one of the Apple TV as a bridge to link all Homekit supported devices to your iOS app. I googled up and there is supposedly a way to link up some z-wave supported devices to the Homekit but I haven't learned how to yet.

Have anyone got a Homekit up and running with Apple TV and somehow link bridge z-wave to it yet? Would you be willing to share how you did it in this thread?

Bill

 

[psycik]

Look up homebridge or openHAB or honeassistant.

For getting zwave working and hooked to HomeKit, I’d use home assistant as preference of those three. Home assistant can use a zwave network and it is very good at exposing entities (the zwave nodes) to HomeKit.

 

[aristobrat]

Find a Home Automation solution that supports Z-Wave, see if there's a Homebridge plug-in for it, then Google around and see what that community is up to.

Homebridge is a free app usually run on a Raspberry PI that emulates the iOS HomeKit API. The community writes plug-ins that integrate non-HomeKit hardware. If you're curious, Apple allows "Hobbyists and Makers" non-commercial access to use HomeKit so this isn't an "Apple may drop the hammer at any minute and shut this down" kind of thing.

My HA system is the Universal Devices ISY994A model that supports both Z-Wave and Insteon. I run Homebridge with an ISY plug-in that someone started writing. It's been good, ... most of my ISY devices show up in the Home app and I can "Hey Siri" them as well as use HomeKit automations. Unfortunately, whoever started writing the ISY plugin didn't completely finish it so a few of my ISY devices don't show in HomeKit (and my Z-Wave fan controller shows up as a light dimmer, but still works fine). The ISY is such a complete HA system within itself (and a small community) that nobody else has stepped up to finish the Homebridge plugin. Even with only 90% functionality, I still love it.

For the more popular HA systems like SmartThings, Domotics, Home Assistant, etc ... I'd be surprised if those ISY plugins weren't totally complete, but that'd be something folks would need to understand before jumping in.

 

[psycik]

You don't need something + homebridge unless you're already running a system (vera or some such).

Homebridge can do zwave I think, but I find it's configuration annoying (all one single json file). But homekit support excellent.
Openhab I find it the best for zwave (and personally easiest to configure), but it's homekit support is a little flakey..
Home assistant is a bit of a balance between the two. It's confguration is ok, I do not personally think it's zwave support is as good as openhab, but it's homekit support is excellent as well.

 

[TechBill]

Thank you everyone for your inputs! I do have a Raspberry PI with Home Assistance installed on it but it put it on hold and got busy with real life. I started on this project last year so that how busy I have been!

I will look into home assistance plugin