Vera and HomeKit: year 2020

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

Hi,

I have found only old topics, just want to know if there is some reliable and quite easy way to use my Vera devices also in Apple HomeKit, if someone has some experience, working bridge connection between Vera world and HomeKit, please share with me. Other smart GWs have working plugins to be able to connect to HomeKit…

Thanks!

#2

This is what I have used for years. I even use HomeKit’s GeoLocation because it is much more reliable and efficient.

There are a lot of setup tutorials and articles available on the web.

#3

Same here! Enables true Siri integration as well.

I also recommend Homebridge-HTTP-SecuritySensor for Vera modes as it has static mappings so Vera mode Home can be Security system Off in Apple Home app if you like and HTTP-Temperature for reading temp sensors of Vera.

Homebridge is great as it can integrate other devices beyond Vera, like cameras and other non Vera compatible devices to your HomeKit app.

#4

Thanks both for sharing their experience, honestly I am no Linux guy so I think I am not able to start own Linux server and configure everything. If I understand it right, it also requires own HW for running this server…

#5

Now looking on homebridge www page and it seems pretty easy to buy rapsberry, load official homebridge rapsberry image and start using it.

Just more questions

  1. after install of VeraLink plugin does it work, that I will have access to all Vera devices in Homekit - meaning also third party devices like Netatmo, Hue etc which I have integrated to Vera using plugins, or only native Z-wave devices will appear?

  2. what about virtual devices (switches etc.) - will they also show up in homekit?

  3. do I need to disable Vera Secure (not allowed access to Vera using LAN) or should it work also with Vera Secure enabled?

Thanks!

#6

If your virtual devices are using standard device files/services, they will appear on HomeKit. homebridge-vera is rarely updated, but I think it’s still maintained.

#7

Thanks, I mainly use those virtual devices created by you - so I suppose, they shall be controllable using Homekit via Homebridge?

#8

Yes, they are. I’m working on a virtual door lock (for garage doors) and this should be supported as well.

Other devices could be easily added, there are a couple of suggestions in the issues on GitHub.

#9

I believe every device that has a device id (even plugin devices) and scene is shown in HomeKit, the handy part is that devices or scenes can be hidden with the ignore devices or ignore scenes section of the config. I’ve hidden all scenes as they are not manual triggered scenes, the few automations I need to “manually” trigger I set up in HomeKit (mostly geofence automations).
If your plugin devices is not shown from Vera, just install plugins for those devices in Homebridge, if they’re cloud connected devices the status is replicated to Vera anyway.
Homebridge needs local access to your Vera.

#10

I use this bridge called AutomationBridge, and it not only provides homekit support but also local alexa and google home support. You can read more about it here. It works fairly well for me and the dev is actively adding new features and fixing bugs. Its pricey for basically a PI running a version of homebridge, but brings in some useful features.

#11

What an opportune thread. I purchased a raspberry pi yesterday and installed homebridge on it for this purpose. I am now in the process of trying to install my first plugin (Vera) and after a little struggle gettting the config file correct I am now able to control all of my devices from my watch with Siri. On to the next job, the Kasa wifi switches.
Thank you Damian for the work you have done to make this possible.

#12

So I have Homebridge running, I want to add only a few devices from Vera at first, I dont want any Scenes, Plugin devices etc. How should I write a Config file to allow to show only specific Device IDs and hide everything else? In guide there is only option to hide specific Rooms and Device IDs, bude I would like only to show specific devices. Because I was able to import lot of devices using their native plugins in Homebridge (Hue, Netatmo, Harmony…).

#13

As you figured out you can only hide devices, there’s no part of the config where you only specify which devices to show.
The not so good part of the plugin is that it will show everything so every new scene (or device) is visible when Homebridge reloads, meaning new scene equals edit config to ignore that scene id as well.

#14

Understand, is there some way to get all Scenes, Device, Rooms IDs list, so I can put them to config.json and leave them hidden since beginning? And second question, there is also “ignorplugins” - if I include the name of the plugin - exactly as it is in Vera apps, will it hide also all of its devices?

#15

http://[Vera-IP]/port_3480/data_request?id=lu_invoke lists every devices and scenes.
I don’t know about the ignoreplugins part as I don’t use it but according to the readme it seems like that is how you suppose to hide them.

#16

This is the config I came up with erlier today. If you look in the Vera web interface, each scene has a specific i.d. number associated with it. You can select scenes to ignore as I have.
Hope this helps

{
“platform”: “Vera”,
“name”: “Vera”,
“veraIP”: “10.0.1.34”,
“includesensor”: false,
“ignorerooms”: false,
“securitypoll”: false,
“includethermostat”: false,
“includeRGB”: false,
“garageLocks”: false,
“ignoredevices”: false,
“ignorescenes”: [
1,
2,
3,
4,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14
],
“houseModes”: false
},

#17

Did some testing and to easy hide all rooms and all scenes you can put ignorerooms:true and ignorescenes:true. This helped me as well, no more editing config every time I add a scene in Vera :slightly_smiling_face:

#18

Created list of all Scene IDs and Device IDs, put it in config.json, now I just delete ID of device I want to add. Works good, little drawback is that it does not report device change to Homekit on some devices (switches, blinds…). Now wondering what all I can do when almost all of my Vera devices are Homekit ready :slight_smile: Siri use is quite better now than using shortcuts to Vera, also Scenes created in Homekit are faster than those in Vera and I was able to add all non Vera to Homekit as well (Netatmo, Harmony, Hue+Ikea tradfri, Cameras…). Quite a good thing for 100$ parts for building Homebridge.

Just one thing - motion sensors work perfectly, but when I want to add flood sensors they dont show in Homebridge nor the HomeKit, I have “includesensor”: true in config of Veralink.

#19

VeraLink doesn’t support leak sensors, maybe you can add those with something like homebridge-http-accessory and point the get url to veras url for that device.
I used homebridge-http-temperature for temp devices as VeraLink was terrible at rounding values.

#20

Thanks, I would love to add that flood sensors, how can I get that URL to Vera device?