Homekit, temperature with DS18B20

Updated 2021-04-15 !

A cheap and simple way to measure temperature, and have it displayed in the Home app, is to connect one wire (1W) DS18B20 (DS)temperature sensors direct to the Raspberry Pi(RPi) and install a DS plugin.

This assumes that You have Homebridge up and running on a Raspberry Pi 

Check this post !!  "ANY" temp source can be HomeKit enabled.

SignalK switch with NodeRed and WilhelmSK

Updated 2021-03-13 !

Here I'm trying to do the "ultimate" SignalK switch blog post including(no N2K)

• Shelly 1 as the hardware switch
• NodeRed as the function engine
• NodeRed dashboard as input/output interface
• WilhelmSK as input/output, check picture
• A http endpoint as state sensing

The post is ment to be a template where you can pick the parts which are right for your setup.

Scanner GUI with NodeRed

In a former post I installed CUPS printer software for a Cannon printer. The scanning functionality is supported by the package SANE. But there is no nice GUI for the scanning function so I made one, with NodeRed(NR), which I really think is "wife" enabled.

Homebridge, retrieve accessories information & status

Having Homebridge(HB) up and running it's simple to retrieve and visualize status or measurements from accessories.

For example I'm using the Aeotec MultiSensor 6,(AM6), via the z-way plugin, where I'm sensing the light level. Since Im living in northern Europe it's not very accurate to switch the indoor lightning by sun-rise/set. So instead I'm using the AM6 together with the EVE app to switch the lightning. 

To visualize the measured values over time I'm using NodeRed(NR) and a HomeBridge plugin

Homebridge, autostart with systemd

Updated 2020-07-10 !

systemd is service manger which autostart jobs and it will even restart the Homebridge(HB) job if it fails !  

Keep it simple !! New post with a script which handles the setup automagically !! or use the latest HB install where this is included.

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

HomeKit, Z-Wave, Telldus Live, and...

Updated 2023-10-10 !

You can use one  Raspberry Pi to

• Make Your home automation devices appear in the Apple Home App
• Being the Z-Wave controller
• HomeKit enable Your Z-Wave devices
• HomeKit enable Your devices registered at Telldus Live
• HomeKit enable IKEA Trådfri devices 
• Homekit enable temperature with sensor  DS18B20
• HomeKit enable Broadband speed

If You have other products there are more than 4200 plugins available

A new simple install  !! is found here so skip the below info if you aren't interested of the old way!

HomeKit showing Humidity & Internetspeed

From AppleWatch

Strange mixture ? Humidity & Internetspeed ? 

With HomeKit You can't show Your measured Internet speed in a proper way,  X Mbit/s. So why not show it in % ? the measured speed compared to the one You purchased from Your ISP(Internet Service Provider) ? 

So now You see the point..... Humidity is also in % and can be displayed in the Home app. The only "if" is that the speed is displayed along with a "water drop"..... but maybe You can live with that ? 

HomeKit with "ANY" temperature source

From AppleWatch

As long as it's possible to retrieve information, in some way, from a sensor OR a website/webserver, with temperature information, it's possible to show it in HomeKit with HomeBridge(HB).

In this post NodeRed(NR) is retrieving the temperature from Your selected source and is also acting as the WEB endpoint for the HB  "homebridge-http-temperature" plugin.

In my case I wanted an outside temperature so used the measurements from our Davis Weather station and their JSON REST API but it could for example be Your Raspberry CPU temp or showing the speed of Your Internet connection.

Homebridge update installation on RPi

Updated 2023-10-27 !

! The latest information on Homebridge update is found here ! 

Start updating the Homebridge(HB) installation, after You logged on to the RPi, with;

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y

If You are using HOOBS or Homebridge with UX their updates can be done via respective GUI interface. HB also have a function to update Node.js. In other words, the info below is more like "nice to know".

Homebridge, autostart made simple

There have been some questions about how to handle Homebridge, (HB), autostart at power on and restart at failure using Raspberry Pi OS systemd. 

Please note that, in the later versions, the HB installation handles this !!

I have written a post how to manually set it up but now in this post I will present a script which handles it automagically !! 

Despite this simple set up I recommend using the app " hb-service", which is installed together with "homebridge-config-ui-x"

How to install HB is found here !

HomeKit bridge with Ring

With HomeBridge installed on a Raspberry Pi, (RPi), You just install the homebridge-ring plugin and the Ring accessories will appear in Apple HomeKit

This post will cover the Ring video doorbell but is a guide for other Ring products.

Prerequisites

• Homebridge
• Ring doorbell
• Ring account

HomeKit bridge with Z-Wave II

In a former post I used Homebridge on a Raspberry Pi, to make Z-wave devices appear in the Apple Home app, but there is a simpler and faster, way.

Start with the install of the Razberry card or upgrade to Z-way V3.0.0

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

Mojave on unsupported Mac

Updated 2019-05-11 !

My old Mac Book Air, mid 2011, didn't support the latest MacOS, Mojave. So after some checking I found this brilliant fix which did the job.

This guy have really done a fantastic job with great instructions and even a Youtube video.

HomeKit bridge with Telldus Live

Updated 2019-03-18 !

Do You have Telldus devices up and running and want them to be visible and used in Apples Home app ?

With some software and a Raspberry Pi(RPi) they will appear in the HomeKit environment.

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

IKEA Bäve dimmer hack

Dimming not dimmable LED, IKEA Bäve

Inspired by LarsWH and using a Z-Wave controller I got it working with a "standard" component.

Other HomeKit posts 
     on this Blogg        

A new version !! With an IKEA controller and HomeKit enabled is available here !!

Mac install Apache/PHP WEB-server

Updated 2019-01-07 

!! Note !! Before Monterey !! 

As a part of one of my projects, the ultimate Weather site ?? Weather34(W34), I needed a WEB-host with PHP and started to use a Raspberry Pi.

In this post You will get some short install tips on Apache with PHP on a Mac with Mojave, macOS 10.14.x, and at the end of the post the W34 installation is done.

Homekit with broadband speed measure

Updated 2019-09-02 !

If you think it's ok that the broadband speed appears as temperature in Home apps this plugin is very nice.

The plugin, used with Homebridge(HB), measures Your broadband speed at chosen intervals. If You use the free app "Eve for Homekit", besides that it shows the last measured broad band speed, it also shows the speed history in a nice graph.

Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

IKEA Trådfri gateway install & HomeKit

Updated 2019-02-05 !

Using Homebridge for a while, getting nice hardware to emulate Apples HomeKit devices, I finally decided to test IKEA:s Trådfri concept.


The actual device that I was interested in is the wireless control outlet. But they have bulbs and other stuff that is really nice priced.



This post will cover an installation of the Trådfri gateway with a HomeKit approach.  


Other HomeKit posts on this Blogg

Qubino flush dimmer 1-10 V

We bought a nice LED lamp, Nemo Ellisse Pendant Double, which was said to be dimmable, but when receiving it there was a big IF  !!! 

The lamp was not "standard" dimmable, instead it was dimmable with 1-10 VDC or 100 Kohm potentiometer.

The 1-10 VDC control is common in big installations, in public environment, since it can control a lot of lamps with one dimmer.

Checking the lamp I found that the AC/DC LED driver was a Mean Well LPF-90D and in the drivers specification the second IF was found !!

The lowest control level didn't switch of the lamp

RPi, Raspberry image backup to Mac

Updated 2018-02-14 !

This backup method will make a copy/image of the whole card even if there is very little data on it. So if the card is 16Gb, the backup file also will be 16Gb. On the other hand You can ZIP the image file to save space.

Another, maybe smarter ?,  backup method is described here.