Driver Released: Apple HomeKit and Siri Voice control Driver for Homebridge

[cylon147]

On 8/7/2021 at 2:52 AM, bigzaj said:

How does this compare to the Varietas driver in terms of functionality?  Aside from the interface does this driver add additional capabilities?

 

13 hours ago, homeauto01 said:

I am also interested in this answer.  I have the Veritas driver on a Pi with about 35 C4 devices and want to know if it is worth changing to this driver?  I also have about 20 Hue devices and 10 Meross devices all controlled by HomeKit.

I suggest you try the Driver. Can not comment on the other driver with Same functionality. Please go through the forum posts and Reviews shared by the Current users.

Please PM me if you want more information.

[nevets23]

Based on the screenshots of the interface, it seems like you can easily add plugins to HomeKit, correct? For example, if I wanted to integrate my nest cameras, could I just click to install the nest plugin, or do I have to manually install it?

[cylon147]

Yes with our Plugin and Homebridge set up you can run other plugin as well.

[nevets23]

My two cents thus far on this driver:

I'm giving this driver a test run on my raspberry pi 3B, and so far not overly impressed due to what appears to be some bugs.

First, I'm getting a warning in homebridge logs on pretty much every device that states that the web socket dti plugin generated a warning from the characteristic "XXXX". Characteristic supplied was illegal value: null!. Home app will reject null for Apple defined characteristics. ---- I don't know if this is causing problems, but I'm sure it isn't helping and doesn't happen on the Varietas homebridge plugin.

Second, I connected my alarm system. It works perfectly fine in the Varietas plugin, but when I try to arm or disarm the alarm through Homekit with this setup, it just hangs, saying "arming" or "disarming." I got it to work once after rebooting HSIM, but it hasn't worked since.

Third, the bond fans seem very slow in terms of response. I'm used to it being pretty snappy with Varietas.

Fourth, I've noticed that cpu usage of homebridge is extraordinarily high upon restart of the raspberry pi (like at 100%) and is somewhat slow to load. Again, I'm comparing it to my experience with the Varietas plugin. I'm not sure if it has to do with the child bridges or what, but it doesn't seem right to me.

It's fairly disappointing thus far, as I really wanted to like this driver. The fact that you can easily add other plugins is very appealing, but unless the developer can fix these issues, it's not reliable enough to use. I've reached out to the developer, but haven't heard anything back.

[cylon147]

4 hours ago, nevets23 said:

My two cents thus far on this driver:

I'm giving this driver a test run on my raspberry pi 3B, and so far not overly impressed due to what appears to be some bugs.

First, I'm getting a warning in homebridge logs on pretty much every device that states that the web socket dti plugin generated a warning from the characteristic "XXXX". Characteristic supplied was illegal value: null!. Home app will reject null for Apple defined characteristics. ---- I don't know if this is causing problems, but I'm sure it isn't helping and doesn't happen on the Varietas homebridge plugin.

Second, I connected my alarm system. It works perfectly fine in the Varietas plugin, but when I try to arm or disarm the alarm through Homekit with this setup, it just hangs, saying "arming" or "disarming." I got it to work once after rebooting HSIM, but it hasn't worked since.

Third, the bond fans seem very slow in terms of response. I'm used to it being pretty snappy with Varietas.

Fourth, I've noticed that cpu usage of homebridge is extraordinarily high upon restart of the raspberry pi (like at 100%) and is somewhat slow to load. Again, I'm comparing it to my experience with the Varietas plugin. I'm not sure if it has to do with the child bridges or what, but it doesn't seem right to me.

It's fairly disappointing thus far, as I really wanted to like this driver. The fact that you can easily add other plugins is very appealing, but unless the developer can fix these issues, it's not reliable enough to use. I've reached out to the developer, but haven't heard anything back.

I have replied you on PM.

[swissglobalsolutions]

For my set-up the driver is working well, have not tired the Varietas Driver yet.
But looking at my Homebridge status I do see several times error codes.

Just sharing here so that it might help to improve the driver with future updates.
 

[8/22/2021, 11:06:56 AM] [homebridge-websocket-dti] This plugin generated a warning from the characteristic 'Target Temperature': characteristic value expected valid finite number and received "NaN" (number). See https://git.io/JtMGR for more info.
[8/22/2021, 11:06:56 AM] [homebridge-websocket-dti] This plugin generated a warning from the characteristic 'Target Heating Cooling State': characteristic value expected valid finite number and received "NaN" (number). See https://git.io/JtMGR for more info.
[8/22/2021, 11:06:56 AM] [homebridge-websocket-dti] This plugin generated a warning from the characteristic 'Current Heating Cooling State': characteristic value expected valid finite number and received "NaN" (number). See https://git.io/JtMGR for more info.

 

[cylon147]

Thank you for reporting this.

We have identified the bug and we have already fixed it.

Doing some batch test before making it live.

 

[nevets23]

On 8/18/2021 at 6:32 PM, nevets23 said:

My two cents thus far on this driver:

I'm giving this driver a test run on my raspberry pi 3B, and so far not overly impressed due to what appears to be some bugs.

First, I'm getting a warning in homebridge logs on pretty much every device that states that the web socket dti plugin generated a warning from the characteristic "XXXX". Characteristic supplied was illegal value: null!. Home app will reject null for Apple defined characteristics. ---- I don't know if this is causing problems, but I'm sure it isn't helping and doesn't happen on the Varietas homebridge plugin.

Second, I connected my alarm system. It works perfectly fine in the Varietas plugin, but when I try to arm or disarm the alarm through Homekit with this setup, it just hangs, saying "arming" or "disarming." I got it to work once after rebooting HSIM, but it hasn't worked since.

Third, the bond fans seem very slow in terms of response. I'm used to it being pretty snappy with Varietas.

Fourth, I've noticed that cpu usage of homebridge is extraordinarily high upon restart of the raspberry pi (like at 100%) and is somewhat slow to load. Again, I'm comparing it to my experience with the Varietas plugin. I'm not sure if it has to do with the child bridges or what, but it doesn't seem right to me.

It's fairly disappointing thus far, as I really wanted to like this driver. The fact that you can easily add other plugins is very appealing, but unless the developer can fix these issues, it's not reliable enough to use. I've reached out to the developer, but haven't heard anything back.

Important update on my prior post.

The driver developer reached out to me, and relentlessly worked to identify the issues that were causing the problems and correct them. The delay in initial responsiveness to my request for help was due to a major time difference.

I’m happy to report that everything is now working flawlessly. The varietas driver is great, but this driver has more versatility for sure. In addition to the devices I had added to Homekit with the varietas driver, I am now able to also add cameras and other third party drivers much easier using the Homebridge UI directly in composer without any issues. I’ve also made some suggestions on additional features I think would make this driver even better, which will hopefully be implemented in a future update.

Furthermore and perhaps most importantly, I’m confident that if any issues pop up in the future due to iOS or c4 updates, they will be addressed immediately. 

For anyone that is on the fence about this driver or who is looking for a versatile way to integrate c4 devices into Homekit, I definitely recommend the driver.

Well done!

[Tim Williams]

Question for @cylon147 - I currently have a C4 Zigbee I/O module (C4-Z2IO) using its relay to open a gate at the front of my house.  I'd dearly love to just say "Siri, open the gate".  Would your driver allow me to do this?  Thanks!

[Amr]

10 hours ago, nevets23 said:

Important update on my prior post.

The driver developer reached out to me, and relentlessly worked to identify the issues that were causing the problems and correct them. The delay in initial responsiveness to my request for help was due to a major time difference.

I’m happy to report that everything is now working flawlessly. The varietas driver is great, but this driver has more versatility for sure. In addition to the devices I had added to Homekit with the varietas driver, I am now able to also add cameras and other third party drivers much easier using the Homebridge UI directly in composer without any issues. I’ve also made some suggestions on additional features I think would make this driver even better, which will hopefully be implemented in a future update.

Furthermore and perhaps most importantly, I’m confident that if any issues pop up in the future due to iOS or c4 updates, they will be addressed immediately. 

For anyone that is on the fence about this driver or who is looking for a versatile way to integrate c4 devices into Homekit, I definitely recommend the driver.

Well done!

DTI is a great company, they stand behind their drivers with excellent support, really happy with their drivers

[cylon147]

4 hours ago, Tim Williams said:

Question for @cylon147 - I currently have a C4 Zigbee I/O module (C4-Z2IO) using its relay to open a gate at the front of my house.  I'd dearly love to just say "Siri, open the gate".  Would your driver allow me to do this?  Thanks!

If you want Full Control of Curtain with percentage then Siri driver will do the job. if you want just Up,down and stop then our Apple  shortcut Driver.

[cylon147]

14 hours ago, nevets23 said:

Important update on my prior post.

The driver developer reached out to me, and relentlessly worked to identify the issues that were causing the problems and correct them. The delay in initial responsiveness to my request for help was due to a major time difference.

I’m happy to report that everything is now working flawlessly. The varietas driver is great, but this driver has more versatility for sure. In addition to the devices I had added to Homekit with the varietas driver, I am now able to also add cameras and other third party drivers much easier using the Homebridge UI directly in composer without any issues. I’ve also made some suggestions on additional features I think would make this driver even better, which will hopefully be implemented in a future update.

Furthermore and perhaps most importantly, I’m confident that if any issues pop up in the future due to iOS or c4 updates, they will be addressed immediately. 

For anyone that is on the fence about this driver or who is looking for a versatile way to integrate c4 devices into Homekit, I definitely recommend the driver.

Well done!

 

3 hours ago, Amr said:

DTI is a great company, they stand behind their drivers with excellent support, really happy with their drivers

Thank you for the kind word

[rayalon]

This is a great driver and DTI have an amazing support. Top notch 

[cylon147]

We have updated the driver to fix status syncing issue with Control4 Thermostat Driver.

Please update the driver to Ver 653

[rayalon]

thanks for the update.

what's the easiest way to update the driver?

and once again let me just say: you have an amazing support. Top notch.

[fcorriveau]

I am interested in testing

[Amr]

3 hours ago, fcorriveau said:

I am interested in testing

Testing is finished 2 months ago, Driver can be bought from DriverCentral.io 

[cylon147]

Ver:659

We have added support for the Advance lighting scene Add, Delete, and Rename functions. This will greatly improve the Add/Remove Scene property list. Also, there should be no interaction needed when the scene is deleted, Added, or Renamed in Control4, Siri Voice Module Driver will automatically update the Homebridge with respected changes done in Advance Lighting Agent. We have Added an Action "Reset Advanced Lighting Scene" to make to Add/Remove Scene Property List to default state.

[whatisland]

On 9/3/2021 at 9:58 AM, nevets23 said:

Important update on my prior post.

The driver developer reached out to me, and relentlessly worked to identify the issues that were causing the problems and correct them. The delay in initial responsiveness to my request for help was due to a major time difference.

I’m happy to report that everything is now working flawlessly. The varietas driver is great, but this driver has more versatility for sure. In addition to the devices I had added to Homekit with the varietas driver, I am now able to also add cameras and other third party drivers much easier using the Homebridge UI directly in composer without any issues. I’ve also made some suggestions on additional features I think would make this driver even better, which will hopefully be implemented in a future update.

Furthermore and perhaps most importantly, I’m confident that if any issues pop up in the future due to iOS or c4 updates, they will be addressed immediately. 

For anyone that is on the fence about this driver or who is looking for a versatile way to integrate c4 devices into Homekit, I definitely recommend the driver.

Well done!

Question for @nevets23

I have the varietas driver and the hub. For your installation,  did you uninstall the varietas driver and replace it with this driver? Thanks.

[KWD]

Will this driver also work with the Hoobs version of Homebridge?

[cylon147]

16 hours ago, KWD said:

Will this driver also work with the Hoobs version of Homebridge?

i have not tested on Hoobs. I will test it out and let you know.

[KWD]

On 11/29/2021 at 10:17 AM, cylon147 said:

i have not tested on Hoobs. I will test it out and let you know.

I would be happy to test it for you 

[nevets23]

On 11/26/2021 at 4:55 AM, whatisland said:

Question for @nevets23

I have the varietas driver and the hub. For your installation,  did you uninstall the varietas driver and replace it with this driver? Thanks.

My apologies @whatisland. I did not see your question/receive any notice until just now. The answer to your question is yes, eventually. Initially, I left the driver in the project, but just disconnected it. I also happened to have another SD card laying around, so I just set up home bridge on the extra SD card rather than overwriting the home bridge setup with the Varietas software. I figured that way if I had problems with this driver, I could always go back to the original setup. Fortunately, after some initial hiccups with this driver and subsequent bug squashing, the driver works great. The developer is great, so I highly recommend giving the driver a try. Varietas was awesome, however it didn't seem like it was kept up to date all the time, which occasionally caused it to run into issues when i0S software was updated. It also didn't easily have the ability to add other home bridge plugins. This driver solves both of those issues.

[anon2828]

Is there any way for this product to show status and/or control HomeKit devices?  Goal is to be able to control a gate opener that is only integrated with Apple Home Kit ("Nice" brand opener) that has no native Control4 driver.

[cylon147]

12 hours ago, anon2828 said:

Is there any way for this product to show status and/or control HomeKit devices?  Goal is to be able to control a gate opener that is only integrated with Apple Home Kit ("Nice" brand opener) that has no native Control4 driver.

Nope Currently there is no way we can achieve this. I will keep you posted if any progress i make on this request.