HomeKit Confused by Multiple Hubs, Standby, and possible Range Issues

[4nthony]

Hi,

I'm not sure I fully understand how multiple HomeKit Hubs are supposed to work. I read that you can have as many hubs as you like, there is only one "connected" hub in control of devices, and the other hubs are there to take over in the event the primary hub goes offline. How do multiple hubs deal with devices that are out-of-range of the connected hub?

In my current setup, I have an ATV4K as my hub. It's located in a media cabinet on one end of the house. I recently added a Yale Assure 2 door lock at the opposite end of the house. In the Home app, the door lock is being reported as "No Response". I believe it might be out-of-range for the ATV and HomeKit.

If I add a HomePod to a room closer to the Yale lock, will the HomePod work with the ATV to extend the range of HomeKit throughout the house (similar to satellites in a mesh network)? Or will it be in standby mode, waiting for the ATV to go offline before it steps up and becomes the hub?

Maybe I need a more centrally located hub rather than a hub at each end of the house?

Thank you for any clarification you can offer!

Cheers,
Anthony

 

[dotme]

If I add a HomePod to a room closer to the Yale lock, will the HomePod work with the ATV to extend the range of HomeKit throughout the house (similar to satellites in a mesh network)?

Yes (You can always return the HomePod if it doesn't work in your situation)

BTLE has low range, so a HomePod nearer the lock will help - and no, it doesn't have to be the active hub. But... it does need to "see" the active hub and be able to communicate back and forth, so please make sure your network allows free flow of TCP/IP traffic between nodes regardless of whether they are on a WiFi band or Wired network (Isolation disabled).

Hope this helps!

 

[4nthony]

Yes (You can always return the HomePod if it doesn't work in your situation)

BTLE has low range, so a HomePod nearer the lock will help - and no, it doesn't have to be the active hub. But... it does need to "see" the active hub and be able to communicate back and forth, so please make sure your network allows free flow of TCP/IP traffic between nodes regardless of whether they are on a WiFi band or Wired network (Isolation disabled).

Hope this helps!

That does help. Isolation is disabled on my router so every device should have full visibility.

So basically, a hub in "standby" is still active and participating in the HomeKit network, relaying device traffic, extending the range, etc. but it's not being reported as the top (connected) hub.

I'm guessing that if I were to add more than one extra HomePod hub, that will greatly enhance the connectivity of the other HomeKit devices and make for a stronger network. Is it possible to add too many BTLE devices and oversaturate a HomeKit network?

Thank you!

 

[dotme]

Great questions - Not sure what the BTLE device limit is to be honest. I started with one Apple TV, some WiFi outlets, a BTLE light strip from Osram, and some BTLE wall switches from Eve. Reliability on the BTLE front was pretty bad.

Deployed a few HomePods and things got much better in that department. (Ultimately ended up replacing the Eve wall switches with Lutron Caseta due to lag, but at least they were working relatively reliably).

So more HomePods will definitely help with BTLE devices (and Thread presumably) by relaying as you describe.

They don't really make any difference for IOT devices that connect via WiFi or a proprietary hub (Like Hue/Lutron) though. So if you only have the one BTLE device (lock) to worry about, dropping a single HomePod Mini within range (say 20 feet line of sight) should be all you need. If the Apple TV is the Hub, it will tell the HomePod (via WiFi) to send an instruction via BTLE to the lock.

 

[4nthony]

Thanks @dotme for the assistance!

I added 3 HomePod Minis to the house just for the extra coverage and my "No Response" issues seem to be resolved.

Now, if I could only get consistent connectivity from my Logi Circle View cams, but that's for another thread.

Cheers!

 

[Itinj24]

Thanks @dotme for the assistance!

I added 3 HomePod Minis to the house just for the extra coverage and my "No Response" issues seem to be resolved.

Now, if I could only get consistent connectivity from my Logi Circle View cams, but that's for another thread.

Cheers!

What do you got for a Wi-Fi network? Logi cams have always been a huge problem in the past when I was using the router provided by my ISP. I have numerous Logi Circle 2’s. When I discovered mesh networking, starting years back with the eero Pro 5, all my Logi woes went away. They’re just about flawless for me now on the eero Pro 6 mesh. Now, the only issue I have is that one or two tops, of the many cameras I have, would occasionally need a power cycle after a network restart. Sometimes that’s not even necessary.

 

[rossy100]

Currently have a 1st generation ATV 4K and 2 original HomePods - all of which can act as Home Hubs......

Would I get any benefit from upgrading to the latest ATV and/or HomePod Mini - from a performance/stability perspective?

Main issue I seem to experience is unreliable notifications (as in sometimes they just don't come through - even though Home app status for a particular device updates pretty quickly)

 

[4nthony]

What do you got for a Wi-Fi network? Logi cams have always been a huge problem in the past when I was using the router provided by my ISP. I have numerous Logi Circle 2’s. When I discovered mesh networking, starting years back with the eero Pro 5, all my Logi woes went away. They’re just about flawless for me now on the eero Pro 6 mesh. Now, the only issue I have is that one or two tops, of the many cameras I have, would occasionally need a power cycle after a network restart. Sometimes that’s not even necessary.

I recently upgraded my fiber from 2Gb to 5Gb and am using an ISP supplied router (TP-Link Archer AXE300) with a TP-Link OneMesh range extender. When I was on the 2Gb, I had an Orbi 6 Mesh system. With the Orbi, I experienced frequent cam disconnects along with slow speeds. I was never able to diagnose the slow Orbi speeds.

Network traffic is so far working well with the new router and extender, but I still have one Logi Circle View cam that will be fine for a day the get No Response.

Interestingly, this cam is still connected to Wi-Fi and will respond to ping. nmap also reports port 49152 as being open.

Unfortunately, there aren't too many outdoor camera options for HomeKit. I don't want a floodlight on the camera (Eve, Netatmo). I also don't want to change batteries (eufyCam).

 

[Itinj24]

I recently upgraded my fiber from 2Gb to 5Gb and am using an ISP supplied router (TP-Link Archer AXE300) with a TP-Link OneMesh range extender. When I was on the 2Gb, I had an Orbi 6 Mesh system. With the Orbi, I experienced frequent cam disconnects along with slow speeds. I was never able to diagnose the slow Orbi speeds.

Network traffic is so far working well with the new router and extender, but I still have one Logi Circle View cam that will be fine for a day the get No Response.

Interestingly, this cam is still connected to Wi-Fi and will respond to ping. nmap also reports port 49152 as being open.

Unfortunately, there aren't too many outdoor camera options for HomeKit. I don't want a floodlight on the camera (Eve, Netatmo). I also don't want to change batteries (eufyCam).

Gotchya. Actually now that I think about it, the Logi Circle 2 supports the 5GHz band and I believe the Circle View is strictly on the 2.4. That might be an issue too but using my ISP router was a mess. This is going back to when HomeKit first started showing up.

The Logis used to be a real headache for me too but since going mesh, they’ve been some of my more reliable devices, believe it or not. Got one on my pool shed about 200’ from the house where the nearest eero leaf is.

We def need more outdoor options though. Matter… where are you!?!? Was actually hoping for an option from Aqara.