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HomeKit HomeKit Consultant?
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HomeAutomation • r/homeautomation
A place to share and discuss all things related to home automation.
You might ask in the home automation section of Reddit. I have found members there to be quite helpful.
First thing I would recommend is Cat6A (at the least) and ethernet ports everywhere, before the walls go up. The more the better. Never hurts. If you plan on outdoor cameras, run some Ethernet through to the outside of the house where you can add PoE cameras. You would want to hardwire everything where applicable. The key to a stable HomeKit is a solid network all with a wired backhaul. I recommend a UniFi system for your networking needs with AP’s.
Next is a home hub. Either a HomePod or AppleTV. You need this for automations and out of home control of your accessories. I have a mix of both throughout my house and a stable HomeKit is contingent on a solid hub. My preference here is a hardwired AppleTV.
Getting the main part of a stable HomeKit out of the way, what accessories are you looking to add? Lighting, do you need colored/temp changing lights? I recommend Philips Hue. If not, then Lutron switches are the way to go. Aqara has a bunch of sensors that are very reasonably priced and provide excellent reliability and speed. Aqara also has a self monitoring alarm system integrated into their hubs. Thermostats, I use Ecobee. Make sure they add C-wires to be able to power the thermostats. It will make it easier for you to install them.
I can go on and on about this so I would prefer if you have more specific questions. I would gladly answer.
Well I had planned on wiring for a PoE camera system, I plan on seperating my home automation from my entertainment automation. Using Siri for the house and Alexa for music/movies and entertainment.
Wanting Siri to control Flood lights, door locks, garage door, and blinds, would add mood/accent lighting to that.
Already planning on hardwire for multizone speakers and home theater-along with PoE cameras.
Wanting Siri to control Flood lights, door locks, garage door, and blinds, would add mood/accent lighting to that.
Already planning on hardwire for multizone speakers and home theater-along with PoE cameras.
I just built a home and was exactly in your position. Ended up running 4,000 feet of Cat6 or 6A everywhere including for POE cameras, wall iPort iPad chargers etc. , doorbell location, and all UniFi network with wired backhaul and 6 WiFi AP’s. All HomeKit where possible, I used Scrypted for UniFi —> Homekit integration. Smurf tube from basement entertainment rack to my main home theater tv wall box and behind the fireplace TV (Samsung Frame Art TV) for future proofing and ease of replacing the HDMI cable to whatever replaces it. Happy to answer questions.
May I ask why you want to use Alexa for your entertainment? AppleTVs are great for the Apple ecosystem and deep integration. You can get notifications on screen for door locks and such. Also rich notifications right on the TV if someone rings the doorbell or there’s motion. You also get Siri control for the AppleTVs and able to stream cameras in full view and HomeKit accessory control. Apple products are best when you go all in. The more you have the better it gets. Then there’s the little stuff like being able to control an AppleTV right from an Apple Watch (if you have one). I’m just scratching the surface.
seconded.
get lutron for switches.
run 2x cat6 for every run you think you only need one.
poe everything
vlan isolation for all smart home devices
hubitat -> homekit integration for all zwave and zigbee
Wired Apple Airport express 2nd gen for whole house Airplay2.
ditch alexa
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Why Lutron switches? Caseta requires a hub. I much prefer Leviton 2nd gen switches with Matter support.
I ditched Alexa also, got HomePods but Siri royally sucks ass for nearly everything and k do miss Alexa but I’m holding out for Apple getting off their ass to fix it and maybe with the new AI rollout it’ll actually work. I don’t trust Amazon and won’t go back to Alexa.
I ditched Alexa also, got HomePods but Siri royally sucks ass for nearly everything and k do miss Alexa but I’m holding out for Apple getting off their ass to fix it and maybe with the new AI rollout it’ll actually work. I don’t trust Amazon and won’t go back to Alexa.
LOL. Ok go with Matter!
You will regret it!
The sheer implication of however many number of switches you have all relying and sharing your wifi network with all of your other devices is just madness. Please, no.
General (free) advice, keep as much off WiFi and Bluetooth (and 2.4 in general) as possible. Use proven solutions and mature tech from companies with solid track records. Leviton is a great company, the Matter technology they are employing, is new, and not good.
Sorry, I gave you distilled, generic recommendations, if you need to know why, you need to either do some research to verify, or pay me to explain it to you.
There are tons of helpful 'Halp! Homekit newbie!' Threads and resources out there. The fact that you're sold on Matter without even using it tells me about how deep you've dived. And thats totally OK when youre paying to bring someone in to help.
Trust but verify
Not quite the same as Trust but question
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Well hold up just a little. I actually haven’t upgraded the Leviton switches to matter yet as I do have concerns. I bought them thinking they’d be a bit more future proof. So I’m just using the HomeKit version of their firmware…
I did consider Caseta but the limit on number of devices and range concerned me for the size of my home.
I have a dedicated 2.4 IOT only network in isolation. Everything has its pros and cons, I agree.
I did consider Caseta but the limit on number of devices and range concerned me for the size of my home.
I have a dedicated 2.4 IOT only network in isolation. Everything has its pros and cons, I agree.
If i can convince you of nothing else, consider the reliability advantage of one wired connection from a very reliable 'hub' with zero reliance on WiFi/2.4 for each switch, versus 30-50+ switches, all individual clients relying on wifi... the choice should be obvious.
Please dont use WiFi for your light switches if you can avoid it. Any 'consultant' worth their salt will make the same recommendation.
No Matter how cool the Matter logo looks, just dont. There is zero practical advantage or benefit to running Matter; yes, absolutely none!
I don’t doubt you are probably right. I remember seriously considering Caseta and there was a reason I didn’t go with it but it’s been a long while since I delved into it. Can you have more than one hub if range is an issue? That might have been why.
In any case, I have probably only 12 switches and it works fine for me. Nothing on it is mission critical.
In any case, I have probably only 12 switches and it works fine for me. Nothing on it is mission critical.
You can, as long as the hub is on the network, it adds as a separate 'bridge' in Homekit.
Less of a range extender, more of a separate, but integrated, caseta mesh from that controllers radio. For example: If you had one per floor, you would pair the upstairs devices with that hub. If either hub failed, the one that stayed up would still keep it's floors lights working, but it would not take over for the other hub.
That said, realistically you wont need this barring extenuating circumstances with the airspace or building structure. With enough other switches in the mesh the only time you practically require a second hub would be in a separate building/living space beyond the reach if the next nearest switch.
At this point, you have a single network client resposible for getting this remote building's window, lighting and sensor infrastructure traffic back to your Homekit hub. You can route this remote hubs connectivity back to your network by any means you choose. WiFi, over a bridge to the main building, wired (much better) ethernet or fiber, or even long range wireless solutions. One client, versus another n per switch in an all WiFi/Matter/Thread nonsense solution with a pretty box.
I've been playing with 802.11ah WiFi HaLow bridges for long range network connectivity. They work very very well.
Main showstopper for an all-Caseta install is the cost. Solutions that ultimately 'do the 'same thing'' are -so- cheap. Don't get me wrong, i love the ubiquity of cheap home automation stuff (check my garage), but if you have money to spend to pay for help, save troubleshooting, optimizing, rework calls later by using Caseta vs the ever moving wifi target. Just think about switching network equipment. Your household is going to be miffed during the downtime to convert/maintain, and youll have less hair, cuz, linux.
Seriously, even with only 12 switches, consider the nightmare reality here. If you needed to default them for any reason, or make changes on your network, you now have a substantial amount of work (on your configurations and physical toying with each switch) to do. This doesnt happen with a 'hub', at least with Casetas solution.
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A lot of people are against hubs and bridges but I use them whenever applicable. So you pay a few tens of dollars for a hub but in return, you get the best reliability and speed for accessories available (next to hardwiring). I never understood the resentment towards hubs. I put as little on WiFi as possible. (Except for LIFX switches Those are tits for HomeKit.)
I think they earned the warranted hate (at the time) from the companies that tried to sell lay-folks with an all-in-one 'hub' cloud home automation solution. These companies were ill-fated and not prepared or well funded enough to provide long term support and cover cloud costs to keep their required backend services up.
Historically, these type of proprietary hubs inevitably failed and took with them the confidence of consumers who have no clue what any of this stuff is, all they know is they paid a lot and it never worked right. Plus, now no one will touch it. Thats how 'hubs' got a black eye.
But it doesn't help that some manufacturers, like Philips and the Hue Hubs have royally screwed up with firmware updates and app changes too! Or other manufacturers that did not offer local LAN control and had outages/breaches/product sunsets and business model failure. If it relies on the cloud... youre whole setup is at mercy of the manufacturer's backend. Lutron is sane, has local control, solid firmware and radio tech. No bells and whistles!
Heres lookin at you Aqara. Throwing shade and calling you out over your insistence on cloud-only hub compatibility within Homekit.
Open source and local control for life!!!
HomeBridge
HomeAssistant
Frigate
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Fair enough. My first hub based products were Hue and up until iOS 17, has been headache free. I’m 99.99 % sure this is a HomeKit issue.
I really gotta get into one of the open source platforms. I bought a HOOBs to start up on it a couple years ago that’s still sealed in the original packaging. Doing 60 hours a month in OT at work and my son’s travel hockey has put a damper on my plans. Everyone says it’s easy but I really have no idea how to begin. Guess I gotta find the time to research it. Even bought an iMac to use for it.
never had a hue hub, but followed threads over the years of their blunders. They certainly arent the worst by far,