In 2018, we started to put smart speakers around our home. It was a bit of an experiment on my part: they had been around for a while, but I was curious as to how useful they were and whether or not the family would get good use out of them. As it turned out, the key was making them pervasive: we ended up collecting a hatful of Echo Dots (five or six, by my reckoning) and a full-size Echo Plus. By having them everywhere, they were reliable as an intercom or announcement system, and you could be assured that you were almost always within voice distance of one. That begat a few experiments in smart home things: mostly lights and switches and plugs, but we also have our Roomba voice activated. It was all piecemeal without any rhyme or reason.
Then I got a HomePod last year. It’s been in our bedroom for the most part, even though there’s an Echo Dot in there, too. We’ve been using it for music, for white noise generating at night, and other stuff. But it’s not been hooked into the smart home stuff. That’s all been based on Alexa. Then Ian asked for and got a HomePod mini for his birthday last year. He’d been having trouble with his Echo Dot not connecting to the WiFi properly. He’s been enjoying it, but it meant that he wasn’t really “connected” to everything anymore.
I’d been meaning to look into Homebridge for a while. As they say on their website:
Homebridge allows you to integrate with smart home devices that do not natively support HomeKit. There are over 2,000 Homebridge plugins supporting thousands of different smart accessories.
With the acquisition of the Synology (and Docker running on it), I had a platform to install and run it on. In short order, I’d connected two of our light switches and two smart plugs with lamps, but then the rest was being more… intractable. Like I said, they were piecemeal and a mixed bag of manufacturers. I tried for a while to get the smart bulbs in the bedroom lamps to connect, but without success. And there doesn’t seem to be any way to get the smart plug that we have under the piano (Amazon Basics) to work.
So this afternoon, I ordered:
- A Philips Hue LED strip and hub,
- Two Philips Hue bulbs,
- A four-pack of Kasa smart plugs (they seem to work great with Homebridge)
- A three-pack of Kasa smart dimmer switches, to replace the bonus room one at least.
This should retire all of the things that don’t work across HomeKit and Alexa, and reduce the number of different smart home things and apps and such. We’ll see. The first part of the order should arrive tomorrow.
Updated
The first things to arrive were the Hue Bridge and light strip and the Kasa smart dimmer switches. Put that all together, the Hue stuff first. No real problems. Ian and I installed the new dimmer switch in the bonus room. Everything is talking to both Apple and Amazon so far. More smart plugs and Hue bulbs come Tuesday. I was really happy that Homebridge did what it was supposed to.
As a bonus, I got the Roomba working through it, too.
Updated Again
The remaining Hue lights and smart plugs have arrived, and worked just fine. There is a heck of a lot more stuff showing up in the Home app now.
What happens when you have a power failure????