Example of Homebridge on RaspberryPi 3
This example gives the configuration of these accessories/devices;
- Nest thermostat (3rd gen)
- Logitech Harmony Hub
- Raspberry Pi GPIO
- GPS based temperature & humidity sensor
Things I used in this setup;
- Raspberry Pi 3 Model B v1.2
- Raspbian Stretch 4.9 with Desktop
- Keyes Relayboard (2 relays)
- Phoenix Contact RPI-BC DIN rail housing
- iPhone/iPad on iOS 11.3
- PC/Mac (For SSH)
- AppleTV 4 (For remote access)
Useful iOS Apps;
- Home (Expensive but better than default iOS app)
- Prompt
- iTeleport
- Eve (Edit Siri commands)
Useful Mac Apps;
- Etcher
- Apple Screen Sharing
- Terminal
- Transmit
Connect a display, mouse and keyboard to the Raspberry Pi, open terminal and enter the following command:
sudo raspi-config
In the configuration tool enable SSH, VNC, Autologin, Wifi and change your password.
Open VNC Server settings from the system tray.
Options > Security
Encryption = Prefer On
Authentication = VNC Password
Download the setup files, enter the following command:
git clone https://github.com/gerarddvb/Homebridge-on-RaspberryPi /home/pi/HomeKit/
sudo reboot
After reboot test SSH and VNC connection, when succesful, disconnect display, mouse and keyboard.
Setup APT, enter the following commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Use these commands to install Homebridge:
sudo apt-get install libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm homebridge
Use these commands to install the Homebridge plugins.
Initial setup of various plugins is nedeed. Follow the instructions on the GitHub link to the plugin below.
sudo npm install -g homebridge-http
sudo npm install -g homebridge-ws
sudo npm install -g homebridge-nest
sudo npm install -g npm@4
sudo npm install -g homebridge-harmonyhub@0.3.0-alpha.2
Test Homebridge
homebridge
Close after succesful test
Now its time to copy the config.json
cd /home/pi/.homebridge/
sudo wget -N <YOUR config.json file>
To use homebridge-http with GPIO you will need to setup webiopi, skip if you don't want to use GPIO
Setup GPIO
sudo crontab -e
Add the following line at the end:
@reboot sudo python3 /home/pi/HomeKit/gpio.py > /home/pi/HomeKit/webiopilog.txt
Save changes with CTRL-X
Enter the following commands to setup webiopi:
cd /home/pi/HomeKit
sudo wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/webiopi/files/WebIOPi-0.7.1.tar.gz
sudo tar xvzf WebIOPi-0.7.1.tar.gz
cd WebIOPi-0.7.1
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/doublebind/raspi/master/webiopi-pi2bplus.patch
patch -p1 -i webiopi-pi2bplus.patch
sudo ./setup.sh
sudo webiopi -d -c /etc/webiopi/config (Test, close after successful connection)
sudo update-rc.d webiopi defaults
sudo /etc/init.d/webiopi start
After all the accessories/devices are configured and tested, it is time to make it run at boot.
Enter the following commands to enable homebridge to run at boot and restart after 10 seconds of inactivity.
The config.json used by the deamon will be located at /var/homebridge/
sudo useradd --system homebridge
sudo mv /home/pi/HomeKit/homebridge /etc/default/
sudo mv /home/pi/HomeKit/homebridge.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo mkdir /var/homebridge
sudo cp -r /home/pi/.homebridge/accessories/ /var/homebridge/
sudo cp -r /home/pi/.homebridge/persist/ /var/homebridge/
sudo cp /home/pi/.homebridge/config.json /var/homebridge/
sudo chown -R homebridge:homebridge /var/homebridge
sudo chmod 777 -R /var/homebridge
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable homebridge
sudo systemctl start homebridge
sudo reboot
To enable the CPU watchdog enter the following commands, this will reboot the Raspberry Pi after a CPU inactivity of 15 seconds.
sudo nano /boot/config.txt
Add the following lines:
# Watchdog enable
dtparam=watchdog=on
# VNC resolution enable
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
# VNC resolution
# 2=640x400
# 27=1280x800
# 46=1440x900
# 76=2560x1600
# 82=1080p
# 85=720p
hdmi_mode=46
Save changes with CTRL-X
Enter the following commands
sudo apt-get install watchdog
sudo mv /home/pi/HomeKit/watchdog.conf /etc/
sudo mv /home/pi/HomeKit/watchdog.service /lib/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable watchdog
sudo systemctl start watchdog
sudo reboot
Test watchdog
To test the watchdog enter the following command, this will freeze your Rapsberry Pi, it should reboot after 15 seconds.
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You can check the state of homebridge by entering the following command:
sudo systemctl status -l homebridge -n 200
This will output the last 200 lines, change that number to get more/less info
You can check the status of WebIOPi by entering the following address in your browser:
http://RASPBERRYIPADDRESS:8000/
- The service will restart after 10 seconds if it fails for any reason (or if you kill it for example with kill -s SIGSEGV )
- The system will restart after 15 seconds of inactivity
- Install packages manually with: sudo npm install -g FOLDERNAME
https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge/wiki/Running-HomeBridge-on-a-Raspberry-Pi
https://github.com/KhaosT/HAP-NodeJS/blob/master/lib/gen/HomeKitTypes.js
