iOS 10 Incorrect and or "No Response" Status in Home App

[flmmkr]

Being that the Home app does have the ability to show current status of devices, the ability must be there in HomeKit. When I press the button on a switch the HomeKit status does get updated in the Home app, so there is in fact some way of HomeKit getting the correct information. Likely it's the Hub Pro sending HomeKit an update that a light has turned on or off. If Hub Pro queried the devices then sent the correct status to HomeKit on a regular basis then it would do the trick.

[stusviews]

I never said that the Hub Pro cannot detect the status of a device, only that it doesn't recognize anything that hasn't been added to Homekit. Is the switch you are referring to added to the Hub Pro?

[flmmkr]

No, that's why I was wondering if it was possible to have the ISY remotely press and hold the Set button. Adding a device to the Hub Pro works quicker and more reliably doing it manually with the Set button versus entering the 6-digit device address. We also initially thought that adding a device with the Set button allowed it work properly in the Home app on iPhone (status in Favorites) and on the Apple Watch (control and status), but I found that to be wrong once you add several devices. So at this point it doesn't really matter anyway. I'll just add the FanLincs with the 6-digit address.

[stusviews]

The ISY cannot press and/or hold any button at all, most especially not a set button, not even to add a device to the ISY. The ISY can remotely cause button A to send an on or off via a scene (because the ISY itself behaves as a scene controller). The ISY can also change the state of the button LED without sending any signal.

[KCF]

flmmkr, just FYI I was able to find a way to put the fanlincs in linking mode programmatically and was successful linking them to the Hub Pro "manually". I use Indigo for my Home Automation and I discovered that they had a way to send "raw insteon commands" to devices that are already added to the system. Since the fans were already linked to my Indigo modem, I sent the "enter link" command at the right moment (twice, for the two-way process) and voila! Very happy that I didn't have to open the switch boxes or dismount the fans. I am still going very slowly and plan to add only the devices I use the most.

[flmmkr]

Thanks for that bit of info. Looks like Indigo can do something that ISY can't.

How is everything working so far with going slowly? Does the Favorites page update correctly? Do you have an Apple Watch, and if so, does the Home app work?

I realized today that I didn't add my Thermostat to the Hub Pro, so I did that via the Insteon+ app. Immediately after adding it I checked my Apple Watch and was able to control the Thermostat. A few minutes later it stopped working though and now says "No Response" like all the other devices. I wish there was a way to restore the functionality seems how it was working at one point. I've tried everything though.

[KCF]

I haven't done much progress (just the fanlincs and a few more devices), but so far I haven't had many issues. My favorites page is fine and the app in my watch works. One thing I noticed is that the correct status shows for some devices but not for others. Switchlinc, good. Fanlinc, no good. Not all switchlincs word well, I wonder if it has to do with version or with something going on during the linking process.

I am not sure how much more time I will spend with this because I am about to try an alternative which is to integrate my Indigo system with HomeKit using HomeBridge. If that works well, then it would be the preferred solution so that there is only one hub, less maintenance, etc.

Update: I am officially abandoning Insteon's homekit hub. I may keep it in case improvements are made later, but I was able to add my Indigo system to HomeKit through HomeBridge and everything works very well. I have around 60 devices and 10 scenes, all show in the iOS Home app, in the WatchOS app, no problem with the favorites page, no "no response" errors and more devices are supported (locks, garage door, etc). Moreover, it was easy to set up and the statuses do not get confused (like they do when having more that one hub).

[flmmkr]

I've found that as I add devices with the Set button or with Insteon+ they actually work (status and control) in the Home app on my Apple Watch and on my iPhone 7... for about a minute. Then the devices become completely non-responsive on the Apple Watch and need to be tapped on the Favorite screen to update properly on the iPhone. I also found that scenes work properly on the Favorites screen on the iPhone (status and control) and control of scenes works properly on the Apple Watch. For a couple minutes after adding a new scene the Apple Watch does correctly show the status of a scene (highlighted if it's active), but shortly after that it won't show that a scene is active, but will allow for control of a scene.

KCF, any update on your end? Have you added all your devices and they are all working properly on the iPhone and Watch Home apps? If so, how long are you waiting between device additions?

[KCF]

filmmkr, it seems you didn't see my update above...

"I am officially abandoning Insteon's homekit hub. I may keep it in case improvements are made later, but I was able to add my Indigo system to HomeKit through HomeBridge and everything works very well. I have around 60 devices and 10 scenes, all show in the iOS Home app, in the WatchOS app, no problem with the favorites page, no "no response" errors and more devices are supported (locks, garage door, etc). Moreover, it was easy to set up and the statuses do not get confused (like they do when having more that one hub)."

After doing this I discovered there are no limits for favorites, the watch Home app works fine even with many devices, and I don't have a single issue in the last three days. The setup was pretty easy, the statuses update real time, etc. I cannot believe all the time I spend trying to make that other hub work!

FYI, I checked and there seems to be a homebridge implementation for your hub in GitHub. See https://github.com/rodtoll/homebridge-isy-js
I just used "terminal" in MacOS and I am somewhat comfortable with Unix so it was not that difficult. Good luck!

[flmmkr]

No I didn't see that edit in your post before. The problem with Homebridge is you need a computer running 24/7 to keep it operational. I wasn't really interested in doing that, which is also one of the reasons why I ruled out Indigo. It surprises me that this Github project can get Homekit working with the ISY994, but Universal Devices says they can't do it or that it's too difficult or whatever.

[KCF]

I understand. I already had a Mac Mini running 24 hours as a home server. The same is true with Indigo: they have not had the time to add home kit support, however users have integrated it through homebridge and released it on Github. It is surprising how well it works, not a single glitch so far and it supports so many more devices.

[flmmkr]

I ordered a Rasberry Pi 3 to experiment with. Although it's running all day it's not much more power than the Hub Pro uses.

[KCF]

Sounds like a good idea. Let us know how it goes with the Raspberry Pi.

[flmmkr]

The Raspberry Pi 3 showed up yesterday. I spent just under $57 to get the main board, case, and power supply. All in all, I spent about 9 hours setting it up, installing the OS (twice because I decided to switch to the full version of Raspbian Jessie), configuring the Homebridge ISY plugin, making some changes to my ISY configuration, setting Homebridge up to auto launch, and a bit of troubleshooting.

Initially I set up the RPi3 hooked up to my TV and used a spare keyboard and mouse. Once I installed the OS, created a new user, enabled root, deleted the old user, and turned on SSH, I hooked it up headless (no display, keyboard, or mouse) next to my ISY. The rest of the setup was done by SSH'ing into the RPi3 from my Mac.

That said, it works perfectly. All the devices I want in HomeKit are there, except for the Insteon wired thermostat. Apparently thermostats are very complicated and don't work well through Homebridge, so I'm getting an actual HomeKit enabled thermostat. Status updates correctly on my iPhone, iPad, and Watch, and on my wife's iPhone and iPad. Turning a light on or off in HomeKit correctly changes the corresponding switch's light (didn't always work right with Hub Pro, especially with scenes). I can turn lights on and off, dim lights, and control ceiling fans perfectly with no issues on all devices, including Apple Watch.

A cool thing is that scenes added from the ISY through Homebridge show up as devices in HomeKit. For example, I have 3 outdoor lights that are each on a separate SwitchLinc. I have those 3 SwitchLincs set as controllers in a scene so that turning on one turns on all. That scene is now a device in HomeKit so I don't have to create new a new scene for them and it appears like all the other lights.

Which devices and scenes load into Homebridge is configurable so you're not stuck with a bunch of devices or scenes you don't want there. For example, I excluded the light portion of FanLincs that don't have lights on those fans, and also excluded the scene buttons on keypads that HomeKit can't control.

Oh and adding devices is super fast. The Homebridge config file I created renamed the ISY device names to more HomeKit friendly names. As soon as I added Homebridge in Home all the devices popped up one right after the other. All I had to do was assign a room for each device and I was basically done. Some I have with the same name with the room being the differentiator, but HomeKit flashes the lights on and off to identify them and even has a button to do it manually to make it really easy. I did have to manually turn fans on and off to identify those.

So all in all, this is what Hub Pro should be. And it makes me wonder why UD doesn't add this functionality into the ISY or as an add-on for it. But for less than half the price of a Hub Pro, I'll take it.

New Ecobee3 thermostat (I could really use the extra sensors anyway) will be here today so I'll have HomeKit working 100% by the weekend.

[KCF]

I am glad you were successful! Yes, everything works well with homebridge and more devices are compatible. I had nests for thermostats and I had added them to Indigo with a plugin. I was surprised they were recognized by homebridge/homekit and they work well. I also like the fact that you have some flexibility to tell how to treat the devices like. My bathroom fans were added as lights but I later asked homebridge to treat them as switches and inside homekit I set them up as fans. Insteon locks and garage door is something else that is up and running. I never thought I would be able to add them to homekit.

One more thing I did after the homebridge installation is to add the Alexa plugin in Indigo. Now my devices can be voice-controlled by both Siri and Alexa, which is great for when the user is at home and does not have an iOS device handy.