[APP][Pro] Homesh Controller & Homesh Satellite - Connect Homey Pro 2023 to Homey Pro for Led, Speaker, Zwave(satellite) and network resource

If you want the development of two Apps to connect two Homey Pro’s, one as Controller and one as Satellite (for it’s LED, Speaker, ZWave, Network resource, etc), click the Like :heart: button!

Wauw, 99 likes! i guess the Apps are going public! :slight_smile:

They are Live:

Homesh Controller

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Homesh Satellite

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Thanks @johan_bendz for the lovely icons and imagery!
And thanks @Caseda for the excellent name!


Hello all,

With the news of the new Homey Pro Early 2023, there are some (for me) big changes:

  • No more speaker
  • No more customisable ledring (through apps controlled)

I personally use these a lot, and for me it’s a deal breaker to change to a newer faster Homey, if i loose my ledring and speaker.
Because i really use them a lot!
F.i. for the trash: Every day at 4 'o clock, if trash needs to be taken out the next day, it tells which trash need to be put on the street and it will turn the led in the trash-container color, until we tell homey that the trash has been taken out, or the trashcollector has pasted by already.

So, to solve this problem, i have started on two new Apps: A Controller and a Satellite App.

These Apps would make it possible to execute functions on the old Homey directly from the new Homey, through Flowcards, but im also adding the old Homey Pro as a (or two) Device(s) in the new Homey Pro.
So, some part will be able to be set directly through a device-tile/tab in the new Homey, like setting the Ledcolor and effect on the old Homey directly from a Device in the new Homey 2023 (App).
Also, you could keep using apps like Soundboard or Muziek Url Omzetter App voor Homey | Homey to play sounds/music directly on Homey Pro and/or from Homey Pro on other devices.

Homey Pro can already be used as a zwave slave, but we need to wrap it as an device to be used, so it can have pickers/selectionlists on the device in the Homey App, for very easy setting of LED effects and colors.

But currently i am developing this as a private app.
And the workload difference between a private and Athom-Store-Published app is a lot.
Also it limits what the app(s) will be able to do, a private app can be granted more access through abbilities not allowed in the App Store.

And only if this post gets enough likes, i’ll put in the extra efforts needed to publish this app.

So, if you want to keep your old Homey Pro to use its LED, Speaker, ZWave, Network resource, etc, directly from a new/other Homey Pro press the Like :heart: button!

@Emile, @Jero or @Athom:
If there is a reason that this should not work or that these apps will not be allowed in the App Store, please let me know, so i won’t spend time trying to build it to be published.
Or if Athom is already planing on a functionality to use the old Homey by the/a new Homey.

Thanks!

Emile already replied:

N.b.
And for the people who will not be using there old Homey Pro: I have been looking for a while for devices with Audio and customisable Led.
So, if these apps come to live/app-store:

Your old Homey Pro might sell better then you think right now!

:wink:


Edit : First zeta-version 0.0.4


Okay, time for a little showtime:

Homesh

Homesh Satellite

You install the app and after that you currently get two things.

The App has an When flowcard

image
A flowcard that you can trigger from the Controller with optional arguments.
Meaning, you can use any apps on the old Homey without the need for me to support it, you can just build flows on the old Homey and have it started at the Controller.

App Settings

In the App Settings you will find your pincode for pairing and your token for authentication between the devices.
The pincode is randomly generated after the app is installed and can be changed to any 4 digit number.
The pincode is used only during pairing and will give the Homesh Controller your token.

The token can be changed also, resulting in the connection with the Controller being lost.
image


Homesh Controller

Create a Homey (Satellite) Device

After you installed the Satellite App on the other Homey it’s time to connect the two devices.
Create a Homey (satellite) device.
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You will get a list of all Homeys in your network (also the Controller itself until i have a second one to develop on).
When you select the homey that you want to control and click next, you get a pincode request:
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Here you fill in the pincode set in the Homesh Satellite App Settings and press ok.
If all is well, the device will be added.

Device Settings

Not much, only the language to use for Say (Google):
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The 6 (currently) flowcards (Then)

  • Play Soundboard file.
  • Play Url (mp3 and wav BIGGER than 900 KB are supported, do not start a song of 20 minutes, you cannot stop it currently :slight_smile: )
    Works great with sending the URL from the Google Services App for Homey
  • Say (Google) will let the Satellite speak, based on a google services (No app required!)
  • Say (Athom) Uses the default speech from athom
  • Set screensaver (from LED-ring Collection).
  • Start flow with arguments.
    Here you will get a dropdown/selectlist with all flownames you have used in the Satellite.
    Triggering this will trigger the Satellite flow directly.

image

Please report issues or feature requests at QlusterIT / nl.qluster-it.Homesh/ issues — Bitbucket.


Apps:

Donations or Sponsorship

125 Likes

Reserved.

And happy birthday @Dijker ! :cake: :birthday: :cupcake:

2 Likes

Sounds nice! Make sure to use mDNS discovery _homey._tcp. :wink:

2 Likes

Great, thanks, i’ll do that!

I don’t have any zigbee devices. Can anyone tell me if a) zigbee can be disabled or connected to another controller or b) it will (or not) give issues having two Homey’s close to each other?

For z-wave and everything else i know, this can be solved. But im not sure about how this will go with zigbee, because i don’t see a button in the homey App to connect the zigbee to another controller?

And for the people who will not be using there old Homey: I have been looking for a while for devices with Audio and customisable Led.
So, if these apps come to live/app-store:

Your old Homey might sell better then you think right now!

:wink:

I wouldn’t focus on Zigbee per se, maybe a generic way of controlling all devices on the other Homey? Not sure if it’s a great experience but some people might like it :slight_smile:

No, i wouldn’t care to use the old Homey’s zigbee, but it might be that it must be disabled so it will not interfere with the new Homey?

I believe i read somewhere in the past that two Homey on the same environment give issues or are not ment to be? Or am i mistaken?

That was here:

but specific for a Restore of the same network IDs/ Keys on the new Homey and keping the old Homey on wil give two Zigbee Controller’s in the air.
Just Reset one and run Two (or more) Zigbee Meshes like one or more Homey Zigbee, HUE Zigbee, IKEA Tradfri Zigbee side by side.

Great, because if a migration from the old to a new one Homey Pro 2023 is supported by Athom, a full reset of the old Homey would be required (and also wanted i guess) anyway :slight_smile:!

And i would have finally found what i have been looking for, for a while: A device with customisable led, with speaker, that can be placed in each room :slight_smile:

This will give that ability!

(Although, thinking about it, technically, i could have build this before, just never thought about connecting Homeys for it :slight_smile: )

This would be really an amazing app, and I beleive a lot of people who did not saw this topic yet would agree.
I will 100% use that to have keep using my led-ring and doorbel sounds for example on my current homey.

Was already thinking to install the old/current homey with just some apps that needs led-ring and sound and keep it turned on. (So install solarpanels, trhas-can reminder, kaku for doorbel on the current homey). But if they could be linked the experience would be much better.

And even better: I have a 2016 and a 2019 homey, which then can sit in different rooms and work together showing led-ring and playing sounds

Yeah, and taking expierence from my HOOP app, i might be able to make it pretty dynamic, so i can support many apps on the old Homey, without having to build real support for it.

This was already possible with HOOP, so i guess it would be able to do it for the Controller and Satellite Apps. That way, people can still use the “old” apps and apps the prefer themselfs, without me having to implement each app there is…
:slight_smile:

1 Like

I’m also very interested in something I can use as a speaker to play sounds, like my doorbell chime. The Homey Pro is now doing that because I don’t like the Nest Doorbell chimes.

Pre-ordered the Pro 2023, but I would lose the speaker… but even so, a separate speaker/led combo is always nice to have around the house.

Did you find anything that could work?

Yes this will work, starting with the ability to start a flow on the Old Homey directly from an actioncard/flowcard in the new Homey.

This makes the start very easy:
You can just create any flow you want with old apps on the old Homey, and start that flow from the new Homey.

That gives these Apps full dynamic control from the start, and i’ll implement more functionalities later on, so you can have more direct control:

The Satellite Homeys are connected as devices in the new Homey, thus:

  • Addable buttons on the device to start flows directly on the old one.
  • Selectlists/dropdownlists/pickers to execute stuff on the old Homey.
  • Information send from old Homey to the new homey (if you might have NFC or something else)
  • A posibility to directly send text/url to the satellites to be send through the speakers.
  • Addable buttons with prefixed text changeable on the new homeys to be played on the satellites.
  • etc.
1 Like

Perhaps i can ask your advice @Emile?

I currently have named the apps Homey Controller and Homey Satellite.

But this is not allowed by Athom: “You may not use the trademarks Homey or Athom in your app’s name.”.

But, every name i can think of, that is clear and obvious contains the name Homey.
Unless the simple names “Controller” and “Satellite” would be prefered, but i find it vage.

So: Can you or Athom advice or suggest a name/names for these apps?

Use Hom3y ? :wink:

1 Like

NOT requiring the Homey’s to be on the same LAN would open up many possibilities. Can understand this will not be priority #1 but please keep this in the back of your mind when working on the discovery part of the app.

4 Likes

Indeed, completly correct: not my first prio, but i’ll keep it in mind and place it on my todo list.

If people have further suggestions or wishes, let me know please!

2 Likes

:heart:

Hmy Controller and Hmy Satellite?
HomePro
Homee

Maybe they should make you an official developer so you can use the real names :wink: