I have been a home assistant user for the last couple of years and thinking of switching to Homey Pro.
I have a number of very custom automations I am looking to see if I can migrate over to Homey. One automation is based on the hopme assistant companion app. I am able to expose my mobiles wifi SSID name to home assistant.
From there I am able to run different automations based on the wifi name I am connected to For example if I am connected to my home wifi, home assistant knows I am at home.
If I then connect to my cars wifi (wireless android auto) It knows I have left the house, it then turns on a home away input boolean, which in turn turns my heat and lights off as soon as connect to the cars wifi.
Is there anything similar to this in Homey?
My second question is I have the Hive heating system, is there any integration for it in Homey? Thats the other reason I may not be able to move over.
Homey still hasn’t phone sensors available for automations, starting different flows for different SSID names won’t work.
What is possible, to use Android Macrodroid or Tasker, or Ios Shortcuts, to have it send a webhook to Homey, when you’re connected to your car’s wifi SSID
For sure Macrodroid can (and of course it can also detect if you’re connected to your home SSID).
Example:
I would not dismantle the HA system though, I use both (howto here).
HA is way quicker with supporting new(er) gear for instance. Z2M is also great, compared to Homey zigbee.
Matter devices don’t need to be certified, Homey’s Matter implementation is not production ready imho. It tends to just quit, and it’s impossible to un-pair dissappeared Matter devices, which makes re-adding those sort of impossible.
@Peter_Kawa
I was thinking of using that solution. How reliable is it? I have read mixed reviews. I was thinking of using HA to control all my devices. I bought a Cloudflare url for 10 years and could use it for external access to HA.
I was then thinking of using Homey to expose HA devices to Alexa rather than paying ÂŁ65 a year for HA to do it. But I read that it can be temperamental doing it that way.
Hello @Stephen_Johnston I am also using the Smart Presence app combined with static IP-addresses set from my router site.
I I’ve given all regular phones (my/wifey/babysitter etc.) static IP-addresses and then this app searches for this IP to set this user home/away.
In the settings of these users you are able to set some important variables (since some phone lose their wifi connection for like 2min so ive set a timeout if IP-X is not seen for 15min set this user away
NOTE: I’ve noticed iPhones have an additional security where they change their MAC address and those users have to do this on their phone to not do this (Since their MAC address is changed my router didnt recocnize them and didnt not give those the right IP)
On two of the 3 wifi networks I connect to, I wont be able to set a static IP. Thats why HA is handy as I can see the WIFI SSID name I am connected to. Plus the nice thing is it is an instant update so as soon as my phone connects to a WIFI SSID, the name of it is updated in HA and triggers an automation.
So as soon as I get into the car and it connects to the cars WIFI or my church’s WIFI with in a second or two it triggers different automations.
I also run automations based on disconnect of a WIFI name, so when I walk out of range say my church’s WIFI, HA goes ah ok, he is leaving church, I need to turn the heating back on, so the house is warm when I get home!
To create a Homey Pro flow based on your WiFi name, you would use the “WiFi Network” trigger within the Homey app, which allows you to set a flow to activate whenever your Homey Pro detects a specific WiFi network name (SSID) that it is connected to, essentially allowing you to trigger actions based on which network your Homey is currently on.
How to set up a Homey Pro flow based on WiFi name:
Open the Homey App: Launch the Homey app on your phone or computer.
Create a new flow: Navigate to the “Flows” section and click on “Add a new flow”.
Select the trigger:
Choose “When” and then select “Device”.
Under “Device,” select your Homey Pro.
Select “WiFi Network” as the trigger.
Set the condition:
In the “WiFi Network” settings, enter the specific WiFi network name (SSID) you want to use as the trigger.
Add an action:
Choose the action you want to perform when your Homey Pro connects to the specified WiFi network, like turning on/off lights, adjusting thermostat, playing a specific sound, etc.
Example scenarios:
Home mode activation:
When your Homey Pro connects to your home WiFi network, trigger a flow to turn on smart plugs, adjust lighting, and activate other home automation features.
Away mode activation:
If you have a separate guest WiFi network, set a flow to activate specific away mode features when your Homey Pro connects to that network.
Important points to remember:
Accuracy:
Ensure you accurately type the WiFi network name to avoid unintended triggers.
Network changes:
If you change your WiFi network name, you will need to update the flow accordingly.
Homey Pro connection:
Make sure your Homey Pro is properly connected to the WiFi network you want to use as the trigger.
Reliable enough for me. I don’t encounter more issues compared to Homey on its own.
It all depends on the quality of your wifi network, and the hardware you use for HA.
Crucial Homey apps, like MQTT Hub and Home Assistant community are improved and developed by a very active and capable dev.
Fun fact: lots of stuff responded waaaay faster; zigbee with zigbee2mqtt response times are around 1s quicker, compared to Homey (Pro 2019) zigbee:
zigbee device > Homey: 1.5s
zigbee device > Z2M > MQTT > wifi > HA cmty app > Virtual HA zigbee device
Homey: 0.5s
HINT: Don’t run HA using an SD card as disk, as seen with certain standard RPi like solutions.
I used an old NUC with Debian linux and VirtualBox, which runned a HA virtual image. Now it runs on an old €50 HP Elite thin client.
Dongles:
That sounds interesting. I was thinking of using Homey Pro as a connection to Alexa. Not having to pay ÂŁ65 a year to Nabu Cassa. Have all my automations on my HA instance, then expose them to Homey Pro then to Alexa.
I would plan on having both HA on my raspberry pi 5 networked (using nvme) and Homey Pro networked as well.
I have HA running local only. The stuff I need to control some things with, in my case Google, operates the HA devices on Homey, or starts Homey flows containing HA device per virtual devices.
Security related stuff like locks are not exposed to Homey, except for their status for instance.
Cool. I am going to try one thing first which looks interesting. I tried a node red to alexa integration and it was ok, but seemed limited in media player functionality.
I am currently researching HA to Home Bridge, which I could setup as a container on my synoligy nas, then to alexa. It seems promising. I think I have an old ipad somewhere I could use to pair the devices from homebridge to homekit.
Not to hijack your thread, but I have a Homey Pro, and Alexa, and everything in the Homey is showing up in Alexa. I don’t really do any automation programming in Alexa, but being able to trigger virtually anything with voice control is handy.
I was hoping that things might flow the other way as well. I have a stand-alone app that controls my gas fireplace (IntelliFire). There is an Alexa Skill that allow me to turn on/off the fireplace using voice commands, but it does that by connecting the Alexa cloud to my IntelliFire app account. That’s ok, it’s one of a very few automations I have that depend on the cloud.
I was hoping to be able to trigger that Skill from a Homey Flow. Unfortunately, no go. The closest I can come is to have a speaker play an audio file from a Homey Flow of me telling Alexa to turn on/off the fireplace. It works, but is definitely going around your elbow to get to your ear. And reliability is sketch at best.
Anyone know of a more direct way short of writing my own IntelliFire Homey app?
I saw that - haven’t loaded it. It appears that devices and routines can be triggered, but not “Skills” which appear to be a different thing technically. I’ll take a closer look tomorrow.
I have just ordered a Homey Pro and a network adapter for it a few minutes ago. My new plan is to use both Homey Pro and Home Assistant together. Setting the MQTT link up to expose my devices and scripts from HA to Homey Pro.
Then use Homey Pro and Alexa to control them, I have a couple of Zigbee buttons to do things like control my TV and my lights. I might link them to Homey Pro and control the devices that way.
Currently I have them connected to HA via a sonoff plus dongle. But if I connect them directly to Homey, it means I could get rid of my Raspberry Pi and run Home Assistant as a VM on my Synology NAS.
You can also use the Sonoff dongle on your Synology.
FWIW, both HA and zigbee2mqtt are much better Zigbee implementations than Homey: better range, better performance, and better (generic) device support. I would recommend waiting with getting rid of anything that’s working now until you have a better idea of how it performs with Homey.
Hello,
Looks very interesting, I would like to test it, but I do not find the “Wifi Network trigger” when trying to create the flow with the When (browser). What did I do wrong?
