HomeKit Controlled Outlet Switches

Self-contained HomeKit server for controlling wireless electrical outlets over radio frequency

E2E Installation Guide:

1. Install the Raspbian operting system on your raspberry pi (username: pi / password: raspberry) and plugin an ethernet cord from your Raspberry Pi to your router.
2. Update apt-get package manager by executing sudo apt-get update
3. Install git using apt-get by executing sudo apt-get install git. Along the way, you may be prompted to type [Y/n]; in which case, simply press the 'Y' key.
4. Install Node (Raspberry Pi 3 / armv6l version) by executing the following commands -

wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v6.9.5/node-v6.9.5-linux-armv6l.tar.xz
tar xJvf node-v6.9.5-linux-armv6l.tar.xz
sudo mkdir -p /opt/node
sudo mv node-v6.9.5-linux-armv6l/* /opt/node/
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/node" "node" "/opt/node/bin/node" 1
sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/npm" "npm" "/opt/node/bin/npm" 1

5. Now that Node is installed, install homebridge by following the instructions listed on the following website, https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge/wiki/Running-HomeBridge-on-a-Raspberry-Pi

6. Clone homekit-outlets to your raspberry pi with,

git clone http://github.com/trentrand/homekit-outlets.git

7. Install global dependencies

npm run-script install-globals
npm install
git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi
cd ./wiringPi
sudo su
./build

8. Globally install the homebridge-rf-outlet accessory plugin for Homebridge with,

sudo npm install -g homebridge-rf-outlet

9. Setup homekit-outlets to run on startup by following these steps on your homebridge server -

Add the following content to homebridge with,

sudo nano /etc/default/homebridge

# Defaults / Configuration options for homebridge
# The following settings tells homebridge where to find the config.json file and where to persist the data (i.e. pairing and others)
HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS=-U /var/lib/homebridge

# If you uncomment the following line, homebridge will log more
# You can display this via systemd's journalctl: journalctl -f -u homebridge
# DEBUG=*

Add the following content to homebridge.service with,

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/homebridge.service

[Unit]
Description=Node.js HomeKit Server
After=syslog.target network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=homebridge
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/homebridge
# Adapt this to your specific setup (could be /usr/bin/homebridge)
# See comments below for more information
ExecStart=/usr/lib/node_modules/homebridge $HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
KillMode=process

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then execute the following commands,

sudo useradd -M --system homebridge
sudo mkdir /var/lib/homebridge
sudo cp -r ~/.homebridge/persist /var/lib/homebridge/persist
sudo chmod -R 0777 /var/lib/homebridge
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable homebridge
sudo systemctl start homebridge

Setup your configuration file

Before homekit-outlets can work, you must register your wireless outlet on/off radio frequency codes.

To find out your outlet's on/off codes, make sure all outlets are paired to your controller, then follow the on-screen instructions presented to you after starting the pairing helper with

Web app coming soon

Run

After completing the Install dependency tasks, start your HomeKit server with

npm start

Follow the on-screen instructions to pair your iOS device with the HomeKit server.

This server must remain running for HomeKit to work. For this reason, we suggest serving it on a device like the Raspberry Pi 3.

Configuration

Add one accessory to your config.json per each individual power outlet you'd like to control.

Example config.json

{
  "bridge": {
    "name": "Outlet Bridge",
    "username": "FC:10:A7:DD:90:B5",
    "port": 51826,
    "pin": "380-81-301"
  },
  "description": "Self-contained HomeKit server for controlling wireless electrical outlets over radio frequency",
  "accessories": [
    {
      "accessory": "Outlet",
      "name": "Bedroom Lamp",
      "type": "Light",
      "manufacturer": "Ikea",
      "model": "SKEBY Lamp",
      "serial": "",
      "rf_on": 4265267,
      "rf_off": 4265276
    }
  ],
  "platforms": []
}

Mounting Pi to filesystem

sudo mkdir ~/Server
sshfs -o idmap=user pi@homebridge.local:/home/pi/developer ~/Server

License

Copyright 2017 by Trent Rand contact@trentrand.com. Licensed under MIT.