This little blurb is about the multiple smart home servers I have set up with raspberry pi and how they have worked for me.
It all started when I got my first smart lights when I was about 16. They were LIFX A19 color bulbs. Over the years I have since accumulated countless smart home technologies, understanding how to use them effectively and cohesively, and many adaptive skills with technology in general from these experiences. I started expanding and found that Amazon’s Alexa smart home ecosystem has the most supported tech as well as the most advanced software for using this tech. Though I have quickly in the last year as of writing this become more aware and protective of my data and privacy. I have found more comfort in Apple’s smart home system, Homekit. They have higher security standards and hold privacy as a big value in their company in general.
As I become more involved in the world of smart home technology, I quickly realized the capabilities and integrations available through setting up a third-party service that is usually run best as a DIY project on a raspberry pi. So, my first project became setting up Home Assistant. This was neat to set up and get running for the first time. It was incredibly satisfying to see my project work when I set it all up and connected to it locally through the network where I was greeted by the UI through the browser. It had already found many of my smart devices and was ready to add them at my command. But to be honest I didn’t have much use for this because I kept everything through Homekit. So, the project didn’t really stick around for long.
I then at the time wanted to make use of the pi by setting up a dedicated server for my discord bot, but that was quickly thwarted as the use for my discord bot wasn’t there. So, I decided to set up Homebridge. This software made sense because as the name indicates it works specifically with Apple’s Homekit. Just as I had done with Home Assistant, I watched whatever up to date and relevant video for setting up Homebridge was available on YouTube. I also followed along some documentation from their GitHub instructions and found help when I got stuck through sites like stack overflow or pull request conversations on the Homebridge repository. I finally got the software up and running. As satisfied as I was to have something more useful to my home and aligned with my smart tech requirements, I still didn’t find much use for it. But setting it up was very useful and could have been more useful if I was using any smart tech that wasn’t directly compatible with Homekit. Though I had all but thrown them away as they sat in storage waiting for me to give them to friends or family.
Finally, I stumbled across HOOBS. I had heard about it in my research for setting up the previous two smart home servers but didn’t really understand what it was until I had time to investigate it over winter break in my penultimate semesters of college. As I had acquired a bit of tech from Ring, I wished there was a way to integrate them into Homekit. At the time Homekit didn’t have a lot of camera and security support and ring was the best option that was relatively affordable and user friendly. Unfortunately, Ring is, unsurprisingly, owned by Amazon and so I don’t exactly see Apple working with them to get Homekit integration. But as mentioned this is the Apple of home security and I see it in both companies’ interest to do so. I have also heard and read around reddit and other forums that they have considered and even announced an eventual Homekit integration. But that hasn’t happened yet, so Hoobs is the answer. H.O.O.B.S. stands for Homebridge Out of Box System and is Homebridge but with much less hassle for the user. The idea of Hoobs is to just work “out of the box” for the user as the name indicates. I have since set up Hoobs and got my ring system integrated into Homekit. It worked well and it was so cool to use these Apple features designed for this kind of tech. It really felt like I was in my little base station headquarters being able to see my cameras from the couch on the tv and the rest of the system. I do hope official support comes soon but this solution was seamless and smooth. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to put products not supported by Homekit into Homekit.
If you are wondering how I set up Hoobs or any other system I just used the most up to date and relevant information, tutorials, and forums I could find. I would recommend doing the same because this technology is always changing, and software is always being adjusted which makes the setup vary between the years and even months. I hope you found this somewhat insightful and as interesting as I have.