README

homebridge-nhc2

As of October 29, 2019 Niko has published their Hobby API which allows end users to control their Niko Home Control 2 installation through the MQTT protocol. This homebridge plugin adds homekit support for a Niko Home Control 2 having the Hobby API defined as a connected service.

Supported actions include:

toggle light status
set light brightness level

Changes

You can read the complete history of changes in the CHANGELOG.

Known Issues

Currently we need to set the rejectUnauthorized option to false because we are unable to verify the Niko root CA which is not ideal. Feel free to look into this.

Project Principles

This project has a few principles that have and will continue to guide its development.

Dependency lean. Try to keep the required dependencies to a minimum.
Simple. Using the plugin should be simple and straightforward following common conventions.
Completeness This plugin is a far way from being complete, but we aim to make this plugin feature complete based on the official Niko documentation.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, particularly bug fixes and enhancements! Refer to our Contribution Guidelines for details.

Please note that Project owners reserve the right to accept or reject any PR for any reason.

Code of Conduct

Before contributing or participating in the homebridge-nhc2 community please be sure to familiarize yourself with our project CODE OF CONDUCT. These guidelines are intended to govern interactions with and within the homebridge-nhc2 community.

Hobby API Documentation

The Hobby API encapusulated by this plugin is documented by Niko which can be found here

Warranty Disclaimer

You may use this plugin with the understanding that doing so is AT YOUR OWN RISK. No warranty, express or implied, is made with regards to the fitness or safety of this code for any purpose. If you use this plugin to query or change settings of your installation you understand that it is possible to break your installation and may require the replace of devices or intervention of professionals of which costs cannot be returned by the project team.

Installation

In order to use the plugin you must first download and install it globally.

npm install -g homebridge-nhc2

You may also install directly from the GitHub source. Either download and unzip the source, or clone the repository. Run the build command and pass the -P flag to homebridge to be able to locate the plugin.

Connecting the Hobby API

Login in to mynikohomecontrol and add the Hobby API to your connected services. This will provide you with a password which in formatted as a JWT token and valid for 1 year.

Following options are available for configuring the plugin.

host
port (default to 8884)
clientId (default to NHC2-homebridge)
username (default to hobby)
password

Add the plugin to the platforms section in your homebridge configuration file.

  "platforms": [
    {
      "platform" : "NHC2",
      "name" : "NHC2",
      "host": "<IP_ADDRESS_OF_YOUR_CONNECTED_CONTROLLER>",
      "password": "<PASSWORD_PROVIDED_BY_MYNIKOHOMECONTROLL>"
    }
  ]

Note: The clientId should be unique to the MQTT service provided by the Connected Controller. If multiple connections with the same ClientId are running these will continuously disconnect/reconnect and may skip MQTT messages.

More Configuration Options

Verbose Logging

Another configuration option is de verbose switch. It cranks up the information that is published to the logs. This is still at an informational level and can help in detecting anomalies. To really see debugging level details, run homebridge with the -D switch.

Suppressing Accessories

Besides the required host & password and other connection-related configuraion options, the configuration also allows for suppressing accessories:

  "platforms": [
    {
      "platform" : "NHC2",
      "name" : "NHC2",
      "host": "<IP_ADDRESS_OF_YOUR_CONNECTED_CONTROLLER>",
      "password": "<PASSWORD_PROVIDED_BY_MYNIKOHOMECONTROLL>",
      "suppressedAccessories": [
          "fa33d687-9225-4f9e-b55e-013abb69b42e"
      ]
    }
  ]

This allows for not exposing certain accessories to Homebrigde (and therefore also the Home app). This feature can be useful when sharing access to the Home app with others.

Plugin Development

When working on this plugin, you'll want Homebridge to load it from your development directory instead of publishing it to npm each time.

Run this command inside your plugin project folder so your global install of Homebridge can discover it:

npm link

You can undo this using the npm unlink command.

Then start Homebridge in debug mode:

homebridge -D

This will start up Homebridge and load your in-development plugin. Note that you can also direct Homebridge to load your configuration from somewhere besides the default ~/.homebridge, for example:

homebridge -D -U ./homebridge-dev

This is very useful when you are already using your development machine to host a "real" Homebridge instance (with all your accessories) that you don't want to disturb.

Usage no npm install needed!