C-Bus HomeBridge Accessory - motion sensor - no response

Have a C-Bus + (C-Gate + Homebridge)@MacMini setup.

In Homekit (i.e. Home App + Siri) - Lights/switches working great and SmartGate triggered C-Bus light action working great.

But, have also configured C-Bus PIR (motion sensors) but not getting any action reported in homebridge log and subsequently no action in Homekit.

Can anyone please point where am I going wrong?


=-=-=Homebridge Config=-=-
{
"type": "motion",
"id": 72,
"name": "Family"
}
=-=-=C-Bus/C-Gate=-=-
<Unit>
<TagName>NEWUNIT</TagName>
<Address>72</Address>
<Description/>
<UnitType>SENPILL</UnitType>
<UnitName>FAMILY</UnitName>
<SerialNumber>100251.1087</SerialNumber>
<FirmwareVersion>2.0.00</FirmwareVersion>
...
...
<PP Name="PECTargetLux" Value="0x2d"/>
<CatalogNumber>5753PEIRL</CatalogNumber>
</Unit>
=-=-= Home App=-=-=

 

As far as I know the only thing you can do in HomeKit with the CBus motion sensors is switch the enable disable group address.

 

Is the application running on 56 or another application number? if its on 202 or 1 of the other applications, you need to specify that application number specifically for that entry in the json file.

 

I did think of that as the 'Id' is duplicated with one of the other lights. But thought the 'light' and 'motion' type should address this distinction.
Also, I have not manually specified any application number. in toolkit I see that all my sensors/multi-sensor are configured with Application as 'Lighting'.

 

Hi Allanf,

I would first check if you can you see the sensor working in Toolkit log? You did not mention this above.
Also check if you have the sensor set to send a response for "Any Motion" as a bell press.
If you get a sensor response in toolkit, then that's the C-Bus side working.

As for the homebridge side. If your other c-bus accessories are working, then from the homebridge snippet above it looks fine. The only thing you can add is the enable option (which should not really make a difference as it is optional, but worth a try):
e.g.
{
"type": "motion",
"id": 213,
"name": "Backyard PIR",
"enabled": true
},

Remember if this is not the last accessory listed in the c-bus part of the homebridge config file then there should be a trailing comma after the cllose bracket " }, " but you should get a homebridge config.json error if this were the case. Syntactically, the above looks correct in the config file.

Aside from this, is the 72 in the cgate XML listing a hex number? i.e. 72hex = 118 decimal.

Cheers

Jason

 

Just looked at your images above. For some reason, I couldn't see them when I responded before.

You are using the sensor device address in your config.json file and not the lighting group address assigned to FM1. You need to put the group address number (in the range 0-255) assigned to FM1 in the lighting application into the config.json file not the sensor unit address.

Forget the HEX/DEC thing above.

This should make it go...

Cheers

Jason

 

alanf

I don’t know why this thread is getting so complicated but you won’t seen the CBus sensor in HomeKit just like you don’t see your key inputs (light switches) in HomeKit.
What you will see in the HomeKit interface is the result eg light turn on.

 

What you “can” do with HomeKit and CBus motion sensors is turn the sensor on or off with the enable disable group address programmed into the sensor by CBus Toolkit.

 

Nothing complicated here...

My outdoor C-Bus PIR's are programmed to turn a lighting GA (light) On at night with motion.

They also turn another "motion" lighting GA on/off with the "any move" option i.e. day and night set as a bell press.

This "any move" GA is listed as an accessory in homebridge and is active/inactive with the status that it reads from C-Gate.

Homekit then sends me notifications when I am not home to indicate movement. It also triggers a camera to take a snapshot and sent that as well.

It works beautifully...

 

Thanks for explaining.
That a great idea I never heard of.

 

Hi Daryl,

It works very well. I also have an old Inner Range Concept 4000 Alarm panel which communicates bidirectionally with c-bus over RS-232. The PIR’s (and smoke detectors) managed by the panel parse their state to dummy c-bus GA’s. These are also setup the same way as a real CBus PIR in homebridge. Essentially every room in the house now has a pseudo CBus PIR for turning internal lights on and off and providing me with remote motion and smoke detection with HomeKit.

I wrote a homebridge-CBus smoke detector accessory that I have added as a pull request for the plugin.

Cheers

Jason

 

Thanks @JasonY00
Yes, all my sensors configured in toolkit work as expected turning lights on when motion detected for the time of the day, etc.

Perfect, That did the trick

 

Great News,

glad to have been some help...

Cheers

Jason