CGate as a Homebridge plugin

Just finished my Homebridge and CGate install on Mac-Mini.
Have to admit it was a fiddly process but got it working after some hiccups (thanks to a mate GrahamB for the help.)

This got me wondering it would be so easy for those that may not be very technical to just have CGate running as a Homebridge plugin just like "C-Bus for Homebridge" plugin by anthonywebb (Anthony great job).

 

Re a plugin to install CGate
It might seem a little daunting when you start but I think there is a lot to gain by learning to do a few things on Linux.
Have a look at this script created by CBus forum member Greig.
Created for raspberry pi3-4 hardware it will install Homebridge, Homebridge CBus and CGate then walk you through the configuration.
It makes the whole setup really simple.
https://github.com/greiginsydney/Homebridge-cbus-installer/blob/master/SETUP.md

 

@DarylMc Thanks and agree there is good learning. For those technically inclined this is definitely the way to go.
I was more thinking of those that are not and how to get a wider participation without people feeling daunted with the process.


Any way, couple of days into the setup and I have noticed, after some time Homebridge to C-Gate connection drops and a restart of Homebridge and C-Gate is requited to re-establish the connection. Anyone has seen this behaviour? Any pointers?

 

I haven’t seen that on a raspberry pi.

 

Looks like the cause might be Mac being set to sleep after 15 mins.
Have set Mac Never to sleep and so far seems like everything stays on. Let me monitor this.

 

Chuck it on a Raspi 4 - much lower power consumption and less likely to have someone interfere with it. Install the Homebridge Config UI-X and you can run it all from a browser https://github.com/oznu/homebridge-config-ui-x#readme

 

@chromus completely agree on the power consumption comment and less interference on Pi4. Pi4 would be the best way for a permanent setup. Another reason this is appropriate is for any future plans where someone wants to sell an existing house, the Pi4 just becomes part of the sell assets of the house, this just keeps things nice, tidy and boxed.

Anyway, for now while I experiment, setting MacMini 'never to sleep' solved the connection going stale problem.

Loving the Siri integration to C-Bus via HomeBridge.


If anyone has any suggestion to my other problem "motion sensor" please comment in this thread - http://t.ly/ODJ9.

 

If u havent put the UI-X plugin on there do so ->it makes life a lot simpler and it has a JSON parser in the config editor so its pretty hard to screw things up.

 

I do have the Ui-X Plugin, actually it got auto installed as part of the initial setup.

 

Hi Daryl

I ran into an issue with the running the script at step 30. The output was:

Ive updated the node.js on my Raspberry Pi B+ to node-v11.15.0 for ARMv61 but no dice. Do you have a workaround for this?

Regards
Brent

 

I don’t know and I’m away from my computers for a few weeks.
I’d try this.
As far as I know Homebridge disk image from github will run on any RPI.
Don’t run Greig‘s script just install CGate and configure manually.

 

Thanks Daryl. I approached Grieg with a request on Github. Let’s see if he can’t resolve it’ll be over to a manual install. Who’s currently got the best explanation for the manual install?

 

S

https://blog.addictedtopi.com/2017/05/21/installing-c-gate-on-a-raspberry-pi/

 

@DarylMc I still use ur updated spreadsheet, then chuck on the UI-X plugin.

I prefer the tinkering to the script, to this day I have never gotten the my-platform to work for some reason but im so used to writing the entries by hand now its no big deal.

 

In the next few weeks I will set up a test network and have a look at everything.
Homebridge RPI image with the GUI looks nice.
Greig’s script worked great last time I tried it a few months ago.
It worked with the steps Greig listed but will need some changes though to work with the Homebridge image on github.

 

And Just as I posted about my-platform not ever populating, it did on 2 clients setups I was doing in parallel