Need help Smartthings & Homekit via Hue Bridge

[JDRoberts]

@mjr0483

There is talk of software solutions which I assume is just a way around buying an actual Hue Bridge.
Everything I read just confuses me more.

But with either method whether software kit or a Philips Hue Bridge can you fully control devices and routines on Smartthings through the Hue Bridge via Siri?

If so, what are the limitations of this?

End game is I want to be able to control all with Alexa & Siri.

Thanks

The HomeBridge Option

At the present time, the only way to control SmartThings-controlled devices that are not made to work with HomeKit is to set up a separate server and run some software that will make HomeKit think everything is coming from a Phillips hue bridge even though it is not. So basically you are building a fake virtual hue bridge to fool HomeKit. That is what “homebridge” is. It requires quite a bit of technical skill to set up.

[OBSOLETE] Hello, Home HomeKit (and Siri!) control via homebridge

Homebridge is an OSS Node.js server that emulates the iOS HomeKit API. I’ve just submitted a pull request to that project that adds support for creating HomeKit accessories for each of your Hello, Home actions, and by extension, enabled a means to trigger them via Siri. Setup is a little complicated. You need: A membership in the iOS Developer Program The SmartApp at homebridge/HelloHomeBridge.groovy at smartthings · jnewland/homebridge · GitHub installed on your SmartThings account with OAuth enabled The version of HomeBridge from the above linked PR running on a server on your local network BetterHomeKit installed on your iOS device Given those ingredients: Install the HelloHomeBridge SmartApp into the SmartThings app on your iOS device. Open the HelloHomeBridge SmartApp Copy the g…

You can’t use a real Phillips hue bridge and achieve the same thing, because you can’t connect your other SmartThings – controlled devices to it. So the real Phillips hue bridge is not a workaround for this.

The other alternative: only use real devices that work with both SmartThings and HomeKit

The other alternative, which is what we do at my house, is to only use devices which will officially work with both HomeKit and SmartThings.

There aren’t many of these, but there are some, and it may be enough depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

For example, Lutron Caseta light switches will work with both as long as you have the Lutron SmartBridge. Smart bulbs connected to the Phillips hue bridge will work with both. The ecobee thermostat will work with both. And the August pro smartlock will work with both.

So it just depends on exactly which devices you need, but if you can limit yourself to the ones that work with both, you won’t need any special code or to fake anything. It will just work.

There is a list in the community – created wiki of devices that will work with both. Again, it’s not a long list, but there are some.

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Devices_that_Work_with_HomeKit_and_SmartThings

As far as limitations, if you are only using official devices you won’t be able to trigger routines or use virtual switches. It is possible to use actual physical devices like Hue bulbs as a "man in the middle because both HomeKit and SmartThings will know when that bulb is turned on or off. So it just depends on what you want to accomplish as to whether this kind of integration is possible.

For example, you could have HomeKit turn on a Phillips hue bulb and have that Phillips hue bulb turning on cause a routine to run in SmartThings. That might be fine for some use cases, but not for others.