Despite efforts to createuniversal standards for smart home devices, we still live in a world where a smart plug that works with Alexa and Google may not work withApple’s Home platform. It can be incredibly frustrating to find a device that otherwise seems perfect for your needs but doesn’t work with your smart home ecosystem. It’s even worse if you decide to switch from one ecosystem to another, only to find that half of your devices are no longer compatible.
Thankfully, there are ways around these problems. Software such asHome Assistantallows you to connect and control devices from a wide range of different brands, regardless of which ecosystem they support. It’s not the most user-friendly software, however.
An alternative option is Homebridge, which is software that acts as a bridge between your devices and the Apple Home app. Homebridge allows you to connect devices that would otherwise be incompatible, such asRing video doorbellsor Blink cameras. Homebridge is lightweight enough that you can run it on a Raspberry Pi.
6 Raspberry Pi projects that go beyond the basics
you may do more than you might think with a Raspberry Pi.
What you’ll need to run Homebridge
You can run Homebridge on most models of Raspberry Pi
The first thing you’ll need is a Raspberry Pi. You can run it on a Raspberry Pi 3, or even a Raspberry Pi Zero at a push, but for the best performance, you’re best off with at least a Raspberry Pi 4. You’ll need an SD card with enough space to install and run the Homebridge operating system; at least 8GB would be the minimum recommendation. You also need a power supply for your Raspberry Pi, and aRaspberry Pi caseif you don’t have one.
Best SD cards: Top storage options for your mirrorless camera, DSLR or drone
Whether you need the fastest storage or just lots of capacity, we’ve covered everything in our guide to the best SD cards.
Installing Homebridge on your Raspberry Pi
Write the software to your SD card
The first step is to write the Homebridge software to your SD card. There’s a dedicated Raspberry Pi imager application you may use, which will download the relevant software and write it to your SD card.
Accessing Homebridge from your computer
You can open the interface in a browser
Once the software has been written to your SD card, which can take a few minutes, you’re ready to insert it into your Raspberry Pi and start it up.
Installing plugins for your smart home devices
You’ll need the right plugins for the devices you want to add
Homebridge can support a wide range of smart home devices which aren’t natively compatible with HomeKit. They’re not supported out of the box, however; you need to install plugins for the specific brands or devices you’re using. You can install these plugins directly within the Homebridge interface.
Connecting Homebridge to the Home app
Scan the QR code to connect Homebridge
Now that you’ve added in the plugins you need, the final step is to connect Homebridge to your Home app. This adds Homebridge as a bridge in the Home app, in the same way that smart hubs such as a Philips Hue bridge can be added. The Home app is then able to talk to your non-HomeKit devices through Homebridge, allowing you to add them to the app as if they were HomeKit-compatible devices.
Adding Homebridge to the Home app is simple to do; the main screen of the Homebridge interface includes a QR code that you can scan to connect Homebridge to the Home app.
Best practices when using Homebridge
You might want to upgrade from an SD card
This article describes how to install Homebridge on an SD card in your Raspberry Pi, as it’s the simplest method. However, SD cards are designed for long-term storage rather than constant reading and writing. Since Homebridge is always writing data to the SD card, it’s possible that the SD card will eventually fail.
There’s a major upgrade to Homebridge coming in the form of Homebridge 2.0, and this version will be incompatible with some current plugins.
A more robust solution is to install Homebridge on an SSD andconnect the SSD to your Raspberry Pi. It’s a more expensive option, and if you’re lucky, you can keep running on your SD card for several years, but you’re far less likely to have an SSD fail than an SD card.
It’s also important to keep Homebridge and its plugins up to date. Developers constantly update the Homebridge software and the plugins to fix bugs or add features. Running outdated software may cause problems that can be solved by keeping everything updated.
How to automate your entire smart home with only a Raspberry Pi
If you’re in possession of a DIY attitude and some spare time, a single Raspberry Pi board could be running your entire smart home.
There’s a major upgrade to Homebridge coming in the form of Homebridge 2.0, and this version will be incompatible with some current plugins. If you want to upgrade to Homebridge 2.0, you’ll need to ensure that the plugins you want to use are supported.
Homebridge will mostly run in the background without you having to think about it, but there may be times when your smart home devices stop connecting properly to the Home app. If this is the case, the best bet is to reboot Homebridge, which should get things back up and running again.
Homebridge can make your smart home less frustrating
Get all your devices into one ecosystem
It’s annoying that many smart home devices are still only compatible with specific smart home ecosystems. A device that works withGoogle and Alexamay not work with HomeKit, and vice versa. You’re always having to ensure that the products you buy work with your ecosystem of choice.
Homebridge can make this a little easier by allowing you to connect devices that aren’t HomeKit compatible to the Home app. You can then control them from your iPhone or Mac like you can with HomeKit products. It may not work with every smart home device that you own, but it should work with many of them.
Raspberry Pi 5 vs 4: Is newer better?
After testing, we put these two tiny computers head-to-head to see which one comes out on top.
