Homekit is crazy

[richardtstovall]

I have Homekit setup for my thermostats and it’s a buggy mess. I have my scenes setup; here’s Home:

But here’s what the Home app shows as the actual setting:

Then, here’s what the actual thermostat app shows:

Why is the Homekit “My Home” screen 1 degree off as compared to the scene settings and the thermostat app?

Further, I CANNOT get “When the first person arrives home” setting to work for the thermostats. I tested it recently with lights and it works great, but it will not “Resume Schedule” on my thermostats!

[zkarj]

You answered your own question in the title.

I’m a recent arrival in HomeKit-land, with four lights in my study, a NanoLeaf Canvas, and most recently three more lights in my garage.

Between Siri and HomeKit, it’s like when my kids were about 8 years old. They mostly do what they’re told but will often act out.

My favourite “feature”, because it’s so consistent, is with my study lights. I have them set to 100% cool white most of the time. I have a scene called “Daylight” that achieves this. I have another scene with warmer white at 80% called “Evening”. I have an automation which sets the “Evening” scene 10 minutes before I should go get ready for bed. That works flawlessly.

However, having turned them off when I do go to bed, when I return in the morning and say “Hey Siri, set the Daylight scene” she dutifully turns on the lights. At their most recent “Evening” setting! Every time! If I repeat the exact same command they switch to the cool white. As such I take a slight shortcut now and just say “turn on the lights” when I enter the room, as they’re going to warm white no matter what.

[Christian]

I really do like HomeKit. I appreciate the potential, but there are so many roadblocks:

• reliability of the HomeKit device (like a thermostat - hardware and firmware)
• reliability of the HomeKit hub (AppleTV, iPad and so on)
• local network
• internet connection
• iCloud
• Siri

Everything has to work flawlessly all the time. It has to be fast, reliable, up and running.

When you see it that way you might ask the question why this endless chain of components and stations is working at all…

I see HomeKit as a nice way for home use, especially when being at home and being able to really check if the the stuff is working as it is supposed to. It does most of the time. And yes, you need to repeat stuff over and over again to Siri when it does not. It will work eventually.

The automations and scenes… are nice. When they work.

I have a friend who bought an old house (300 years old) six years ago. He is an Electrician. “Home automation” is his job. Not Apple’s or Google’s home automation with devices you buy on Amazon, but stuff being connected by cables ( ) with professional sensors and a bus system. He renovated this old house and it is the most impressive Smart Home I have witnessed so far. The components did cost him about 30,000 Euros. And he was able to do everything on his own. It is his job.

If I compare the reliability and the quality of his stuff to my “HomeKit” devices, then I am tempted to call my HomeKit stuff a joke. Not to speak about the options he has compared to mine. Then again: my little HomeKit setup did not cost me 30,000 to 50,000 Euros, just a few hundred over the last years - and my wireless setup already was there - and the software (iOS/iCloud/HomeKit) already is there for me for “free”.

I see HomeKit as something nice with a lot of potential. It has gotten better. I think that it will keep getting better. But it always will have shortcomings, it will fail on some occasions and it will rock on others. There is no way that a system like HomeKit ever can be as solid as a wired local full-fledged system.

I think that HomeKit could get more reliable if more stuff could happen without the need for cloud interaction. Improvements like Thread and Matter might help, but as long as everything has to travel around the world, even simple commands, it is no wonder that the reliability is suffering sometimes.

[richardtstovall]

I have my front and back porch lights set to come on at sundown and turn off at sunrise and it works beautifully. My automation schedule with the thermostats works beautifully, but anything location based rarely works as setup.