Seamless HomeKit integration

[bohtho]

Could you please elaborate the documentation on how to use this node with HomeKit ?

[calkoe]

Hi bohtho,

yes the documentation isn't ready jet.

Homekit:
You can use the IN- and OUT-Nodes to Read/Write to HomeKit accessories provided by library's like these:
https://github.com/NRCHKB/node-red-contrib-homekit-bridged

The Problem is, HomeKit will reply messages you put in on the output side. This is why the "context" functionality exists, you have to set the context parameter on the Input and Output side identically e.g. the UID of the node or any other random unique value.
The OUT-Node will add the context to the message payload, the HomeKit-Node will pass it through and the Input Node will block all messages with identical message context as configured.

Hope it helps!

I will complete the documentation and provide some example Flows in the next few days.

[bohtho]

That would be great! I am very intrigued by this node and how it might help with HomeKit nodes. I have different use cases where I in one of them use node-red to communicate with the homebridge-MQTT plugin, and I wonder if it could help me there too.

As for homekit replies ("throughput"), I think you can turn this off in node-red-contrib-homekit-bridged, but it might be helpful to have turned on together with your node.