[Setup Help]: Updating icon status without triggering output action

[michaltaberski]

Setup Help I am controlling Shelly1 device using MQTT. I created a virtual light bulb using homekit in NodeRed. It works. I can turn on and off the light - that's fine. The issue I dealing with is to keep the right icon status always in the iPhone home app. The problem happens when I switch off / on the light manually via the wall switch or another source. Then the icon in the home app gets unsynced. So my question is: Can I programmatically toggle the icon status without actually making the homekit throwing an output?

[caitken-com]

Can you post your flow or screenshot of your flow?

[Shaquu]

@michaltaberski like mentioned by @caitken-com best option would be if you share your Node-RED flow with us then we would see directly what is your issue and need. You can do that in Node-RED by going to top right menu and clicking export (and following on screen form).

Regarding changing status of icon in Home.app you have to listen for status change of real device in Node-RED and connect it with your HomeKit node in Node-RED. To change status itself you have to send specific input to our node.

If you are new to Node-RED or our node I would suggest to follow our Wiki DEMO SETUP page which contains great examples.

Also consider joining our Discord for live help:

[michaltaberski]

The flow as simple as that:

[{"id":"70ce60e8.c3abb","type":"tab","label":"Flow 1","disabled":false,"info":""},{"id":"50cc1112.ff5f5","type":"homekit-service","z":"70ce60e8.c3abb","isParent":true,"bridge":"5c4f27d3.a4add8","parentService":"","name":"Playroom light","serviceName":"Lightbulb","topic":"","filter":false,"manufacturer":"NRCHKB","model":"1.2.0","serialNo":"Default Serial Number","firmwareRev":"1.2.0","hardwareRev":"1.2.0","softwareRev":"1.2.0","cameraConfigVideoProcessor":"ffmpeg","cameraConfigSource":"","cameraConfigStillImageSource":"","cameraConfigMaxStreams":2,"cameraConfigMaxWidth":1280,"cameraConfigMaxHeight":720,"cameraConfigMaxFPS":10,"cameraConfigMaxBitrate":300,"cameraConfigVideoCodec":"libx264","cameraConfigAudioCodec":"libfdk_aac","cameraConfigAudio":false,"cameraConfigPacketSize":1316,"cameraConfigVerticalFlip":false,"cameraConfigHorizontalFlip":false,"cameraConfigMapVideo":"0:0","cameraConfigMapAudio":"0:1","cameraConfigVideoFilter":"scale=1280:720","cameraConfigAdditionalCommandLine":"-tune zerolatency","cameraConfigDebug":false,"cameraConfigSnapshotOutput":"disabled","cameraConfigInterfaceName":"","characteristicProperties":"{}","waitForSetupMsg":false,"outputs":2,"x":640,"y":280,"wires":[[],["92047f6a.6116e"]]},{"id":"7631f0ac.f0f09","type":"mqtt out","z":"70ce60e8.c3abb","name":"MQTT to turn ON/OFF Shelly1","topic":"","qos":"","retain":"","broker":"bf5096c4.38e288","x":970,"y":280,"wires":[]},{"id":"92047f6a.6116e","type":"function","z":"70ce60e8.c3abb","name":"","func":"const { On } = msg.payload;\n\nreturn {\n    topic: \"shellies/shelly1-.../relay/0/command\",\n    payload: On === true ? \"on\" : \"off\",\n};","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"x":775,"y":280,"wires":[["7631f0ac.f0f09"]],"l":false},{"id":"e9fc901b.a8df3","type":"mqtt in","z":"70ce60e8.c3abb","name":"MQTT from Shelly1 with status update","topic":"shellies/shelly1-.../relay/0","qos":"2","datatype":"auto","broker":"bf5096c4.38e288","x":290,"y":280,"wires":[["84e9cdfe.9d54c"]]},{"id":"84e9cdfe.9d54c","type":"function","z":"70ce60e8.c3abb","name":"","func":"return {\n    payload: {\n        On: msg.payload === \"on\"\n    },\n};","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"x":495,"y":280,"wires":[["50cc1112.ff5f5"]],"l":false},{"id":"5c4f27d3.a4add8","type":"homekit-bridge","z":"","bridgeName":"NodeRed bridge","pinCode":"123-45-678","port":"","allowInsecureRequest":false,"manufacturer":"NRCHKB","model":"1.2.0","serialNo":"Default Serial Number","firmwareRev":"1.2.0","hardwareRev":"1.2.0","softwareRev":"1.2.0","customMdnsConfig":false,"mdnsMulticast":true,"mdnsInterface":"","mdnsPort":"","mdnsIp":"","mdnsTtl":"","mdnsLoopback":true,"mdnsReuseAddr":true,"allowMessagePassthrough":true},{"id":"bf5096c4.38e288","type":"mqtt-broker","z":"","name":"home-pi (mosquitto)","broker":"192.168.1.10","port":"1883","clientid":"","usetls":false,"compatmode":false,"keepalive":"60","cleansession":true,"birthTopic":"","birthQos":"0","birthPayload":"","closeTopic":"","closeQos":"0","closePayload":"","willTopic":"","willQos":"0","willPayload":""}]

And the thing is that the input MQTT might come from another source than the homekit.

[Shaquu]

@michaltaberski great. What is your payload (message) from MQTT? You can add debug nodes like that to find out. Message will appear in sidebar in Node-RED.

[michaltaberski]

Thanks @Shaquu for the effort! I have solved the problem myself in the end. The issue was in the end that the homekit device status doesn't update on my iPhone for 10s after the deployment. Later it seems to be all fine.

[caitken-com]

You're also using the wrong wire output on your accessories. The top output is what you want to prevent ongoing/pass through messages. I had a feeling this was the case, so I asked for your flow to confirm:

https://github.com/NRCHKB/output-messages