homebridge-myplace

An independent plugin bringing Advantage Air MyPlace System, its smaller siblings (E-zone, MyAir, MyAir4, etc) and its cousins (e.g. Fujitsu AnywAir) to Homekit.

Supported Advantage Air Control Units

• MyPlace
• MyAir4
• MyAir
• E-zone
• Fujitsu anywAIR

Installation

Raspbian/HOOBS/macOS/NAS

1. Install Homebridge via these instructions for Raspbian, HOOBS or macOS, if you have not already.

2. Find the homebridge-myplace plugin via the Homebridge UI 'Plugins' tab search function, once found, click the blue down-arrow at the bottom right to install. Once install, click on the three dots at the bottom right and select JSON Config, a pop-up box showing a small config in it. Do not edit anything but click SAVE. More pop-up boxes may appear, click SAVE to all until you are prompted to RESTART HOMEBRIDGE. You do not need to restart homebridge but can click CLOSE now to move on to the next step.

3. Check if jq and curl are installed (curl should already be):

   jq --version
   curl --version

   If they are installed, the above command should return a version number. If not, install them:

   For Raspbian/Hoobs:

   sudo apt-get install <jq or curl>

   For MacOS:

   brew install <jq or curl>

   For Synology NAS:

   apt-get install <jq or curl>

   For QNAP NAS:

   apk add <jq or curl>

   Important note:

   At the time of updating this README, the apt-get insatall only allow jq-1.6 to be installed, which is notorously slow! To install the lastest and MUCH faster version of jq-1.7.1, please follow the step-by-step guide below:

   1. Download the Source Code:

      You can download the source code "jq-1.7.1.tar.gz" for jq 1.7.1 from the official GitHub releases page (https://github.com/jqlang/jq/releases) or use the link below:

      wget https://github.com/jqlang/jq/releases/download/jq-1.7.1/jq-1.7.1.tar.gz

   2. Install Dependencies:

      Ensure you have the necessary build tools and dependencies installed. You can do this by running:

      sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get install -y autoconf automake libtool make gcc

   3. Extract and Build:

      Extract the downloaded tarball and navigate to the directory:

      tar -xvzf jq-1.7.1.tar.gz
      cd jq-1.7.1
      chmod +x configure

   4. Run the following commands to build and install jq:

      ./configure
      make
      sudo make install

   5. Verify Installation:

      After installation, you can verify that jq is installed correctly by running:

      jq --version

4. Create MyPlace configuration file:

   Go to the 'Plugins' tab in Homebridge UI, locate your newly installed Homebridge Myplace plugin and click the three dots on the bottom right, select Plugin Config and it should launch the Configuration Creator and Checker and Device Settings page.

   In Device Settings area, fill out the Name, IP Address and PORT used fields (default PORT is 2025 for most users, Fujitsu anywAIR users set this to 10211 ) and check/uncheck the self-explanatory checkboxes for Include extra timers and Enable detailed debug log, then click SAVE. This is to save your system parameters. Click CLOSE if a pop up urging you to RESTART.

   Go back to Plugin Config again and press the CREATE CONFIGURATION button to create the required configuration file.

   On a sucess, you may click CHECK CONFIGURATIONto check the configuration file just created is in order. On a success it will say Passed; if something is incorrect, an error message will pop up telling you what needs to be fixed.

   Otherwise, click SAVE then RESTART.

   HOOBS users who do not have access to Homebridge UI (for now!) will have to run the Config Creator on a terminal:

      cd
      <Plugin Path>/node_modules/homebridge-myplace/ConfigCreator.sh

   then follow the on-screen instructions.

   *typical <Plugin Path> is /var/lib/hoobs/<bridge>

How it Looks and Works

(A) Aircon System (MyAir, E-zone, etc) has the following typical Homekit tiles:

(i) Thermostat, Fan Switch and Fan Speed Control

Thermostat is where the desired target temperature can be set.

Thermostat has 4 modes- Off, Cool, Heat and Auto. It does not have dry and fan modes. As such, the Thermostat Auto mode is repurposed as dry mode in this plugin and a separate Fan switch is used for fan mode.

Both the Thermostat and Fan switch has associated fan speed control and either one can be used to set the fan speed. It is duplicated only for convenience. The fan speed control has 4 tiers - low, mid, high and auto or ezfan and the %-rotationSpeed is snapped to 25% for low, 50% for mid, 90% for high and 100% for auto or ezfan.

(ii) Timer

A timer is repurposed from Lightbulb accessory and its %-brightness as proxy for timer duration, configured to represent 6 minutes per 1%. So a 10%-timer is a 60-minutes or 1-hour timer and 25%-timer is a 2.5-hours timer. A maximum of 10-hour timer (100%-timer) can be set. This timer will turn ON or OFF the Aircon system.

If Include extra timers was selected during the setup process, 3 more timers would have been created- a Fan Timer, a Cool Timer and a Heat Timer:

These timers will turn ON the Aircon system in specific mode as their names suggest.

Please note that the icons on the Timer tiles in the example above have been deliberately changed to distinguish them from lights.

(iii) Zone Control

Zone control is repurposed from Fan accessory with its %-rotationSpeed as proxy for Zone damper %-open and rotationDirection as myZone button. Thermostat accessory is used for setting the Zone target temperature.

There are three possible Zone Control configurations depending on the setup of your Aircon system:

(a) A non temperature controlled Zone: If your system has no temperature sensors, then there will only be a simple Fan accessory for your Zone Control. The Fan slider is for adjusting the desired damper %-open manually.

(b) A temperature controlled Zone but without myZone defined: If your system has temperature sensors but myZone is not defined, then there will be a Fan accessory and a Thermostat accessory.

The Fan slider here is to show the damper %-open for this zone for your INFO only. It is set automatically by the system, it cannot be adjusted manually. To turn off the Zone, slide the slider to zero. To turn it on, tap anywhere within the slider.

The Thermostat is for setting the target temperature for this zone by moving the big white dot. The small white dot is an indicating of the measured temperature of the Zone for your INFO. The mode on this Thermostat is also just for your INFO only. It will show Cool or Heat when the Aircon mode is Cool or Heat respectively. It will show Auto when the state of the Aircon is Off or the mode is vent or dry. You cannot change the state or the mode of the Aircon here.

(c) A temperature controlled Zone with myZone defined: If your system has temperature sensors and myZone is defined, then there will be a round button for setting this zone as myZone in addition to a simple Fan accessory and a Thermostat accessory as detailed in (b) above.

Please note that myZone cannot be turned Off as per AdvantageAir system design. It can only be turned Off by setting another zone as myZone. However, if a Zone, which is set as myZone, is turned off by sliding the Fan slider to zero, this plugin will automatically set another open Zone to be myZone with preference to an open Constant Zone. If there is no other open Zone, then this plugin will open a Zone with preference to a Constant Zone and set it as myZone.

(B) Lights

Light with dimmer has a slider to control its brightness while a light without dimmer just has a simple ON/OFF light switch.

(C) Fans

From version 1.1.6 onwards, if a light switch has a name ending with " Fan", it is regarded as a switch for turning ON or OFF a fan. The icon on Homekit will then be a fan instead of a lightbulb.

(D) Garage Door and Blinds

Garage Door is either Opened or Closed, hence it appears as a simple switch while Blinds can be partially open, as such, it has a slider to set the %-open.

How You Can Help

• Report Bugs/Errors by opening Issues/Tickets.
• Suggest Improvements and Features you would like to see!

Special Thanks

1. Many thanks to Mitch Williams who has created the wonderful homebridge-cmd4-AdvantageAir plugin and has allowed me to participate in its development and in the process I have leant a lot about GitHub and on bash and javascript coding in homebridge environment.
2. Many thanks also to John Talbot for his fantastic homebridge-cmd4 plugin which I have forked and used it as the main engine for this plugin.
3. And never forget to thank my beautiful wife who has put up with my obsession on this.....

LICENSE

This plugin is distributed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.