HomeKIT Binding - DDNS

Add-ons Bindings
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1

Hi Community,

A few days ago I tried to use the HomeKIT Binding to open the garage in my car via Apple CarPlay.

Everything works pretty well. I can now open and close my garage door via Apple Home, but unfortunately only in WIFI. Since I’m not really an Apple user, I don’t have any other devices in my apartment to take away the intended HUB.
However, I ask myself why it shouldn’t work from the Internet via HomeKIT Binding…

If I enter the following, where oh.local stands for my OpenHAB server and my cell phone is in WIFI, everything works:

org.openhab.homekit:networkInterface=oh.local

On the console:

netstat -nl |grep 9123
tcp6 0 0 192.168.1.1:9123 :::* LISTEN

I.e. port is open and service is running.

If I now enter my dyndns name, I also get the entry in the LOG without an error message:

[INFO ] [mekit.internal.HomekitChangeListener] - Created 3 HomeKit items in instance 1 (no change from prior configuration)

org.openhab.homekit:networkInterface=dyndns_oh.web.net

but on the console it looks like this:
netstat -nl |grep 9123
<empty>

In my opinion, the service is not starting correctly. Even if I change the log level to debug “log:set TRACE org.openhab.io.homekit.internal”, I get no further information about what could be the problem…

I am grateful for any suggestions/info/ideas!

2

HomeKit outside of your network requires a hub (ATV or HomePod). If you are trying to trigger something from your car via CarPlay when not on your home network then you will need a hub.
You could trigger the garage door remotely another way but CarPlay is going to try and communicate via HomeKit and without a hub you are limited to when on your local WLAN.

3

ok thanks.
But I don’t really understand it, except that Apple wants to sell its devices.
Above all, it’s unclear to me why the homekit binding doesn’t start correctly or doesn’t throw an error message when a DDNS is specified.
I can’t use the openHAB APP in CarPlay, is there another alternative?

4

I think it’s more to do with the fact that HomeKit is locally processed, hence the hub requirement.
You might be able to hack something together using the shortcuts app triggering OpenHAB but with a HomeKit hub you also get great presence detection too. You can pick up a second hand ATV/Homepod very cheap.
I cannot help with the binding question.

5

To open my garage door remotely I use two techniques:

  1. Automatically, I have a zigbee device powered by the car with a 5dbi antenna
  2. Manually, when I’m away, using openhab app and a private VPN (but probably could use openHAB cloud instead)