Hi, I’m working at Meganar Technologies on a home automation project using the openHAB platform. We’re trying to handle the initial setup (Wi-Fi or Bluetooth pairing) for a Philips 9W Wi-Fi LED bulb directly through our own custom Android app, but it seems the pairing doesn’t work without the official Philips/Wiz app. Is there any way to perform the initial pairing/setup within our own app or through openHAB integration?
Not that i know of. There’s other similar situations:
Xiaomi devices need to be onboarded to the mi app first, then the miio binding picks it if. Levoit purifiers and humidifiers the same and then the levoit binding picks it up. You’ll most likely be going though the cloud server of the oem first.
That’s really the reason why I’m tossing my yeelights and mi lights out the window, and replacing with zigbee ones, everything is local.
Thats going to be the case for nearly any commercial IoT device not built on a open standard. Setup is done through either through the manufacturer’s app or through a partnership with Apple/Google/Amazon to be done in their app, but not available to 3rd parties.
If being able to setup a Wifi device out of the box is important to your app (like snapping a picture of a QR code) you are going to want to focus on devices which speak Matter. This has an open specification for using bluetooth to setup Wifi and Thread on devices out of the box, without needing the manufacturer’s app. Apple and Google both have built in APIs in their mobile platforms for setting up Matter devices within your own custom app which makes this easier (if you can get approved for it) . Matter is in beta right now in openHAB, and is scheduled for official release in v5.0 this June.
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