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Homekit - WiFi or Bluetooth for Fibaro


tcviper

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Hello Fibaro,

 

I would love to know which Homekit enabled products use WiFi and which use Bluetooth.

The reason Im asking this is to know how the products can connect as WiFi ofc would be a lot easier and better for extended range :)

Thank you.

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Only wall plug use Wifi, the rest using BLE, please remember that homehub work as a extender 

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  • Yes, I understand homehub (AppleTV/iPad and so on) are extenders, but over WiFi would ofc have a way bigger reach (specially with multiple access points through the house) :)

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    I think generally, it is not quite possible for devices in compact housing to run HomeKit via WiFi, not to mention battery-operated compact ones. That said, hope Fibaro may consider WiFi-HomeKit should any upcoming product be large-size enough to make sense having WiFi instead of BLE.

     

    There are still plentiful of limitations in real world deployments of BLE-based HomeKit devices (not specific manufacturer). I even have unreliable reporting of HomeKit Motion Sensor less than 1.5m away from 4th Gen Apple TV (act as Home Hub) just because it doesn't have direct line of sight and partial interfered by glass panel and plywood laminated cabinet.

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    Hello,

     

    If WiFi network run smoothly in all corners of house, then i have not problem with that.

     

    I have played with Fibaro HomeKit app yesterday for an hour but i had problem with WiFi wall plug (maybe poor signal behind cabinet). Bluetooth devices ran smoothly. So for me i would stay with Bluetooth.

     

    Instead of WiFi i would play with this possibility:

    Please login or register to see this link.

     

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    Bingo...I too have been waiting for the ratified (in Nov 2017) bluetooth mesh (part of Bluetooth 5.x perhaps). Seeing recent Apple products such as Apple TV 4K and HomePod supports Bluetooth 5.0, hopefully it is just a firmware upgrade away to get Bluetooth Mesh. It will greatly solve the HomeKit coverage range challenge. ;)

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    You might want to check performance near a microwave oven... My Sonos speakers have no issues when running sonosnet, but one struggles when in pure wifi mode. And latency issues will be more noticeable with switches than with buffered audio. It is not a wifi range issue, I have 2 access points, but lack of good wifi mesh networking...

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    I can see one big problem with Homekit Wifi devices. Sooner och later you are going to have more than 30-40 HK devices, lights, switches etc.. and there is not many routers which can handle so many devices wirhout any problems then you maybe already have 10-20 other Wifi devices like computers, phones, tablets, tvs etc....

    If we only could get mesh bluetooth with faster response times, better battery life, or more bridged devices with any protocol like zigbee :) 

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  • Uhm that is complete nonsense, the average home router these days can easily handle upto 50 clients or more. And if you look at UniFi, Cisco, AmpliFi, Netgear Orbi or Google Wifi those can easily handle 100 clients and up. WiFi has a way bigger reach and is in most homes already.

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    On 03/04/2018 at 11:31 PM, petergebruers said:

    You might want to check performance near a microwave oven... My Sonos speakers have no issues when running sonosnet, but one struggles when in pure wifi mode. And latency issues will be more noticeable with switches than with buffered audio. It is not a wifi range issue, I have 2 access points, but lack of good wifi mesh networking...

     

    Off-topic a little. Check out Ubiquiti UniFi APs. Great WLANs, meshing (if needed), roaming. Reasonable priced too.

    On 04/04/2018 at 10:24 PM, mszfcz said:

    I can see one big problem with Homekit Wifi devices. Sooner och later you are going to have more than 30-40 HK devices, lights, switches etc.. and there is not many routers which can handle so many devices wirhout any problems then you maybe already have 10-20 other Wifi devices like computers, phones, tablets, tvs etc....

    If we only could get mesh bluetooth with faster response times, better battery life, or more bridged devices with any protocol like zigbee :) 

     

    I too, disagrees. Like tcviper shared, there are plentiful of reasonable-priced WiFi gears out there that can handle more than 50 or 100 concurrent connectivities. Proven in events, expos, etc. Oh, I have not even mention those which can handle a 'Stadium-sized' crowd. Check out ubnt.com.

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    3 hours ago, chaicka said:

    Off-topic a little. Check out Ubiquiti UniFi APs. Great WLANs, meshing (if needed), roaming. Reasonable priced too.

    Thank you! I almost bought them... Now my Belgian Internet Provider provides additional access points which have similar mechanisms (802.11 protocols and enhancements - they claim) to speed "failover" and select best band... but I notice it is still in the seconds range. It is way better than just having two AP with the same SSID though.

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    Personally I am looking for Wifi (where I can) as the response times are still better. However, of course the bluetooth still has to be battery powered kit.

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    7 hours ago, petergebruers said:

    Thank you! I almost bought them... 

     

    Ubiquity UF APs are working really stable, we stopped to use any other manufacturer in our projects

     

    On 3.4.2018 at 5:07 PM, chaicka said:

    ... Bluetooth 5.0, hopefully it is just a firmware upgrade away to get Bluetooth Mesh. 

     

    Afaik FIBARO is using BT5 Mesh capable hardware, so on paper that should work.

    Now is up to us all here to make some presure :-)

     

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    On 09/04/2018 at 3:33 PM, petergebruers said:

    Thank you! I almost bought them... Now my Belgian Internet Provider provides additional access points which have similar mechanisms (802.11 protocols and enhancements - they claim) to speed "failover" and select best band... but I notice it is still in the seconds range. It is way better than just having two AP with the same SSID though.

     

    You do not know what you are missing out. :P

    Like what tinman said, never looking back since and now we focus solely on UAPs on new projects.

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    • 3 weeks later...

    Hi @tcviper I'm just starting out with HomeKit myself, with similar questions. What I have worked out now I have both WiFi and Bluetooth units is that:

     

    a) Bluetooth range is much better than I expected, so do try it out in your environment.

    b) Wifi ultimately has better range. I ended up putting in a new WiFi AP to reach a spot 60m away from the house.

    c) Large numbers of Wifi clients are certainly possible to manage, but not desirable to have on your network. Many people use a firewalled subnet for IoT devices, and I have issues with giving 3rd party apps my main WiFi password. Hence using Bluetooth is a tidier and more secure alternative.

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    Bluetooth is not always secured. I have seen incomplete implementation where a bluetooth device can be scanned using a mobile phone with right app and alter its parameters without any form of authentication required. Just need to be close enough to detect it (bluetooth in open space can be rather good in range).

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