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Internet Connected devices


ChristianSogaard

Question

Dear all.

I had an inquiry from a teacher at the Danish electrician education.

They will put the HC3 in the curriculum, because smarthomes will be the future.✌️

 

so... to all the kids learning basic programming - we need a Proof of Concept..

How can I provide a solution where, i from an Internet website can control the something in the HC3, it could be a simple switch.

So controlling the HC3 from another network that itself.

 

What the want to achieve it the HC3 is on the home network. Have a website showing video stream with a HC3 controlles Bulb, and a button on the same website that can control the Bulb. Its for Exhibitions getting interest for potentially young students .. 

 

No MQTT or other mittleware, it needed to be done direct, like when Alexa, Google assistant is controlling this.

No Firewall port forwarding 

As I see it, I need two moduels, One on the external website and one one at the HC3.

 

Anyone up for helping with a PoC fort this? have some code already? or can structure the design?

I think its in Fibaro interest to participate themselves also? 

 

Best Regards 

 

Edited by ChristianSogaard
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Hi @ChristianSogaard 

 

maybe my question will help other with thinking a solution. No middleware (even Fibaro Remote Access is middleware), so also no IFTTT, no port forwarding, how to reach the HC3 from outside its own network? It sounds like a hack if it is possible with that restrictions? 

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You could run my emulator outside the firewall and run a couple of emulated QAs being switches, sensors or dimmers.

On the HC3 you run a similar set of QAs that poll the emulator QAs and update their states appropriately.

You can always poll from the HC3 to the outside.

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Have you ever used a HC3? You sound as if you are not aware that it has a web interface and a rest API protected with username password (and device permissions) - seems like an excellent starting point. It also supports certain brands of cameras. It might already do what you want, at least the web part.

 

If you don't want to punch a hole in your firewall people can go to home.fibaro.com and have that browser interface.

 

I probably misunderstand what you mean by saying "No Firewall port forwarding" but "home.fibaro.com" does that. The HC3 keeps an encrypted connection with a Fibaro public server. It opens a "reverse" data tunnel if someone outside wants to connect via home.fibaro.com

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54 minutes ago, petergebruers said:

Have you ever used a HC3? You sound as if you are not aware that it has a web interface and a rest API protected with username password (and device permissions) - seems like an excellent starting point. It also supports certain brands of cameras. It might already do what you want, at least the web part.

 

If you don't want to punch a hole in your firewall people can go to home.fibaro.com and have that browser interface.

 

I probably misunderstand what you mean by saying "No Firewall port forwarding" but "home.fibaro.com" does that. The HC3 keeps an encrypted connection with a Fibaro public server. It opens a "reverse" data tunnel if someone outside wants to connect via home.fibaro.com

 

I thought he wanted an API for accessing the HC3 for the students to try some programming?

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4 minutes ago, jgab said:

I thought he wanted an API for accessing the HC3 for the students to try some programming?

 

 

5 hours ago, ChristianSogaard said:

No MQTT or other mittleware, it needed to be done direct, like when Alexa, Google assistant is controlling this.

No Firewall port forwarding 


Looks to me like a big challenge to reach the HC3 from outside to inside. 

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13 minutes ago, SmartHomeEddy said:

Looks to me like a big challenge to reach the HC3 from outside to inside. 

The point of my first post was to keep an outside QA proxy updated from the inside - we can usually access from the inside to outside.

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Yeah, sure, all good comments, I think we're missing some information to give good advice at the moment.

 

But I kind of enjoy this question :D

 

It is this "no middleware, and also no access from outside to inside" which seems to leave us with no way to interface with the HC3. Using home.fibaro.com or @jgab imho would count as "middleware" but maybe that just a matter of terminology. Mmmm. Would dial-in modem access count as possible solution? ?

 

I have been thinking, my Home Assistant web interface and API are available on the internet, which is definitely "firewall port forwarding". You might not want to do that, it is attacked several times a day by bots. I can understand this requirement.

 

Alternatively, I have a VPN... Arguably, that does not count as "port forwarding" and I have never seen anyone call it "middleware"... This would give you a connection between the HC3 and a host (virtual) machine that is on the internet, eg a hosting provider.

 

Then what, would you allow the HC3 Web Interface to be published (through reverse proxy)...  That is a bit "cheating" isn't it? But it is certainly a real-world solution, public servers with a VPN tunnel. They give a false feeling of security though, if the host is hacked, and the VPN tunnel has no firewall... Well...

 

I cannot remember if anybody has ever posted here about writing and *alternative web interface* for the HC3. There are apps... But I guess a school might want to try to write some javascript to leverage the API of the HC3 and that JS + HTML would have a "camera" and I switch that turns on a light bulb in the room with the camera. Interesting idea. I don't know. But I know someone who uses Node-Red + JavaScript + HC3 connector to write very fine-tuned dashboards. But the HC3 connector uses the API so I am not sure if it meets the requirements (no middleware, no port forwarding)

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  • Inquirer
  • So no one tried to authenticate from outside i guess?

    Please login or register to see this image.

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    What do you expect to find here: "

    Please login or register to see this link.

    " ? I've never heard of that "url"... I am going to assume that you know more than me at this point.

     

    When I am "outside" my LAN, on the internet, my phone app can clearly connect to the HCx and you can go to

    Please login or register to see this link.

    and see the BUI. So clearly, there is a way to get to your HC over internet without "special middleware" and without VPN. It is not necessarily a "tunnel" of the API you find on your HC3. And I am not claiming that I know how to do that. That's another matter...

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