Best Practice for existing Homekit Matter/Thread Devices (Inovelli Switches)

[vague bronze]

Hi all,

I'm new to Home Assistant. Am running in a container, alongside matter in another container (both running in Docker).

I have a bunch of Eve smart blinds that can run on matter/thread, along with a bunch of Inovelli matter/thread switches in my home. I have them currently setup in Homekit, however the switches are frustrating me with the limitations of HK, so that has driven me to trying out HA.

What is the best practice for adding matter/thread devices that are already in HK to HA? I see in the docs it advises me to put the devices in Pairing mode from HK, then add them that way. If I then delete the devices from HK, will HA still "see" these devices? I'm not sure if I should be simply resetting everything and starting fresh, or integrating with what I've already setup.

The fundamental problem I'm trying to solve (beyond having better access to automation and all of the other goodness of HA) is that the Inovelli matter/thread switches have a lightbar indicator. This shows up as a second "light" in HK, and confuses the living daylight out of Siri. I'd like to have both lights available in HA, but only expose the actual "switch" to HK, thus simplifying my HK setup while retaining control of the light bar in HA automations.

I hope this makes sense - I'm still new with this, so hope my use of terms isn't confusing! Thank you in advance for your help!

[vague bronze]

Bump!

[random orchid]

If you remove them from HomeKit and pair them to HA over Thread then HomeKit no longer matters anyway

Then you can expose only what you want to Siri, and solve that problem

[vague bronze]

Right. So I only expose the functions I want to HomeKit and then solve my problem

[vague bronze]

Would you add them by putting them in pairing mode within HK and then adding them as a device in HA, or would you factory reset and start over?

I’m not clear if the adding them from pairing mode makes HA dependent on HK?

[random orchid]

Noting that I don't have HomeKit...

I'd remove them from HomeKit, factory reset them, and then connect them via Thread/Matter - assuming you have a non Apple Thread Border Router

If your TBRs are all Apple devices then you're going to be connecting them to Siri via that, which won't solve your problem

[vague bronze]

Oh I see

Yes, all of my tbr are HomePods or Apple TVs

I cannot setup a thread network through HA using Apple TBR?

[random orchid]

You can, but if they're connected to the Apple ecosystem, they're connected...

I'd expect Siri to know about them, because why would Apple not do that?

I'd try one device to confirm, or wait for the Thread experts to arrive later

[vague bronze]

Ok, thank you!

[rugged kernel]

If you open the commisisoning window from Apple Home (or any other Matter controller) it just means that Apple Home will instruct the device to accept another matter controller. That second (or 3rd, etc..) controller will then independently control the device. The only thing that is common between HA and Apple iss that HA leverages the apple thread network.

[vague bronze]

So once the device has been instructed to accept HA as another controller, I can safely remove the device from my Apple Home while retaining it in HA? Then I can expose the switch I want to HomeKit through a bridge?