Accessories with multiple devices

[redesigndavid]

Hi everyone, first of thank you for the sheer amount of work you guys have put into this project. I started using it a few months ago, and the more I use it the more I discover how powerful and intuitive the nodes are, so much so that I am trying to migrate some of the other homekit accessories I have already set up using different methods.

My question is about accessories that seem to have multiple accessories in them, I've seen accessories with multiple switches on them. I also have a mi hub that has a light and an alarm switch. I was wondering, is there a way to put multiple accessories and expose them as one to homekit using NRCHKB? Thank you very much!

[crxporter]

Yes of course there are ways to do this!! Welcome to the party by the way!

So without more specifics on exactly what you're trying to accomplish - you are probably looking for "linked" services.

Some examples from my setup:
1- "parent service" is irrigation controller, "linked" are the various valves. This shows up as a whole set of valves in the home app
2- "parent service" is a camera, "linked" service is the motion detector for that camera. This allows Home app to show "rich notifications" like "motion detected, here's a picture from your camera!"
3- "parent service" is a plug, "linked" service is another plug. Shows as a double plug when clicked in Home app
4- a "parent" motion sensor with "linked" temperature, light, humidity, and battery...

The possibilities are endless and when "abused" will do unexpected things in the Home app. I've seen a TV remote with a linked light bulb. The Home app tries hard but doesn't get it quite right. Have some fun with it.

A starter on this is available on our wiki: https://nrchkb.github.io/wiki/nodes/service-node/

Our demo setup has a couple of parent/linked items (look for blue boxes after importing)

And finally - if you want to join us "live" click that little discord link at the bottom of our readme, we're there daily just being nerds and helping each other with our setups.

[redesigndavid]

Thank you so much for the reply! That was simpler than I thought, and I'm not surprised the answer was already there. Thanks again!

[crxporter]

I'm glad you had me go look at that wiki page, turns out the images were broken on just that one page. Fixed now but I wouldn't have noticed it for a while!