The hours of watching YouTube home automation videos sometimes pays off. Though there is a lot of content about this topic of interest, most of it is repetitive, often irrelevant or just dull. But now and then, you find a little gem of an idea that makes this effort worth it.
Apple Homekit has two limitations that I find a little annoying. Firstly, if I want Siri to unlock my front door, I need to unlock my iPhone first. The solution? Say hello to "The Dummy Switch". A dummy switch is a device created in my Homey hub that will appear in my Apple HomeKit. On its own, a dummy switch is not very useful but combined with one or more automation actions then, the solutions become endless.
Here is how I set up a dummy switch to unlock my front door without unlocking my phone
- Create a dummy switch in Homey, and configure automation to turn the switch on when it detects that you have arrived home.
- In Apple HomeKit, configure automation to recognise when the switch is turned on and have it unlock your front door.
The dummy switch has been a little bit of a revelation for me. It has opened up many more options for my home automation, allowing me to get the most out of my home automation devices.