Alternatives?

[Kepete]

This is a great plugin and keeps probably a lot of homes running smooth, thank you for all the efforts over the years @arachnetech !

As this is not maintained, it's probably right to start looking into alternatives, as at some point, we will start running into issues.
Any recommendations so far for plugins which have similar capabilities?

Thanks!

[arachnetech]

My recommendation for anyone using standard Zigbee components (e.g. from Aqara, Sonoff, Ikea, MiBoxer, Tuya, Moes) is to try https://z2m.dev/, which integrates the excellent Zibee2MQTT with Homebridge. Autodiscovery and automatic configuration make this far easier for supported devices (and there are a huge number of supported devices).

If there are other better alternatives out there, I'd be interested to hear about them (and very happy to link to them).

Otherwise, for anyone requiring more customisation than Zibee2MQTT, I'm still hoping to find some time before the end of the year to look at updating MQTThing to work with current Node.js and Homebridge versions. Realistically, this won't be until mid-to-late December now given other commitments.

If there is a developer who would like to take over MQTTThing, I'm definitely open to offers. (The nature of open source means that anyone can create a fork at any time too, of course.) I suspect there are new accessory types that it could be extended to support. The best option would probably be for someone to rewrite it as a modern Homebridge plugin in TypeScript. It uses an old functional JavaScript style at the moment.

[dramis]

Thanks for the update and all the work you’ve put into MQTTThing over the years — I’ve been using your plugin for a long time and really appreciate it.

As an alternative, I came across homebridge-easy-mqtt (https://github.com/mpatfield/homebridge-easy-mqtt). I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like another option for people who want something MQTT-based.

Thanks again for maintaining the project for so long — it’s been rock-solid in my setup.

[rbswift]

I have really enjoyed using this plugin to automate homes. Thanks so much @arachnetech. Together with Node-RED you can achieve some really powerful automation without taking end users away from the built-in Apple Home iPhone app and HomePods with Siri integration.

I would like to stick with mqttthing for a while longer if possible so if it can be tweaked for compatibility with Homebridge v2 that would be really great. If the longstanding heatercooler characteristicWarning could be fixed in the process that would be even better... Trying my luck now :)

I have started using HomeAssistant more and more. It's daunting at first so takes a bit of getting used to but, having made the move from Tasmota to ESPHome a while ago it seems like the logical path for me. HomeAssistant's HomeKit Bridge seems to work quite well but I have only exposed a few devices so far. I expect I will run into various tricky custom scenarios to workaround eventually but that's for another day. I will miss the fine level of control I get with mqttthing but setup will probably be less time consuming.

One big question for me is likely to be whether I eventually ditch MQTT altogether as the native home assistant protocols are more efficient and secure than my current mosquitto setup. I think I will miss being able to quickly use the mosquito_sub and _pub commands in a linux shell for troubleshooting and node-Red just seems to have a more native affinity with mqtt than the homeassistant nodes but maybe that's because I'm still learning how to use them.

Maybe I'll also migrate from NodeRed to HomeAssistant Automations too but I quite like the visual nature of NodeRed and I find YAML harder to write than JSON/Javascript for now.

[arachnetech]

I've finally published an updated version which seems to run with current Homebridge versions (1.11 and 2.0).

Unfortunately despite significant effort, I've been unable to pair my development Homebridge environment with either my iPhone or iPad - so my testing has been a little limited.

[aschmidt74]

just want to say THANK YOU for maintaining this!
it plays indeed a central role in my installation too.

[rbswift]

Thanks for updating @arachnetech. I was getting errors with StatelessProgrammableSwitch using "_n" for sequential numbering. Seems _ not allowed in accessory names. Unsure since when. I've submitted a PR to change to " ".

[arachnetech]

Thanks! Latest release should include this.