HomeKit
Z-Wave
Voice assistants
Works with
Yes, Thinka supports Adaptive Lighting via our BETA channel, firmware 4.3.1300. In order to make use of Adaptive Lighting from HomeKit, you need a Home Hub from Apple and your light bulbs need to be Colour or Tunable White lights.
Recently the new version of our Companion app was accepted by Apple and released in the App Store. The app now allows you to monitor the status of your network and KNX system. Furthermore it supports Thinka's that are protected with a password.
Just like before it still assists you in pairing your Thinka with HomeKit on your phone, and putting all devices in the proper rooms. The app will show a notification of the number of Thinka accessories that are out-of-sync with HomeKit as well.
If you have any questions or requests, please let us know via support@thinka.eu If you like the app, please leave a review in the App Store, we really appreciate it.
Apple HomeKit limits the number of Accessories a Thinka (or any other bridge) can control to 150. Or 149 if you include Thinka itself.
However an accessories can be a lamp that has 4 lightbulbs, that can be switched and dimmed. In this case, one accessory (the lamp) has 4 services (the bulbs) that have 4 group addresses (on/off set and listen, dim set and listen). So in this case 1 accessory can have 1 * 4 * 4 = 16 group addresses. So the limit of 150 accessories in practice means you can have a multitude of group addresses.
Most accessories will have two group addresses, but you could combine multiple services into 1 accessory. The Home app shows services, not accessories. Services in the same accessories will always be in the same room though. It just depends on how you define an accessory.
If you still need to control more accessories, you can use multiple Thinka's in the same network.
For more on HomeKit see our article.
We support Switch, Lightbulb (including color and tuneable white), Window Covering (curtains, blinds, awnings, shades, roller shutters), Thermostat (heating and cooling), Temperature, Humidity, Carbon Dioxide Sensor, Light Sensor, Motion Sensor, Occupancy Sensor, Contact Sensor, Smoke Sensor, Leak Sensor, Fans, Push Buttons and Garage doors. Apple does not allow for Thinka to bridge IP Camera's. In case you to control an IP camera via Apple Home, you have to use a HomeKit certified IP Camera. Apple does not allow for Thinka to bridge door locks that give direct access to the home.
Yes, you can. You can mix all these assistants. And for instance use HomeKit for visualisation on your iPad at the wall, while using an Amazon Echo in every room for voice control. And a Google Nest in the kitchen.
On a first installation and sometimes after a network change your Thinka may fail to connect to HomeKit. You might see the "Connecting to Bridge" message appear and then "Accessory not found".
In most cases this points to a network problem.
If this is your first time you connect to Thinka make sure to reset HomeKit under Settings -> Apple HomeKit on the web interface of your Thinka.
If you have been connected before, use the same iPhone or iPad to install the Thinka Companion app and check whether it can find your Thinka. Your Thinka should be visible. otherwise you need to resolve your network issues. In most cases this is due to routing problems in a complex network or a misconfigured IPv6 network.
HomeKit uses the Bonjour/mDNS protocol for discovery. In more complicated networks (multiple routers, VLANs) or with some access point configuration this traffic might be blocked. You can use the Discovery app to see if the Thinka is always visible under the _hap._tcp key when your iOS device is connected to the same network.
Yes, With the Home app, you can set up a home hub to control your HomeKit accessories remotely, and automate your accessories to do what you want, when you want. For more info see the Controlling Accessories Remotely.
Your installer might have installed some first scenes for you when installing your KNX system and Thinka and pairing your Thinka with HomeKit. However, after a while you want to make adjustments to one of your scenes. You can easily do this yourself. This tutorial shows you how. See also our section of HomeKit Scenes
No, not with HomeKit. Unfortunately Apple does not allow Thinka (or any other HomeKit bridge) to bridge any devices that allows physical access to your home.
Apple states in their specification:
Any accessory, regardless of transport, that enables physical access to the home, such as door locks, must not be bridged.
We've used DayView, see https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/04/dayview-a-personal-dashboard-for-apple-tv/
An Energy Monitor can be used to monitor the energy variables kWh, Watt, Voltage and Amperage.
Add an Accessory to Thinka and choose Service "Energy Monitor" (beta only). You need to provide listen group addresses for the above values.
Even though the Apple Home App ignores these values, HomeKit does not. To be able to use them, you need a HomeKit app such as Eve.
Thinka uses an undocumented feature to actually show them as Watt, kWh and so on in Eve. And by configuring Eve with the cost per kWh, you can monitor the cost per device too!
It will look like this:
The Energy Monitor is a Thinka beta feature