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HomeKit
The SCCS appears in the Apple Home app and enables Siri support once configured. Lights, relays, scenes, door reeds, temperatures, the water tank and the house battery are exported. HomeKit is off by default — turn it on from installer menu 10 or enable it from config file, restarting the PCCS service after saving the change.
Your iPhone/iPad needs to be connected to the LAN/Wi-Fi to pair and to control things locally. You can not access HomeKit/Siri through the uplink Cloudlfare tunnel. Remote Siri away from the caravan/camper needs a Home hub (HomePod or Apple TV) on the LAN/Wi-Fi.
Sliders, Siri and the Home app all count as a manual override: they stick until a reed or phase change clears them (relays keep their last on/off until you toggle them again). Reed-closed lights stay off except the usual rooftop-tent safety clamp.
Important Note - HomeKit can't start listening on the wired network card until the Raspberry Pi is connected to the local LAN/Wi-Fi ethernet switch. This will be shown on the HomeKit settings tile until it detects a LAN connection.
Turn it on from installer menu 10 (or sudo ~/sccs/install.sh --voice), or set enabled = true in the config file and restart the SCCS service. Menu 10 can enable HomeKit and Google Home in one go and checks LAN/Wi-Fi discovery.
The HomeKit tile will be visible once HomeKit is enabled in the config. Once it is on then use the tile to pair or reset.
You can still edit config/sccs.conf by hand (sudo nano, or \\10.10.10.1\sccs\config\sccs.conf on the Samba share):
[homekit]
enabled = true
name = SCCS
pin =
port = 51826
bind_address = 10.10.10.1
persist_file = config/homekit.state
low_battery_percent = 20-
bind_addressshould be the Raspberry Pi's LAN/Wi-Fi IP (default10.10.10.1). Do not set0.0.0.0or the WAN / USB-hotspot address — that would advertise HomeKit on the internet side. - Leave
pinblank on first enable; SCCS generates an 8-digit setup code and inserts it automatically. - After a hand-edit, restart:
sudo systemctl restart sccs- Join the phone to the LAN/Wi-Fi (not the upstream hotspot/Starlink).
- Open the SCCS Settings tab → HomeKit tile. You should see Waiting to Pair, a QR code, and the setup code.
- On the iPhone: Home app → + → Add Accessory → More options… → pick SCCS (or whatever you set as
name). - Scan the QR on the Settings tile, or type the setup code.
After pairing the tile shows Paired with Home. Adding extra phones in the same Home does not need the code again.
| SCCS | Home / Siri | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PWM lights | Dimmer | Brightness 0–100. |
rgb_bug lights (kitchen panel, awning) |
Dimmer + Bug Mode switch | Bug Mode on = red. There is no colour wheel. |
| Relays that look like lights (e.g. floodlights) | On/off light | Inferred from the name / fa-lightbulb icon. |
| Other relays (pump, circuit) | Switch | |
| Scenes | Momentary switch | “Hey Siri, turn on Bedtime” — the switch flips back off after it fires. |
| Reeds | Contact sensor | Closed = contact detected. |
| Outside / fridge / freezer | Temperature | Fridge and freezer only if their 1-Wire IDs are set. |
| Water tank | Humidity sensor named Water Tank | HomeKit has no tank type. The % is the tank level. Siri phrasing for this is awkward; automations (“below 20%”) work. |
| Victron house battery | Battery | SoC, charging, low-battery at low_battery_percent (default 20%). Only if a shunt/MPPT is configured. |
Screens, Sonos, GPS and the Day/Evening/Night phase are not exported. Sonos already has its own app.
Siri examples (names follow your sccs.conf labels):
- “Hey Siri, turn on the awning lights”
- “Hey Siri, set kitchen bench to 20 percent”
- “Hey Siri, turn on Bug Mode” (if you renamed the switch, or control it from the accessory)
- “Hey Siri, turn on Bedtime”
- “Hey Siri, is the kitchen panel open?”
“Turn on Ensuite” is ambiguous if you have both an Ensuite light and an Ensuite scene — rename one in config if Siri picks the wrong thing.
Same rules as the web UI:
- A Siri / Home dim is a manual override. It lasts until the linked reed changes, the phase changes, or you fire a scene.
- Relays (floodlights, pumps) stay where you left them through scenes and phase changes.
- Closed reeds still hold their lights off. The rooftop tent light cannot come on while the tent reed is closed, even if Siri asks — you get the same safety toast as the UI.
- Opening a door or changing phase clears light overrides and goes back to
[reed_phases.*]/[ambient.*]. - Activating a scene from Home is the same as tapping it on the Scenes tab.
You can also build Home-app scenes that group individual SCCS lights. That is separate from SCCS scenes.
On Settings → HomeKit, tap Reset pairing then Confirm reset. That deletes config/homekit.state and advertises a new setup code.
Every iPhone that had SCCS in Home must remove the old accessory and add it again. Do this if you replaced the Raspberry Pi, restored from backup without the persist file, or the Home app is stuck on an old pairing.
Local control only works while the phone is on the LAN/Wi-Fi.
For “Hey Siri, turn the kitchen lights on” from the supermarket you need a Home hub left on the LAN/Wi-Fi — a HomePod mini or Apple TV is the usual choice. This functionality is generally not required as the lighting is automated.
Settings tile is missing
HomeKit is not enabled. Use installer menu 10, or set [homekit] enabled = true and restart.
Tile says bind_address is not on this host
bind_address does not match a live IP on the Raspberry Pi. On a normal install that is 10.10.10.1 after Networking menu 6. Check with ip -br addr.
Phone cannot see SCCS in the Home app
- Phone is on LAN/Wi-Fi, not the Starlink / phone-hotspot SSID (unless that network is the LAN/Wi-Fi).
- Avahi is running:
systemctl status avahi-daemon - From the Raspberry Pi:
avahi-browse -a | grep -i hap— you should see_hap._tcp. - UniFi (or other) WAP: enable mDNS / multicast / IGMP. A routed (not bridged) client network will not forward discovery.
- Pi-hole should not be filtering multicast
224.0.0.251:5353.
Paired but controls do nothing
journalctl -u sccs.service -f | grep -i homekit while you toggle a light in Home. If there are no HomeKit lines at startup, the bridge did not start (see bind / enabled above). Lighting still has to obey reeds and the rooftop safety clamp.
Accessories missing or duplicated after you edit lights
Restart SCCS after changing [lights], [gpio], [scenes.*] or sensors. The Home app refreshes the bridge; remove leftover tiles by hand if you deleted a light in config.
WAN / security
HAP listens only on bind_address. Keep that on the LAN/Wi-Fi. nftables on a stock install does not need a new hole for this.