GTrusted

In a previous review, we used the Apple Home App to perform some simple automation to turn on a light from the Philips Hue Starter Kit once the Eve Motion sensor was triggered by some movement. However we wanted to perform other automation routines to be triggered when the Eve Motion  no longer detected motion or when the Elgato Eve Room measured a particular temperature. Unfortunately, the Home App seemed quite limited in what types of sensor actions it could trigger on so we turned to the Elgato Eve App.  

We found the Elgato Eve App surprisingly powerful in the types of automation it enabled while keeping the App simple to use. We were also happy to see that it could automate and monitor not only Elgato's own devices but also other HomeKit devices like the Philips Hue Starter Kit.

When we first opened up the Elgato Eve App, in the 'At a Glance' screen, we didn't see any of our HomeKit devices which had been set up on the Home App. To address this we selected Edit, and then selected the stars which all the HomeKit devices we wanted to include in this screen.

Once set up, we could monitor all our HomeKit devices on this screen similar to the Home App.

We could also turn on and off the Hue lights simply by selecting the Hue lights icon in this screen.

To set the automaton rules, we first selected the Scenes icon at the bottom of the Eve App and then selected the Rules sub-screen.

Here we could see the automation we had set up previously on the Home App to turn on the Hue light based on motion detection.

It was good to see that on this existing automation routine, we could add more granularity and complexity in what was being triggered and under what conditions. 

To set up a new automation routine, we selected 'Add Rule' in the Rules sub-screen.

The Eve App then clearly defines the simple framework used to create these Rules where based on Triggers and Conditions, Scenes would be executed.

We first wanted to be able to turn off the Hue light in absence of any motion detected. To achieve this, we selected 'Next' to go into a Triggers window.

We selected 'Add Value Trigger' and then selected the room where the Eve Motion was located.

We could then see the Eve Motion and selected it.

Once selected, we could then choose then Trigger Value to be Specific.

We set the Trigger Value as Clear, meaning there was no motion detected by the Eve Motion.

We could then proceed on by selecting 'Next'.

In the Conditions window, we could choose under what types of conditions we wanted the automation to happen, like time of day.

After selecting 'Next', in the Scenes window we then selected 'Add Scene' to be able to set up the Hue light to be turned off.

In the Add Scenes window, we selected 'Add Actions'.

In the Actions window, we then selected the room where we had associated the Hue light.

We could then select 'Power' and set it as 'Off', meaning that we wanted to turn off the light.

After adding this Action, we returned back to the Add Scenes window where we could see the Power being set as Off.

We could then select 'Next' and choose the Scene name and icon.

With the new Scene being defined and named, it was already selected back in the Scenes window.

After selecting 'Next', we could create a name for the new Rule that we created.

With the new Rule created, we could confirm that after no motion activity, the Hue light would now turn off.

And once there was motion detected, the Hue light would turn on which was pretty cool.

We next wanted to use the Eve App to trigger on the air quality, temperature, and humidity sensors found in the Elgato Eve Room. The Apple Home App was unable to trigger on these sensors but fortunately this is all possible with the Eve App.

Since HomeKit didn't seem offer a way to provide an e-mail notification, we decided to just turn on a Hue light if the temperature in another room went outside a certain temperature band.

In the Rules sub-screen we again selected Add Rule to define another automation routine and followed the same procedures as above to Add a Value Trigger.

In the Value Trigger window, we could see all the Air Quality, Temperature, and Humidity options from the Elgato Eve Room.  

After selecting Temperature, we could then select the Eve Room.

We then selected the Trigger Value to be Specific and then set the Condition to be below a certain temperature.

Since no Scene had been set up for the Hue light we wanted to turn on, we had to create one.

We then added one of the Hue lights to turn on at a particular brightness level as an Action.

After naming the Scene, we could again finish the Rule setup.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like we could combine two different temperature conditions in the same Rule so we had to repeat the same process as above to create another Rule to activate the same scene once the temperature exceeded a certain value.

The found the Elgato Eve App really useful to achieve the HomeKit automation we desired and overcame a lot of the limitations we had found using the Apple Home App. Hopefully the lack of HomeKit support of e-mail notifications will be addressed in the future since that should be considered as part of any home automation scheme.