don't require IP address or fully qualified domain name

[jmissig]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe:
My fans did not have fixed IP addresses. I modified my network set up to get my DHCP server to assign them fixed IPs for now, but wish I didn’t have to.

Describe the solution you'd like:
No idea what exists in this version of the Big Ass Fans protocol, but the older Haiku fans plugin supported discovering fans if I told it how many to expect.

[jmissig]

Wanted to add: Thank you very much for making this plugin!

@pponce gave me a heads-up that this plugin existed before I had updated my Haiku fans. I got them updated, got them fixed IPs, and now they’re working great with this plugin.

I have a Haiku H-series, an I-series, and an I-series with a light.

[oogje]

I'm all for this. If someone tells me what message the Big Ass Fans app sends out to trigger discovery I'll give it a shot that much quicker.

I could maybe address the fans using their "hostname" rather than IP if that would helpful in the meantime. I just noticed I can connect to mine as BigFan.local.

PS - thanks

[jmissig]

Yep it’s in no way urgent for me now, but it’s a step that I think would help others who want to get started using these fans with Homebridge. I’ll share if I figure anything out.

[oogje]

Turns out (per my test just now) if you use the fan's hostname instead of an IP address in the config, it works just as well.

[jmissig]

Interesting! I’m not having much luck with that just yet.

(julian@saga)=(~)=(% host 172.16.1.238
238.1.16.172.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer Entryway.
(julian@saga)=(~)=(% ping Entryway.local
ping: Entryway.local: Name or service not known
(julian@saga)=(~)=(% ping Entryway.local.
ping: Entryway.local.: Name or service not known
(julian@saga)=(~)=(% ping Entryway       
ping: Entryway: Temporary failure in name resolution

[oogje]

@pponce discovered his Haiku's hostname was Haiku-xx:xx:xx where his fan name was Haiku and after the dashes the last 3 octets of his MAC address. He found it using either Discovery or wifiman iPhone apps.

[jmissig]

Thanks. I’m looking at what my Ubuntu NUC is telling me from avahi-browse. I see Fanname xx:xx:xx advertised but haven’t been able to figure out the mapping to the hostname I can use for ping. It does seem like a bug (on the Haiku’s end) if the advertised reverse host for address doesn’t map directly.

[oogje]

Lol, you just stepped outside my comfort zone.

[pponce]

@jmissig have you tried to ping
Fanname-xx:xx:xx.local
I also see it advertised as “Fanname xx:xx:xx” but the above ping works.

[jmissig]

@pponce yeah trying various combinations of that now — that seems like the intended mapping — but they’re all failing. Looking more like a bug in my mDNS setup on this computer at the moment 🤷

+   eno1 IPv4 Entryway XX:XX:XX                             Web Site             local
=   eno1 IPv4 Entryway XX:XX:XX                             Web Site             local
   hostname = [Entryway-XX\058XX\058XX.local]
   address = [172.16.1.238]
   port = [31416]
   txt = ["mac=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX" "path=/FW000007-GEN3"]

Edit: For anyone coming across this thread, if you have a Linux box using avahi for mDNS, the command to generate the above is avahi-browse -r _http._tcp

[jmissig]

Oh! It works now. ping Entryway-XX:XX:XX.local is succeeding. I tried that before and it was failing. mDNS it is a mystery.

Edit: For the record, Big Ass Fans folk if you’re reading this, I still think something in your mDNS advertising is incorrect if the IP reverse lookup is yielding a different hostname here:

(julian@saga)=(~)=(% ping Entryway-XX:XX:XX.local     
PING Entryway-XX:XX:XX.local (172.16.1.238) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from Entryway (172.16.1.238): icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=4.27 ms

[oogje]

Cool. Thanks for confirming this.

[oogje]

Now I have to ask, what's port = [31416] in the above avahi-browse -r _http._tcp output? I only know about port 31415.

[jmissig]

Seems to be an HTTP session (makes sense, since it’s advertising an HTTP address in mDNS!). I’m trying some basic GET requests (at least, what I think are basic requests) and they’re all returning 400.

[oogje]

interesting 🤔

[jmissig]

Definitely! I’ve not been able to yield anything of interest yet, but there’s something responding negatively to HTTP requests on that port.

[oogje]

perhaps the ghost of firmware past (or yet to come).

[pponce]

I use the iOS “Discovery” app.
Within that I go to the
“world wide web http, _http._tcp.” row.
When I click into that, I see my fans.
And if I click on a fan, amongst other details i see
FanName-XX:Xx:XX.local:31416
so I also see this 31416 port.