Homebridge ADB

A simple homebridge script to control remote ADB enabled Android device. The idea is to have a make random Android based TV box can be controlled with Home App. It make your Android device appear as TV accesory, where you can control sleep status, volume and dpad control via remote, and launch certain predefined app defined by you.

This plugins register it self as external accesorries, so make sure after you add your Homebridge bridge to your Home App, manually add accesories to add the device you want to control via Home App

Prerequisite

• Install Homebridge (and Homebridge UI X if you want, this plugin support web configuration over there) and this plugins

   sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm homebridge homebridge-adb
  

• Make sure you install ADB at the same machine as your Homebridge.

  • If you're using Ubuntu, use this command:

    sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot
    

  • If you're using Alpine Linux (like the one from of oznu/docker-homebridge), use this command:

    apk --update-cache --repository http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/ add android-tools
    

  • For other OS and method please download it in here: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
  • When it properly installed, please check your ADB is up and running with this command:


    adb version
    

• Enable Developer mode in your Android device, visit this documentation to read more
 https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/dev-options

• Some Android device doesn't have remote debug by default. If your device is one of them, connect your device with USB cable to your server (or any computer with ADB installed) and run this command:

   adb tcpip 5555
  

  after that, just disconnect the USB cable from your server.

• Optionally, run this command to make sure you can connect to device:

   adb connect your-device-ip
  

  If all goes well, there will be a popup window in your android device asking for debug permission. After you accept the request, you might want to do kill the adb server to make a fresh connection

   adb kill-server
  

  After that reconnect your device again with previous adb connect. And after that, you should able to run this command

   adb -s your-device-ip shell "getprop ro.product.model"
  

  and get it will output your device model.

Docker container based upon oznu/docker-homebridge

• Append the followings line to your config/startup.sh to install this plugin on every container restart:

   # Install the homebridge-adb plugin
   npm install homebridge-adb

• If you're using a container based on Alpine Linux (like oznu/docker-homebridge:latest), append this line to your config/startup.sh to install adb automatically

   # Install adb, required by the homebridge-adb plugin
   apk --update-cache --repository http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/ add android-tools

• If you're using a container based on Debian (like the oznu/docker-homebridge:ubuntu & oznu/docker-homebridge:debian docker image), append the following lines to your config/startup.sh to install adb automatically

   # Update apt package index
   apt-get update
  
   # Install adb, required by the homebridge-adb plugin
   apt-get install -y android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

• Optionally, if you run into issues when connecting to your android device (sometimes adb can't create the $HOME/.android/adbkey), add this line to your config/startup.sh:

   # Fix connection issues for the homebridge-adb plugin
   adb connect $YOUR_ANDROID_DEVICE_IP

Configuration

Here an example of configuration that you can use. If you're using Homebridge Config UI X, you can configure your device there, but there's a small hiccup with Inputs. It only display one input, but if you press add, it will display the rest of the inputs.

"platforms": [
    {
        "platform": "HomebridgeADB",
        "accessories": [
            {
                "name": "NVIDIA Shield",
                "interval": 1000,
                "ip": "192.168.1.106",
                "playbacksensor": true,
                "playpauseobutton": "KEYCODE_MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE",
                "backbutton": "KEYCODE_BACK",
                "infobutton": "KEYCODE_HOME",
                "category": "TV_STREAMING_STICK",
                "hidenumber": true,
                "hidehome": true,
                "hideother": true,
                "debug": true,
                "skipSpeaker": false,
                "inputs": [
                    {
                        "name": "HBO Now",
                        "id": "com.hbo.hbonow"
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "Apple Music",
                        "id": "com.apple.android.music"
                    }
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "Meizu",
                "ip": "192.168.1.121",
                "playbacksensor": false,
                "poweron": "KEYCODE_POWER",
                "inputs": [
                    {
                        "name": "Termux",
                        "id": "com.termux",
                        "adb": "monkey -p com.termux 1"
                    },
                    {
                        "name": "Apple Music",
                        "id": "com.apple.android.music"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
]

• platform (mandatory): the name of this plugin.
• name (mandatory): the name of the device.
• ip (mandatory): the IP address of the device.
• inputs (optional): by default the plugins will create Home for launcher shortcut and Other for previous app shortcut as input. If set, the plugins will add more input based on the config. To know your app id, please see your Homebridge log. When you live this black, and set hidehhome and hideother to true, the plugins will hide inputs in Home App.
  • name (mandatory): the name of the input
  • id (mandatory): the application id
  • adb (optional): you can run you own adb shell command here, such as: monkey -p com.app.id 1
• interval (optional): if not set, the plugin will check device statuses every 5000 miliseconds.
• playbacksensor (optional): if set to true, plugin will create a motion sensor based on playback activity (either video or music).
• category (optional): you can choose from this categories: APPLE_TV, TELEVISION, TV_STREAMING_STICK, TV_SET_TOP_BOX, AUDIO_RECEIVER, or SPEAKER. Home app will display different icon based on the category you choose.
• infobutton, playpauseobutton, backbutton (optional): assign custom key event code for Remote control in iOS Control Center, see https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent for the key codes.
• hidenumber (optional): if set to true, plugin will hide number inputs in Home App.
• hidehome (optional): if set to true, plugin will hide "Home" input in Home App.
• hideother (optional): if set to true, plugin will hide "Other" input in Home App.
• debug (optional): if set to true, plugin will output more debug info in homebridge log.
• skipSpeaker (optional): if set to true, an accompanying speaker will not be initialized for the device and will disable volume control in Control Center Remote
• poweron, poweroff (optional): assign csutom key event code for Power on/off, you can use KEYCODE_POWER or combination of KEYCODE_AWAKE/KEYCODE_SLEEP. See https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent for the other key codes that might more suitable for your device.

ADB command that this script use

• Device name

   adb -s your-device-ip shell "getprop ro.product.manufacturer"
  

• Device model

   adb -s your-device-ip shell "getprop ro.product.model"
  

• Device serial number

   adb -s your-device-ip "getprop ro.serialno"
  

• To run "keyboard" command like up, down, sleep, awake, volume control, etc

   adb -s your-device-ip shell "input keyevent KEYCODE"
  

• To know device sleep status based on whether secreen is turned on or off

   adb -s your-device-ip shell 'dumpsys power | grep mHoldingDisplay | cut -d = -f 2'
  

• Running an app using their package name

   adb -s your-device-ip shell "monkey -p package.name 1"
  

• To know current on screen app

   adb -s your-device-ip shell "dumpsys window windows | grep -E mFocusedApp"
  

FAQ

• My playback sensor doesnt seem to working after updating to 1.4.3 from 1.4.x
  • Remove your playback sensor and the readd it again in Home app, it seems like the new code causing Homekit to unrecognized it.
• My device is not responding after updating to 1.4.*
  • Due additional new features of playback sensor, HomeKit is unable to recognize the old accessory due to different characteristics. To fix this, you need to remove your accesory from Home app, then rename you device in config.json, and restart Homebridhe. This will create a new accesories that you can re-add again in home app. When you add them, be sure to rename your new accessory the same as to the old one in Home app if posible, this hopefully will retain your automations.
• Where can I use volume and D-Pad control for my device?
  • First turn on "Apple TV Remote" control from your iOS device inside Settings -> Control Center. Then swipe down Control Center, you'll see a remote icon. Tap the remote icon to open the remote, you can use your iOS device screen for the D-Pad, and use your iOS device physical volume button to control your device volume.
• Why I can't turn on my device after turning it off?
  • Your device might disconnected from network connection after you turn off your device. You need to turn it on manually. Or, please make sure your device still able to recieve network connection when it turned off, check your device settings for it.
• Is this safe?
  • Actually I don't know, it feels very dirty (I need to wash my hand everytime I use this) and hacky, but it works for me.
• I found some bugs, what should I do?
  • You can submit your bugs here https://github.com/dwaan/homebridge-adb/issues or you can help me to fix it by sending pull request.
• Can this plugins do (insert stuff you want to do to your device)?
  • I think so, ADB can basically control your device remotely. If you have other idea for what this can do, you can submit your idea as an issue.
• Can I buy you a beer?
  • No, but you can buy me an Ice cream. But if you like this plugins feel free to stared this repo.