3. Use Mermaid

Usage

Pair Mermaid with your Home

Once installed, you now have to pair Mermaid with your Apple Home environment.

Important

To pair your Mermaid installation you need to retrieve its pairing pincode. To do so, check Mermaid log file located at <mermaid-install-path>/logs/server.log and look for the line Pincode to pair with HomeKit: XXX-XX-XXX

1. Start by opening the Apple Home app on your Apple Device
2. Click on the "+" button and then on "add an accessory"
3. On the next page, click on "More options..."
4. If the installation was done properly, a "Mermaid Security System" tile should be displayed, click on it
5. As Mermaid is not certified by Apple a warning message will be displayed, ignore it and continue the pairing process.
6. Enter your Mermaid instance pairing pincode (do not enter the "-", let iOS do the job) and wait for the completion of the pairing process

Create automations

Mermaid state machine

The below chart shows how Mermaid reacts depending on its current state and the signals it recieves from Apple Home.

flowchart LR
  d((Disarmed))
  a((Away Armed))
  t(((Triggered)))
  n((Night Armed))

  d-- Away Armed -->a
  d-- Stay Armed -->d
  a-- Disarmed -->d
  a-- Stay Armed -->t
  t-- Disarmed -->d

  style d stroke:#14C629
  style a stroke:#EA8C0C
  style t stroke:#EB1903 
  style n stroke-dasharray: 5 5 

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Mermaid implements all states supported by Apple Homekit Security System accessories but overrides the normal behavior by using recieved signals to go to specific states.

For instance if Mermaid is switched to "Away Armed" and then recieves the "Stay Armed" signal it will go to "Triggered" state instead of going to "Stay Armed" state.

Each state transition will trigger a push notification on all iOS devices up and linked to your Apple Home.

The "Triggered" state will trigger a specific urgent push notification

The "Night Armed" mode is not used

Examples

To take advantage of Mermaid, you need a third party app like the Eve Home one to be able to create advanced Apple Homekit automations.

One usefull automation you may want to put in place is the following:

flowchart LR
   if{"`**Trigger:** 
      Door sensor is opened ?`"}
   c{"`**Condition:** 
         Mermaid in Away Armed mode ?`"}
   a1["`**Action:** 
          Send Stay Armed signal to Mermaid`"]
   a2["`**Action:** 
          Switch outlet to ON`"]

   if-- YES -->c
   c-- YES -->a1
   c-- YES -->a2

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