Yesterday, I successfully brought a nearly 10-year-old Mac Mini back to life. Today, the next step was to integrate this Mac Mini — along with its connected devices — into the Apple Home app.
Instead of using Home Assistant, this setup relies on the built-in Matter Bridge capability of eWeLink CUBE. With this approach, the Mac Mini acts as a Matter bridge and can be directly added to Apple Home.
This method requires an Apple Matter Hub, such as a HomePod or Apple TV. In my office, I’m using a HomePod mini as the Matter controller.
First, make sure eWeLink CUBE is running properly on the Mac Mini.
From a browser on the same local network, open the IP address of the Mac Mini to access the eWeLink CUBE dashboard.
I had already added a temperature and humidity sensor to eWeLink CUBE and confirmed it was reporting data correctly.
In the eWeLink CUBE dashboard, click the Matter icon and select Matter Bridge. A preparation screen will appear. Click the “>” button in the top-right corner to proceed.
The system will then display a Matter pairing QR code, which will be used to add the bridge to Apple Home.
On your iPhone or iPad, open the Home app, tap the “+” icon, and choose to add an accessory. This opens the QR code scanner.
Scan the Matter QR code shown on the Mac Mini screen and follow the on-screen instructions.
If you see a warning about an “unverified accessory,” simply choose to continue.
Next, select the location for the newly added bridge device (the Mac Mini itself). Once this step is complete, the Mac Mini is officially added to Apple Home as a Matter bridge.
Apple Home will then prompt you to add the devices connected behind the bridge.
Assign it to a room and complete the setup. Here, the temperature and humidity sensor previously added to eWeLink CUBE is automatically discovered.
After setup, you can view real-time sensor data in the Home app across all devices signed in with the same Apple ID.
The entire process is smooth and requires no code or complex configuration. Compared to Home Assistant, this approach is significantly easier to understand and use.
Next, I plan to test more devices from different brands with eWeLink CUBE and bridge them into Apple Home to explore the real-world limits of Apple’s smart home ecosystem.
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