Loxone binding for OpenHAB - first version

[Pawel Pieczul]

Hello,

I have published first version of Loxone binding for OpenHAB: https://github.com/ppieczul/org.openhab.binding.loxone 
Current features are described in README.md file in the repository.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Thanks
Pawel

[Yannick Kalokerinos]

That's awesome, will definitely be checking this out. How do you you communicate with the miniserver? I imagine it's not via their dreadful rest api.

[Pawel Pieczul]

Over WebSocket connection.

[Byron]

I'm glad to see someone has started on this.

I was playing with this idea myself.

OpenHAB is ideal if you want to connect to external systems and it has a nice user interface (HABPanel).

I will try to get this installed as soon as possible.

The component I would love to see is the Lighting Controller (to get control of scenes and to see the active scene).

If I can be of any assistance, let me know. I have developed a small Websocket application to control my house, but stopped it due to the fact I'm not good at designing buttons etc...

Thanks

[Pawel Pieczul]

I suppose you are talking about that block: https://www.loxone.com/enen/kb/lighting-controller/
I don't have it in my configuration at home but I will give it a try and see.
My mini server is used for two purposes: to control blinds and to control about half of the lights in my house. I have few buttons installed to switch all lights off but have not yet connected them anywhere. This may be where lighting controller block will help.
Thanks for interest
Cheers
Pawel

[Pawel Pieczul]

Ok, I added support for light controller and also changed my home configuration to use it. Seems like a good idea, instead of separate switches per light.

You may want to check this code: https://github.com/ppieczul/org.openhab.binding.loxone/releases/tag/2.1.0-4

If you allow openhab to create items for you (simple mode), light controller should be visible even in paperui with a drop down list of scenes.

It accepts on/off and number 0-9 commands.

Looking forward to feedback

Cheers

Pawel

[OnWaVo]

This is great. Finally the possibility to use a lot of different third party hardware with loxone.

I am trying to use it but i lack the experience with openhab. It was easy to connect the miniserver with openhab. 

I see a lot of channels in openhab things from my loxone ui. But what then? How to control them?

 

[Pawel Pieczul]

Hello

In my opinion OpenHAB has unfortunately a pretty long learning curve, comparing to off-the-shelf and integrated Loxone. But it may pay off nicely.

I would recommend to start and go over this guide: http://docs.openhab.org/introduction.html

Then, it all would depend on what you would like to achieve with your installation. 

I think for a Loxone owner, openhab is excellent for the following reasons:

  - designing your own UI layout, there are many customizable options available (I enjoy habpanel), but what's most important - using this one UI to control other devices too

  - connecting other vendors' devices to openhab instead of buying expensive Loxone-dedicated ones. For example electricity meter over modbus: in Loxone modbus extension plus meter will cost over 500 EUR. When connecting it directly to openhab you have to pay less than 100 EUR for a decent modbus 3-phase meter plus USB dongle. And you will get possibility to analyze your data with more sophisticated tools like grafana and present them in your UI.

  - integrating with cloud services, which will be rather never available to the miniserver directly - for example commanding your Loxone devices with Alexa voice control.

What I may be only hopeful for, is that Loxone will not close their API support in order to prevent integration and keep users locked to the brand.

Cheers

Pawel

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[OnWaVo]

Thanks for the links. It seems it will be indeed a long learning curve. :)

I have read a couple of things but did not directly found a way forward with my loxone openhab configuration.

There was a video on youtube where it was so simple to use openhab. I thought it would be the same. In the video he has his 'things' and then selects witch channels he wants to control. He chooses the correct channels and then he can control them.

I also have created all the channels following your instructions. To bad i can not seem to find a way to control them. Are there a lot of steps outside the paper ui after your instructions to create 'things' or to create 'links'?

I can see i have a long way to go. Only reason why i want to use openhab is to have a connection between ifttt and loxone.

Thanks for the help

[Pawel Pieczul]

To send commands to channels you need to have Items.
There are two modes openHAB ui operates in. Simple mode: ui will create items for you.
Not Simple mode: you will have to create items yourself. My suggestion is to use simple mode for your case - it is the default after installation.
So after you create Miniserver "thing" you should see channels under thing configuration AND items under items page in paper ui.
There you can just click on them to interact.
If you have items, you can use them everywhere around openHAB by using their IDs.
Please check if you can get to a point where you can control Loxone items using paper ui and we will go from there next.
Pawel

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[Pawel Pieczul]

Have you had chance to check it - any success?

I gave it a try and managed to successfully connect Loxone to IFTTT through openhab.

If you think it helps, I can try to put together some step-by-step guide on how to connect Loxone to external services like IFTTT and Alexa.

Pawel

On Sunday, June 25, 2017 at 6:16:28 PM UTC+2, Pawel Pieczul wrote:

To send commands to channels you need to have Items.
There are two modes openHAB ui operates in. Simple mode: ui will create items for you.
Not Simple mode: you will have to create items yourself. My suggestion is to use simple mode for your case - it is the default after installation.
So after you create Miniserver "thing" you should see channels under thing configuration AND items under items page in paper ui.
There you can just click on them to interact.
If you have items, you can use them everywhere around openHAB by using their IDs.
Please check if you can get to a point where you can control Loxone items using paper ui and we will go from there next.
Pawel

On Sun, 25 Jun 2017 at 17:02, OnWaVo <steve.f...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for the links. It seems it will be indeed a long learning curve. :)

I have read a couple of things but did not directly found a way forward with my loxone openhab configuration.

There was a video on youtube where it was so simple to use openhab. I thought it would be the same. In the video he has his 'things' and then selects witch channels he wants to control. He chooses the correct channels and then he can control them.

I also have created all the channels following your instructions. To bad i can not seem to find a way to control them. Are there a lot of steps outside the paper ui after your instructions to create 'things' or to create 'links'?

I can see i have a long way to go. Only reason why i want to use openhab is to have a connection between ifttt and loxone.

Thanks for the help

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[OnWaVo]

I didnt had a chance do check it. The problem was that i didnt install openhab with simple mode. So i have the channels but not the automatic things. And i couldn't find a way you create them. So i need to reinstall openhab tot get simple mode. I Will do that tommorow. I Will keep you posted.

[Pawel Pieczul]

No reinstall needed. Go to settings in paper ui and click on simple mode and save (easy to miss save). Then just remove thing and do a new discovery.

On Sat, 1 Jul 2017 at 08:42, OnWaVo <steve.f...@gmail.com> wrote:

I didnt had a chance do check it. The problem was that i didnt install openhab with simple mode. So i have the channels but not the automatic things. And i couldn't find a way you create them. So i need to reinstall openhab tot get simple mode. I Will do that tommorow. I Will keep you posted.

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[OnWaVo]

Great. I just tried it and it works :)

With simple mode it automatically created the items. With the items i can control my house.

I then made myself an account for cloud service and configured a item for IFTTT.

I have tested it with a 'Do' in IFTTT to control a light and it works.

My original goal was to connect loxone to IFTTT and it works great now. It has a 10 second delay but it works.

Thank you.

[Pawel Pieczul]

New more detailed installation and configuration instructions with pictures are available on the wiki: https://github.com/ppieczul/org.openhab.binding.loxone/wiki
In the future I'm planning to add instructions how to integrate Loxone with services like IFTTT, Alexa, Google Home and to create custom UI for Loxone combined with services from other vendors.