Pimatic with server-client connection

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Hi,
I’m starting a new project, and I want to use Pimatic again. The house is in a valley, internet comes over a special kind of wifi.
And here is my problem: I’m not allowed to configure the router, so no port forwarding is possible!

Which possibilities do I have to control Pimatic via internet?
My idea is, to use an „Pimatic-server“, which is hosted at my raspberry at home. Is it possible to sync a Pimatic-Client in the valley with the Pimatic-Server?

Maybe there is some easier way…

Thanks,
Hannes

Maybe you could use a “reverse” VPN?

https://coolaj86.com/articles/reverse-vpn-turn-any-private-device-into-public-cloud-server/

@thex, if that’s the easy way what would the hard one look like … sorry

since i have had problems with my hoster too i once was using the service hamachi for a vpn connection. i remember that i was able to only use 5 devices from which i was able to connect from outside/www. hope i can find the howto for it again

A possibility is to use ssh from your Valley computer to your home computer and set up a tunnel (some tunnels).

So we have two computers: Valley and Home.

On rpi Valley pimatic is installed and listens on port 8080 (for example).
<YOUR_HOME_IP> is the ip-address of your router at home, or in case you have a (free) domain you can also use that domain name.

On computer Valley:
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add GatewayPorts yes
Restart ssh (daemon): sudo service ssh
ssh -nNT -R 8080:localhost:8080 -o ServerAliveInterval=30 <YOUR_HOME_IP>
This will create a tunnel from the Valley computer 8080 to the outside world to your <YOUR_HOME_IP>.
The ServerAliveInterval=30 will give a ping every 30 seconds to keep the connection alive.

And then from your home computer you use <YOUR_HOME_IP>:8080
This should allow it.

There are more HowTo’s but you could read this one or this one or this one.
Or simply google for “reverse ssh tunnel”.

Edit: I did this between 2004 and 2007 when I lived somewhere else and this reminded me of it. I now did it on “theoretical” base and I did not try it.

OK, back to the drawing board and a total other approach.
What is the function you need? What do you want to control or get info on when you are not at the location?
Specificy these needs and see wat can be done from that point.

It isn’t difficult to setup 2 Pimatic instances (valley and remote) and let the valley Pimatic use info over HTTP API to remote. But I think best way is to write for yourself on paper ‘what do I need, what do I want?’

@koffienl said in Pimatic with server-client connection:

OK, back to the drawing board and a total other approach.
What is the function you need? What do you want to control or get info on when you are not at the location?

What functions do I need?

• have a look at some room temperatures, battery voltages, switch states …
• control the switches (heat control, additional dump load, …)

But I think best way is to write for yourself on paper ‘what do I need, what do I want?’

A real ‘real time monitoring’ isn’t needed. That means, some delay time is OK (reading an writing).

It isn’t difficult to setup 2 Pimatic instances (valley and remote) and let the valley Pimatic use info over HTTP API to remote.

Your idea sounds good. Do you have a tutorial for me?

Thanks for the many ideas and post!!!

Hannes

That sounds good! Your idea i

@BlueHill Sorry, not really a tutorial and expect a lot of manual rules to create.
Basicly : setup a pimatic at the valey location as you want. Then you install a second pi with pimatic (for test purposes also at the valley location).
For EVERY device/variable you want to see at the second pimatic you have to create rules on the first pimatic. With the rules you are going to push the information with curl to the second with the pimatic API.

Let’s say there is a ON/OFF switch on the valley pimatic. Create a dummyswitch on the remote pimatic.
valley pimatic IF device-x is turned off THEN execute "sudo curl --silent --user \"user:pass\" --data 'state=false' http://second_pi/api/device/warmte/changeStateTo > /dev/null"
Create the same for turning ON.
Remote pi: IF device-x is turned off THEN execute "sudo curl --silent --user \"user:pass\" --data 'state=false' http://first_pi/api/device/warmte/changeStateTo > /dev/null"
Also the same for ON.

For variables you use: $var-x gets updated THEN execute "curl --silent -X PATCH --header \"Content-Type:application/json\" --user \"user:pass\" --data '\{\"type\": \"value\", \"valueOrExpression\": $var-x\}' http://second_pi/api/variables/var-x > /dev/null"

as you can see, it IS possible with the Pi but it’s gonna take a lot of work.

Yes, it is a lot of work.
And with the reverse tunnel you can simply open “Valley pimatic” on your home pc.

@Harry-van-der-Wolf said in Pimatic with server-client connection:

Yes, it is a lot of work.
And with the reverse tunnel you can simply open “Valley pimatic” on your home pc.

Thats right, I think that I will test both methods. The reverse tunnel especially because of SSH, patchs and so on.

But also the second pimatic instance sounds good, because every device can be used (and maybe it works better with an instable network connection?).

When I have more time, I will test it.
Thank you all!!!