MAX products without cube?

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Hi,

Is it possible to control max products without the MAX cube? I see the radiator valve is supported but I can’t see if I need the cube or can do without and just use pimatic?

Would be nice to just use pimatic for home automation instead of pimatic and fhem.

Love the work you do!

Don

The cube is a gateway between the Ethernet and the 868MHz network from the Max products. So this is definitely necessary.
I am not sure for what you need fhem. The max plugin is fully supported by pimatic without any other software. And you need only one cube to control all your max devices.

What is your problem with the cube?

another issue on that would be the implementation of an 868 MHz transceiver since the Max! devices work at that frequency.
the good thing about working with the cube is that it has a good RF range and it does all the cpu work itself.

it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel. if you want to save some money go for the DIY kit. The cube, valves and window contact are very easy to assemble. The wall thermostate is more difficult and needs good soldering skills.

Thanks for the replies!
It’s not the cost, i’d just like to have everything from my RPi so I have one add-on to the network to control all.
It is possible with fhem and busware pigator(previously COC a CC1101-OneWire-Clock extension for Raspberry Pi).
So that’s why I was wondering if it could be done through pimatic.

Don

really nice implementation in FHEM. I think in the future we can implement this native solution too. But a gateway is also used. It isnt 868toEthernet but it is 868toSerial with an Arduino.

http://www.fhemwiki.de/wiki/Selbstbau_CUL
http://fhem.de/commandref_DE.html#CUL

Check this out http://busware.de/tiki-index.php?page=CUL

And some info from openhab
https://github.com/openhab/openhab/wiki/MAX!-CUL-Binding

It seems that this device has much more control over the devices than the MAX! Cube.

@leader21 said:

another issue on that would be the implementation of an 868 MHz transceiver since the Max! devices work at that frequency.
the good thing about working with the cube is that it has a good RF range and it does all the cpu work itself.

it’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel. if you want to save some money go for the DIY kit. The cube, valves and window contact are very easy to assemble. The wall thermostate is more difficult and needs good soldering skills.

Other devices use 868 to so if there is a good 868 transceiver that can talk directly to Max! that would open doors for the other devices aswel.

@incmve
fully agree! but hoping the 868 MHz frequency won’t be overloaded when using max devices and maybe other ones. i ran into issues with using several weather sensors on 433 MHz. due to lots of RF traffic they blocked themselves and other devices.

i have in mind that there is some discussion ongoing about 868 MHz implementation her http://forum.pimatic.org/topic/214/homemade-868mhz-devices/12
but the discussion is about to implement 2.4 ghz devices instead like mysensors

Hi,
i’m using several jeenodes with 866mhz and the athome-plugin. And I’m using the !MAX-cube also,… and there’re no issues and interferences between the different nodes and the cube.

@incmve I ordered the pigator from busware, should be able to use that.
I’m still a beginner and learning, If I get things going I’ll post here. An implementation in pimatic would be awesomeness!

Good to see all the replies.

I haven’t really did my research yet but my house has a central venting system operating at 868MHz.
http://www.progz.nl/blog/index.php/2014/12/reverse-engineering-remote-itho-cve-eco-rft-part-1/
Looks like Max is using the same module as my vent CC1101 Going to look into it when I have time

@leader21 said:

if you want to save some money go for the DIY kit. The cube, valves and window contact are very easy to assemble. The wall thermostate is more difficult and needs good soldering skills.

Where can I get the DIY Kit for the Lan Gateway? Has anyone done this before and is there a tutorial?

You can get it at the German vendor elv.de
have a look here http://www.elv.de/output/controller.aspx?cid=74&detail=10&detail2=37440
the Max diy products can be searched my “max arr” wich means almost ready to run. There are some sets with thermostats too.
The assembly isn’t that hard. It’s only putting parts together so no soldering in required. have a look at the below link for a tutorial.
For the wt+ wall thermostat I did a tut at the hardware section. its really hard to build without good soldering skills and equipment. Therefore maybe go for a ready solution for that one. window contacts are very easy, no soldering. heating thermostats need to be soldered with some wires as far as i remember.

edit : have a look here for the cube diy tut - http://saschas-blog.net/feed/2014/11/howto-max-cube-elv-arr-bausatz/
on the left of the page you can also see links to other max diy tuts. check them out for learning more.
very good tutorials for the max diy hardware (unfortunately only in German).