New Plugin for Homegear

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I made a new plugin to communicate to homegear (https://www.homegear.eu) via xml-rpc, which is quite handy if the CUL stick is used to communicate with homematic or max! devices.

You can find the source on github https://github.com/meyerd/pimatic-homegear and the npm package https://www.npmjs.com/package/pimatic-homegear.

@sweetpi feel free to add it to the plugins page.
Currently, only the homematic thermostat devices are supported, since I only have those at hand to test. Also a lot of possible features from homegear are not exposed yet.

@meyerd Hi, must I use the cul USB stick. Or can I use TI CC1100 or TI CC1101 chip directly to the SPI Pins as mentioned on the homegear Site?

@DoktorD as all the interfacing with the hardware is done by homegear, this should work. The pimatic plugin interfaces with homegear via xml-rpc and should thus be unaffected by how you connect your hardware or what RF hardware you use. Just take care, that you use a TI CCXXXX that is suitable for 868MHz a lot of modules from ebay are tuned for 433MHz. Personally, I did buy the CUL stick, because on there there is an additional matched filter for 868MHz. I don’t know if that makes any big difference with regard to signal quality.

@meyerd I have question about using the CUL stick. Is it possible to use CUL to communicate with Max! and eQ3 devices at the same? My understanding is that these devices use different protocols which are not compatible to each other. Using a CCU or homegrown CCU based open source HM-OCCU-SDK is not able to communicate with !Max devices as far as I know. So if that is possible with Homegear this would be great.

@mwittig I think this depends on the implementation in homegear. Maybe just try. As far as I remember MAX and eq3 are more or less the same as homematic with just different vendor labelling.

is a curl stick necessary? or is this enough for
control 868mhz devices?
http://www.elv.de/controller.aspx?cid=726&detail=52818

if not, which curl stick is necessary?

must i the receiver and transmitter plug in in the Pi or
in the Arduino?
find no guidance.

The ELV shop page tells you that the device is operating on the 800MHz band, so yes, this works with the 868 MHz devices. I looks to me that this device is kind of “official” by the makers of homematic. Therefore, I don’t know if that interfaces with the same xml-rpc protocol or if the homegear server has to be put in the middle between pimatic and the HM-MOD-RPI-PCB software component. I guess you put that module on the raspberry exactly as depicted on the page you linked.

I’m using this plugin with homegear 0.6 nightly and the sync via XMLRPC seems not to work. I can control homegear from pimatic but pimatic is not getting any updates from homegear. Anyone using this combination aswell?

Infact that means i can setup and control the eQ3/Max Radiator Valves without the need of the LAN Cube?
If thats correct i am happy that i haven’t bought this expensive piece of Hardware till now.

Yes, that’s right. However you need some hardware for homegear to communicate with the thermostats

HI all - just to clarify for others the above - EQ-3 is a company that produces MAX! product line and Homematic product line. The MAX! is lower cost and somewhat simplier, while Homematic line is more elaborated with more feature, more intensive communication between central/devices.
Both lines need “brain” - i.e. Central unit: Max has CUBE, Homematic has CCU2.
Both can be replaced by third party product CUL (produce busware.de) which is basically an USB stick with anntenna.
The CUL is somewhat expensive(ca 60EUR) Although yet cheaper than CUBE or CCU2. There is even cheaper solution which Homegear might be reffering to: Arduino-nano + CC1101 radio chip (just google for FHEMDuino or search Homegear forums).

@Pjch said in New Plugin for Homegear:

There is even cheaper solution which Homegear might be reffering to: Arduino-nano + CC1101 radio chip

This is also referred as “CULclone” . There is a German blog article with detailed build instructions: http://blog.gummibaer-tech.de/cul-stick-868433-im-selbstbau/

The required firmware is open source and supports the following protcols: “SlowRF” mode: FS20: send/receiveo, FHT: send/receive, S300: receive, EM1000: receive, HMS: receive, Hoermann: receive. ESA2000: receive, Lacrosse TX2/TX3: receive, Intertechno: send BidCos® in the “AskSin” mode (20kHz datarate, FM). HomeMatic® Wireless devices use this protocol.

there is also a possibility to run cul fw on the max cube. i will try that the next days.
https://forum.fhem.de/index.php?topic=38404.0

Which devices are supprted from the plugin?
I am using one HM-CC-RT-DN which is working.

But i also have a HM-CC-TC with two HM-CC-VD which doesn´t work.
I can´t set Temperature and can´t see Temp and Humidity.

This Plugin is dead, right?

@meyerd has not been active in the forum for about a year now, but the last release of the plugin had been published 5 months ago. My suggestion is to contact the author by e-mail. You’ll find the coordinates at https://www.npmjs.com/~meyerd

Hi, the plugin is not dead and development is ongoing. This means, I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to development, but pull requests on github will be reviewed and merged, as well as new features will be added when the need for them (mostly if I personally want the feature ) is given.

@meyerd okay, i understand that. I know its a lot of work to dev something.

I have Problem and maybe your Plugin can help me. (See https://forum.pimatic.org/topic/2994/good-receivers-for-ceiling-light-between-switch-and-lamp/2)

I need something to get this switch to work with Pimatic:

https://www.elv.de/elv-fs20-unterputz-wechselschalter-fs20-uws-komplettbausatz.html (sorry its only in German)

This is a Homematic Switch.

So my Quastion is, supports your Plugin this? On the info site of the plugin it looks like only some Heatings are support.

####### EDIT ########
Oh damn thats “FS20” seems just another Smart Home Standard… and not Homematic

Hi,

you are correct, FS20 is a different protocol on 433 MHz. So far I only have devices from the Homematic/MAX! line with 868 MHz radio protocol. I think you can use a CUL Stick for 433 MHz (or build one yourself with an arduino and 433 MHz module) and program it for the FS20 protocol. However, I think, that both protocols in parallel are not supported using only one single CUL stick. I guess the right plugin to use then for you would be the pimatic-coc plugin.

Cheers!

oh FS20 is 433Mhz? Do you know that for sure? Then should working with the “homeduino” Plugin? i control already 433mhz devices with it and an Arduino Nano

######## EDIT #####
On the ELV Websites there say its “868,35 MHz”