OpenRemote.com intergration with Velbus - Free to ALL

For developers
1

*]Update - June 2016

OpenRemote Pro V2.5.0 is now free for private and NFP applications.

Please sign up and start enjoying the power of OpenRemote and Velbus :slight_smile:

Update - Oct 16th 2015

The day has finally arrived :slight_smile:

The current range of Velbus modules are now fully supported in OpenRemote Pro V1.3

OpenRemote.com

designer.OpenRemote.com

The Oct 2015 Newsletter from OpenRemote regarding Velbus can be seen here -

us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c0ba2dda8ba343884dd2ba4dd&id=82668c5de2&e=ed1c796fdb

Please take a look at the posts from page 2 onwards in this thread for more information.

**Update - Jan 2017

There is now a GitHub page with instructions on how to setup Velbus modules within OpenRemote :-

github.com/openremote/Documentation/wiki/Velbus**

Which also has a link to instructions for GuntherVBā€™s JVelbusD TCP server here :-github.com/openremote/Documentation/wiki/JVelbusD-installation-instructions

Originally posted - May 2015

For all those that enjoy a wide range of automation and AV devices in their homes, there will be a great announcement next month from OpenRemote.

But for Velbus users who already participate in this forum, we are going to leak the news right NOW.

Next month, June 2015, OpenRemote will have itā€™s back end code updated so that it provides full 2 way support for the current range of Velbus modules.
With new modules added as soon as possible.

OpenRemote users will be able to read all the statusā€™ from their Velbus modules, including temperature statusā€™.

Temperature mode set points will be able to be set from OpenRemote.

Button statusā€™ can be shown within OpenRemote, or used in a rule to trigger an event on some of your other equipment.

Output devices can be directly controlled, or just show their statusā€™.

Multiple Velbus networks can be bridged using rules and Macros.

Other equipment and protocols can show their status and messages on an Oled Glass panel (VMBGPOnD) using the Memo Text function.

All alarm times can be set from an OpenRemote panel.

Dimmers can be controlled using sliders for variable levels, or preset levels can be set within OpenRemote.

This is just a small example of what will be possible with the new support.

As soon as exact details are released about how to access this functionality, weā€™ll make sure we post the correct links right here.

In the mean time, if youā€™re interested in using OpenRemote, all youā€™ll need is a small server machine running something like Golfyā€™s PB_Server, links for which can be found in this forum.
This server machine could also host the OpenRemote Server.

Please feel free to IM for more information.

Good luck

2

:frowning:

I turns out that I canā€™t see the user profiles for those people that have voted.

If you would like to be included in a mail shot, please place your vote so that everyone can see your interest.

But!

Also please message me with your preferred email address so I can add you to an unsubscribable mailing list.
Mailing (at) mdar .co .uk

Many thanks,

Stuart

3

Hi

nice to hear about openremote and velbus, so please give me some more input

max

4

This is excellent! Iā€™m looking forward to this.
As i software developer i started creating my own system from scratch build upon NodeJS. Actually this was the first application i build using NodeJS as it would be a simple jump to mobile devices. For now it acts as a simple system that extends the functionality of the velbus system with logical operations and conditions. Code is still very dirty and it has no UI whatsoever, just a nice console outputting some debug data. As for project goalā€™s itā€™s at 5% i guess :stuck_out_tongue:
But this OpenRemote integration would be perfect. I have very specific needs, so i need the ability to program some things for myself and with open remote it would be possible for me to build upon this and i would be starting a lot further than where i am now.

Really looking forward to this!

You may add me to your mailing list, just use my username on this forum and append @ gmail . com

5

Thanks for all your views and comments.

Itā€™s good to know that all the hard work that has been going on for the last 6 months is being well received.

The final testing stage is going really well and we hope to make the full public announcement very soon.

In the mean time, please take a look at the Openremote tutorials.

User tutorial :-
openremote.org/display/docs/ ā€¦ r+Tutorial

Developer tutorial :-
openremote.org/display/docs/ ā€¦ r+Tutorial

6

The openremote.org replaces the Home center software?

7

Hi

In no way does OpenRemote remote replace HomeCenter.

They are both middleware solutions that work well for their respective target markets.

OpenRemote is an alternative, rather than a replacement.

If you want a good way to access a Velbus installation with minimal complex configuration, then HomeCenter is a sturdy solution.

However, if you are looking for something more bespoke for multi system integration, to combine various manufacturers and system protocols, where a Velbus Oled panel might become the totally interactive control point, or where a wall mounted tablet controls everything in your home / office / hotel / ship / community complex, then a bespoke OpenRemote solution is an option.

The fact that they can both run on a small headless Linux box is more a testament to the system designs.

8

Any news about publising openremote

9

Hi

OpenRemote has been up and running for years, itā€™s the Velbus integration that is currently under test.

10

I have been trying OpenRemote Designer for a while but the Velbus protocol is not available in the demo version. Where can I find a version that does include it? When will the openRemote Controller for QNAP be upgraded to the latest version? I am currently running Controller 2.1.0.0713 on the QNAP.

11

Thanks LeGiGi

When we have completed the testing phase, a limited Velbus protocol package will be available within the OpenRemote Demo designer and controller, at the same time OpenRemote will incorporate the full Velbus package into the Pro designer and controller.

As MDAR Ltd is not directly connected with OpenRemote, I can not speak for their release schedule.

MDAR Ltd has commissioned and funded the Velbus protocol integration via a freelance code programmer.
While we are doing our best to shake down the code, we must prove it is stable before the team at OpenRemote will incorporate it into the mainstream release of their Demo controller and Pro Controller.

Can I ask you to contact OpenRemote directly to express your interest in the Velbus protocol being added to your composer or designer account as soon as it becomes available.

Update - Oct 2015

It has been decided not to include a version of the Velbus Protocol in the free version of OpenRemote

12

Now, keeping in mind that Iā€™m not a graphic designer, or have ever claimed to beā€¦

I thought Iā€™d share a few screen shots to show what weā€™ve achieved with OpenRemote so farā€¦

There is a very long list of features to test, which Iā€™m working my way through as quickly as I can.

So everything Iā€™m creating is to prove functionality, rather than show off the elegance of the interface.

As always, comments are welcomeā€¦

This first panel simply sets the channels in a relay module, on a Switch On & Switch Off basis.
Thereā€™s no reason why they couldnā€™t be programmed with a time out, or Delay Off.

The ā€œall offā€ button at the bottom is a macro in OpenRemote, rather than simulating a button event within the Velbus network.

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_01.png

This second image was created using one of the existing templates.
As you can see, it forces a device into landscape mode.

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_02.png

The following two images simply test how OpenRemote can pull in data from the internet.

Iā€™ve chosen to show the graphed history of each roomā€™s temperature.
The top panel includes a slider to adjust the light level in that room, but it could just as easily adjust the current target temperature, as youā€™ll see in panels further on.
(Iā€™ve just noticed that one of the values is showing the wrong data)

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_04.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_05.png

This next panel is actually showing something fairly complex.

Itā€™s reading the button statusā€™ of a pair of glass panel thermostats and echoing those commands to an external relay board.
(I have a client with a really complex heating system, who canā€™t use Velbus relays, so I have to directly command the heating control system, using HTTP Get commands)

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_06.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_07.png

The next two panels show two glass panel thermostat controls.

The first allows a user to set the target temperatures of each mode, and use the button to select modes.

These buttons are simple manual changes, but they could have all the advanced functionality programmed into them, like -

Overide of timed events
Timed mode change

The top slider simply sets the current target temperature, without affecting any of the modes.

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_08.png

This panel just allows a user to change the current target temperature, without affecting any timed events, or mode temperature targets.
Just like changing the temperature via an Oled Glass Panel.

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_09.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_10.png

This is just me playing around with the memo text function.

Each button just sends a pre-programmed text string, but the idea is that text can be pulled from a device and pushed into the memo text command.

For example the title and artist data from a media player.

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_11.png

The following panels should be self explanatoryā€¦

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_12.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_13.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_14.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_15.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_16.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_17.png

This is a very simple panel to control one of the VMB4DC modules in my demo kit.

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_18.png

These next four images demonstrates the colour picker functionality.
While it needs a little bit of code to be added into the rules section to break apart the RGB Hex value and turn it into 3 x Dec values, itā€™s actually quite easy to add.

Simply touching the colour picker will set the required channel levels.

This colour picker only changes one group of dimmers, but itā€™s possible to have 1 colour picker set channels on multiple RGB dimmer arrays.

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_03.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_19.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_20.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_21.png

13

OpenRemote have just shared this video of one of their clientā€™s applications.

Although this interface isnā€™t controlling any Velbus technology, thereā€™s no reason why it couldnā€™t.

vimeo.com/130015440

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_example_1.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_example_2.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_example_3.png

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/OR_example_4.png

14

Any progress on the OpenRemote integration?

Thanks,
Joost

15

Hello Joost (and everyone else thatā€™s monitoring this topic)

Weā€™re getting on really well with the command testing phase.
Out of the 61 commands that will be available to use in OpenRemote, weā€™re tested and approved 30 of them so far.

Thankfully we picked the hardest ones to test first, which have presented a few tiny bugs, but nothing that the programming Guru hasnā€™t been able to rectify in a few moments.

Once the commands for the glass panels have been signed off, we can move on to much easier commands for the output modules.

Itā€™s worth noting that a lot of the commands that the glass panels use are also used in the other input modules, so confirming the functionality in other modules should just be a matter of changing the base address used in each command.

One very kind gentleman has allowed us access to his installation of first generation modules, so as part of the testing process weā€™ll include notes of the commands that these modules support.

Because of the way the fantastic team at Velbus have evolved the modules, weā€™re really hoping to be including earlier modules in our compatibility list.

As part of the testing process, weā€™re also writing a fairly comprehensive ā€˜How Toā€™ guide.

OpenRemote have insisted that we provide a case study installation before they release the protocol in a standard Pro Controller, and a limited version in their Demo controller.

Thankfully one of our installers has a client who is willing to be the test site.

His installation went live yesterday, so as soon as the graphics team have created some nice buttons and images, weā€™ll be building his OpenRemote interface.

Itā€™s all looking very exciting and we canā€™t wait to start this new chapter in Velbusā€™s evolution.

To save you all some time, we would recommend you start designing your user environments in the (free) Demo version of OpenRemote, so that when the Velbus protocol is released, youā€™ll only need to create the commands to get it all working.

Good luck and please do share your thoughts here for us all to see and learn from.

Cheers

Stu

Update - Oct 2015

OpenRemote Demo / free will not be getting the Velbus protocol added.

Also, problems have been detected when designs in Demo have been imported into Pro.
It is best to start from fresh with Pro V 1.3

16

Hi

Just as a small, yet important update.

Iā€™ve just finished testing the 61 core Velbus commands for OpenRemote.

Tomorrow Iā€™ll be working on the command vs. module comparison table.

Thereā€™s still a lot of testing to do, but itā€™s a significant mile stone.

17

Keep up the good work!

18

Hi,

As another update, here is the comparison table Iā€™m working on for Commands Vs. Modules.
You can see that all the current modules are working well, with only a few minor bugs, the older modules will be tested very soonā€¦ Maybe tonight? :-0

So only the case study ā€œGraphical User Interfaceā€ to create nextā€¦ Anyone any good at graphics thatā€™s fancies lending some skills?

Module type----Firmware----Date tested----Tested by----Notes / Observations

VMBGPODx----1436----13th July 2015----Stuart H----Donā€™t send too many commands too quickly, leave reasonable delays between commands.ā€” Nov 2015, it appears that if the Oled panel isnā€™t fully populated with base addresses it doesnā€™t get initialised in OpenRemote correctly. Weā€™re working on a fix. The work around is to make sure that all 5 base addresses have a valid entry.

VMBGP4x ---- ---- ---- ---- Not currently available for testing, but should work as expected

VMBGP2x ---- 1349 ---- 14th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- Everything worked well

VMBGP1x ---- 1347 ---- 14th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- Everything worked well

VMB8PBU ---- 1350 ---- 14th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- All commands performed as expected

VMB8PB ā€” not compatible

VMB6PB ā€” not compatible

VMB7IN ---- 1439 ---- 13th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- Sensors for energy values prefer ā€œCustom Sensorā€ types.

VMB6IN ā€” not compatible

VMB4PD ā€” not compatible

VMBPIRO ---- ---- ---- ---- Not currently available for testing

VMBPIRC ---- ---- ---- ---- Stuart H. Tested, safety a small tweak in the Java file, now fully supported.

VMBPIRM ---- ---- ---- ---- Not currently available for testing

VMB Analogue ---- ---- ---- Not currently available for testing

VMBWS ---- ---- ---- ---- Not currently available for testing

VMB1BL ā€” not compatible

VMB2BL ā€” Not compatible

VMB2BLE ---- 1325 ---- 13th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- All commands performed as expected

VMB1BLS ---- ---- ---- ---- Not currently available for testing, but assured by Velbus that it will behave as a single channel version of VMB2BL

VMB1DM ā€” not available for testing

VMBDME ā€” not compatible

VMBDMI ---- 1201 ---- 13th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- DIMMER_STATUS command only returns N/A. ON command doesnā€™t work, use Dimmer_level @100% instead. However this causes an Off & Memory toggle when used with a switch and slider combo. (Both methods were used on the same page) - Sliders worked perfectly. Switches worked when not effected by Slider at any point.

Switch will work perfectly on first load, but once a slider has been moved, then the switch (with commands OFF and DImmer_Level:100) will only toggle between Off and Memory

VMBDMI-R ---- ---- ---- ---- Not currently available for testing, but assured by Velbus that it functions as a VMBDMI

VMB4DC ---- 1327 ---- 28/June/2015 ---- Stuart H ---- ON Command doesnā€™t work, must use ā€œDImmer_levelā€@100 instead. However, this causes a Off & Memory toggle when used with a switch and slider combo. (Both methods were used on the same page)

Switch will work perfectly on first load, but once a slider has been moved, then the switch (with commands OFF and DImmer_Level:100) will only toggle between Off and Memory

VMB4RY ā€” not compatible

VMB4RYLD ---- 1327 ---- 13th July 2105 ---- Stuart H ---- All commands performed as expected

VMB4RYNO ---- 1327 ---- 14th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- All commands performed as expected

VMB1RYNO ---- 1325 ---- 14th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- All commands performed as expected

VMB1RYNOS ---- 1422 ---- 14th July 2015 ---- Stuart H ---- All commands performed as expected

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/GPO.jpg

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/Relay.jpg

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/Blinds.jpg

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/4dc01.jpg

http://www.mdar.eu/images/OR_Screenshots/mainsdim.jpg

19

The hour has finally arrived where I can say that I have finished testing all of the modules that I have access to for functionality within OpenRemote.

The next step is to build a complete case study controller and finish the ā€˜How Toā€™ document ( or at least get it to a stage where it can be shared on line, weā€™ll keep on editing it as new information becomes available ).

So ladies and gentlemen, start your engines please, the race to get the first public Velbus & OpenRemote user interface up and running is about to start.

Get your GUIā€™s designed and weā€™ll get the Velbus functionally to you very soon.

Good luck

Stuart

20

Hereā€™s an exciting twistā€¦

How would you like to be able to bridge multiple Velbus networks and see the data from one interface?

Maybe you want multiple independent Velbus networks in a block of flats or a cruise ship, but you need a system wide overview of heating / cooling demand or energy usage.
Maybe a system wide all off command or a welcome state.

Alternatively you might want an emergency lighting state triggered from a building alarm?

Very soon it will be possible and so much more.

Even over a WAN connection.