Velbus binding for OpenHAB

What are you trying to do with the TCP bridge?

The port is set by the server you are trying to connect to.

For example

VelServ
https://forumtest.velbus.eu/t/velbus-software/3041/12

Or

Velbus_PB_Server
https://forumtest.velbus.eu/t/an-other-velbus-server-purebasic/5523/50

It is the TCP servers that allow multiple connections to the same Velbus networks.

For example.

You can setup your OpenHab2 like this, using the Serial Bridge

Velbus Network <> VMB1USB or VMBRSUSB <> OpenHab2 Velbus Binding Serial Bridge

Or like this with the Network Bridge

Velbus Network <> VMB1USB or VMBRSUSB <> VelServ or PB_Server <> TCP Port <> multiple clients

Client 1 =
OpenHab2 Velbus Binding Network Bridge

Client 2 = VelbusLink

To avoid constant DNS queries try to use the IP address of the TCP server, rather than its hostname

For example

Use

127.0.0.1

instead of

localhost
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Hello MDAR thanks got the two bridge working and velbuslink connected with velserv. Thanks for putting time into lazy people like me. Speaking of that would you like to share a items config for controlling and syncing a vmbpod temperature ?

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Hi

So you want Uber easy ??? Ummmm

One question…

Do you ever want to add voice control or custom tags to your setup?

If the answer is “no” … Proceed…

Remove your VMBGPOD from your Things.

Go to…

PaperUI / Configuration / System

And look for “Item Linking”

Switch to “Simple Mode” and save.

Now go back to the Inbox and search for new (rediscover) Velbus things.

When you add ANY new Thing, ALL of its possible Items will be added for you.

All you do now is connect up stuff in your HabPanel setup.

Just remember…

Every Thing that you add will have ALL of its Items added AUTOMATICALLY.

Which could mean a LOT of unwanted items, with names based on system defaults or (in the case of Velbus) names derived from the VelbusLink assigned names.

:slight_smile:

Good luck.

FYI

I’m not a coder by any means, so I don’t have any .items files (other than one for creating a Group:Color item which can’t be created in PaperUI)

Even if I did, you’d still need to edit the hell out of it to get it working with your particular modules :wink:

Why both Bridges?

Have you got 2 Velbus network & 2 USB interfaces ?

Hello uber sounds nice :). Yes I have two of them the garage is outside of the house with only wifi and power there is a possibility to add wire but not cheap to do. On a side note Cedric mentioned anything about integration of the doorbird motion and button ? As always thank you. If necessary I can provide acces to my setup to test.

Oh I see.

Did you know you can use one type of Velbus bridge more than once?

So you can have two Network bridges if you wish, so that you can connect VelbusLink to either Velbus network without having to stop OpenHab2.

DON’T delete the serial bridge until you’ve so setup the loopback network bridge.

It’ll all go a bit wierd, but just follow this and all should be fine.

Add a New Network Bridge (don’t worry about the IP or port, (or even settings up VelServ locally) as OpenHab2 will grab the port.

Go through each Velbus Thing that uses the Serial Bridge and change it to look at the new Network Bridge.

Once all changed (and off-line).
Remove the Velbus serial bridge.

Now stop OpenHab2 and load VelServ on the local machine.

Restart Openhab2 and edit the settings for the Second Network Bridge.

You might have to restart Openhab2 to get the modules back online, or they might leap into action as soon as the network bridge goes live.

I’m curious…

Do you intend to run a batch of rules to link the two Velbus networks?
Or are you happy enough to have elements from each network available via the UI ?

As for the DoorBird, I have no idea what Cédric’s plans are, other than enjoying his holiday.

No doubt he’ll see this thread and pick up on your request.

If you want to link the two velbus networks to each other it 's as easy as running two times velserv (on another port) and running a perl script that acts as a double client but passes the data from one network to the other :slight_smile: .Not that hard to do and I’ve got the script ready to use if you 'd like.

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Mdar hello just elements its fine for now. jeroends thanks but its working now. Thank you for your support guys i will post how everything went one I have more time.

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Hello what do you guys use to edit the items and sitemap files? I am currently using notepad++ I also tried visual code with the openhab extension but the rest api connexion is a pain to setup.

Hi

I steer clear of the text file stuff as much as possible.

All the Velbus parts can be set up with PaperUI.

The only thing that can’t be done in PaperUI is adding tags, should you want to use Google Assistant / Alexa / HomeKit etc.

But it’s a fairly easy process to use the Karaf console to add tags.

It’s only the rules that I have to use text files for, I use Notepad++.

Hello again mdar for the life of me how do put custom tags on items using the karaf. Some commands would be nice. Thank you in advance

Hi

It’s not the best documented feature, it took me a long time to find the commands I needed.
No doubt there are many more commands that I haven’t found yet.

If you stumble across any documentation, could you post a link here ?

As for adding tags, there seems to be a number of ways.

I found the Karaf console the easiest, with the
smarthome:items addTag
command.

I added a comment to this thread on the OpenHab2 forum

It’s worth reading the whole thread, because there is mention of the other methods of adding tags, such as

.items files

Rest APi

Habmin

Manual editing of JSON DB, I got into a real mess when I tried this option.

Other links I’ve found

Hi,
I’m new to openHab. I have everything working after a couple of night trial and error, even Homekit/Siri.

The only thing I cannot fix is the thermostat functions. For example I’m using a VMBGPOD. In the Paper UI, the address of the thermostat is recognized as a “Thing”, in the items I can only get the current temperature (Type: Number & Dimension: Temperature).

What do I need to do to configure this as a complete thermostat? So with current temp, target temp, set target etc?

Thank you!

Which version of the Velbus Binding are you using?

I think that would be “binding-velbus - 2.3.0”. I just installed it trough the Paper UI

Ar…har :slight_smile: there’s your problem :smile:

The version in the market is the 1st release that Cédric got passed by the OpenHab2 compliance team.

He has made some amazing changes since then, but hasn’t submitted an update because it takes 3 months and he’ll probably make more additions.

First…

You need to remove the version via PaperUI/Addons/ Bindings

Stop OpenHab2

Make sure to search your installation for any archived versions and remove them.

Download this zipped up ‘bleeding edge’ version

http://www.mdar.eu/dl/openhab2/openhabvelbus.zip

And place the .jar file into your addons folder.

(On Linux that is normally /etc/openhab2/addons )

Now start OpenHab2

Go to PaperUI/Addons/Binding and make sure the Serial binding is installed.

The next part is annoying, but painless.

Because there are more ‘channels’ available for glass panels in the latest version, you’ll have to manually delete the Glass Panel / VMB1TS things and scan your Velbus network again.

Thankfully, when adding them back in, they should get linked back to the items that were linked previously.

Interestingly…

Cédric added a network binding to this version, so you can run something like PB_Server or VelServ which allows for multiple simultaneous TCP connections to your Velbus network.

Good luck :smile:

Stuart

Won thanks! Works perfect now, you (and Cédric of course) are the best!

One other thing, I saw in this thread that there is a custom widget for the velbus thermostat, but the wetransfer link doesn’t work anymore.

Would it be possible to receive a new link? Would be very much appreciated

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Blimey…

Some people don’t want much :slight_smile:

And just for the record, I don’t do anything clever, I just shout about the great work that other people like Cédric & Tom do. :smile:

Here’s a link to Tom VC’s great Thermostat widget.

http://www.mdar.eu/dl/openhab2/VelbusThermostat.widget.json

Now one tiny note…

There is code in Tom’s widget that shaves down the 4 decimal point current temperature to just one.
BUT that only works if the Item its looking at is a Number.

NOT a Number:Temperature

So…

Please tweak the Item and remove the Temperature type.

(You can always add the °C back as a suffix in HabPanel)

(This is assuming that you’ve not used the Simple Linking option)

Whoops

Sorry, there was a typo in that link.
I’ve fixed it.

Everything is working now, thank you!

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