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    KNX Plugin future

    Hi,

    I am one of the few users who have a KNX installation (very common in europe, not so popular in the US) controlled with homeseer (not so popular in EU). I use a KNX to ASCII server (https://www.intesis.com/products/pro...NASCKNX6000000) to communicate both systems, but I allways thought that a homeseer plugin is a more elegant and reliable solution.

    I consider nothing will beat a KNX system with the power and flexibility of homeseer as the brain and logic of the knx installation.

    I just wanted to thanks Michael McSharry for taking over the plugin. I will happily pay for a well developed and mantained HS4 plugin for KNX.
    Keep up the good work and thank you.

    #2
    Good to hear that the KNX Plug In is up and running.
    I agree with you that it is hard to beat KNX, if I was starting out again with a new build I'd run that KNX bus everywhere I could think of and future proof as much as possible.
    Perhaps you could share with us your existing setup and the KNX Componentry?
    +1

    Comment


      #3
      Can you (either) provide feedback on the plugin. I have installed it on Linux and Widows prior to submittal to Updater. I have one early user that is running Windows and cannot get past a library not present issue so not able to do anything with it.

      Comment


        #4
        I have tested a bit the plugin and is working great so far. I have added on/off devices, dimmers, thermostats and shutter actuators.
        Super easy to setup and has been working like a charm.
        I am now trying to configure an RGB controller, but I think HS4 does not have the color picker available yet, and I'm missing the 360 degree datapoint, which I use for HUE control.

        I have KNX as my primary home automation system. Is distributed, reliable and future proof. I use it for the "critical" applications in the house: lighting, climate and blinds/shutters/shading. I have now everything connected to homeseer and use homeseer as the "brain" of the system. Can control for example the smartlock from knx switches, control the shutters based on sunrise and sunset, and so on.
        I also combine KNX with zwave sensors, like door or windows sensors to trigger climate events for the KNX actuators, flood detectors, etc.
        Sonos is used for the distributed audio, controlled either from homeseer and also from knx switches thanks to your plugin.

        For visualization i use iRidium Mobile. Its a bit expensibe, but you can create incredible GUIs for home automation. Allows 2 way control of KNX and also creating custom TCP/UDP drivers wich I use to communicate with homeseer.

        What I really like from knx is that you can use regular switches combined with binary sensors but also there is a huge collection of different types of switches and pushbuttons from many different vendors with very good designs.

        I attach some pictures of the current state of my home automation setup. Everything is mounted in a rack, along with some sonos, a plex transcoder, NAS, and a fanless shuttle PC with homeseer, nodered, iRidium Sever and othe software componentes.

        Again, thanks Michael and Balck cat for the development of the plugin.

        Comment


          #5
          A very impressive setup and top notch install.

          Glad the plugin is working well for you. Can you expand upon your RGB Controller? There is a datapoint 5.002 that is 8 bits scaled to 360 degrees. I implemented it as a Slider. HS4 does have a color picker, albeit it maybe not the most pleasing UI for it. It is a 24 bit control. I have also done the conversions from RGB color space to HSL/HSB where a 360 degree Hue and 100% saturation and 100% brightness are used in three separate controls in mcsMQTT plugin. Something similar could be done for mcsKNX plugin.

          What datapoint(s) does your RGB controller use? I tried to implement all the datapoints I found, but did not see anything that seems to be specific for color control. If HS4 user was to set a color picker to #FF0000 (red) what would you expect to be sent on KNX?

          Comment


            #6
            Very, very nice.
            Thanks for sharing your setup with us. I can't take any credit for this, all I did was encourage development.
            Any shots of your visualisation would be appreciated.
            The binary sensor option is a good one especially if you want to preserve existing high end switching that does not have KNX interface.
            The 8 Fold Sensor is very cost effective when compared to Z-Wave. Thanks again.

            Comment


              #7
              Michael, Black Cat, do you have any knx component in your homes? Can you share your installation?

              Comment


                #8
                I do not have any real KNX equipment. I used a couple ESP8266 microcontrollers with KNX (Tasmota) firmware installed to provide Temperature and Humidity sensors, Switch, and Relay.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Our company sells KNX however I do not have any in use as our house required z-wave as a retrofit.
                  There is a new build on the horizon - it will be KNX with some Z-wave where required, maybe not as KNX is ultra reliable, something Z-Wave isn't.
                  The Homeseer addition is a nice touch as it provides reliable software at an attractive price point.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Michael McSharry View Post
                    A very impressive setup and top notch install.

                    Glad the plugin is working well for you. Can you expand upon your RGB Controller? There is a datapoint 5.002 that is 8 bits scaled to 360 degrees. I implemented it as a Slider. HS4 does have a color picker, albeit it maybe not the most pleasing UI for it. It is a 24 bit control. I have also done the conversions from RGB color space to HSL/HSB where a 360 degree Hue and 100% saturation and 100% brightness are used in three separate controls in mcsMQTT plugin. Something similar could be done for mcsKNX plugin.

                    What datapoint(s) does your RGB controller use? I tried to implement all the datapoints I found, but did not see anything that seems to be specific for color control. If HS4 user was to set a color picker to #FF0000 (red) what would you expect to be sent on KNX?
                    Sorry, I was wrong. My RGB device is using 5.003 datapoint for HUE control, and is recognized correctly by your plugin.
                    I think the problem is with homeseer, I cannot select color picker as control use in the Edit/Status Control parameters. Do I need to use a 3 byte datapoint?
                    Click image for larger version

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                    Comment


                      #11
                      How do you handle saturation and brightness with your controller? I can handle the mapping between color spaces of HSL and RGB, need to have all pieces of the pie to route through a color picker. This is not a HS limit, but a interface design decision.

                      For example, what do you do on your equipment to keep the hue, but reduce saturation or luminance? Other there other GA or data points involved?

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by Michael McSharry View Post
                        How do you handle saturation and brightness with your controller? I can handle the mapping between color spaces of HSL and RGB, need to have all pieces of the pie to route through a color picker. This is not a HS limit, but a interface design decision.

                        For example, what do you do on your equipment to keep the hue, but reduce saturation or luminance? Other there other GA or data points involved?
                        I have 3 datapoints, one for hue, one for saturation and the third one for the dimming value (HSV). I use a color wheel as in the picture below, and use the color picked for changing only the hue, thus not changing the brightness. With the two sliders I can control the S and the V independently. (datapoint for HUE is 5.003 and 5.001 for S and V.
                        The KNX RGB devices have the option of using 3-bytes datapoints for RGB or HSV, but I found that was the easiest way to implement control. Another option could be using a color wheel with the hole spectrum to control the hue and the saturation, and then one slider for the brightness value, as with the philips hue app.

                        In any case, if it's a matter of design decision, I would say having a color picker for the hue and two sliders for sturation and value is the more "universal" option. Don't know how to implement that in homeseer though. Would you be a able to add that functionality? Let me know if I can be of any help.

                        Click image for larger version  Name:	rgb.png Views:	0 Size:	271.6 KB ID:	1388162

                        Comment


                          #13
                          My intent with the plugin design is that one HS device be used and three datapoints be associated with it for color control. I can use the convention that a setup of 5.03, 5.01, 5.01 for a device would be a color picker in order of H,S and B. The HS user would select the point which is not provided to a plugin as RGB. I would convert to HSB in the plugin and then feed the three KNX datapoints. When any of the three datapoints are received via KNX then the reverse would be done with a transformation into RGB to update the HS color picker device.

                          Does the above look to be a useful approach? One of the issues with RGB/HSB transformations is the color space model used for the transformation. In general it does not matter, but for some parts of the spectrum it will introduce color shift. Currently the three datapoints are mapped into individual HS devices with slider controls.

                          Earlier version of HS4 did have color picker and got bad reviews. Current version color picker does not appear to be functional. The HS3 form of the color picker can be accessed using /deviceutility rather than devices.html as the HS URL

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Michael McSharry View Post
                            My intent with the plugin design is that one HS device be used and three datapoints be associated with it for color control. I can use the convention that a setup of 5.03, 5.01, 5.01 for a device would be a color picker in order of H,S and B. The HS user would select the point which is not provided to a plugin as RGB. I would convert to HSB in the plugin and then feed the three KNX datapoints. When any of the three datapoints are received via KNX then the reverse would be done with a transformation into RGB to update the HS color picker device.

                            Does the above look to be a useful approach? One of the issues with RGB/HSB transformations is the color space model used for the transformation. In general it does not matter, but for some parts of the spectrum it will introduce color shift. Currently the three datapoints are mapped into individual HS devices with slider controls.

                            Earlier version of HS4 did have color picker and got bad reviews. Current version color picker does not appear to be functional. The HS3 form of the color picker can be accessed using /deviceutility rather than devices.html as the HS URL
                            Yes, I think that would be the approach. I think anyone using KNX devices could be able to adapt it to their particullar installation, as almost every rgb knx devices can be controlled with HSV colorspace.
                            For the HS side of things, how can we test it if we don't have the color picker yet?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I will move down this implementation path.

                              I was not clear in the last paragraph of post #13. From HS4 use the URL http://<hsip>/deviceutility to bring up the page that looks like HS3 and has the color picker.

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