node-red-contrib-velbus

EDIT 22 May 2020:

Pull requests with fixes are very welcome, as I probably will not work that frequently anymore on this module: I'm moving out of our "Velbus home" and will move to a "Loxone home" in the near future.

This is a custom Node Red plugin to connect the Velleman Velbus home automation system to Node Red. Node-red typically runs on a Raspberry Pi to manage home automation gear. It runs non stop and (almost) flawless on my PI since Jan 19, 2019. The flaws I had never were caused by Velbus or this package of custom nodes.

To connect to Velbus you need

• an USB connector module like the VMB1USB or VMBRSUSB. I only tested with a VMB1USB but I suppose both will work. Let me know if not!
• a TCP server app that converts USB serial communication to a socket connection. I use the splendid and rock solid VelServ app made by Jeroends. You can find it here. You can find MDAR's installation details here to install it on almost any Linux/Debian based system.

Once installed, these Velbus nodes can be found in the Velbus palette:

1. a Send Raw Bytes node, to send Velbus commands
2. a Receive Raw Bytes node, to listen to Velbus messages
3. a Button node to manage presses on Velbus push buttons
4. a Temperature Node to send and receive temperature sensor data
5. a Relay Node to send and receive basic relay states
6. a Dimmer Node to send and receive basic dimmer states

If you are using this module, please let me know! Curious about your findings/remarks/...

History

• 2018/12/17
  • Alpha phase: loading modules, no real workflow yet!
• 2019/01/05
  • Button node proof of concept works, but not without issues.
  • Reconnect to Velbus works
• 2019/05/02
  • BREAKING change: Address in Button node now works with HEX values
  • BREAKING change: you can now choose to connect using USB (as before) or using Socket (new)
  • Added module VMBELO
• 2020/04/05
  • BREAKING change: The connection to Velbus is now accomplished using TCP/sockets
  • All modules have now a better UI to select modules an nodes
  • There's a new node to receive all Velbus messages
• 2020/04/08
  • A new Temperature node
• 2020/04/11
  • Quite some modules had wrong configuration data, but thanks to the great dedication of MDAR, who did some testing for modules I don't have, these issues got fixed!
    • VMBGP1
    • VMBGP2
    • VMBGP4
    • VMBGPO
    • VMBGPOD
    • VMBPIRO
    • VMBGP4PIR
    • VMBRFR8S
    • VMBMETEO
    • VMB4AN
    • VMBVP01
  • Bugfix: in some circumstances modules were found twice. Thanks Ggaljoen to notify me.
  • Added an example of a Send Raw Bytes node
• 2020/04/12
  • Fix width of typed input fields.
  • BREAKING: New UX for the Send Raw Bytes node
  • 1st step to have more info available for each command
• 2020/04/13
  • Bugfix: moved devDependency "mustache" to dependency.
  • cleanup old references and files
• 2020/04/17
  • Added a Relay node to send and receive basic relay commands
  • Added a Dimmer node to send and receive basic dimmer commands
• 2020/04/19 - v0.2.09
  • Bugfix: Some modules had a wrong nr of relays (thanks to MDAR)
  • Bugfix: The first gen. glass pannels had no temp sensor (thanks to MDAR)
  • Bugfix: The relay node had no icon in specific circumstances
  • Bugfix: Address was empty when data bytes were parsed from payload (thanks to jorampic)
  • Enhancement: More descriptive default names
• 2020/09/24 - v0.2.10
  • Enhancement: Adapt to new Velbus color scheme.
  • Enhancement: Better detection of Velbus connection issues and auto-reconnect
  • Added module VMB1RYS. Thanks MDAR!
  • Bugfix: Thanks to @rrajagopal / @smoothquark to fix some relay issues. See #3

Implemented Velbus modules:

Tested input modules

Next modules can be controlled by simulating button presses.

• VMB4PB (tested)
• VMB8PB (tested)
• VMBELO (tested)
• Many other probably working but not tested. Let me know if yours is not working. However, all button modules can be easily added just by filling in the decimal address nr manually. You can also edit the file node_modules/node-red-contrib-velbus/velbus/const.js to add your module or change its properties. See module help.

Example scripts

• Using the Send Raw Bytes node to update the time on Velbus:
  • Overview:
  • Preparing the input message by using a Fuction node:
  • Adding the Send Raw Bytes details:
  • Copy nodes from here: [{"id":"610806f.e6af4f8","type":"function","z":"be32b5b5.08f898","name":"inject Date","func":"//get the ’date from the payload of the input message\nlet d = new Date(msg.payload);\n\n/*\nThis is how Velbus expects the day values:\nH’00’ Monday\nH’01’ Tuesday\nH’02’ Wednesday\nH’03’ Thursday\nH’04’ Friday\nH’05’ Saterday\nH’06’ Sunday\n*/\n\n/*\nBut the standard Date.getDay() function has the American notation,\nso we have to convert it first:\n*/\n//substract a day to go from Sunday as first day to Monday\nlet day = d.getDay() - 1;\n//if we have Sunday, correct it to 6\nif (day === -1) day = 6;\n\n\n// create a new payload, with the 3 keys\n// we need: day, hour and minute\nlet payload = {\n day: day, \n hour: d.getHours(), \n minute: d.getMinutes()\n}\n\n//replace the old payload with our new one\nmsg.payload = payload;\n\n//return the message\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"noerr":0,"x":350,"y":140,"wires":[["953ad491.928dc8"]]},{"id":"739d47ca.297f48","type":"inject","z":"be32b5b5.08f898","name":"each day at 6","topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","repeat":"","crontab":"00 06 * * *","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"x":120,"y":200,"wires":[["610806f.e6af4f8"]]},{"id":"57c66aa9.d3ef54","type":"inject","z":"be32b5b5.08f898","name":"","topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"x":100,"y":140,"wires":[["610806f.e6af4f8"]]},{"id":"953ad491.928dc8","type":"velbus-send-raw-bytes","z":"be32b5b5.08f898","name":"Raw Bytes","connector":"c152af36.a02ea","dataBytes":"{{day}} {{hour}} {{minute}}","dataBytesType":"216","address":"","addressType":"0","priority":"251","rtr":"0","x":540,"y":140,"wires":[]},{"id":"c152af36.a02ea","type":"velbus-connector","z":"","ip":"raspberrypi.local","port":"6000"}]
• Check this Velbus Forum thread for updated examples soon.

Contact

• For bugs/issues/requests: Github
• My Twitter handle

I'm happy to merge your changes or accept pull requests!