Boiler control from MAX! Cube to Drayton Boiler via Raspberry Pi/Vera/Mysensors.
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Wow Stu, quick reply.
What you've built is basically what I'm after, but from what I've read the Cube can be temperamental.
I do have RPi somewhere, so to have a play I may get a CC1101,
MAX! Wireless wall mount thermostat - BC-TC-C-WM-4 / 131651
MAX! TRV - BC-RT-TRX-CyN / 142016A0AI would like to control the system from my mobile so if I'm out late there's no point in the heating being on. There are some HomeMatic apps out there which work with openhab etc, but maybe using your web interface would be easier.
Anthony
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Hey, Anthony.
Yeah, the cube is the temperamental bit. It forgets the sensors every few weeks/months.
I have opened up the python web page to the web, secured behind a password, and it's OK to use. I mainly use it to monitor the system and look at the pretty graphs. I think the CC1101 with OpenHAB or custom software is the way to go.
Let me know if you get the Pi and CC1101 installed. I can't recall exactly what was wrong but I think it may be one of the packages that it tries to download no longer exists. It's something I really want to get fully working the way I want it, but to be honest it does a good job anyway.
Stu
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Hi Anthony.
Funnily enough I went from the MAX system to a Honeywell Evo system and Domoticz as I have elderly parents and could not risk the times the max just forgot about all its radiators and either left the heating off or on all day.
Had the Evo for maybe a year now with no problems. The only thing I miss with the evo is notification as to when the heating is actually on. And being able to work on my code as I did enjoy writing it.
If you need any help with the code just ask, although it has been a while since I looked at it :)
Stephen
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Hey all,
I want to revive an old thread here. Ive been chatting to Stephen via github and plan to extend , perhaps take over?, development of his PiHeating package on github..
Ive created my own fork (based on twistedsanity as he added some nice docker defns) and I plan to make massive changes to it.. By trade Im a Java/Javascript developer and Im using this project as an excuse to learn/play with Python
- Please review my github issues Ive logged, Id love to know if people agree/disagree
- Are there many MAX! Users out there? if there are then I'll invest time in making the code read-able, and pluggable with HA controllers like HomeAssistant.. If there isnt much interest then I'll trim the code down to my needs (remove vera etc)
- Any other suggestions?? please log a Github issue and I'll look at it..
@twisted : are you twistedsanity on github?
My github repo is here https://github.com/asantaga/PiHeating
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Hey all,
Well after long sessions of trial and error Ive given up on the Max! +Raspberry pi based on Stephens code. Regardless of how frequently you scan the max!cube it eventually looses its memory after 4-8 weeks.. Usually when Im not at home and thats not acceptable..
Shame as my setup with HomeAssistant was "perfect":-(
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Hey all,
Well after long sessions of trial and error Ive given up on the Max! +Raspberry pi based on Stephens code. Regardless of how frequently you scan the max!cube it eventually looses its memory after 4-8 weeks.. Usually when Im not at home and thats not acceptable..
Shame as my setup with HomeAssistant was "perfect":-(
@angelos I was looking into the MAX setup initially but reports of the Cube falling over put me off completely, even where some appeared to have ZERO problems. Some seemed to have circumvented the problems by reflashing the Cube (hazy recollection) but cannot remember the details of who where what, as I discarded it when a plug-in card for the Pi3 was released by the parent company (ELV?).
I took it no further as I had set a target to cover all improvements from energy savings, so the budget didn't stretch to it having added insulation and improved Rad Valves, as well as the increased pricing on the market.
If any of that info is potentially any help, pm me and I'll dig out what I found. -
Hi Guys. A rather specific project that may not be much use to many others but maybe of interest if you are looking for individual radiator heater control.
I tried the Stella-Z radiator controllers with Vera and in all honesty they were crap, they talk to the system only rarely and they only hold one setpoint at a time, all in all no good.
So I ended up getting a full set of the eq-3 MAX! kit with 7 radiator controllers, 3 wall thermostats an eco button and the central Cube controller. Apart from the supplied software being a little annoying with it sometimes messing with the heating times it is great. I solved the software problem in the app store with MAX! Remote unofficial replacement software, very good. The only problem I was left with was my Boiler.
British Gas Boiler fitted with a single wireless wall thermostat in the living room. I had already upgraded the simple thermostat to a Drayton +3RF giving me daily timings but it still just took the one temperature. The problem being if the temp was up in the living room at night the heat would go off and the bedrooms would not heat up for going to bed.
So to my solution. I already have a Vera automation controller and Mysensors nodes, so I now have a Raspberry Pi that polls the Cube to get all the valve open percentages if it decides the boiler needs to be on it sends a message to the Vera which transmits out on a Mysensors 433Mhz transmitter node to turn the boiler on. The Rpi has a web interface accessible in the house so I can see current temps and boiler state and also a graph of past temps for each room. I hope to implement the Cube controls in the web interface eventually so I don't need 2 pieces of software.
Web UI
Graph
Rpi2 very stock and I code in Python
And Finally the Mysensor Board, Just done today, has been running on a breadboard until now.
It still needs a box printing.
I could wire the RPi into the boiler switch direct but I want to have the old Thermostat as backup just in case.
So if you have a Vera and MAX! radiator valves and an Rpi and a Drayton controlled Boiler, this is for you :)
If anyone is interested I will post the code. It is very much my code as in an actual Python developer would go "What the!!" but it works. So far.
Hi
I have just installed a Max system, 17 TRV's, 4 Room stats and a cube. I also have a Danfoss wireless stat for controlling the boiler. I was wondering how to get boiler control with the Max because currently the boiler runs all day. I then found your project. It looks a bit advanced for me though. I was thinking of using a Sonoff device just so I could switch the boiler on/off at my leisure for a quick fix. I have never used a RPi before. I see you have now changed to an Evo system was the Max that unreliable?
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Hi
I have just installed a Max system, 17 TRV's, 4 Room stats and a cube. I also have a Danfoss wireless stat for controlling the boiler. I was wondering how to get boiler control with the Max because currently the boiler runs all day. I then found your project. It looks a bit advanced for me though. I was thinking of using a Sonoff device just so I could switch the boiler on/off at my leisure for a quick fix. I have never used a RPi before. I see you have now changed to an Evo system was the Max that unreliable?
@w1ldf1re While you are waiting...
Pardon my interest and confusion, but if your Danfoss stat (presumably from a single area sensor) is controlling the boiler, how does the Cube connect to it, and if the Danfoss is connected, why does the boiler run all day?
The discontinuation of the Cube compatible boiler relay due to lack of sales put me off the Cube, and quite a few complaints over reliability sealed it.
My next notion was to go for a Pi3 Homematic controller which was allegedly Max compatible (see https://www.elv.de/funk-system-homematic.html - Bausatz) but when prices shot up I abandoned it for better valves/TRVs instead.
Right now I'm looking at paralleling the existing commercial (Danfoss type) boiler relay with an Arduino fired one fed temperatures for all the rooms to cope with deep winters where the top floor can plunge, but they are quite separate controls.
If you can find a relay (Schaltaktor) which can be called by the Cube, you should be good to go, the parallel system I would suggest better in case your Cube has a brainfart... Just my 2c... -
Hi folks,
i bought a MAX! set month ago including MAX Cube, 4 Valves and some window sensors. Now i want to use this project to be able to switch on and off gas boiler, which is operated by remote thermostat at this moment.
So far, i've got it runing, but i have a problem with room temperature reading.
I have four rooms, two are read correclty, but another two shows temperature and set temperature as 255, the Valve % seems to coresponds to other rooms somehow.
I hope this thread/project is not completely dead and somebody can help me with it ... thanks guys!
EDIT: I have resolved the relay issue described in my original post, so i removed that question. It was caused by wrong configuration in variables.txt
(sorry for my poor english)
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Ok, it works. Looks like the problem was caused by windows sensors that were not connected but initialized, so they were missing.
I removed them in the MAX software and then everything was displayed correctly.
Thank you for this great project! :+1: -
Hi Guys. A rather specific project that may not be much use to many others but maybe of interest if you are looking for individual radiator heater control.
I tried the Stella-Z radiator controllers with Vera and in all honesty they were crap, they talk to the system only rarely and they only hold one setpoint at a time, all in all no good.
So I ended up getting a full set of the eq-3 MAX! kit with 7 radiator controllers, 3 wall thermostats an eco button and the central Cube controller. Apart from the supplied software being a little annoying with it sometimes messing with the heating times it is great. I solved the software problem in the app store with MAX! Remote unofficial replacement software, very good. The only problem I was left with was my Boiler.
British Gas Boiler fitted with a single wireless wall thermostat in the living room. I had already upgraded the simple thermostat to a Drayton +3RF giving me daily timings but it still just took the one temperature. The problem being if the temp was up in the living room at night the heat would go off and the bedrooms would not heat up for going to bed.
So to my solution. I already have a Vera automation controller and Mysensors nodes, so I now have a Raspberry Pi that polls the Cube to get all the valve open percentages if it decides the boiler needs to be on it sends a message to the Vera which transmits out on a Mysensors 433Mhz transmitter node to turn the boiler on. The Rpi has a web interface accessible in the house so I can see current temps and boiler state and also a graph of past temps for each room. I hope to implement the Cube controls in the web interface eventually so I don't need 2 pieces of software.
Web UI
Graph
Rpi2 very stock and I code in Python
And Finally the Mysensor Board, Just done today, has been running on a breadboard until now.
It still needs a box printing.
I could wire the RPi into the boiler switch direct but I want to have the old Thermostat as backup just in case.
So if you have a Vera and MAX! radiator valves and an Rpi and a Drayton controlled Boiler, this is for you :)
If anyone is interested I will post the code. It is very much my code as in an actual Python developer would go "What the!!" but it works. So far.
