Bind openHAB and WiButler via zigbee2mqtt

[pixelstuermer (Phil)]

Everything in our home is connected and controlled via the WiButler (using EnOcean sensors/actors mostly). E.g. switches, lights, blinds, heating, weather sensor, etc. which is already done by the manufacturer of our house. This is the reason why we cannot use/change the existing bindings to the actors in the switch cabinet directly (warranty reasons). But we are supplied with the WiButler as a “middleware” which we are allowed to fully customize.

Now the WiButler is fine on one hand, on the other hand it is somehow limited and not open for custom development. If we need to control some actor that is not supported by it, or if we want some sensor to report data which is also not supported, we use openHAB. Currently the two smart home systems are independent from each other: We cannot control the openHAB actors from the WiButler, nor can we control the WiButler actors from openHAB. Since the WiButler does not expose a REST API, I thought that the following might work to combine the two worlds (the WiButler also supports ZigBee):

Usecase 1: Control a WiButler actor from openHAB
Some input binding which is not supported by the WiButler is connected to openHAB. E.g. via the network binding to check if 2 smartphones are pingable or via the calendar binding to check for current calendar entries. If the input trigger is fired, we need to control a WiButler-controlled device.

Usecase 2: Control an openHAB actor from the WiButler
Some output binding which is not supported by the WiButler is connected to openHAB. E.g. sending emails or Telegram notifications. Now if any event is triggered in the WiButler, we need to call the openHAB binding.

Possible solution via zigbee2mqtt?
As already stated, the WiButler does not expose a REST API. This is why I came up with the idea of joining the two independent systems via ZigBee (which is supported by both). Is it possible to send a ZigBee message from openHAB to the WiButler for usecase 1 and vice versa for usecase 2?

Or are there other possibilities? From my perspective, only one of the protocols EnOcean, ZigBee or ZWave are open for discussion, because these are the ones supported by both systems.

THX already a lot in advance

[rlkoshak (Rich Koshak)]

No, it’s not. Zigbee is a mesh network with a central controller called a coordinator. WiButler is a Zigbee coordinator. Zigbee2MQTT (when paired with a proper USB transceiver) is a coordinator. Each will be coordinating a separate and independent Zigbee mesh network.

While I’ve seen some research papers for setting up a dual coordinator Zigbee configs, both WiButler and Zigbee2MQTT would each have to support that and I know Zigbee2MQTT doesn’t (or didn’t the last time I looked closely at it) and doubt WiButler does.

By all appearances, WiButler is a closed system and you are stuck. There might be a reversed engineered API someone has posted to GitHub or something but zigbee2mqtt isn’t going to be it.

[pixelstuermer (Phil)]

Good evening and thank you very much for your support already. Too bad … but just to clarify, I am not trying to do (A), but (B):

Any chances to achieve this via ZWave or EnOcean?

[rlkoshak (Rich Koshak)]

I don’t know anything about EnOcean.

Even though Zwave does have the concept of secondary controllers, I’m pretty sure it’s not possible with Zwave either.

Without some sort of API to talk with WiButler there won’t be a way to get any insight into openHAB what’s going on with the devices it controls and vise versa. Neither Zwave nor Zigbee work like that.

[pixelstuermer (Phil)]

Okay thank you very much. Very well explained by the way.