Connecting Vorwerk Kobold VR200 to openHAB2

Tutorials & Examples
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21

@Pavion
Thank you very much!
Really nice Christmas gift!
Will it be in the near future included in the normal neato binding or will it be separated?

22

I suppose I should ask the author :confused:
This binding is very Neato-centered, I wonder if he’d accept it…
I hope my version works for you!

23

@Pavion
Yeah, but Vorwerk bought Neato. So the two vendors are more or less the same.
Hopefully it will be included.

24

Yet Vorwerk still uses older API and has an invalid SSL certificate. This fork would be much shorter otherwise :roll_eyes: I’d be glad to receive some juicy new updates to my VR200 from Neato side as well.

25

Hi,

any news here?
@Pavion Will you create your own binding with more specific stuff?

26

Hi @tailor09! What is your exact question? My fork (link above) is still working and is running on my 2.5.0.M2 right now.

27

Yes, but its not official in the libary…and you wrote something about invalid SSL certificate. Is it still secure?

28
  1. Yes, it’s not in the library. It’s not my binding and I don’t want to publish my fork as such. On the other hand, I know no one else supporting this fork / Vorwerk.
  2. As you may have heard, Neato was bought by Vorwerk some time ago so I hope there will be a common API for both brands somewhen. Until then Vorwerk uses an older API with some SSL issues.
  3. There is already a Neato Binding for a new API, which should work fine for Neato robots and should not be reinvented anew.

All this said, I don’t see a need to make a separate binding.

I can’t remember exactly, but I assume I’ve used some trick to bypass SSL, which would make your connection to Vorwerk potentially sniffable. That means, someone evil with an access to your connection line could potentially steal your Vorwerk credentials. If you ask me: so what?! I can live with it. You must decide it for yourself.

29

Hi,

does the binding already support VR300? Similar to the old one the is a neato cleaner with some software enhancements.

Auto detection doesn’t work. For a manual configuration I need a serial number and a secret. I’ve tested several combinations but nothing worked.

REgards,
Arno

30

Hi Arno!

Have you tried the linked jar from #20 above or some other version?
Here is my .things for VR200, used with this binding:

neato:vacuumcleaner:4APIMF1G-3DA108261BF3 "Vorwerk Kobold" @ "Flur" [ serial="4APIMF1G-3DA108261BF3", robot_serial="4APIMF1G-3DA108261BF3", secret="61FB0231AAA1E2DF7671AAA4C6494C20", name="Vorwerk Kobold", vendor="vorwerk"]

BR Pav

31

Hi,

eehhh, what is #20

I just the official neato binding. The bridge seems to work. It is marked as online.

Where do you get the serial number from? I have a serial number and a “Robot Id” from the cleaner, but they seems to have a different format.
Regards,
Arno

32

Oh that is complicated… As far as I know Neato binding still don’t support Vorwerk, who uses its own API, Apps and servers. That is why you can’t discover your robot. By the way, the Neato Bridge seems to be always ONLINE, even if you’re entering wrong credentials.

That said, it should still be possible to use Vorwerk with openHAB. You’ll need my fork of the Neato Binding. #20 refers to an earlier post above this one, just PgUp there until you see 20/32 on the right :slight_smile:

Important! Please remove Neato Things and uninstall the official binding (wait a minute)

Download the jar in your /addons folder (wait a minute)

Add Neato Account Thing. You should see a new option Vendor with Neato entered. Change it to Vorwerk and enter your credentials.

Now you should be able to discover and user your vacuum.

Please note, some functions may be unavailable or broken… :thinking:

33

Ok, fine, i will give it a try.

I’m struggling a bit with the note “SSL had to be turned off”. That means, that a send my password in clear text over the net. Do you remember what the problem was? Do they have selved signed certificates?

34

As far as I understand your code you don’t turn off SSL, but you switch off the verification of the certificate, right? That means password is send encrypted, but you can not verify the server identity, correct? That is of course a problem, but doesn’t sound as bad as “turn off SSL”.

35

I admit, I don’t understand much of SSL myself and have built this fork from some other open source implementations. If you’re into it, you can see my diff for yourself (link above as well).
As I understand it, the connection is still protected, but any SSL certificate would be accepted, making it potentially vulnerable.

Edit: updated release notes accordingly

36

…I see you’ve figured it out for yourself :slight_smile:

37

Works, thanks

38

First of all, thanks a lot the fork. Because of your work I was able to connect to my VR300. Unfortunatly, the robot won´t start cleaning. I get the error-message:

[ERROR] [ab.binding.neato.internal.NeatoRobot] - Unknown service for houseCleaning: basic-4. Will not start house cleaning!

Same here:
https://community.openhab.org/t/neato-botvac-binding/50406/28

Do you know wheather this problem has been or will be fixed? Or did I get something wrong?

Thanks a lot!

39

Hi @liveislife

I’m still having my good old VR200 and wasn’t even aware of cool new features :slight_smile:

I can’t really track it but the current master of Neato Binding binding seems to handle such issues.
There had been some major changes to this binding and whole OH project structure so I can’t test everything. I have but reapplied my earlier changes on the current binding version. It runs, it works with my VR200 so it should work with newer vacuums and support new features :slight_smile:

You can download new fork version here:

Changes here:

Feedback appreciated!
BR Pav

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40

Man, that´s why I love openhab and this forum. You get answers within a blink of an eye. Thank you very much. Your fork works like a charm. Cleaning, back to base etc. all work fine. I will continue testing over the next days.

Thanks a lot!

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