Nikobus, what is required?

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
1

Hi

I have a old Nikobus installation (with 2 12-channels controllers)

I wanted to command/check the lights remotely, but seller tells me I have to upgrade to Niko Home Control.

Reading this forum, seems OH is well capable of doing what I need (after some playing around).

What I’d like to know is what I need to be able to connect my Nikobus to OH ?
This link (https://docs.openhab.org/addons/bindings/nikobus1/readme.html) isn’t really clear on that subject. Do I absolutely require a PC-link from Niko (that I don’t have) ? Or is there any other possibilities ?

Thanks for feeback

2

You absolutely need a PC-Link OR PC-Logic module to make the connection between outside world (RS-232 serial connection) and Nikobus

3

Thanks for that. Those modules are hard to find or really expensive, so
I think I’ll forget about that

4

Monitor tweedehands.be (or ebay). i bought mine there some years ago for less than half the price. Usually you only need a PC-Link to program the system once, so some people do sell them afterwards.

5

What if I use a RF ? like Nikobus RF-interface 05-300. If I have an equivalent of RFXCOM working on the right frequency, I assume I could make it work ?

6

No clue. In all documentation I have found, a PC-Link or PC-Logic is needed to send any commands (via a serial interface) to the nikobus.

7

Ok, I think I found a PC-logic. Now that PC-logic works in serial, so what if my PC-logic is at the opposite of my openHab (in the house). Is there any kind of magic serial to ethernet controler ? or something I could control by rfxcom ?

8

serial to ethernet convertor if you have UTP cabling in place?
never tested wireless options

9

Just FYI: feedback-module (for push-buttons with leds) can also be used

10

Thanks for the info Stef!

11

I’ve tried a serial-to-ethernet once, to link my feedback-module to a synology,
and had to replace the feedback module a few days later. I am not saying that the serial-to-ethernet-device fried the nikobus module, but I am not going to retry that solution either…

Current setup: Raspberry Pi 3 nearby the nikobus modules, connected with a serial-to-usb cable,
but still in testing, after a while, the command queue of the nikobus binding seems to forget to cleanup old commands.

12

There is indeed an issue with the binding (see other posts) where synchronization gets lost.

13

I wanted to add more logging to the binding, to find or even fix the cause,
but I cannot get the custom nikobus binding to work on my openhabian pi installation…
So no solution for now :frowning:

14

Are your serial port parameters correct on both your rpi and your feedback module?
Try 9600 baud.
All RS232 settings must be equal at both sites

15

I think the speed is correct:

stty < /dev/ttyUSB1
speed 9600 baud; line = 0;
-brkint -imaxbel

The nikobus binding that comes with the openhabian package works, for like 15 to 30 minutes, after that, all commands are ignored. I am still looking for the correct way of deploying a customized nikobus-binding jar.

16

Have you also activated the 1xcompat and the serial binding in Openhab2? It is an openhab1 binding?

17

This would be one way. I have a harmony hub with nikobus ir codes and that way i can control nikobus. But that would be only on/off without status feedback.

I depends on your use case. If they’re on the other side of the house, you could use two OH builds where you use the rest api from the 'slav which is connected to nikobus.

18

I think I have, but I would think that is not relevant. This is my scenario:

  • I take the official nikobus-binding jar and extract it
  • I replace 1 of the class files with a custom version containing extra logging
  • I pack the result again in a jar file, with the same name as the original/official.

If I copy the official nikobus jar in /usr/share/openhab2/addons, it kicks in right away.

If I copy the custom jar to that addons directory, it doesn’t work, as in “it is ignored by openhab”. So I am missing something somewhere, but at this moment, I have no clue on what that can be.

19

Hmmm… I wanted to introduce some timers and be able to see which
lights are ON in the house, so RF is not good for that (good for timer,
but not for status). I could always move my NAS is the other room, close
the the nikobus install… But the deal for the PC-Link is gone now, so
I need to wait for another possibilty

20

Use a raspi. Much easier than NAS. And you can place it anywhere…