Question regarding Thermostat directly controlled by using a PI

Hello,
actually I’m using openHAB2 only for “Lights controlling via TCP/IP”, therefore I’m using a Raspberry Pie 3. I would like to expand the settings also for heating. In total I have 5 heaters to control. The thermostats from MAX! (99017A0) seems to have all the functions which I would like to use and pricing seems to be fair.

But I don’t want to use the MAX! Cube as an additional controlling device, because in my opinion everything should be controlled via openhab using the Raspberry.

My question, is there any additional piece of hardware needed (for e.g. USB CUL Stick) to control the MAX! devices?

Thx!!

Of course. If you don’t use a cube you have to use some other radio HW.
To use a CUL stick is a common request for people to haved used that in FHEM, now migrating to OH, and there have been some attempts to replicate that in OH, but to the best of my knowledge, it’s no actively supported setup and does not work in current OH.

It’s working well to use the max binding and MAX! cube. Nothing really wrong with that, openHAB is overriding the cube in terms of control, go with that.

OK thanks, so your recommendation is, using the Cube. I’m looking for an solution where I don’t need any addiction controlling devices “wasting” power". Any references? :slight_smile:

What about using the thermostats from Homematic and using the Homematic radio module for Rasberry (https://www.elv.de/homematic-funkmodul-fuer-raspberry-pi-bausatz.html?refid=SEM_30003?refid=SEM_30004&gclid=CjwKCAjw2MTbBRASEiwAdYIpsQ7jQQKVlnbOwzOBvn7M-l0cxco8fx_qKtf-z8wKhui4I49K9CY9RhoCqHkQAvD_BwE)

Thx!

A maxcube consumes at most 2.5 watts and any alternative will likely require a similar amount of power.
Yes there’s reports of people who got Homematic devices to work without a CCU using Homegear, but that’s a pretty complex and more expensive solution.

Looking at “power consumption” means you’re applying the wrong priorities and gets you away from choosing the proper solution, better drop that view.

Hi

I tried to use Max!Cube, however I found it very unstable (I used it only as an interface between OH and Max!). After that I bought 868MHz CC1101 SPI transceiver on Aliexpress (about 6$) , connected it with couple of wires to GPIO on Raspberry already running OpenHab and installed HomeGear. Works like a charm for a year (before it, Max!Cube needed restarting at least once per two weeks).

So according to my experience it is cheaper and more stable to do it yourself, however it needed little research (and Google translate - some articles were written in German).

I can second that!

Yes, to not run in exclusive mode or with older cube versions is known to eventually show stability problems.
Using current versions of OH max binding (2.3.0) and maxCube (1.4.1) and exclusive mode, though, this solution is running well.
You’re of course free to choose whatever you prefer. All I’m saying is the cube solution works, and there’s likely many more OH users to use this solution rather than any of the CUL based or even DIY ones.

Anyone satisfied with a working CUL and/or Homegear setup, please share your setup.

So someone having experiences with using Thermostats directly controlled by a Raspberry Pi?
By using an extra USB Stick for using Z-Wave technology or a radio module like the one from Homematic…

Appreciate your experiences?!