Hello, new to the channel.
Can I add a second Niko Home Control Binding.
Wonder if we can use f.i. a button on the first controller to fire an action on the second controller?
Welcome to openHAB!
I’m not a developer, but it’s usually a bad thing to have two bindings accessing the same devices. So let’s put your question aside for the moment and talk about what you want to do. If you describe your scenario and needs, there are decent odds that someone here has already gone down the same path.
The more detail you can provide, the easier it’ll be for us to offer suggestions and solutions. You’ll find this to be a recurring theme in the openHAB community. 
Hello Russ, thank you very much for sending me your prompt reply and most positive approach to help me.
Due to the counting of each and every Dali device as a component by Niko in a new installation we overrun the number of 350 components that Niko has set as a limitation.
Talking to Niko, it looks like they can’t / want to resolve the issue by increasing this number.
In our installation we have over 250 DALI devices and around 50 modules, controls and devices (DALI-, motor-, switching, heating & cooling,.). This gives us a minimum of room to address other components.
They explain us that Niko can not change the magic ‘350’ number because of the traffic on the Niko bus that comes with the DALI devices. I must say that it looks like they were not aware of this issue, even more technical staff in the Company overlooked this in the pre-sales cycle.
Now they come up with the solution: use one controller per floor. R&D is even proposing solutions for syncing the heat / cooling demand with a routine, but this solution also comes with restrictions in the functionality we may expect (touchscreen use only per controller / acces control per controller…).
Originally they suggested not only that everything should work properly, now they even sow doubt about the solution a known integrator should offer related to integration of more then one controller.
Since we used openHab in earlier projects, we hoped that we could combine two NHC’s and literally push a button that is bus connected to the first controller and fire an action on the second controller.
In this way, we could accept some tiny delay pushing a button and see a number of DALI lights react but divide the components in a more logic way over the two controllers.
If your issue is with Niko’s limitations, then I don’t think you need a second binding. openHAB should see both of the controllers on your network and add them as separate bridges.
Alternatively, you could run two separate openHAB systems and use the remote binding to control one with the other.
Wow… thank you Russ. I will put the second controller in the same network tomorrow.
And good to know that also remote binding is an option.
I keep you posted about me making progress.
I see that I have to do some extra reading this weekend
Thanks for being open to alternative solutions. That’s not always the case, and sometimes makes it tricky to help people.
Chiming in here, I did design the Niko Home Control binding to support multiple controllers on the same ip network. Each controller should be discovered as a separate bridge. But a little warning is in place. I don’t think many people tried that, not even myself. So if issues arise, we will have to dig into the code. I am willing to help time permitting.
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Sounds like this is turning into a pretty good stress test of the binding!
Hi Mark, I surely will keep you posted on the progress we make. Good to know that the right people are here to support the community. Trust that I will share all findings in order to support other members.
Hi Mark, binding both controllers on the same ip network was easy and done straight forward.
I configured two things that work well in openhab as transparent as it would work on one controller.
Great job !
On the first controller Nikohomecontrol: onoff.
UID: nikohomecontrol:onOff:443b00ee5842:a3909ed2-ec6c-4a4a-b513-dd5da5ba38bd
label: kantoor lamp
thingTypeUID: nikohomecontrol:onOff
configuration:
actionId: a3909ed2-ec6c-4a4a-b513-dd5da5ba38bd
bridgeUID: nikohomecontrol:bridge2:443b00ee5842
location: Slaapkamer beneden
On the second controller a nikohomecontrol:dimmer
UID: nikohomecontrol:dimmer:443b00ef0ca0:993aa3e9-8fdc-4db6-b722-b3ff1796b2be
label: Dimmen van Dalilampen
thingTypeUID: nikohomecontrol:dimmer
configuration:
actionId: 993aa3e9-8fdc-4db6-b722-b3ff1796b2be
step: 10
bridgeUID: nikohomecontrol:bridge2:443b00ef0ca0
location: Ruimte 1
What I want to find out is if and how I can configure openhab so that f.i. the onoff from controller1 makes the Dali leds on the dimmer light up for 100%?
Combining 2 on/off lights should be possible by linking both of them to the same item.
For combining a dimmer with a switch, you may need 2 items with a simple rule, if kantoor lamp changed to on, then send command to dali lampen item.
Makes sense Mark. I will setup some simple rules and let you know.
I can tell you that on the cloud everything is also working fine, I see a page with two rooms now with a button to put the light on and off and another room with a dimmer that works with the DALI leds.
Hi Mark, this is working fine. This may resolve our biggest issue: the NHC2imitations of the components in the first place. I will continue testing.
Another issue was the door communication that originally was going to work with touch screens. In case that we isolate the DALI components to one controller, we can use the second controller for all other controls and devices, and keep this solution in mind. With two separate controllers we should have lost this functionality. On the other hand we may consider replacing the touch screens with any other tablet and find out that the door communication also can work on openhab?
Great Job Mark. And everything works like a sharm!
Replacing the touchscreens with tablets and setting up a UI using openHAB is definitely possible. Making the video access to work may be challenging. There seems to be a change in the latest version which blocks the video stream forward from the controller. There might be a way to still access the video phone directly for it, but it has become more complicated. Search the forum for some communication on this.