Evohome home-brew code projects?

[MrBoy]

I could've sworn it was this forum there was a very length discussion about a project to let you control your EvoHome without using the official app, but I cannot see it. As I recall Honeywell were quite keen on the community aspect and encouraged the project.

I was always particularly interested in cutting the internet connection out of the loop which wasn't really covered but still as a developer I'd like to look further - can anyone help me out?

PS: is this sub-forum basically just an EvoHome forum 'cos it seems to be. Lots of threads don't even mention Honeywell or Evohome but are about it which is slightly confusing to noobs like me!

[dty]

I've not seen that thread. There are a bunch of us with a combination of Honeywell HGI80/HGS80s and/or home-grown radio hardware who are listening to the Evohome radio traffic and decoding it for display (typically in Domoticz).

Evohome doesn't require an internet connection (which, IMHO, is one of its strong points). The system will function perfectly well without one. It will keep following your schedule, etc. In fact, it doesn't even require a home network of any kind.

That said, you can in theory put all these bits together. The various hardware bits have the means to transmit Evohome messages and, at the moment at least, the Evohome controller will happily act on those. This would allow you to have your own control of, say, set points and schedules, etc. How well this would interact with the controller making its own set point changes is another question. It wouldn't let you do anything like having more than 12 zones though because that's a limitation in the controller.

However, if you wanted to cut out the controller completely, that would be a different matter. It's possible in theory, but I think it's actually a very tricky algorithm to get right given all the variables. Plus, I'm not sure the community as a whole has deciphered quite enough of the radio protocol to fully implement this yet.

[bruce_miranda]

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbull...ntrol-remotely

[MrBoy]

It must be some other forum entirely then... wish I knew where. They had quite a mature system which basically mirrored the app via web-browser (presumably similar to the new TCC thing) and handled login, etc. In theory that meant you could write you own rules and commands beyond what the system allows.

Interestingly on that forum, directly 'snooping' on the TRVs, which is I think what you're talking about(?) was not something anyone had cracked. Obviously the controllers don't talk to the hub via WiFi and I was more interested in that aspect... if I could buy some smart TRVs but code my own hub, or have my own server talk directly to the hub via my Wifi... replacing the evo web-portal with a local version.

EDIT: spoke too soon, thanks bruce!

[MrBoy]

Evohome doesn't require an internet connection (which, IMHO, is one of its strong points). The system will function perfectly well without one. It will keep following your schedule, etc. In fact, it doesn't even require a home network of any kind.

As I understand it, it requires it for any remote control - e.g. if I'm on the sofa and want to turn the heating on in the bathroom, I either have to go via the internet or physically walk to the Hub? There is no way to talk directly to the hub over my WiFi without a round-trip to their website... that's the aspect I have concerns about. Security, longevity of their website, website down-time, etc. It seems a real shame if I cannot connect to the hub over my local network.

[dty]

As I understand it, it requires it for any remote control - e.g. if I'm on the sofa and want to turn the heating on in the bathroom, I either have to go via the internet or physically walk to the Hub? There is no way to talk directly to the hub over my WiFi without a round-trip to their website... that's the aspect I have concerns about. Security, longevity of their website, website down-time, etc. It seems a real shame if I cannot connect to the hub over my local network.

You are correct. It would be nice if the app could connect directly to the controller without going via Honeywell's servers.

[DanD]

Hi,

Sorry for responding late, but I've only just noticed this thread. As dty mentioned, a few of us use the home automation software Domoticz and either a special Honeywell USB device (HGI80) or our own home-grown hardware to monitor and control Evohome in exactly the way you've described. Domoticz runs on a machine located somewhere in your home and it can be run on a wide range of platforms Raspberry Pi, NAS, PC etc. You can then communicate with the Domoticz server via a browser across your LAN. The Domoticz Evohome code uses the USB device to capture and send Evohome wireless messages and communicates directly with the Evohome controller to make timed overrides. I also started work on some very basic standalone controller code in Python a few months ago which is posted on gituhub alongside my Evohome work on Domoticz.

https://github.com/Evsdd/Evohome_Controller

Dan