MAX! Binding

This is the binding for the eQ-3 MAX! Home Solution (opens new window). This binding allows you to integrate, view and control the MAX! Thermostats, Ecoswitch and Shuttercontact things.

Supported Things

This binding support 6 different things types

Thing	Type	Description
bridge	Bridge	This is the MAX! Cube LAN gateway.
thermostat	Thing	This is for the MAX! Heating Thermostat. This is also used for the power plug switch "Zwischenstecker-Schaltaktor".
thermostatplus	Thing	This is for the MAX! Heating Thermostat+. This is the type that can hold the program by itself.
wallthermostat	Thing	MAX! Wall Thermostat.
ecoswitch	Thing	MAX! Ecoswitch.
shuttercontact	Thing	MAX! Shuttercontact / Window Contact.

Generally one does not have to worry about the thing types as they are automatically defined. If for any reason you need to manually define the Things and you are not exactly sure what type of thermostat you have, you can choose thermostat for both the thermostat and thermostat+, this will not affect their working.

Discovery

When the bindings discovery is triggered, the network is queried for the existence of a MAX! Cube LAN gateway. When the Cube is found, it will become available in the inbox.

After the Cube bridge is available in openHAB, all the devices connected to it are discovered and added to the inbox.

Binding Configuration

There are no binding wide settings as all configuration settings are now per MAX! Cube, hence in case you have multiple Cubes, they can run with alternative settings.

Thing Configuration

All the things are identified by their serial number, hence this is mandatory. The Cube (bridge thing) also requires the IP address to be defined. All other configuration is optional.

Note that several configuration options are automatically populated. Later versions of the binding may allow you to update this information. These properties can be found in the Device Settings section of parameters.

Channels

Depending on the thing it supports different Channels

Channel Type ID	Item Type	Description	Available on thing
mode	String	This channel indicates the mode of a thermostat (AUTOMATIC/MANUAL/BOOST/VACATION).	thermostat, thermostatplus, wallthermostat
battery_low	Switch	This channel indicates if the device battery is low (ON/OFF).	thermostat, thermostatplus, wallthermostat, ecoswitch, shuttercontact
set_temp	Number:Temperature	This channel indicates the sets temperature of a thermostat.	thermostat, thermostatplus, wallthermostat
actual_temp	Number:Temperature	This channel indicates the measured temperature of a thermostat (see below for more details).	thermostat, thermostatplus, wallthermostat
valve	Number	This channel indicates the valve opening in %. Note this is an advanced setting, normally not visible.	thermostat, thermostatplus, wallthermostat
locked	Contact	This channel indicates if the thermostat is locked for adjustments (OPEN/CLOSED). Note this is an advanced setting, normally not visible.	thermostat, thermostatplus, wallthermostat
contact_state	Contact	This channel indicates the contact state for a shutterswitch (OPEN/CLOSED).	shuttercontact
free_mem	Number	This channel indicates the free available memory on the cube to hold send commands. Note this is an advanced setting, normally not visible.	bridge
duty_cycle	Number	This channel indicates the duty cycle. Due to regulatory compliance reasons in Europe, the cube is allowed to send at no more than 1% of the time, which sums up to 36 seconds per hour. Once the threshold has been reached, the cube stops sending commands for the remaining time of the hour. The value in this field seems to represent a percentage ranging from 0 to 100, with a value of 100 meaning that the threshold has been reached. Note that this is an advanced setting, normally not visible.	bridge

Full Example

In most cases no Things need to be defined manually. In case your Cube can't be discovered you need a max:bridge definition including the right IP address of the Cube. Only in exceptional cases you would need to define the thermostats etc.

max.things:

Bridge max:bridge:KEQ0565026 [ ipAddress="192.168.3.9", serialNumber="KEQ0565026" ] {
    Thing thermostat KEQ0565123 [ serialNumber="KEQ0565123", refreshActualRate=60 ]
    Thing shuttercontact NEQ1150510 [ serialNumber="NEQ1150510" ]
}

max.items:

Group gMAX    "MAX Heating"  <temperature> [ "home-group" ]

Switch maxBattery "Battery Low" (gMAX) {channel="max:thermostat:KEQ0565026:KEQ0648949:battery_low"}
String maxMode "Thermostat Mode Setting" (gMAX) {channel="max:thermostat:KEQ0565026:KEQ0648949:mode"}
Number:Temperature maxActual "Actual measured room temperature  [%.1f %unit%]" (gMAX) {channel="max:thermostat:KEQ0565026:KEQ0648949:actual_temp"}
Number:Temperature maxSetTemp "Thermostat temperature setpoint [%.1f %unit%]" (gMAX) {channel="max:thermostat:KEQ0565026:KEQ0648949:set_temp"}
Contact maxShuttercontactState "Contact State" (gMAX) {channel="max:shuttercontact:KEQ0565026:NEQ1150510:contact_state"}
Switch maxShuttercontactBattery "Contact Battery Low" <battery> (gMAX) {channel="max:shuttercontact:KEQ0565026:NEQ1150510:battery_low"}

demo.sitemap:

sitemap demo label="Main Menu" {
    Frame label="MAX Heating System" {
        Switch item=maxMode icon="climate" mappings=[AUTOMATIC=AUTOMATIC, MANUAL=MANUAL, BOOST=BOOST]
        Setpoint item=maxSetTemp minValue=4.5 maxValue=32 step=0.5 icon="temperature"
        Text item=maxActual icon="temperature"
        Switch item=maxBattery
    }
}

Actual Temperature Update

Please be aware that the actual temperature measure for thermostats is only updated after the valve moved position or the thermostats mode has changed. Hence the temperature you see may be hours old. In that case you can update the temperature by changing the mode, wait approximately 2 minutes and change the mode back. There is an experimental mode that does this automatically. This can be enabled by ticking "Show advanced". Then the "Actual Temperature Refresh Rate" can be set. Minimum refresh rate once/10 minutes, recommended 60min to avoid excessive battery drain.

New Device Inclusion

When clicking the discovery button for MAX! devices manually in the UI, you will start New Device Inclusion mode for 60 seconds. During this time, holding the boost button on your device will link it to the Cube.

Device Configuration

In the Configuration Parameters section of the device Things you can update some of the device configuration parameters. Currently the following parameters can be updated:

• name Name of the thermostat stored in the Cube (also used by the eQ-3 software).

Cube device configurable parameters

• ntpServer1 The hostname for NTP Server 1 used by the Cube to get the time
• ntpServer2 The hostname for NTP Server 2 used by the Cube to get the time

Thing Actions

Several Thing Actions are available to trigger special actions on the MAX! Cube

• reset(): Reset Cube Configuration resets the MAX! Cube room and device information. Devices will need to be included again!

• reboot(): Restart Cube triggers the reboot of a Cube. This can be used if a Cube became unresponsive to commands or no connection can be made. (e.g. if you tried to connect to the Cube with multiple applications at the same time)

On the MAX! devices you can trigger the following action

• deleteFromCube(): Delete Device from Cube deletes the device from the MAX! Cube. Device will need to be included again!

Example Rule

demo.rules:

rule "Reboot MAX! Cube"
when
    ...
then
    val maxCubeActions = getActions("max-cube", "max:bridge:KEQ0565026")
    val Boolean success = maxCubeActions.reboot()
    logInfo("max", "Action 'reboot' returned '{}'", success)
end

Caught a mistake or want to contribute to the documentation? Edit this page on GitHub (opens new window)