UPB Binding

Universal Powerline Bus (UPB) is a protocol for communication over household electrical wiring.

Supported Things

The binding has not yet been tested with a variety of devices, so specific device support is limited. Instead the binding provides some generic devices, and allows adding channels that match the type of device.

• serial-pim - Serial PIM
• generic - Generic UPB device
• virtual - "Virtual" device that allows scene selection

Specific devices that are supported:

• leviton-38a00-1 - 6-button scene switch

Binding Configuration

The following binding configuration parameters are supported:

Parameter	Description	Config	Default
networkId	Default UPB network ID (0-255)	Optional	-

Thing Configuration

Serial PIM

You need a Powerline Interface Module (PIM) for the binding to work. This is a piece of equipment that connects a computer to the powerline. There are a few different PIM interfaces but this binding only supports serial PIMs.

The serial-pim takes the following configuration parameters:

Parameter	Description	Config	Default
port	Serial port where the PIM is connected	Required	-

Generic device

The generic thing type supports most UPB devices such as dimmers, light switches, and appliance modules. It has the following configuration parameters:

Parameter	Description	Config	Default
networkId	ID of the UPB network (0-255)	Optional	binding config
unitId	Unit ID (unique address) of the device (1-250)	Required	-

Virtual device

The virtual pseudo-device does not correspond to any real device on the UPB network. It is nevertheless useful for reading and setting the current scene. The device has two channels, linkActivated and linkDeactivated. If a device on the UPB network activates or de-activates a scene by broadcasting a link activation command, the link ID (or scene number) can be read from the corresponding channel. Similarly, updating the channel with a link ID will send out the corresponding link command on the UPB network.

Channels

These channels are available for generic devices:

Channel Type	Item type	Description
dimmer	Dimmer	Level/brightness, or on/off for switches
scene-selection	-	Trigger channel for scene selection

The virtual device supports the link channel type:

Channel Type	Item type	Description
link	Number	A scene to activate or deactivate

Full Example

Here is a sample `.things configuration file:

Bridge upb:serial-pim:pim "UPB PIM" @ "Basement" [port="/dev/ttyUSB0"] {
  Thing generic light-switch "Living Room Light" [networkId=1, unitId=1]

  Thing virtual upb-scene "UPB Scene Control" [networkId=1, unitId=250]

  Thing leviton-38a00-1 scene-switch "Scene Switch" @ "Bedroom" [networkId=1, unitId=2] {
    Channels:
      Type scene-selection : btnOn [linkId=1]
      Type scene-selection : btnOff [linkId=2]
      Type scene-selection : btnA [linkId=3]
      Type scene-selection : btnB [linkId=4]
      Type scene-selection : btnC [linkId=5]
      Type scene-selection : btnD [linkId=6]
  }
}

And the items:

// Configure as either Switch or Dimmer
Dimmer LivingRoomLight "UPB Light Switch" {channel="upb:generic:pim:light-switch:dimmer"}

// A scene selector (does not correspond to a physical device)
Number UPB_Active_Scene "Active UPB Scene" {channel="upb:virtual:pim:upb-scene:linkActivated"}

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