Phc2Mqtt

Hello Jo,

if you have one Modul left I will take it. 

Thank you in advance 
Ansgar

Hi Ansgar,

I had you on the list already, so be sure to get one

 

Perfct! Thank you!!

Hey,
I had some free time to check my JRM. There are currently 45 cables connected to it and I'm afraid to work with the 230 V outputs. So it would be a lot of work to get the JRM out to open it up. My plan changed to use an ethernet relais boards with 16 relais.
Thank you for your time and the support Jo!

I will be receiving the last components by the end of the week from USA, the ESP32 modules were not available from my European distributor.

For now I have below list of persons that reserved a module, I will send them individual PM's to make arrangements:
- haribo
- mimo
- tomroth
- ansgar75

For last minute candidates: I have 2 modules on spare in the planning.

cu, Jo
 

Hello,
I am also interessted in one!

Thanks!
Matthias

Hello Matthias,

I reserved a module for you. I will send you a PM with the details.


Jo
 

Hi Jo,

a cool project! I was wondering whether one could also run such module without a real STM, i.e., to replace the original PEHA STM by a pure a Phc2Mqtt module. The Phc2Mqtt would then report via MQTT that a button was pressed and a system such as OpenHAB could pick up this message and respond with an MQTT command to enable a channel on am AM module. The Phc2Mqtt would then translate this into a corresponding PHC command that triggers the AM module.

I understand that this would imply that the lights don't work anymore when the OpenHAB system goes down. But there seem to be also occurrences where a PEHA STM dies. And then the entire light system is down as well. And since PEHA phased out the PHC system, such blackout could last even longer
If replacing the PHEA STM by a software-STM would work, I would keep the PEHA STM in place but disconnect it. Then I could still take it into use quickly when/if the software systems happens to fail.

Do you think one could realize that with your module?
Is the software of your module open source?

Thanks a lot,
Henning
 

Hello Henning,

Thx for the compliment

Back in 2008 I wrote inControl, this was a Windows application that replaced an STMv1/v2, it worked with a limited number of PHC modules, but there were too much delays in the RS485 bus handling due to the Windows operating system in between. A second try on Raspi led to the same conclusion. The timing on the PHC module bus is very strict.

After much delay I finally took the time to work on the ESP32/FreeRTOS combination and ported my cross-platform development framework to FreeRTOS, this way it is simpeler to develop/debug new components on my Windows platform, while that code will also run on ESP32.

Upto now I focused on providing an alternative for xPhcLogd + xWRC that many people use in combination with OpenHab, and this is working fine because I developed an interrupt driven serial port driver. Everything that happens on the PHC module bus is handled with microsecond precision.

The first modules are shipped to some users/testers and we expect to start testing next week.

The next step is to port some more code from inControl, code that executes the inner working of an STM. It is my plan to have Phc2Mqtt replace the entire STM, although I cannot give 100% guarantee that everything you specify in the PEHA System Software will also work as it does on a real HW STM. This restriction is more related to presence simulation, the other things like input->output coupling, rolladen, timers, ... will be ok.

Another alternative could be to let Phc2Mqtt replace a real STM but just act as a gateway, so passing events/status from the PHC module bus to MQTT, and accepting commands from MQTT and sending them to the PHC module bus.

About open source: no, I have a NDA (non disclosure aggreement) for some parts of the code

Regards, Jo
 

Thanks for the quick response and sorry for my late answer.

I had actually the latter in mind, i.e., "let Phc2Mqtt replace a real STM but just act as a gateway, so passing events/status from the PHC module bus to MQTT, and accepting commands from MQTT and sending them to the PHC module bus".

One could probably keep it simple by using only the simple commands (AM channel ON/OFF; EM channel OPEN/CLOSED) and let the external controller take care of timers or long/short pressed inputs. Maybe that would also simplify the RS485 handling since all (most?) actions would be triggered by the Phc2Mqtt. The modules would only reply to commands and pings but never initiate any actions/reports themselves. That should also reduce the risk of collisions on the bus.

I think this is basically what UDP2PHC does but it would be nice to use MQTT instead. Seems to be better supported by home automation systems.

I understand that you are working on another track. Hopefully I find the time to look a bit more into it myself.

Thanks again!

BR,
Henning

Hi Jo,
is there one module for me too?
BR Paul

Hi Paul,

I will send you a PM with the details.


Regards, Jo
 

Here is the user manual for Phc2Mqtt

Hi Henning,

I will have a look at using Phc2Mqtt as a pass-through to replace a real STM. This behaviour will not differ that much from acting as a STM, it will even be simpler as I don't need to perform the programmed tasks.

But now first finish my power measuring project.

cu, Jo

Hi Jo,

Do you still have a module available?
I am interested in one. I live in the Netherlands.

Regards,
Rick