Guide: Vallox Digit Ventilation to Home Assistant (Part 2/2 – Home Assistant)
In previous post I wrote a guide, how to create hardware to control Vallox Ventilation Machines (the dumb ones) through wifi. In this second part, we are going to integrate the newly created hardware into Home Assistant.
Requirements
Since our hardware sends all the events to the MQTT pipe, of course we should have MQTT installed into our system. Check this post out if this is a new thing for you. You should already have MQTT installed though, since you were able to complete the 1/2 part of this guide 🙂
Custom component installation
Next thing is the actual component installation. Easiest way to install the custom component is to use HACS, but you can of course also install everything manually. Using HACS is preferred as with that you also get updates automatically when released.
Using HACS (option #1)
To install using HACS either press ‘Open HACS repository on Home Assistant‘ -button below or manually setup the custom repository.
Automatic HACS setup:
Manual HACS Setup:
- Go to `HACS` -> `Integrations`
- Select `…` from upper right corner
- Select `Custom repositories`
- Add `https://github.com/kotope/valloxesp` and select Category as `Integration`
- Search for `vallox2mqtt` and select it
- Press `Download`
- Restart Home Assistan
Manual installation (option #2)
SSH into the home assistant system (either with web ui or native ssh) and enter following commands:
cd /config/custom_components
wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kotope/valloxesp/master/install_to_home_assistant.sh | bashFirst row changes our directory to custom_components folder inside home assistant. Custom components are third party components that are not integrated into home assistant by default.
Second row downloads the software from GitHub repository and runs installation right through into the custom_components folder. No need to do any other commands anymore.
Now restart the home assistant and our new component should be loaded in the system.
Configuration
Latest version of integration is done via Home Assistant integrations page direclty from UI and differs a lot from older version. If you have the old version still installed, remove the configuration related to vallox2mqtt from configurations.yaml. Also you can now safely remove templated sensors since they are provided through configuration procedure automatically now.
Our platform currenty offers three components: thermostat (climate) control, binary sensor and swuich. Climate control has heating, fan support and target temperature setters.
Binary sensor is just a status on/off, but has rest of the values as attributes that can be used as template sensors if needed.
Switch is either boost or fireplace switch as selected from Vallox Ventilation machine. Note that once either boost or fireplace mode is activated, it cannot be turned off until the timer expires in vallox (boost 60min, fireplace 15min). This is restriction in the interface and “can’t” be implemented. Also please note that at the moment you cannot switch fireplace/boost mode from HA, only in the device itself (something I still need to implement).
Latest version (0.8.1+) also provides other sensors straight through device now.
So let’s setup the platform.
Go Home Assistant configurations tab -> integrations and press ‘+ Add Integration’ in down right.
Search for vallox2mqtt and click it.
Configuration dialog should pop up and you can leave the values default unless you have changed your valloxesp mqtt topics to something else. You can also change the friendly name as you like (e.g. in your localized language).
After pressing the ‘submit’ button you are asked the area of the device. When finishing the setup you should see 1 device with 15 entities in the integrations view. You can now start adding those in your Lovelace UI.
RH1 and RH2 are only available if your Vallox ventilation machine has those. Otherwise those statuses will be unavailable.
Testing
Enter some of your views and try to add thermostat entity into it. You should find your “Ventilation” item.
Just experiment a bit and do anything you would like to see with those 🙂
In images below is an example how I’ve configured of those Lovelace cards (sensors, history graph of all four temperature sensors and ventilation control)
Again, if problems, feel free to drop a comment below and I’ll try to help as much as I can.
Thank you so much for fun and great step-by-step guide for this home automation project! Yesterday I successfully got it working with Vallox Digit SE without any problems. You could add it to Github -page for other users if they are unsure if this is working or not.
I did only one change to setup, and installed the system besides the ventilation machine. This way I was able to leave the boxing for a later date, and my wife is happier when she doesn’t see my tunings on the walls.
I’d love to have option for fireplace switch, which turns exhaust fan off for 15minutes. I think there is “build-in switch” in protocol for that, I can see that the control panel (Digit SED) has option for it in menu.
Big thanks again for your kind sharing this guide!
Thanks for your nice comments 🙂
I added your Vallox Digit SE as verified device aswell.
By the way, updated software with some read only variables added to github.
Mostly implemented because of motor_in to see when heat cell is being unfrozen.
Already did OTA -update, so convenient! Also added configurations initially for motor_in, motor_out and extra_func. Working great!
Didn’t quite understand what’s the relationship between motor_in and heat cell being frozen?
At least my machine stops the incoming motor when defrosting starts. That way no more cold air is being pushed from outside and heat cell uses indoor warm air to defrost the cell.
Some models uses front heating also on defrosting.
I just wanted to analyse how often and how long periods there are for defrosting 🙂 Not tested fully yet though, since it’s still warm outside.
Next task is the 15min fireplace/boost startup, hopefully I’ll have some time to implement it in this week.
Hi. Finally got this working fine. I have also humidity sensor on vallox so if that could shown would also good.
Also that fireplace switch 🙂
Thanks for doing good job.
Here is one vallox integration. If you any info helpfull to add new features to system:
https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/949/sensor-for-vallox-digitse-rs485-ventilation-system-with-integration-into-fhem/12
Great success 🙂
Actually humidity should work already, try to add new template sensor with attribute “rh”. Never tested though, since I don’t have humidity sensor my self.
Also fireplace switch is in progress, should be ready this week hopefully.
Hi!
First of all, thanks for the great project.
Tested the rh attribute, it’s giving me -999% with two humidity sensors on my Vallox Digit SE. The humidity control and display work correctly on the LCD controller.
I tried adding:
vallox_rh:
value_template: “{{ states.binary_sensor.ventilation_status.attributes.rh }}”
friendly_name: Ventilation humidity sensor
unit_of_measurement: “% rh”
to my config.
Hi and thanks for the feedback!
RH feature might not be working, since I don’t have RH sensor(s) at all so it’s untested code completely. It’s implemented according specifications, but there might be some special cases, since you have two RH sensors connected.
I can try to fix it, if you are able send me some packet logs from your machine?
To get the logs you need to send ‘{ “DEBUG” : true }’ message to ‘vallox/set’ topic and then subscribe to ‘vallox/#’ topics with some client.
If you are able to do that and get the logs (about 20-30 lines should be enough), please send and I’ll check if I can make RH feature working properly 🙂
Could you have any suggestions what might be wrong: my MQTT packets have “freezed”, so I only get exactly same values every time I subscribe for a topic. I have flashed the software couple of times, no luck with that. I doubt the problem is with rs485-ttl -module, but it seems to be the only option. ESP01 might be bricked too, but it lets me flash it with ftdi-programmer, but not with OTA. I checked voltages and setups, and Vallox Control Panel is working as it should. I can’t say when this problem occured, but I’ve hazzled a lot with Home Assistant lately.
I ordered ESP01 for other reasons couple weeks ago, so it should arrive soon, making troubleshooting easier.
Mqtt messages on that code are retain, so old messages are received if no newer ones are not available. I should change that someday not to be retain..
My guess would be somehow messed rs485 converter that it cant read all required messages and won’t get the initialization done. However, OTA flash should still work …
Try to send “{ ‘DEBUG’: true }” message to vallox/set topic. It then should send all raw data through mqtt aswell. If no messages are received, something must be wrong on modus (RS485).
And one more thing. If you have flashed esp8266 again, ensure wifi/mqtt values at valloxesp.h. File might be overridden when updated from github. Happened me once and I wondered why OTA won’t work anymore (was not even on wifi because of wrong credentials)
Hi,
It took some time to receive missing components and find the time to tinker this to be finished, but now the HW side is ready and works great with my Digit SE. The MQTT communications works bidirectionally, and everything seems to be OK.
However, I’m experiencing problems with the HA configuration. The thermostat card works great with “climate.ilmanvaihto” as set entity. I can see the set and actual temperature and e.g. change the fan speed. However, the sensors defined under platform: template are not working.
Sensors, defined in configuration.yaml are listed under “Entities” of HA Configuration view, but each sensor has a red exclamation mark with comment “Unavailable” . The sensors are of course not showing any data either.
Installation (Custom component cloning from git + two sections of configuration.yaml-file) are done as explained above.
As I’m bit unfamiliar with the template concept of HA, I would appreciate if you could point me a starting point for debugging.
Many thanks in advance!
Hi!
Those templated sensors are fetched from Vallox binary_sensor attributes (I did not want to make too many (possibly not needed) entities in the integration so I decided to add them as attributes).
I see you’re using ‘ilmanvaihto’ as a name so the binary sensor should be found in your system as “binary_sensor.ilmanvaihto”.
Most probably your templated sensor name is just wrong, so double check that your templated sensor configuration is something like this:
ventilation_outside_temp:
value_template: “{{ states.binary_sensor.ilmanvaihto.attributes.temp_outside }}”
friendly_name: Ventilation outside temperature
If still not working, check that you see the ‘binary_sensor.ilmanvaihto’ in your Home Assistant and check the attributes from that entity.
What a moment of embarrassment =:-o.
I had configured the Vallox2mqtt custom component to configuration.yaml already last year, and didn’t recall/realize I had changed the name back then.
I changed the name of the component to the same which is used in the example above, and now everything works like a charm!
Thanks for your quick support and great work!
Glad to hear it was just a naming issue. 🙂
Have a nice day and feel free to drop a message in any situation and I’ll help as much as I can.
Thanks to the great integration, it works with Vallox digit SE 2. Is it possible to set the fan speed (1-8) with the Home Assistant? for example, create automation that sets the fan speed to the fastest setting as the humidity in the washroom increases?
Hi,
Yes, of course it is possible to automatically set fan speed based on humidity (as long as you have humidity sensor in the washroom).
You could either use the Vallox boost/fireplace switch as an action, if you have configured your vallox switch as a boost rather than fireplace switch.
..or you could manually automate speed change and a timer for it in Home Assistant. All the required components should be in place already (in HA and in Vallox ESP8266 module).
Unfortunately I don’t have an example of that yet. I’ve been planning to create a similar automation for myself as well, but haven’t had time to do it yet.
I’ll write a new post about it when I got time to do it 🙂
..one more thing, the event action for the automation is “climate.set_fan_mode” that can be used for entity “climate.ventilation”, if you wish to try it out already.
Thanks. It worked.
For automations:
Action type: Call service
Service: climate.set_fan_mode
Name of entitie to change: climate.ventilation
Service data:
entity_id: climate.ventilation
fan_mode: 4
Hi, Thanks for all the work you have put into the project and also keeping it up to date. Today I updated to latest version that you can setup trough the Home Assistant integrations and it is working well. One small thing I would like to point out though. I noticed that fan speed display attribute from climate component is not present in the default list of entities and I had to enable it old fashioned way from configuration.yaml template sensor. Maybe it is worth displaying as default because it is quite essential information.
How did you do that? I also would need to see this speed steps in the logs etc.
Hi, i had vallox working via old tutorial (costum component), but today i updated HASS and vallox failed to load.
If i follow new guideline for installing: Go Home Assistant configurations tab -> integrations and press ‘+ Add Integration’ in down right.
Search for vallox2mqtt and click it.
It doesn’t find it. What i’m doing wrong?
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply, I’ve somehow missed this comment totally.
Have you updated the latest version of vallox2mqtt component from GitHub https://github.com/kotope/valloxesp in your custom_components folder?
Double check that everything is there. I’d recommend to delete old folder and re-download it to be sure that you don’t get any conflicts with the old one 🙂
You could also delete the old version from custom_components folder and go through installation again according this guide:
https://www.creatingsmarthome.com/index.php/2020/08/31/guide-vallox-digit-ventilation-to-home-assistant-part-2-2-home-assistant/
Went over it again and got it to work 🙂
Must have one smth wrong first time (not very experienced with HASS).
Glad it worked, well done 🙂
Hi Toni, Been using this integration now several months, and all fine!
Now, when colder days are here, i noticed that entity “Ventilation front heating” stays off, even front heater is ON on a Vallox. Have you experienced this one by your self?
Thanks!
Hi,
I don’t have the front heating on my machine, but will ask from a friend of mine that has front heating and is also using this DIY module.
It worked ok last year, but the code has changed a bit since then.
I will get back to you when I get the result from him 🙂
Just to be sure:
Front heating is for keeping the cell non-frozen, not to heat the incoming air so if your cell is not frozen (or the setting in Vallox is set to bypass the cell) then the front heating should stay off.
The heating itself is done in “back heating” (jälkilämmitys) and as far as I remember Vallox does not pass that status in modbus.
And now the question, are you sure you are not mixing up front and back heating (etulämmitys / jälkilämmitys) ? 🙂
Hi Toni,
Ok that must be the case then of course! I am talking about the back heating/jälkilämmitys, which heats the incoming air to certain temperature. So all clear now, thank you for fast support!
Good to hear 🙂
I will re-check if actual state of heating could be somehow retrieved at some point.
Would be a good feature to see when the heating is actually heating or idle.
Just make it work with my Vallox 110se – thanks.
Glad it worked, well done 🙂
Hi Toni,
once again thanks for this great project and tutorial.
As Home Assistant now supports long term statistics, would be a big effort to make an update where the sensor metadata would include the required sensor_state – parameters in order to have the sensor mean/min/max -values to be stored in the long term database tables?
Good morning!
Thanks for the kind words 🙂
That feature should not be too difficult to implement, I’ll try to add support for it this week once I’ll find some free time to do it.
Hi,
First big thanks for this project!
I now got this working on my Vallox ValloPlus 350 SE 🙂
One feature I wanted to request would be the ability to turn off the ventilation completely. I tried that a while ago with openhab and a RS485 USB stick and it seemed to work fine to turn off and turn on again. It just would be a nice addition to have the on/off switch controllable as well. (e.g. have it turned off during the night)
Hi and thanks 🙂
The feature you are requesting should not be too difficult to implement. However, when I first wrote the code I intentionally left out the turn on/off feature, since it’s generally a (really) bad idea to turn off ventilation completely. It’s not good for your health or for the health of house structural.
However, maybe I could add it as an optional to be configured through configuration flow if someone really needs it. I’ll try to do it next week while having a small holiday break 🙂
Have a merry Christmas!
That would be perfect!
And yes, the idea would be to use it in combination with CO2 and humidity sensors around the house. Turning off during the night while it is very cold outside saves energy and more importantly avoids that the air is getting too dry while sleeping.
Thanks!
Hi,
On/off feature has been a bit problematic, because of different Home Assistant approach compared to Vallox control panel itself (separate button for the heating on vallox and Home Assistant as off/heat/fan modes).
It’s almost ready, but I still need to do some tweaking. Will try to finalize it tomorrow, sorry for the delay 🙂
Hi, any update on this? Maybe some “beta” branch I could help testing?
(Worst case, maybe just map the on/off button to a switch in HA and I could take care of the logic needed myself there 🙂 )
Hi!
Unfortunately not much of an updates of this issue, I’ve been quite busy on and off work so had no progress of it.
As I said earlier the problem is indeed state state change.
Even though I managed to get the start working (with some hickups), one major problem is that the default vallox panel won’t wake up if ventilation is started from the esp8266.
I’ll created a separate branch for you from the current ‘work-in-progress’ version if you like to, but as I said it’s not pretty and has some major issues that needs solving assuming that they can be solved 🙂
https://github.com/kotope/valloxesp/tree/experimental_turn_off (requires both esp and custom component updates)
I will continue with this branch when I find a proper timeslot to actually debug and investigate it more 🙂
I’m having trouble with Vallox 121 SE. I get “väylävika” on the controlbox and just some of the entities are active in HA. I checked the wiring and flashed ESP-01 again but still the same. Any ideas?
‘Väylävika’ means that the bus is not functioning properly so it’s most likely a hardware issue.
I’ve seen this on my ventilation machine aswell while I was constructing/developing the hardware.
If I recall correctly, I had A and B in short circuit and that caused the issue.
I’d suggest that you ensure A and B are not short with a multimeter. The device should be disconnected from ventilation machine and out of power.
If that is ok, ensure that A and B are in correct pins.
One more thing you could try, is to add a terminator resistor at the end of bus. Meaning that you could add 120 ohm resistor between A and B at the end of the bus line => between RS485 module A and B pins. (see picture below).
Usually this terminator are not if using short cables, but when going to longer it could be useful.
My RS485 was bad, luckily i had another 🙂 Now it seems to work. Thanks for the help.
Good to hear that you found the cause 🙂
Excellent tip regarding the terminator.
Earlier I had regular issues (after a few days) with the ventilation not reacting anymore even though the cables are relatively short.
However now with the terminator it is just rock-solid, no issues at all.
Thanks for the software!
Seems to work but why does this “Failed to call service. coroutine was expected got none” error appear every time I change some settings? I have quite old Home Assistant version.
One of most interesting things here is to calculate the heat recovery efficiency. I know the math but how should I do this ( some kind of separate script?) I suggest adding that as feature. Would be cool to monitor that over time.
Current version of my Vallox custom component is tested only with latest 2021.12 Home Assistant release, so I suggest to upgrade your system 🙂
Most probably some core features of HA has been changed between your HA version and latest HA.
Heat recovery efficiency is a good idea, but I think it should be done outside of the device component: e.g. a new template sensor and data collection through influx db.
If you decide to create a template sensor for that, please comment here so that others could use it as well 🙂
First of all, thank you very much for your effort.
I’ve added your custom component to my Home Assistant 2021.12.9 but I do not get any entities from it. Also, I cannot get the configuration popup when I click on vallox2mqtt in HACS. When I listen to the MQTT messages, I see them appear, and I can even control my unit with the set. What can I do to get the UI components working? No errors are found in the log.
I also “converted” the code to compile for ESP32. I only needed to replace a few libraries to get it working. I also switched over to Serial2 because I wanted to use Serial for debugging. As I’m using an ESP32 development board with a lot more I/O than your ESP-01 module, I was thinking of adding an BME280 sensor. Could I get this to report in your MQTT messages and show up in the Home Assistant UI as well? This would be great!
Have you done it like this:
– HACS -> add custom repository -> https://github.com/kotope/valloxesp.git
– Install vallox2mqtt
– go to configuration -> devices -> integrations -> + add integration
– search for vallox2mqtt and click ok
–> configuration flow should start at this point
You should get the BME280 sensor to work, but for that you need to write some Arduino code in the ESP32 end and some kind of mqtt client to HA end (you could use mqtt template of sensors to directly read from mqtt gateway so you don’t have to modify vallox2mqtt custom component )
Hi, Thank you very much for the project! I have a question about seting up my Vallox 96MV.
I cant to get it work properely in my HA. I see the entity and status, but cant see fireplace servise. Please give me some advise how to set up my one or some link to tutorial. Thank You
The ‘fireplace switch’ is actually called ‘ventilation switch’.
The switch is configurable either as boost mode or fireplace mode from Vallox control panel itself.
e.g. you have to select the functionality from default Vallox control panel and the ‘ventilation switch’ will then function in that mode.
At least that’s how my Vallox 121SE works. In 96MV it might be different, since it is quite much newer production and supports cloud functionality by default.
Did you manage to get the integration to work with your 96MV excluding the fireplace switch?
Thank you very much Toni! This is so awesome! Thank you for taking the time to write so easy to follow step by step guide!
Works with Vallox 150SE.
Initially I got something like this in the home-assistant.log:
error occurred loading configuration flow for integration … cannot import name async_prepare_subscribe_topics
Turned out I had to upgrade HA to latest. Then worked like a charm.
… works perfectly with 90 SE
Thank you, I was looking for years to find an easy possibility of integration to home assistant.
Chris
Excellent! Happy to hear it works with your machine as well 🙂
Breaking changes in Home Assistant Core 2022.6.2?
I’m getting :
Logger: homeassistant.setup
Source: setup.py:162
First occurred: 14:19:32 (1 occurrences)
Last logged: 14:19:32
Setup failed for custom integration vallox2mqtt: Unable to import component: cannot import name ‘CONF_RETAIN’ from ‘homeassistant.components.mqtt’ (/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/mqtt/__init__.py)
Yes, 2022.6.1 did break the integration.
I got a pull request on GitHub that should fix this. Reviewed it and approved, so updating the custom component should fix it.
I will make a new release next week when getting back from a holiday. Meanwhile you can try with the master code branch from GitHub.
Great, thanks for everything, enjoy you holiday!
v0.8.4 is now released that should fix this breaking change.
Updating can be made through HACS.
Does anyone else have problem with temperatures freezing in the same value? After using something commands to vallox, it freezes the temperature values. Everything else works still.
Hi,
I updated my HA today to 2022.8.3 (from 2021.12). Vallox integration ceased working after the update.
I get “Setup failed for custom integration vallox2mqtt: Unable to import component: cannot import name ‘CONF_RETAIN’ from ‘homeassistant.components.mqtt’ (/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/components/mqtt/__init__.py)”
in the logs.
Any hints?
You should update latest valloxesp custom_component from GitHub.
There was a breaking change in HA few months ago.
Thanks for your quick reply. Updating the installation from GitHub fixed the issue!
–SPy
How does one do that? By running the script?
install_to_home_assistant.sh from github?
I’d recommend using HACS and adding valloxesp repository on it. That way you get automatic updates for custom component every time it’s updated.
Another way is to SSH into Home Assistant instance and install through the install_to_home_assistant.sh script like this:
cd /config/custom_componentswget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kotope/valloxesp/master/install_to_home_assistant.sh | bash
Really inspiring instructions!
I would like to control my vallox ventilation with Home Assistant.
I am planning to buy vallox pro-control as it has modbus. https://www.taloon.com/media/attachments/vallox/yhdistetty_kaytto-huolto-ja_tekninen_ohje.pdf
Do you expect the code to work with pro-control? Thank you!
Hi!
Hardware should be compatible, since the pro control unit is modbus as well.
However, I doubt the the code will not work out of the box, since all the features with ProControl are 90% different compared to Vallox Digit.
If you’re familiar with coding (or can find someone that is), the code ‘should’ be possible to be modified for your needs 🙂
Thank you! I see a fork in the road 🙂 I will think about it. The code looked fairly easy to adopt.
Hey! I have Vallox Digit SE ventilation unit and running this with the same components.
My states doesn’t get updated on Home Assistant other than temperatures.
If I change the fan speed from HA, it does change the fan speed on the Vallox and also shows new speed on the Vallox control panel itself. But if I change the fan speed from the Vallox control panel, the new speed does not get updated to HA at all. Also “Switch Type” is unavailable all times. Boost switch does activate boost function on Vallox, but on Home Assistant the switch stays off. Temperatures does get updated, and only Switch Type is Unavailable. Any ideas?
Hi!
Which version of Home Assistant are you using?
You could also connect to MQTT broker manually (e.g. using MQTT explorer) and see if the messages are coming through properly from vallox module to the MQTT broker.
Also verify your valloxesp.h configurations that they are valid.
However, it’s quite odd that the temperature works, but nothing else..
Home Assistant was 2022.9.7, but today updated to 2022.10.0.
I connected to MQTT broker and no messages come when I change anything on the vallox module (fan speed, heat target). Only get messages if I change values from HA.
But temperatures does change automatically…
valloxesp.h seems fine, I have only changed the wifi and mqtt server settings.
Also noticed when I reboot the ESP, it shows heat_target and service_counter as 0. I have to manually set the heat target from HA. And the service_counter populates only when I manually change the fan speed from the HA… So it seems I only get that info as a return message, but otherwise the vallox module wont talk to the ESP, other than the temperatures… 🙂
Ok, so you get proper temperature values to HA from Vallox directly? Do you get values from all 4 sensors correctly?
Next thing you could do to try and enable debug on the esp module:
Try to send
"{ 'DEBUG': true }"message to vallox/set topic.After that you should get quite many MQTT messages from the device. Please copypaste ‘some’ (about 20-30) messages and send those to me (creatingsmarthome (at) gmail.com) and I’ll try to analyze what might go wrong.
I’m guessing somewhat unsupported weird vallox protocol (different machine with same model name?) or bad cables between vallox and the module so that data is corrupted and checksum does fail.. might be changed panel or mainboard address as well?
Anyhow, the debug logs will give us the needed information 🙂
Im having similar issue. Noticed it with rh1 value. It updates randomly, maybe once a day. Sometimes few times. Did you find any solution?
The problem with Roope was eventually faulty RS485 module.
Replacing it with a new one fixed the issue.
Hi. I have a Vallox Digit 2 SE. Everything works fine, but the rh1 value does not update. If I scroll the controller menu and check the rh1 value from there, after that the value is updated to the Home Assistant. Do you have any solution for this problem?
Unfortunately I don’t have RH sensors my self so I’ve only relied on external testing of the RH features (many months ago).
It could be related to latest MQTT changes by Home Assistant (or something else) 🙂
Can you see any errors/warning of vallox2mqtt when checking home-assistant.log file?
Just installed this integration with hardware into Vallox Digit SE. Had initially some problems with RS-485 board, propably something to do with voltage levels. First I had “blue board”, then changed into “red board” with different RS-TTL chip, both from Ali Express. I also found very compact voltage converter (from Partco), it was advertised as suitable for protoypes only, but from the other hand, I think most of Ali Express converters would be considered prototype level only and ESP and RS-TTL should be light load.
I assembled whole thing inside single unit surface mount electric enclosure, the one you use normally for outlets and switches. Vallox control unit has normal spacing for screws, it fits perfectly to standard enclosure.
Is it possible to enable fireplace / boost from Home Assistant, or is it work in a process?
Hi!
Fireplace + boost should work already. However, due Vallox protocol restrictions, you can only use either one (depending of which you have configured it from the vallox itself) and you can’t turn it off. Fireplace will turn off automatically after 15minutes and boost after 60minutes. This also is due Vallox protocol.
Currently you can’t change the setting mode (fireplace or boost) from Home Assistant.
There is No way To control the heat recovery manually by modbus? I would love To have the so called summer cooling recovery funktion If i could choose myself weather heat recovery is on or Off. The machine itself has an outside temperature limit for Air recovery and i think it cannot be set in a way that heat recovery is on when outside Air is hotter than inside Air.
That’s right, Vallox does not support using the heat recovery bypass manually.
However, you could use the ‘heat recovery setting temperature’ to bypass by setting it low enough so the bypass would be always on.
This is not yet supported by this project however. Very much doable though, so if you are familiar with the coding it should be rather ‘easy’ to add or you can wait until I get some time to actually implement it 🙂
Hello Tony
I would also like to use your solution on my Vallox device, but I can’t find the list of required parts anymore. Addresses of some parts are invalid. Would it be possible to specify the list of required details?
Hi!
Thanks for pointing out that some of the product links are no longer valid!
I added direct AliExpress links as well so you can check the products out from there as well 🙂
Hi
The instructions were great and I got DigitSe to work.
As I am a beginner in these HA things, I wonder if it is possible to somehow get the speed setting displayed on the desktop.
Hi!
Do you want to just display the current speed or also have a setting to change the value?
If you want just to display it, you can create a template sensor to get the fan_mode attribute from the entity, like this:
{{ states.climate.ventilation.attributes.fan_mode }}
If you want to also change the value, you could make eg. number_input sensor and call service climate.set_fan_mode with proper parameters from the number_input 🙂
In case you need more detailed help/examples, please let me know and I’ll write you a quick example UI.
Thanks Toni, Works great i.e. I can see exactly the current state of the speed 🙂
Hi!
This looks extremely interesting and I’m definitely going to go forward with it. This is the missing link that has bothered me in my otherwise complete HA-system (lol, nobody ever has a complete system)…
Thank You for providing this.
I had a look at the github page (sensor.py) and it looks to me as though the optional co2 sensor (that I happen to have installed with my 121SE) is not supported. Am i missing something here? Is there a way it could be implemented?
Thanks again.
Hi!
You’re right, co2 is not supported. Reason for that is simple: I don’t have it so I can’t implement/test it 😀
Should be rather easy to implement though.. all the protocol data is specified in Vallox documentation and it should be just a single pushed value.
After you’ve built your own module, I can try to implement the CO2 sensor support for you to test, if you want to 🙂
Just send me a message when you’ve done with the hardware.
Fantastic. I’ll get in touch once all the “kilkkeet” have arrived and I get it up and running.
I have it up and running. Works great… Just the co2 missing.
Great! I’ll try to have few hours to implement this co2 sensor support during the weekend 🙂
Please send me a mail to creatingsmarthome (at) gmail.com and I’ll write you instructions how to test when I this task is done.
Hi,
I needed to change my MQTT broker to a different HW, and cannot use same IP address anymore. Do i need to reflash the ESP fix this, or any other way to configure/set new broker IP?
Thank you!
/lassi
Hi!
Yes, unfortunately you need to reflash the ESP. There’s no dynamic configuration implemented 🙂
Thank you! I may then go back to old setup, for now.
Hi!
I just added this
https://www.amazon.com/Smallest-Elfin-EW11-Elfin-EW11-0-Wireless-Networking/dp/B0833XTK92
device to my hottub and was wondering, do you think this could work with Vallox too?
The hottub setup is quite simple (https://github.com/jshank/bwalink), the RS485/Wifi module is added to tub and there is a container running script in raspberry to handle communication from tub to MQTT.
The EW11A-0 would be very simple hardware setup (5V-36V operating voltage), but of couse requires more coding..
Hi!
In theory it could work, but not with this code. No experience for my own though 🙂
Btw, thanks for hinting me about this elfin adapter and BWA. I’ve been struggling with the quality of original BWA module, so maybe I’ll switch to this one as well.
Hello,
First of all thanks a lot for this integration. Now that it’s cold I’m probably not the only one struggling with freezing heat cell. Stopping incoming motor was not effective enough so I switched settings so that front heating resistor is used. It would be great to control (and monitor) defrost settings from Home Assistant. I mean like setting the temperature when incoming motor stops and exhaust air temperature when front heating is activated.
What do you think Toni, would it be possible to implement such features? Is this kind of change something that must be changed to valloxesp or HA integration?
Definitely doable and it’s been on my list for ages, haven’t really had time to implement it (and I don’t have the front heating on my machine either).
So wouldn’t hold a breath for this, but I’ll try to find a time slot some day to actually implement this 🙂
edit: requires changes for both ESP and HA integration parts.
Thanks for your reply. We have Vallox Digit2 SE with front heating so I would be more than happy to help you in testing and debugging. Is there anything I could do?
If you are familiar with the coding, commits and pull requests are always welcome at on my GitHub project page 🙂
Otherwise I can get back to you for testing once the feature is implements. But I won’t promise this feature yet, since I got quite many other tasks ongoing at the moment.
Yes I could try coding at least the ESP part But I cannot find the protocol specification. Link in the first part of this tutorial is broken.
Hi Toni,
thanks for your work on this.
I build the hardware and the integration in home assistant via MQTT seems to work fine, however, as soon as I connect it physically to the vallox, the display said “Bus fehler”….
Have you experienced something like this before?
thx
Jan
Hi!
First ensure that A and B lines from Vallox to the RS485 module are correct.
Second double check the RX and TX from RS485 to ESP-01.
If still failing after those checks, enable the logs from ESP-01 to MQTT and see if you can get ANY data from MQTT line.
After updating to 2024.6 this error is comes from integration below.
All information data is unavailable, but changing the fan speed works fine.
Logger: homeassistant.util.logging
Source: util/logging.py:95
First occurred: June 8, 2024 at 18:48:56 (87 occurrences)
Last logged: 09:19:19
Exception in message_received when handling msg on ‘vallox/temp’: ‘{“temp_outside”:12,”temp_inside”:21,”temp_incoming”:18,”temp_exhaust”:16}’ Traceback (most recent call last): File “/config/custom_components/vallox2mqtt/__init__.py”, line 143, in message_received async_dispatcher_send(self._hass, SIGNAL_STATE_UPDATED) File “/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/dispatcher.py”, line 214, in async_dispatcher_send hass.verify_event_loop_thread(“async_dispatcher_send”) File “/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/core.py”, line 447, in verify_event_loop_thread frame.report( File “/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/frame.py”, line 159, in report _report_integration(what, integration_frame, level, error_if_integration) File “/usr/src/homeassistant/homeassistant/helpers/frame.py”, line 197, in _report_integration raise RuntimeError( RuntimeError: Detected that custom integration ‘vallox2mqtt’ calls async_dispatcher_send from a thread other than the event loop, which may cause Home Assistant to crash or data to corrupt. For more information, see https://developers.home-assistant.io/docs/asyncio_thread_safety/#async_dispatcher_send at custom_components/vallox2mqtt/__init__.py, line 143: async_dispatcher_send(self._hass, SIGNAL_STATE_UPDATED). Please report it to the author of the ‘vallox2mqtt’ custom integration.
I’m running 2024.6.0b4 (beta) and everything is fine with that. Haven’t tried yet the stable release, but will upgrade next week when getting back from the vacation.
Are you running the latest vallox2mqtt from my github repository? I did make some thread safety fixes few months ago..
All OK now after updating to latest version of vallox2mqtt! thank you!
How does one update this vallox to mqtt component to latest version?
One does not simply update vallox2mqtt… sorry, old habit of referencing lord of the rings on a question starting like this 🙂
Anyhow, either re-install the component as written on the article or even better, use HACS.
Using HACS: just add new custom repository with HACS pointing to https://github.com/kotope/valloxesp. After that, search vallox2mqtt with HACS and press install. Doing that you always get the latest updates also for vallox2mqtt when a new version is released.
If you are unfamiliar with HACS (Home Assistant Community Store), visit https://www.hacs.xyz/ for more info.
Re-installing isn’t possible since if I try to add vallox2mqtt installation -> Another instance isn’t possible. So should I remove the old instance first?
You do not need to delete the integration from UI, just install the custom component again (by SSH’ing into Home Assistant).
See details from section ‘Custom component installation (UPDATED 3/2021)’
Ok, had to do it “the code way” and then it downloads the latest files. 🙂 Now it is working.
I had the same issue with 2024.6 but updating the files to latest version fixed the problem. Restart was also required
Thank you Toni for the life saving instructions and support.
I got my setup working today, and almost everything works out of the box with digit se 2.
only problem is that I can’t select speeds below 3. When trying to set 1 or 2, it wont change and the state reverts immediately back to previous value. Has anyone bumped into this? It is very strange, as other speeds work well.
Hi Jaakko and thanks from the positive feedback 🙂
Most probably you have set your default fan speed to 3 on the Vallox itself.
Vallox wont let you go below default fan speed, which is quite idiotic behavior in my opinion 😀
Thanks, you are right that was the cause. Gladly now I can turn the default speed to 2, as I can monitor and adjust the speed from HA 🙂 I had to raise the default speed to 3 because it returned always to default speed after power outage.
First of all, thank you very much, Toni, for this great integration. After a few hurdles as a beginner with Home Assistant and ESP, I can now (almost) completely control my Vallox 270 SE.
However, I also miss the ability to switch off the engines completely. In the summer I would like to use this to switch off the system if the outside temperature is too high. Since the approach via the power on/off function seems complicated, I have another suggestion:
So far I have controlled my system analogue via the 0-10 volt interface. At the lowest setting, my system was switched to fan level “0”. Although you cannot set this level on the control panel itself, a “0” was displayed there.
Would it be possible to include level “0” in the integration? Unfortunately I don’t know the associated code.
Hi!
It’s been a while since I’ve actively developed this, but as far as I remember there were some issues with turning off the machine:
– Turn off/on won’t change the state of the physical control panel so the control panel will stay on even though the machine is not
– Since the device is integrated as ‘thermostat’ and Vallox protocol handles off state differently, some advanced logic should be made to make it work reliable.
If 0-10v interface supports level 0, I’ll test it out soon if it can be activated with the code. My guess would be that the Vallox will reject such request though, but I’ll get back to this once I’ve tested.
Hi Toni, have you been able to check whether Vallox also has fan level 0? This would be great for summer.
No I haven’t, sorry! I’ve totally forgotten this one!
Hello Toni, I really don’t want to bother you. Is there any hope that you will try the “fan speed 0” feature? I’m sure it would be an important feature for many.
There was recently a fire in our town and residents were told to close their windows and turn off their ventilation systems. It would have helped me a lot if I could have done this remotely.
That’s a very valid use case you got there!
But the problem here is that I only have limited amount of time 🙂
The code itself could use a bit refactoring as well that we could remove the need of custom_component totally (by using MQTT home assistant discovery topic instead).
I can’t promise if and when this will be implemented, but I’ll try to find some slot to do coding for vallox2mqtt during this month.
You can also go to the machine and adjust level 1 speed to 1%. That is almost “off”
Sorry Roope, I can’t find any adjustment in my Vallox 270 SE. Where do you have it?
Thanks for this nice project.
Now i have set up everyting in HA and everything ist working fine.
I made some Plans for the next automations:
When the extractor hood ist switched on I like to lower the speed from the outlet van.
I do not have an idea if this ist possible.
Do you have some experiance according this issue?
Thank you in advance 🙂
Hi and thanks for the kind feedback 🙂
Currently it’s not possible to control in or out motors separately as the Vallox default control does not allow it either.
The ModBus protocol does support it, but there’s a warning on the documentation that wrong values might burn the motors, so I have not implemented it on the code itself.
So, in theory, it could be possible by implementing the functionality into ValloxESP if you (or someone else) dare to do so. 🙂