#lightwaverf

What I’d like to do with our smart home

We Have Smart Lights! So… What’s Next? So for a while now I have been swapping out all of the lights in our home for smart bulbs. I originally started with Philips Hue Bulbs, then a few from Tesco and some smart sockets that I’ve flashed with ESP Home to put on the lamps that I haven’t swapped out or can’t swap out such as the fish tank light. Now though I want to do more and I want to make…

Conventional System Setup

I needed to check how the new LightwaveRF system would behave in comparison to the old conventional system. So I worked out how the conventional system should work in the main trigger conditions:

Hot Water Setup

Conditions Outcomes Trigger HW Tank Thermostat   Programmer Boiler Programmer Triggers HW to Turn On Below Temp   On On HW Tank Stat Reaches Temp At/Above Temp   On Off Programmer Triggers HW to Turn Off n/a   Off Off

Central Heating Setup

Conditions Outcomes Trigger Room Thermostat   Programmer Boiler Programmer Triggers HW to Turn On Below Temp   On On HW Tank Stat Reaches Temp At/Above Temp   On Off Programmer Triggers HW to Turn Off n/a   Off Off

LightwaveRF System Setup

Next, to compare it to how the new LightwaveRF system would behave:

Conditions Outcomes Trigger HW Tank Thermostat LW App HW Device LW920 Boiler Switch Boiler Programmer Triggers HW to Turn On Below Temp On On On HW Tank Stat Reaches Temp At/Above Temp On Off Off Programmer Triggers HW to Turn Off n/a Off Off Off

Central Heating Setup

Conditions Outcomes Trigger LW921 Thermostat LW App CH Device LW920 Boiler Switch Boiler Programmer Triggers HW to Turn On Below Temp On On On HW Tank Stat Reaches Temp At/Above Temp On Off Off Programmer Triggers HW to Turn Off n/a Off Off Off

So there's one difference between the two systems. In the conventional system, when the relevant thermostat reaches the target temperature, the light indicating whether the CH or HW is on or not, will remain illuminated. In the new LightwaveRF system, the relevant LW920 Boiler Switch will switch off.

Components

To explain the behavour differences noted above, it's worth comparing the two system components:

Hot Water Setup

HW Component Conventional Setup New LightwaveRF Setup User Switch Programmer LW App On/Off Display Programmer LW App Internal Switching Control Programmer LW920 Boiler Switch Heating Source Boiler Boiler Thermostat HW Tank Thermostat HW Tank Thermostat

Central Heating Setup

CH Component Conventional Setup New LightwaveRF Setup User Switch Programmer LW App/LW921 Thermostat On/Off Display Programmer LW App/LW921 Thermostat Internal Switching Control Programmer LW920 Boiler Switch Heating Source Boiler Boiler Thermostat Room Thermostat LW921 Thermostat

Three Port Valve Test

To test the three port valve, I needed to check the scenarios:

Test CH State HW State Three Port Valve Position CH Off, HW Off (default) n/a n/a Port B (HW) CH On, HW Off On Off Port A (CH) CH Off, HW On Off On Port B (HW) CH On, HW On On On Port A/B (mid-position)

Forward commands from PHP to LightwaveRF

I write this little forwarder recently so that other bits of software in our house/network could send commands to our LightwaveRF kit without needing to be registered on the hub, effectively giving local speed access to all software integrations.

I’ve got a little web server running on a Pi, that machine is registered with the lightwaverf hub (it runs my Logitech Harmony integrations). That…

Howto: Controlling LightwaveRF lights with a Raspberry Pi, Flirc and Logitech Harmony One IR remote

I’ve recently got into home automation and so thought it would be fun to integrate my smart lighting with my media centre and remote control. When I watch TV or streaming video I want the main lights to go off and the side/back lights to come on in my living room. When I pause I want the main lights to come up a little and when I play I want main lights to turn off again :)

My setup

I use Lightwa…

This is a very simple python program that turns Lightwave RF lights on/off:

import sys

import serial

message_no = "01" #ideally this should increment

device_id = "314F20" #you need to change this to match your lightwave RF id

device_no = "01"

on_off_code = "01" #01 = on, 00 = off

if sys.platform == "darwin":

   port_name = "/dev/tty.usbserial-A1WJCX8V" #change this to your port name

else:

   port_name = "/dev/ttyUSB0"

try:  

   serial_port = serial.Serial(port_name, 38400, timeout=10)

except serial.SerialException, e:

   print "Error: Failed to connect on device " + port_name + "(err no = " + str(e)+")"

   sys.exit(1)

if not serial_port.isOpen():

   serial_port.open()

# Flush buffer

serial_port.flushOutput()

serial_port.flushInput()

message = "0A1400" + message_no + device_id + device_no + on_off_code + "0070"

serial_port.write(message.decode('hex') )