House With existing Cbus need ideas?

I agree it was very strange. But again, it was the CNI unit itself that was changing on me (I could see this using the IP utility on Windows), not the homebridge or cgate configs.

Which reminds me, it would be great if the instructions made it very clear to a newbie that the Homebridge CBUS plugin talks to a local cgate daemon, which itself talks to the CNI hardware, which itself talks to the rest of the CBUS hardware. The cgate install is not at all obvious from the outset, and I imagine a lot of people have started tweaking the homebridge config to point to the CNI directly (like I did along the way somewhere before I realised).

 

Agree there is a bit to get your head around.
Perhaps a block diagram?
If you follow Greig’s setup instructions and are using a CNI there shouldn’t be any need to manually setup the config file.

I will have a look and see if I can make that clearer.

 

What you are describing with the port number for the CNI changing is a bit confusing to me. Only trust the CBus IP utility to check the port number. It should always be 10001 and it can't change dynamically.
Port 20023 is not the port used by the CNI. It's the port used by CGate (the server that Homebridge connects to) that in turn, will connect to the CNI. As Daryl has highlighted, ensure the IP address of the CNI is correct and the port is 10001. The project.xml file that Homebridge looks at will need this. BTW, you can connect Toolkit programming software to the instance if CGate you are running. You will need to ensure the IP address of the PC you are running Toolkit on is in the accepted list in the access file for CGate, you are using remote CGate and you are pointing it at the IP address of the device running CGate. You cannot change the port it connects on (this is fixed at 20123 which can be a real pain in the arse if you need to access multiple sites). Oh and you can't program an eDLT using remote CGate running on an Arm device such as a Pi. There's an issue that crashes Toolkit if you try

 

Hi all

after
Many many times or reformatting image and following the steps I still get stuck on how to detect the cbus units from the pi, I can remotely connect to the pi with toolkit and see the project file. But trying to connect from the pi to usb is a no go!

let alone that it’s not picking up any units on the network via usb to the pi and when I hit the manual button on the relay there’s no log in terminal

any ideas?

 

What driver are you using to go from the USB interface to TCP/IP on the pi?

 

I used ser2sock to communicate the pci usb to the pi via usb is that what you are talking about?
It’s mainly the connection from the pi to the usb pci interface 5500pcu type not serial rs232

 

I finally got it going, I was installing it all wrong,
I used putty to terminal in home ridge.
Then update everything.
Run all the script and coding.
Reboot pi and homebridge
Enable ser2sock
Delete TLSv1
Reboot and
Remote pi etc…
Then change network up etc…
All going

 

all is going really well now, problem i have now is i want to give the client remote support.
ive port forwarded raspberry pi internal IP but i cant access it via toolkit offsite via internet any ideas?

 

As you have a remote instance of c-gate running on the RPi you need to configure toolkit where to find c-gate then the address of the CNI, all of which will need port forwarding in the premises router.
My opinion this is not secure, there is no password protection on the CNI.
If this is a paying customer how reliable will this setup be and how many headaches will it give you, remember all the extra fancy stuff is none supported and will ultimately be your responsibility. If it's for you fine as the challenge is good learning and interesting.

Have you considered the Wiser2 for remote site access to program C-bus, also gives your customer an easy to use interface for controlling their loads. They can also control access to the toolkit programming from within the Wiser app.
There is also a homebridge app for Wiser really easy to set up, and leave C-gate on the programming PC (so I can tell google to turn on the light)
My home has been running with that setup for years and no issues.
I run two CRON events in the RPi one to reboot daily and one to update monthly. You don't have to do it but it takes care of basic RPi maintenance.
Then you can use a VNC to to get to the RPi should you need to.


With regard to pressing the manual override button no commands go out onto the network, hence no log of the event.

 

Hi

Yes totally agree with you on the network security side, this is in experimental stages at the moment, I wonder if it’s possible to us a mini pc with windows OS on it with team-viewer or Remote Desktop and have it plugged into the cbus network interface and have virtual machine running with pi OS or windows OS with homebridge and bridge the network tricking it then remotely logging in via team viewer ?

 

I like the idea, are you aware of HOOBS which is homebridge out of the box and is available for windows PC.
Please keep the forum updated on your progress as it interesting, also what mini PC you settle on and it's reliability.