python-velbus: A python library to control the Velbus home automation system

This library was created to support the Velbus protocol in my home automation efforts.

The latest version of the library is published as a python package on pypi

I would like to extend this module to support all Velbus modules, so feel free to submit pull requests or log issues through github for functionality you like to have included.

API documentation is available here

Port format

There are 3 possible port formats:

• /dev/ttyACME0 = A direct connection to a serial device (for vmbusb for example)
• ip:port = A connection to a TCP/IP port
• tls://signum ip:27015 = A connection to a signum ip

Installation

You can install the library with pip (pip install python-velbus) or by checking out the github repository and running python setup.py install at the root of the repository.

Supported modules

The following Velbus modules are currently supported by this library:

Adding support for other modules

The velbus website contains an overview of the different available modules and their protocol documentation. In order to add support for an additional module, read through the protocol documemntation and add support for missing messages (many messages are shared between modules so make sure to check if a message already exists or not)

Steps to add support for an additional module:

• Look up the protocol documentation of the module you want to include at the velbus website: Select the module, go to Downloads and search for the info sheet with protocol information.
• Go through the messages directory and look for messages in the protocol information sheet that are not yet supported. Create a new file in the messages folder for each unsupported message. Every new message should inherit from the Message object and reuse common functionality.
• Implement constructor method for each new message
• Implement the populate and data_to_binary methods for each new message
• If the message has other than low priority or no RTR set (which are defaults), then re-implement set_defaults method
• Add new messages to the init.py file in the messages folder
• Test and iterate
• Update the Supported modules section of the README.md file
• Submit a pull request on Github

Further development

The library currently offers only the lowest level of functionality: sending and receiving messages to modules. I plan to extend this library with more higher-level functionality such as:

• Modeling modules and their supported functions as entities
• Only allowing to send supported messages to modules
• Auto-discovery of modules
• Exposing the velbus controller as an external API so it can be shared between different consumers