8

Introduction

KNX is a standardized, OSI-based network communications protocol for building automation. It is the successor to, and convergence of, 3 previous standards: EHS, BatiBUS and EIB.

KNX is currently the de facto standard in building automation in Europe. The KNX Association had 339 members/manufacturers from 37 countries. The KNX Association has partnership agreements with more than 30,000 installer companies in 100 countries and more than 60 technical universities as well as over 150 training centres. Member companies have more than 7000 KNX certified product in their catalogues.

Until recently, KNX did not have support for support for TCP. While there has been an IP based implementation of KNX named KNXNet for quite a while now, this protocol uses UDP as the transport layer, which is not very programmer-friendly and rather poorly supported in comparison with TCP.

Only recently did the KNX Association release a KNX Standard extension for KNX web services. This means that there is now an official standard for implementing RESTful web services, which makes it far easier to integrate the KNX eco-system with other technology:

KNX_Architecture

The KNX WS specification foresees three flavors to ease the integration with an existing ecosystem: oBIX, BACnet/WS and OPC/UA.

The actual question

I'm currently having a basic KNX home automation installed in my home by a certified installer. I would like to purchase such a gateway to implement a custom web + mobile UI for my home, but I've been informed by both my installer and the KNX Association that no commercial solutions are on the market that support the new web services extention out of the box... yet (*). Neither seems to have any idea whatsoever when such a gateway might become available on the market.

So...

  • Does anyone here know if any major brands are working on such a gateway and when the first gateways of this kind are expected to be released?

  • Are there currently conventional KNX/IP gateways out there that can be extended with KNX WS at the software level, so I don't need any additional hardware (like a NAS or a Raspberry Pi) to extend them with KNX WS support?

Unfortunately, this kind of information is very, very hard to find anywhere online.

(*) Note : While there are a whole bunch of commercial KNX/IP gateways, but none of these the brand new KNX WS standard, which has been released just a few months ago. The gateways currently on the market either only support KNXNet or some proprietary TCP-based protocol, neither of which are what I'm looking for!

Improve this question
0

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4

You could have a look at Loxone - they have integration into KNX and they also support RESTful automation.

Besides that you could probably have a look at devices like recently announced Gira X1 or any KNX/IP gateway - many vendors provide some kind of interfaces. For instance, have a look at VisuControl from MDT.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    The integration of KNX & Loxone is something I discussed with Daniël Van Dessel, who is the CEO of Loxone Benelux. They do NOT recommend the use of the Loxone Miniserver for visualization of a KNX environment. They told me they support KNX-integration only as an extension of a Loxone based ecosystem. The Gira X1 is a better solution, but doesn't have the key feature I'm looking for, which is support for the new KNX web service standard.
    – John Slegers
    Jun 6, 2017 at 14:00
  • With available IP gateways (such as the ones from MDT) you can control your actors and read GA status very easily, via TCP or UDP, with the java based CALIMERO project - see calimero-project.github.io With this library, it should be easy to set up your own web service.
    – Christoph Bimminger
    Dec 18, 2017 at 23:28
3

I haven't found any complete products. However, you can download a complete software image for the Raspberry Pi of the KNX Web Service at KNX.org. It's free. The registration can be done with bogus information and 10 minute mail. Figuring out that the password has to be numbers only wasted some time though.

Anyways, after downloading that info package the zip contains a link to a 3.8 GB Raspberry image and a complete web service specification. Even without a Raspberry that image should be quite easily adapted to any other Linux system. Thus, you'd have a software KNX Web Service gateway with a service description.

Apparently since this is from October that's the best that's out there currently.

Improve this answer
1
  • 3
    I'm aware of that project. It was introduced to me by Dries Verbrugge - an IoT Architect actually working for the KNX association - during a recent IoT meetup in Ghent (Belgium). Dries confirmed that this demo is just... well... a demo... and anything but a stable, robust API ready for deployment beyond test environments. He confirmed both during the meetup and in a private mail conversation prior to the meetup that no commercial solutions are on the market yet.
    – John Slegers
    Jan 4, 2017 at 1:59
0

I can not find any trace on the net of use of KNX web service which is proposed to natively manage the XML through ETS5 between the installation KNX is the Raspberry.

I followed the webinar ETS in June 2017, but no trace of use to date.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.