Replacements for busware Cul and EQ3 TRVs

Begonnen von Bob B, 16 April 2022, 13:13:27

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Bob B

I've been developing my HA (here in the UK) for 5 years on a busware.de CUL and "eqiva" MAX EQ3 basic trvs driven by FHEM/ culfw.
Control is with Node Red, UI is with Vue. Boiler and zone control is bespoke hw and sw.  It is totally isolated from the internet.

1. The trvs are obsolete now and are starting to fail (at a rate of 1 per year).
2. I need another CUL but can get no response from busware.de. I assume they're out of business?

3. As far as I can tell, replacing the trvs/CUL is not really a viable proposition. (Am writing to Conrad to check the eqiva situation)
There doesn't appear to be any hardware available in the UK with published interfaces using (intranet only) wireless (not Bluetooth) trvs. (Loads of marketing vapourware but nothing off the shelf)

I would love someone to tell me I'm wrong as I have a lot invested in my HA!

Thanks for any thoughts.


rudolfkoenig

I'm quite sure that I dont know the whole market, but maybe the following can still help:

As for the CUL replacement:
there are a lot of clones/derivatives, look for nanoCUL or mapleCUN / mapleCUX. They are also sold on ebay or amazon.
Our wiki entries:
https://wiki.fhem.de/wiki/Selbstbau_CUL
https://wiki.fhem.de/wiki/MapleCUN
https://wiki.fhem.de/wiki/MapleCUX-Platinen

As for the TRV alternatives:
Aside from bluetooth I know of Homematic(IP), ZWave and Zigbee ones. All of them would require a different transceiver, but they all can be controlled (directly or indirectly) by FHEM.

Bob B

Excellent answer! Vary helpful links too. Thanks so much Rudolf.
At a glance, the best answer for me is to get a basic Zigbee transceiver/stick & trv to play with, then incrementally switch eqiva trvs as they fail.

Beta-User

ZigBee and Homematic-IP will require external software (at least) as well.
Server: HP-elitedesk@Debian 12, aktuelles FHEM@ConfigDB | CUL_HM (VCCU) | MQTT2: MiLight@ESP-GW, BT@OpenMQTTGw | MySensors: seriell, v.a. 2.3.1@RS485 | ZWave | ZigBee@deCONZ | SIGNALduino | MapleCUN | RHASSPY
svn: u.a MySensors, Weekday-&RandomTimer, Twilight,  div. attrTemplate-files

malc_b

Maybe a bit late.  Equiva have a bluetooth radiator valve which is identical to the eq3 max basic.  There is a module on fhem for this eq3bt but there is also one in fhempy which seems more capable.  Neither has the info available that the old max did, such as the current valve % but fhempy eq3bt does have a consumption figure which might serve instead.  Fhempy also allows remote peers which you might need to get bluetooth coverage.

I'd be interest to know what solution you can up with to replace the eq3 max trvs.

You might want to check out some of the other HA systems using python as fhem-python is possible via fhempy which opens up the possibility of using existing python code for hardware.  Or this might interest you, https://github.com/danielrheinbay/fhemMAX2HASS/ if it easier to go the other way.

Bob B

Zitat von: malc_b am 03 Januar 2024, 18:49:07Maybe a bit late.  Equiva have a bluetooth radiator valve which is identical to the eq3 max basic.  There is a module on fhem for this eq3bt but there is also one in fhempy which seems more capable.  Neither has the info available that the old max did, such as the current valve % but fhempy eq3bt does have a consumption figure which might serve instead.  Fhempy also allows remote peers which you might need to get bluetooth coverage.

I'd be interest to know what solution you can up with to replace the eq3 max trvs.

You might want to check out some of the other HA systems using python as fhem-python is possible via fhempy which opens up the possibility of using existing python code for hardware.  Or this might interest you, https://github.com/danielrheinbay/fhemMAX2HASS/ if it easier to go the other way.

It's never too late @malc_b! And thanks for useful info.
In the end I decided that I'm too old to keep playing with HA stuff. I investigated all kinds of alternatives but none offered the sophisticated control, simple interfacing and (most of all) resilience I was aiming for. I repair trv's when I can and refit the original dumb ones when I can't.