Version: 3.2.9

KNX Binding

The openHAB KNX binding allows to connect to KNX Home Automation installations. Switching lights on and off, activating your roller shutters or changing room temperatures are only some examples.

To access your KNX bus you either need a gateway device which is connected to the KNX bus and allows computers to access the bus communication. This can be either an Ethernet (as a Router or a Tunnel type) or a serial gateway. The KNX binding then can communicate directly with this gateway. Alternatively a PC running KNXD (free open source component software) can be put in between which then acts as a broker allowing multiple client to connect to the same gateway. Since the protocol is identical, the KNX binding can also communicate with it transparently.

Attention: With the introduction of UoM support in version 3.2.7 (see number channel below) some data types have changed:

Rules that check for or compare states and transformations that expect a raw value might need adjustments. If you run into trouble with that and need some time, you can disable UoM support on binding level via the disableUoM parameter. UoM are enabled by default and need to be disabled manually. A new setting is activated immediately without restart.

Supported Things

The KNX binding supports two types of bridges, and one type of things to access the KNX bus. There is an ip bridge to connect to KNX IP Gateways, and a serial bridge for connection over a serial port to a host-attached gateway.

Bridges

The following two bridge types are supported. Bridges don't have channels on their own.

IP Gateway

The IP Gateway is the most commonly used way to connect to the KNX bus. At its base, the ip bridge accepts the following configuration parameters:

Name Required Description Default value
type Yes The IP connection type for connecting to the KNX bus (TUNNEL or ROUTER) -
ipAddress for TUNNEL Network address of the KNX/IP gateway. If type ROUTER is set, the IPv4 Multicast Address can be set. for TUNNEL: <nothing>, for ROUTER: 224.0.23.12
portNumber for TUNNEL Port number of the KNX/IP gateway 3671
localIp No Network address of the local host to be used to set up the connection to the KNX/IP gateway the system-wide configured primary interface address
localSourceAddr No The (virtual) individual address for identification of this KNX/IP gateway within the KNX bus

Note: Use a free adress, not the one of the interface. Or leave it at 0.0.0 and let openHAB decide which address to use.
0.0.0
useNAT No Whether there is network address translation between the server and the gateway false
readingPause No Time in milliseconds of how long should be paused between two read requests to the bus during initialization 50
responseTimeout No Timeout in seconds to wait for a response from the KNX bus 10
readRetriesLimit No Limits the read retries while initialization from the KNX bus 3
autoReconnectPeriod No Seconds between connect retries when KNX link has been lost (0 means never). 0

Serial Gateway

The serial bridge accepts the following configuration parameters:

Name Required Description Default value
serialPort Y The serial port to use for connecting to the KNX bus -
readingPause N Time in milliseconds of how long should be paused between two read requests to the bus during initialization 50
responseTimeout N Timeout in seconds to wait for a response from the KNX bus 10
readRetriesLimit N Limits the read retries while initialization from the KNX bus 3
autoReconnectPeriod N Seconds between connect retries when KNX link has been lost, 0 means never retry 0

Things

device Things

basic Things are wrappers around an arbitrary group addresses on the KNX bus. They have no specific function in the KNX binding, except that if the address is defined the binding will actively poll the Individual Address on the KNX bus to detect that the KNX actuator is reachable. Under normal real world circumstances, either all devices on a bus are reachable, or the entire bus is down. When fetch is set to true, the binding will read-out the memory of the KNX actuator in order to detect configuration data and so forth. This is however an experimental feature very prone to the actual on the KNX bus.

Name Required Description Default value
address N The individual device address (in 0.0.0 notation) -
fetch N Read out the device parameters and address/communication object tables (requires the address) false
pingInterval N Interval (in seconds) to contact the device and set the thing status based on the result (requires the address) 600
readInterval N Interval (in seconds) to actively request reading of values from the bus (0 if they should only be read once at startup) 0

Different kinds of channels are defined and can be used to group together Group Addresses. All channel types share two configuration parameters: read, an optional parameter to indicate if the 'readable' group addresses of that Channel should be read at startup (default: false), and interval, an optional parameter that defines an interval between attempts to read the status group address on the bus, in seconds. When defined and set to 0, the interval is ignored (default: 0)

Channel Types

Standard channels are used most of the time. They are used in the common case where the physical state is owned by a device within the KNX bus, e.g. by a switch actuator who "knows" whether the light is turned on or of or by a temperature sensor which reports the room temperature regularly.

Control channel types (suffix -control) are used for cases where the KNX bus does not own the physical state of a device. This could be the case if e.g. a lamp from another binding should be controlled by a KNX wall switch. If from the KNX bus a GroupValueRead telegram is sent to a *-control Channel, the bridge responds with a GroupValueResponse telegram to the KNX bus.

Channel Type color, color-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
hsb Group address for the color 232.600
switch Group address for the binary switch 1.001
position Group address brightness 5.001
increaseDecrease Group address for relative brightness 3.007

The hsb address supports DPT 242.600 and 251.600.

Some RGB/RGBW products (e.g. MDT) support HSB values for DPT 232.600 instead of RGB. This is supported as "vendor-specific DPT" with a value of 232.60000.

Channel Type contact, contact-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
ga Group address 1.009

Attention: Due to a bug in the original implementation the states for DPT 1.009 are inverted (i.e. 1 is mapped to OPEN instead of CLOSE). A change would break all existing installations and is therefore not implemented.

Channel Type datetime, datetime-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
ga Group address 19.001
Channel Type dimmer, dimmer-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
switch Group address for the binary switch 1.001
position Group address of the brightness 5.001
increaseDecrease Group address for relative brightness 3.007
Channel Type number, number-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
ga Group address 9.001

The number channel has full support for UoM.

Incoming values from the KNX bus are converted to values with units (e.g. 23 ??C). If the channel is linked to the correct item-type (Number:Temperature in this case) the display unit can be controlled my item metadata (e.g. %.1f ??F for 1 digit of precision in Fahrenheit). The unit is stripped if the channel is linked to a plain number item (type Number).

Outgoing values with unit are first converted to the unit associated with the DPT (e.g. a value of 10 ??F is converted to -8.33 ??C if the channel has DPT 9.001). Values from plain number channels are sent as-is (without any conversion).

Channel Type rollershutter, rollershutter-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
upDown Group address for relative movement 1.008
stopMove Group address for stopping 1.010
position Group address for the absolute position 5.001
Channel Type string, string-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
ga Group address 16.001
Channel Type switch, switch-control
Parameter Description Default DPT
ga Group address for the binary switch 1.001

Group Address Notation

<config>="[<dpt>:][<]<mainGA>[[+[<]<listeningGA>][+[<]<listeningGA>..]]"

where parts in brackets [] denote optional information.

The optional < sign tells whether the group address of the datapoint accepts read requests on the KNX bus (it does, if the sign is there). With *-control channels, the state is not owned by any device on the KNX bus, therefore no read requests will be sent by the binding, i.e. < signs will be ignored for them.

Each configuration parameter has a mainGA where commands are written to and optionally several listeningGAs.

The dpt element is optional. If ommitted, the corresponding default value will be used (see the channel descriptions above).

Examples

The following two templates are sufficient for almost all purposes. Only add parameters to the Bridge and Thing configuration if you know exactly what functionality it is needed for.

Type ROUTER mode configuration Template

knx.things:

Bridge knx:ip:bridge [
    type="ROUTER",
    autoReconnectPeriod=60 //optional, do not set <30 sec.
] {
    Thing device knx_device "knx_device_name" @ "knx_device_group" [
        //readInterval=3600 //optional, only used if reading values are present
    ] {
        //Items configurations
    }
}

Type TUNNEL mode configuration Template

knx.things:

Bridge knx:ip:bridge [
    type="TUNNEL",
    ipAddress="192.168.0.111",
    autoReconnectPeriod=60 //optional, do not set <30 sec.
] {
    Thing device knx_device "knx_device_name" @ "knx_device_group" [
        //readInterval=3600 //optional, only used if reading values are present
    ] {
        //Items configurations
    }
}

Full Example

//TUNNEL
Bridge knx:ip:bridge [
    type="TUNNEL",
    ipAddress="192.168.0.10",
    portNumber=3671,
    localIp="192.168.0.11",
    readingPause=50,
    responseTimeout=10,
    readRetriesLimit=3,
    autoReconnectPeriod=60,
    localSourceAddr="0.0.0"
] {
    Thing device generic [
        address="1.2.3",
        fetch=true,
        pingInterval=300,
        readInterval=3600
    ] {
        Type color         : demoColor         "Color"       [ hsb="251.600:3/7/10" ]
        Type switch        : demoSwitch        "Light"       [ ga="3/0/4+<3/0/5" ]
        Type rollershutter : demoRollershutter "Shade"       [ upDown="4/3/50+4/3/51", stopMove="4/3/52+4/3/53", position="4/3/54+<4/3/55" ]
        Type contact       : demoContact       "Door"        [ ga="1.019:<5/1/2" ]
        Type number        : demoTemperature   "Temperature" [ ga="9.001:<5/0/0" ]
        Type dimmer        : demoDimmer        "Dimmer"      [ switch="5/0/0+<5/0/1", position="5/0/2+<5/0/3", increaseDecrease="5/0/4" ]
        Type string        : demoString        "Message"     [ ga="5/3/1" ]
        Type datetime      : demoDatetime      "Alarm"       [ ga="5/5/42" ]
    }
}

//ROUTER
Bridge knx:ip:bridge [
    type="ROUTER",
    ipAddress="224.0.23.12",
    portNumber=3671,
    localIp="192.168.0.11",
    readingPause=50,
    responseTimeout=10,
    readRetriesLimit=3,
    autoReconnectPeriod=60,
    localSourceAddr="0.0.0"
] {}

knx.items:

Color               demoColor          "Color [%s]"               <light>          { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoColor" }
Switch              demoSwitch         "Light [%s]"               <light>          { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoSwitch" }
Dimmer              demoDimmer         "Dimmer [%d %%]"           <light>          { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoDimmer" }
Rollershutter       demoRollershutter  "Shade [%d %%]"            <rollershutter>  { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoRollershutter" }
Contact             demoContact        "Front Door [%s]"          <frontdoor>      { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoContact" }
Number:Temperature  demoTemperature    "Temperature [%.1f ??F]"    <temperature>    { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoTemperature" }
String              demoString         "Message of the day [%s]"                   { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoString" }
DateTime            demoDatetime       "Alarm [%1$tH:%1$tM]"                       { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoDatetime" }

knx.sitemap:

sitemap knx label="KNX Demo Sitemap" {
  Frame label="Demo Elements" {
    Colorpicker item=demoColor
    Switch item=demoSwitch
    Switch item=demoRollershutter
    Text   item=demoContact
    Text   item=demoTemperature
    Slider item=demoDimmer
    Text   item=demoString
    Text   item=demoDatetime
  }
}

Control Example

control.things:

Bridge knx:serial:bridge [
    serialPort="/dev/ttyAMA0",
    readingPause=50,
    responseTimeout=10,
    readRetriesLimit=3,
    autoReconnectPeriod=60
] {
    Thing device generic {
        Type switch-control        : controlSwitch        "Control Switch"        [ ga="3/3/10+<3/3/11" ]   // '<'  signs are allowed but will be ignored for control Channels
        Type dimmer-control        : controlDimmer        "Control Dimmer"        [ switch="3/3/50+3/3/48", position="3/3/46", increaseDecrease="3/3/49", frequency=300 ]
        Type rollershutter-control : controlRollershutter "Control Rollershutter" [ upDown="3/4/1+3/4/2", stopMove="3/4/3", position="3/4/4" ]
        Type number-control        : controlNumber        "Control Number"        [ ga="1/2/2" ]
        Type string-control        : controlString        "Control String"        [ ga="1/4/2" ]
        Type datetime-control      : controlDatetime      "Control Datetime"      [ ga="5/1/30" ]
    }
}

Bridge hue:bridge:bridge "Philips Hue Bridge" [
    ipAddress="...",
    userName="..."
] {
    Thing 0210 1 "Color Lamp" [ lightId="1" ]
}

knx.items:

Switch        demoSwitch         "Light [%s]"               <light>          { channel="hue:0210:bridge:1:color", channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:controlSwitch" }
Dimmer        demoDimmer         "Dimmer [%d %%]"           <light>          { channel="hue:0210:bridge:1:color", channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:controlDimmer" }