KNX Binding

The openHAB KNX binding allows to connect to KNX Home Automation (opens new window) 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 (opens new window) (free open source component software) can be put in between which then acts as a broker allowing multiple clients 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 Unit of Measurement (UoM) support, some data types have changed (see number channel below):

• Data type for DPT 5.001 (Percent 8bit, 0 -> 100%) has changed from PercentType to QuantityTypefor number channels (dimmer, color, rollershutter channels stay with PercentType).
• Data type for DPT 5.004 (Percent 8bit, 0 -> 255%) has changed from PercentType to QuantityType.
• Data type for DPT 6.001 (Percent 8bit -128 -> 127%) has changed from PercentType to QuantityType.
• Data type for DPT 9.007 (Humidity) has changed from PercentType to QuantityType.

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.

Discovery

KNX IP bridges, i.e. IP interfaces, routers, and knxd instances, are discovered through mulitcast communication in the local network. As a KNX setup is typically static, this in only done during startup of the binding. Corresponding bridges are added to the inbox. Additional configuration might be necessary after adding a bridge.

Note that several items per device might be created, as routers typically support routing and tunneling. Make sure you import only one item per device.

Discovery is not available for serial bridges and device Things described below. Discovery of IP bridges will not work without further measures if openHAB and the interface run on different network segments, as multicast traffic is typically not forwarded.

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, ROUTER, SECURETUNNEL or SECUREROUTER)	-
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 openHAB Thing within the KNX bus Note: Use a free address, not the one of the interface. Or leave it at 0.0.0 and let openHAB decide which address to use. When using knxd, make sure not to use one of the addresses reserved for tunneling clients.	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
routerBackboneKey	No	KNX secure: Backbone key for secure router mode	-
tunnelUserId	No	KNX secure: Tunnel user id for secure tunnel mode (if specified, it must be a number >0)	-
tunnelUserPassword	No	KNX secure: Tunnel user key for secure tunnel mode	-
tunnelDeviceAuthentication	No	KNX secure: Tunnel device authentication for secure tunnel mode	-
keyringFile	No	KNX secure: Keyring file exported from ETS and placed in openHAB config/misc folder. Mandatory to decode secure group addresses.	-
keyringPassword	No	KNX secure: Keyring file password (set during export from ETS)	-
tunnelSourceAddress	No	KNX secure: Physical KNX address of tunnel in secure mode to identify tunnel. If given, openHAB will read tunnelUserId, tunnelUserPassword, tunnelDeviceAuthentication from keyring.	-

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
useCemi	N	Use newer CEMI message format, useful for newer devices like KNX RF sticks, kBerry, etc.	false
keyringFile	N	KNX secure: Keyring file exported from ETS and placed in openHAB config/misc folder. Mandatory to decode secure group addresses.	-
keyringPassword	N	KNX secure: Keyring file password (set during export from ETS)	-

Things

device Things

basic Things are wrappers around 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. If line couplers are installed, physical device addressing might be filtered; in this case, please do not specify the addresses for devices on this line. 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 just for information and has no effect on the functionality of the binding. It can safely be turned off to save bandwidth on the bus or avoid problems with older devices.

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 channels of a device share one configuration parameter defined at the device level: readInterval, an optional parameter that indicates if the 'readable' group addresses of that Channel should be read periodically at the given interval, in seconds. 'Readable' group addresses are marked with an < in the group address definition of a Channel, see below. All readable group addresses are queried by openHAB during startup. If readInterval is not specified or set to 0, no further periodic reading will be triggered (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 that "knows" whether the light is turned on or off, or by a temperature sensor that 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, for example, a lamp from another binding should be controlled by a KNX wall switch. When a GroupValueRead telegram is sent from the KNX bus 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 232.600 (RGB), 242.600 (xyY), and 251.600 (RGBW).

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

RGBW (DPT 251.600) can either be converted to HSBType, or represented by two items: a HSBType for RGB and an additional PercentType for the W channel. Default handling for RGBW is to use separate items. Note that this also requires two frames to be sent out separately when these elements are sent to the bus, as the binary representation uses a partially populated KNX frame. Alternatively, a single HSB item can be used. Conversion to a single HSBType will lose the exact setting for W, and will reconstruct it when a conversion to RGBW is required. This option can be selected using the special DPT 251.60600.

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 absolute position	5.001
increaseDecrease	Group address for relative movement	3.007

Channel Type number, number-control

Parameter	Description	Default DPT
ga	Group address	9.001

Note: The number channel has full support for Units Of Measurement (UoM).

Using the UoM feature of openHAB (QuantityType) requires that the DPT value is set correctly. Automatic type conversion will be applied if required.

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 by 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

Control Channel Types

In contrast to the standard channels above, the control channel types are used for cases where the KNX bus does not own the physical state of a device. This could, for example, be the case if a lamp from another binding should be controlled by a KNX wall switch. When a GroupValueRead telegram is sent from the KNX bus to a *-control Channel, the bridge responds with a GroupValueResponse telegram to the KNX bus.

Channel Type "switch-control"

Parameter	Description	Default DPT
ga	Group address for the binary switch	1.001

Channel Type "dimmer-control"

Parameter	Description	Default DPT
switch	Group address for the binary switch	1.001
position	Group address of the absolute position	5.001
increaseDecrease	Group address for relative movement	3.007
frequency	Increase/Decrease frequency in milliseconds in case the binding should handle that (0 if the KNX device sends the commands repeatedly itself)	0

Channel Type "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 "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 "number-control"

Parameter	Description	Default DPT
ga	Group address	9.001

For UoM support, see the explanations of the number channel.

Channel Type "string-control"

Parameter	Description	Default DPT
ga	Group address	16.001

Channel Type "datetime-control"

Parameter	Description	Default DPT
ga	Group address	19.001

Group Address Notation

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

where parts in brackets [] denote optional information.

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

mainGA also listens to incoming packets, unless prefixed with a > character. This is recommended if you have a dedicated status group address which is added as listeningGA.

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). The group addresses marked with < are read by openHAB during startup. Future versions might support reading from one GA only. 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.

The element dpt is highly recommended and may change to a mandatory element in future versions. If omitted, the corresponding default value will be used (see the channel descriptions above).

Mapping DPTs to openHAB Types

Datapoint Types (DPTs) define how the content of a KNX telegram is interpreted.

The following table is a complete list of DPTs currently supported by openHAB. OpenHAB supports all DPTs supported by the corresponding release of the Calimero library, plus a few specific additions.

The default mapping is given, however DPTs can be overwritten. KNX frames do not contain information about the encoding or DPT, so any DPT with a compatible byte size and a useful encoding can be used. A good example for this are bitfields represented as String which are mapped to a DPT of DecimalType for handling in rules. For more details, see the KNX specification (section 3.7.2, System Specifications, Interworking, Datapoint Types).

In case a missing DPT or subtype is needed, there is a good chance that a DPT of matching size and DecimalType is found. Further DPTs and subtypes may be added later once implemented and released in the Calimero library (opens new window).

DPT	Primary openHAB type (things) (items with UOM)	Remark
1.001-1.007	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)
1.008	UpDownType (e.g. for dimmer, rollershutter)
1.009	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)	Not according to spec, see above
1.010	StopMoveType (e.g. for rollershutter)
1.011-1.016	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)
1.017	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)	Trigger, use states OFF or CLOSED
1.018-1.019	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)
1.021	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)
1.022	DecimalType (number)	Counting from 0, use DPT if you need a DecimalType
1.023-1.024	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)
1.100	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)
1.1200-1.1201	OnOffType (switch), OpenClosedType (contact)
2.001-2.012	DecimalType (number)
3.007	IncreaseDecreaseType (e.g. dimmer)
3.008	UpDownType (e.g. rollershutter)
5.001	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Percent)	Alternatively: PercentType
5.003	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Angle)
5.004	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Percent)	0-255%, no mapping to PercentType
5.005	DecimalType (number)
5.006	DecimalType (number)	255 is reserved
5.010	DecimalType (number)
6.001	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Percent)	-128..127%, no mapping to PercentType
6.010	DecimalType (number)	-128..127
6.020	StringType (string)	Override with DPT5.010 if you need DecimalType
7.001	DecimalType (number)
7.002-7.007	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Time)
7.010	DecimalType (number)
7.011	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Length)
7.012	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:ElectricCurrent)
7.013	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Length)
7.600	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Temperature)
8.001	DecimalType (number)
8.002-7.007	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Time)
8.010	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Percent)
8.011	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Angle)
8.012	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Length)
9.xxx (opens new window)	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)	See documentation on UOM (opens new window)
9.001	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)	Lower values than absolute zero will be set to -273 °C
9.002-9.003	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
9.004-9.008	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)	No negative values allowed
9.009-9.011	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
9.020-9.027	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
9.027-9.030	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)	No negative values allowed
10.001	DateTimeType (datetime)	Time. Date is set to 1/Jan/1970 + ofs if weekday is given. KNX can represent year 1990..2089.
11.001	DateTimeType (datetime)	Date only.
12.001	DecimalType (number)
12.100-12.102	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Time)
12.1200-12.1201	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Volume)
13.xxx (opens new window)	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)	See documentation on UOM (opens new window)
13.001	DecimalType (number)
13.002	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:VolumetricFlowRate)
13.010-13.016	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
13.100	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
13.1200-13.1201	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:Time)
14.xxx (opens new window)	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)	See documentation on UOM (opens new window)
14.000-14.080	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
14.1200-14.1201	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
16.000	StringType (string)	ASCII
16.001	StringType (string)	ISO 8859-1
17.001	DecimalType (number)	Scene 0..63
18.001	DecimalType (number)	Scene 0..63, add offset 0x80 (128) for storing scenes
19.001	DateTimeType (datetime) (DateTime)	Date and Time, year can be 1900..2155
20.xxx (opens new window)		Override with DPT5.010 if you need enum as DecimalType
20.001-20.009	StringType (string)
20.011-20.014	StringType (string)
20.017	StringType (string)
20.020-20.022	StringType (string)
20.100-20.115	StringType (string)
20.120-20.122	StringType (string)
20.600-20.613	StringType (string)
20.801-20.804	StringType (string)
20.1000-20.1005	StringType (string)
20.1200	StringType (string)
20.1202-20.1209	StringType (string)
21.xxx (opens new window)		Override with DPT5.010 if you need bitset as DecimalType
21.001-20.002	StringType (string)
21.100-20.106	StringType (string)
21.601	StringType (string)
21.1000-21.1002	StringType (string)
21.1010	StringType (string)
21.1200-21.1201	StringType (string)
22.xxx (opens new window)		Override with DPT7.010 if you need bitset as DecimalType
22.100-22.101	StringType (string)
22.1000	StringType (string)
22.1010	StringType (string)
28.001	StringType (string)	KNX representation is Null-terminated, do not include null characters
29.010-29.012	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:...)
229.001	DecimalType (number)	Scaling coded in KNX frame is regarded; for sending always encoded with flag "dimensionless"
232.600	HSBType (color)	RGB
232.60000	HSBType (color)	Non-Standard, DPT 232.600 with HSB instead of RGB data
235.001	QuantityType<> (number) (Number:ActiveEnergy)	Composed DPT 235.001, first element ActiveEnergy (Wh), read only
235.61001	DecimalType (number)	Non-Standard, composed DPT 235.001, second element Tariff (plain number), read only
242.600	HSBType (color)	xyY
243.600	StringType (string)
249.600	StringType (string)
250.600	StringType (string)
251.600	HSBType (color)	RGBW, RGB part as HSBType
251.600	PercentType	RGBW, W part separately for Dimmer
251.60600	HSBType (color)	Non-Standard, lossy conversion from HSBType to RGBW
252.600	StringType (string)
253.600	StringType (string)
254.600	StringType (string)

Special DPTs

OpenHAB supports all DPTs supported by the corresponding release of the Calimero library.

Additional DPTs have been introduced to add functionality:

DPT	Description	Remark
DPT 232.60000	DPT 232.600 with HSB instead of RGB data (see below)	read/write
DPT 235.001	Composed DPT 235.001, first element ActiveEnergy (Wh)	read only
DPT 235.61001	Composed DPT 235.001, second element Tariff (plain number)	read only

KNX Secure

NOTE: Support for KNX Secure is partly implemented for openHAB and should be considered as experimental.

KNX IP Secure

KNX IP Secure protects the traffic between openHAB and your KNX installation. It requires a KNX Secure Router or a Secure IP Interface and a KNX installation with security features enabled in the ETS tool.

For Secure routing mode, the so-called backbone key needs to be configured in openHAB. It is created by the ETS tool and cannot be changed via the ETS user interface. There are two possible ways to provide the key to openHAB:

• The backbone key can be extracted from Security report (ETS, Reports, Security, look for a 32-digit key) and specified in parameter routerBackboneKey.
• The backbone key is included in ETS keyring export (ETS, project settings, export keyring). Keyring file is configured using keyringFile (put it in config\misc folder of the openHAB installation) and also requires keyringPassword.

For Secure tunneling with a Secure IP Interface (or a router in tunneling mode), more parameters are required. A unique device authentication key, and a specific tunnel identifier and password need to be available. It can be provided to openHAB in two different ways:

• All information can be looked up in ETS and provided separately: tunnelDeviceAuthentication, tunnelUserPassword. tunnelUserId is a number that is not directly visible in ETS, but can be looked up in keyring export or deduced (typically 2 for the first tunnel of a device, 3 for the second one, ...). tunnelUserPasswort is set in ETS in the properties of the tunnel (below the IP interface, you will see the different tunnels listed) and denoted as "Password". tunnelDeviceAuthentication is set in the properties of the IP interface itself; check for the tab "IP" and the description "Authentication Code".
• All necessary information is included in ETS keyring export (ETS, project settings, export keyring). Keyring file is configured using keyringFile (put it in config\misc folder of the openHAB installation) and keyringPassword. In addition, tunnelSourceAddress needs to be set to uniquely identify the tunnel in use.

KNX Data Secure

KNX Data Secure protects the content of messages on the KNX bus. In a KNX installation, both classic and secure group addresses can coexist. Data Secure does not necessarily require a KNX Secure Router or a Secure IP Interface, but a KNX installation with newer KNX devices that support Data Secure and with security features enabled in the ETS tool.

openHAB ignores messages with secure group addresses, unless data secure is configured.

NOTE: openHAB currently does fully support passive (listening) access to secure group addresses. Write access to secure group addresses is currently disabled in openHAB. Initial/periodic read will fail, avoid automatic read (< in thing definition).

All necessary information to decode secure group addresses is included in ETS keyring export (ETS, project settings, export keyring). Keyring file is configured using keyringFile (put it in config\misc folder of the openHAB installation) and also requires keyringPassword.

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 switch        : demoSwitch        "Light"       [ ga="3/0/4+<3/0/5" ]
        Type color         : demoColorLight    "Color"       [ hsb="6/0/10+<6/0/11", switch="6/0/12+<6/0/13", position="6/0/14+<6/0/15", increaseDecrease="6/0/16+<6/0/17" ]
        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", 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:

Switch              demoSwitch         "Light [%s]"               <light>          { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoSwitch" }
Color               demoColorLight     "Color [%s]"               <light>          { channel="knx:device:bridge:generic:demoColorLight" }
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 °C]"    <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" {
    Switch      item=demoSwitch
    Slider      item=demoDimmer
    Colorpicker item=demoColorLight
    Default     item=demoRollershutter
    Text        item=demoContact
    Text        item=demoTemperature
    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 color                 : controlColorLight    "Color"                 [ hsb="6/0/10", switch="6/0/12", position="6/0/14",
        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" }

Console Commands

The KNX binding provides additional functionality which can be triggered from the openHAB console. Type openhab:knx on the openHAB console for further information.

Troubleshooting

Extended Logging

Logging can be configured via the UI. This affects only the log of the binding and does not include Calimero library used for KNX communication. In special cases, it might be useful to set both KNX logging and Calimero logging. This can be done in the openHAB console:

log:set TRACE org.openhab.binding.knx
log:set TRACE calimero

Note that this will lead to a few lines in the log for each KNX frame received or sent.

Logging can be set back to normal, similarly using:

log:set DEFAULT org.openhab.binding.knx
log:set DEFAULT calimero

Serial Devices

In case you experience communication errors like incomplete or dropped frames, BCU reset errors in the log, or similar problems:

• Make sure that no other service accesses the serial port (e.g., knxd, hciuart, etc.). Use ps aux and make sure none of those are running in parallel.
• Increase the log level also for Calimero library, see above.
• If the problem relates only to KNX data secure, please note that very old KNX devices do not support long frames, which are required for KNX data secure. Check your interface and the couplers (technical reference manual, ETS, or openHAB device info when fetch is enabled).

kBerry Module for Raspberry Pi

Configuration of the kBerry Module

Uploading an application to the module is not necessary for use with openHAB.

Configuration of the Serial Port

Configuration of the serial port is necessary. This is done by editing text files in the folder /boot/firmware on the PI (for older distributions, it is /boot). This can be done manually or using the tool raspi-config.

If something goes wrong, you can also recover using a Windows machine, as this partition is also accessible from Windows when using a micro SD card reader.

config.txt

The serial port (UART) needs to be activated on GPIO pins 14 and 15. The configuration options have changed over time, depending on the Linux distribution and the hardware revision of the Raspberry Pi.

The following settings might work for you:

For PI 5, add dtoverlay=disable-bt and dtoverlay=uart0.

For PI 4, add dtoverlay=disable-bt.

For PI 3, add dtoverlay=pi3-miniuart-bt.

cmdline.txt

Remove the part that refers to the serial port, e.g. console=serial0,115200.

Finally, reboot the PI.

openHAB Configuration

Add a KNX Thing manually, KNX FT1.2 Interface, select /dev/ttyAMA0 as port. If you use file-based configuration, see the example above.

Caught a mistake or want to contribute to the documentation? Edit this page on GitHub (opens new window)